Cutting a Beehive Out of a Wall

November 18, 2009

...ss, Sue and property owner Jen When we got back to Sue’s garden we put the frames into a hive box and dumped the loose bees in. While we won’t know for a while if the hive will take to its new home, we all felt a great sense of accomplishment. Hopefully, other urbanites around the world will take up beekeeping and put more exterminators out of work. For more info on Kirk Anderson’s natural beekeeping methods see www.beehuman.blogspot.com. Got a be...

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Saturday Tweets: Urine, Cats and Swedish Dresses Made From Ikea Bags

Mr. Homegrown

June 11, 2016

Saturday Linkages

1 Comment

...t.co/Glmy1l3dHc — Root Simple (@rootsimple) June 10, 2016 The Web’s Creator Looks to Reinvent It https://t.co/uYvclJG0pl — Root Simple (@rootsimple) June 9, 2016 Stealing water from the desert to water Orange County lawns: https://t.co/vJkCNMhfn5 — Root Simple (@rootsimple) June 8, 2016...

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Compost Piles on Fire!

Mr. Homegrown

October 2, 2014

Composting, Gardening

8 Comments

...en with a low moisture, large pile with little air exchange, combined with water getting into the pile in a place where there is enough air to support biological activity and chemical oxidation, but not enough to cool the pile. An old, dry compost pile, or a pile of overs screened out of the finished product, is a case in point. Water seeping into the dry compost can restart microbial activity and initiate reheating. A “macropore” or crack from th...

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Behold the Ant Lion

Mrs. Homegrown

November 20, 2014

Animals, Insects, Nature Awareness

17 Comments

...have been made by a big man’s thumb. I might think it was made by dripping water, if there was ever any water anywhere in this dry land. The answer was “ant lion” — and I was the only one among them who did not know the answer. Ant lion??? It was such as strange conjunction of terms (see jackalope) that I thought they were pulling my leg. When I got home and checked the Internets, I realized that, as always, truth is stranger than fiction. The nam...

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Will the Lawn Rebate Turn LA into a Gravel Moonscape?

Mr. Homegrown

March 9, 2015

Gardening

14 Comments

...nintended consequences! Drought conditions here in California prompted our water utilities to offer rebates for ripping out water hungry lawns. Unfortunately, as Ivette Soler has pointed out in a blog post, “The Road to Hell is Paved with Chunky Gravel and Indifferently Chosen Plants,” unscrupulous “landscapers” are taking those rebates and installing gravel and mulch moonscapes. It’s an education problem. For most people plants are a sort of gree...

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