Mown and Blown: The Problem With Leaf Blowers

October 6, 2014

...ance” landscapes which consist of a lawn and brutally pruned hedges. These water hungry landscapes provide neither food, beauty or habitat. (They are also not enjoyed by people: half of the suburban participants in a UCLA study of home life in SoCal never went into their backyard. Another 25 percent went outside for a few minutes a week.) Yet this style of landscape is our dominant style of landscape because the homeowner doesn’t need to think abo...

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Saturday Linkages: Pallets, Ladybugs and Portlandia

Mr. Homegrown

August 30, 2014

Saturday Linkages

5 Comments

...– Outstanding – IKEA Hackers http://po.st/a3Hn0G Jailed for collecting rainwater: http://theflyingtortoise.blogspot.com/2014/08/gary-harrington-aged-64-and-resident-of.html?spref=tw … [Update: A reader notes that there is more to this story than the headline indicates–looks like the person jailed may have been damming streams and taking water from his neighbors.] Little chicks wearing muffin wrappers as tutus! http://www.recyclart.org/2014/08/litt...

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Saturday Linkages: Invaders, Sick Chickens and Adaptive Reuse

Mr. Homegrown

August 2, 2014

Saturday Linkages

2 Comments

...denrant.com/2014/07/more-foreign-invaders-possums-on-the-half-shell.html … Water rationing for farmers? It’s on the horizon http://garynabhan.com/i/archives/2494 When To Isolate A Sick Chicken | HenCam http://hencam.com/henblog/2014/08/when-to-isolate-a-sick-chicken/ … via @terrygolson Can Edible Gardening Reduce Deforestation? – http://go.shr.lc/1lkI1wO via @TenthAcreFarm How to Kill Poison Ivy – http://tafarm.us/1kEpTgQ via @TenthAcreFarm “Does...

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Is Purslane the New Kale?

Mr. Homegrown

June 27, 2014

Food, Foraging, Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

29 Comments

...in unappetizing locations: usually the gutter (I think it needs a bit more water than what falls naturally from the sky here). You can eat the whole plant: stems and leaves. It has a salty and slightly lemony flavor reminiscent of New Zealand spinach. There’s always a huge bin of it at Super King, our local Armenian supermarket. In Armenia it’s gathered in the wild and used either raw in salads or lightly sauteed. There’s even a World Cup tie-in....

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Adopt an Indigo Plant in Los Angeles

Mr. Homegrown

May 23, 2014

Events, Gardening

6 Comments

...being relatively easy to grow. All it needs is lots of sunshine, plenty of water, and some food. As an experiment, I’ve germinated a bunch of indigo seeds and want to get the seedlings into as many people’s hands as possible! I hope to spread the wonder about the fact that color can be grown, to raise the consciousness of humanity’s original sources of pigment, and to get people to exercise their thumbs, green or otherwise! The pigment can be extr...

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