How Much Can You Carry on a Bicycle?

July 23, 2013

...?) How much else can you carry on bike? On a recent trip, in addition to a watermelon, I picked up a gallon jug of vinegar, a 12 pack of toilet paper (no we have not yet switched to a corn cob on a string–I might be the world’s smuggest blogger, but you pick your battles), 12 cans of sparkling water, a jumbo box of kitchen trash bags and a few other items. Here’s another grocery store trip. And the haul being inspected for self righteousness by th...

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Saturday Tweets: Root Simple’s Miscellanies

Mr. Homegrown

August 26, 2017

Saturday Linkages

...obon (@wolfCatWorkshop) August 23, 2017 An Experimental Trickle Down Solar Water Heating System: https://t.co/MipsQ2Buj7 — Root Simple (@rootsimple) August 26, 2017 Saying goodbye to a garden: https://t.co/UhQ74Mgeqt — Root Simple (@rootsimple) August 26, 2017 America's Sorriest Bus Stop: Pittsburgh vs. Medford https://t.co/a7yN7ubGnC via @StreetsblogUSA — Root Simple (@rootsimple) August 26, 2017 Monty Don’s 80 Plant Cultures of the World | G...

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Straw Bale Gardens

Mr. Homegrown

March 25, 2013

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

27 Comments

Tasha Via’s straw bale garden. Michael Tortorello (who profiled us when Making It came out) is one of my favorite writers covering the home ec/gardening subjects we discuss on this blog. He had an article last week in the New York Times, “Grasping at Straw” on straw bale gardening. We’ve very tempted to give the practice a try in our backyard. Why? We have lead and zinc contaminated soil so growing veggies in the ground is questionable. We live o...

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Garden Design: Quantity vs. Quality

Mr. Homegrown

January 11, 2013

Design, Garden Design, Gardening

5 Comments

...I’d say 20 minimum. Part of what we learn by focusing on quantity is about making mistakes and learning from them. But I think there’s more to it than that. A gifted high school English teacher of mined likened our creativity to a tank of water. Sometimes you have to drain off the not so great ideas at the top in order to get to the good stuff that lies deep in our unconscious. Letting go of stifling perfectionism also forces us to try out ideas t...

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What Equipment do I Need to Keep Bees?

Mr. Homegrown

May 12, 2017

Animals, Bees

16 Comments

...natural (so to speak) keeps costs way down. You could get even cheaper by making your own top bar hives but I was taught on Langstroth equipment and I’ve just decided to stick with them out of habit. Stand for the hives After a bad experience with the wooden stands that I made myself, I bought some metal stands. But you could save a lot of money by just using cinder blocks. The important thing to note is that bee boxes should be off the ground to...

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