Video Sundays: Crazy Bike Tricks

...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKinsOnuR6Y Sometimes I think the purpose of this blog is to provide fodder for Portlandia writers. So writers, take note of the inspired lunacy in this video: cargo bike stunts bikes made with 2 x 4s bikes with roller blades for wheels Make sure to watch until the end for the cargo bike version of a common action movie trope....

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Why Your Garden Should Be Dark at Night

...eave this earth. The distances are just too great. His point is that if we understood the impossibility of space travel, and gave up fantasizing about space colonies, we’d take better care of our home. Highline Park at night. Photo: highline.org. Keeping Gardens Dark Thankfully light pollution is an easy fix and saves money and energy too. We can keep our outdoor spaces dark at night to benefit our well being and as well as the survival of nocturn...

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Ten Uses for Palm Fronds

...ht I’d round up as many uses as I can find: 1. Make a mask. When Halloween comes around palm fronds can be made into creepy masks. Get good at this craft and open an Etsy store. 2. Make a roof. Weave them together and you’ve got the perfect roof for your tiki hut. Warning: you’ll need a lot. 3. Make a low quality mulch. Using palm fronds as mulch is somewhat controversial. The stuff takes forever to break down. Our arborist told me that some conve...

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Peat Moss is Gardening Crack

...tum, Germany near where she grew up: Leave it to us humans to make a desert in Germany! We’ve experimented with mixes of coir and compost but still use peat moss occasionally. These images and citations have convinced me to go cold turkey. What are your feelings about peat? Have you found good alternatives?...

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Free Online Gardening Lectures from the University of California

...on by the University of California Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (I became a Master Food Preserver back in 2012 thanks to a truly awesome training program put on by our local Extension Service and taught by Ernest Miller, a guest on episode 14 of our podcast). I’ll share some of what I learned at the conference in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I thought I’d link to a bunch of Master Gardener lectures from UCANR that you can...

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