Our Disastrous Summer Garden

...ed by climate change. Drought, of course, made everything worse. We had to water our already alkaline soil with alkaline water. Only the native plants and what we call the Biblical plants seem happy (e.g. the fig and the pomegranate). The drought and an extreme heat wave pushed everything in the garden to the edge–and a few over the edge: in the last month we abruptly lost some garden stalwarts, including a rosemary bush and a culinary sage. Despi...

Read…

Saturday Linkages: Paleo Flour, Viking Tents and Chinese Cabbage as the New Kale

...rootsimple) September 15, 2015 We'd be in so much trouble if sparkling water were bad for us-fortunately, the myths are busted here: http://t.co/qCjJAWRxDB — Root Simple (@rootsimple) September 15, 2015 What the Sale of Niman Ranch Could Mean for Farmers https://t.co/TjwwQuSWDr via @CivilEats — Root Simple (@rootsimple) September 15, 2015 Pizza receipt warns of labyrinth, minotaur via @BoingBoing http://t.co/JJs45cDDz9 — Root Simple (@rootsimp...

Read…

How to Remove Bees from a Wall

...To do this we sprayed the bees with a sugar syrup made with a 50/50 mix of water and white sugar. This keeps the bees busy cleaning themselves so that you can gently brush them into a dust pan and transfer them into their new bee box. Some people use specially adapted vacuums to suck the bees off the comb and out of cavities. You have to be careful if you do this as it’s easy to injure the bees. Once the comb and as many stray worker bees as you c...

Read…

Planting in a Post-Wild World

...vention that traditional gardens. A beautiful wild meadow doesn’t need our water and weed killer, after all, and we have to ask just why that is. We can’t hope to match Nature in her complexity and wisdom, but we can mimic her ways as best we can. So this is not just a matter of letting your existing plantings run wild. This is a well-thought out and carefully executed design process. Rainer and West do a fantastic job of breaking the task down in...

Read…

A Day of the Dead Altar

...good to have them at the table. I have a small silver pitcher holding rain water. It is traditional to have refreshment for visiting spirits. It also represents the element of water. And along the lines of refreshments, I also have a bottle of good Scotch up there, of which most of my ancestors would highly approve. It also brings a bit of the Celtic into the mix. A small felt Doberman, a toy portrait of our late, much beloved dog, Spike. Ofrendas...

Read…