Our new front yard, part 3: design

November 17, 2015

Back to the Garden, front yard series, Garden Design, Gardening

...“no work” landscape–it’s a different type of work. Mowing and blowing and watering and fertilizing are replaced with observation and measured response when necessary. Your yard becomes a complex, adaptive system and you have develop the humility to let that roll to some extent. Three landscape archetypes Again, this is only the most basic overview of some pretty complex ideas. You gotta read the book! But it should give you some sense of what I w...

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Josey Baker on Bread: Whole, Wild, Wet, Slow and Bold

Mr. Homegrown

November 23, 2015

Bread, Fermentation, Food

4 Comments

...tion if you’re keeping score. (N.B. Hydration level refers to the ratio of water to flour by weight: 100 grams of flour mixed with 100 grams of water = 100% hydration) A big advantage of wet dough is that you don’t need to knead it. The gluten strands align on their own in the wet dough matrix. You still have to do some stretching and folding to help the gluten alignment process along, but you don’t have anything that resembles traditional kneadin...

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Composting the Deceased/ My DIY Funeral Fantasies

Mrs. Homegrown

December 9, 2013

Composting

47 Comments

...a “full-body maritime burial”. In the U.S. you just need to be in Federal Waters, at least 3 miles off shore and in water at least 600 ft. deep. It turns out there’s a joint that works out of Long Beach Harbor which does this for you. Erik, are you taking notes? Fantasy 3: Composting. I’d love to be composted. Compost is life, and it is what I’d most like my body to become when I die. But I used to imagine that the only way to successfully compos...

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On the Safety of Cleaning Products

Mr. Homegrown

May 15, 2019

Domesticus, Tidying up

8 Comments

...cleaning products consist of detergents that lower the surface tension of water and/or acids or bases that dissolve calcium and fatty substances. Some acids act as disinfectants and bases also inhibit the corrosion of metal. Solvents (such as alcohol) also dissolve fatty substances. Other chemicals are added to cleaning products such as water softeners, to help dissolve certain minerals, as well as fragrances and preservatives. Commercial cleanin...

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The Root Simple Workshop

Mr. Homegrown

June 22, 2016

Design

5 Comments

...pe I used for the chalkboard paint is: 1 cup latex paint 1 tablespoon cool water 2 tablespoons unsanded grout You can use any color of latex paint that you like. The chalkboard paint allows me to label all the drawers and cabinets in the garage. Naturally, there is pegboard on every spare wall to hang all the random tools I need regular access to. Kelly came up with the striking bright orange/white/black color scheme. Our friend Lee Conger noticed...

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