Reforming City Codes

December 18, 2013

...Change the outdated codes that were enacted as a response to someone’s suburban utopian nightmare of manicured lawns and gumdrop shrubs! This is probably what will come of the Florida case. My City recently tried to legalize backyard chickens, someone started an anti-chicken campaign and the City Council lost it’s nerve and voted the amendment down………….Sometimes you just can’t win…….. DRBREW makes a good point. The City of Los Angeles just starte...

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Farm Hack

Mr. Homegrown

July 5, 2013

Appropriate Technology, Gardening, Water and Power

2 Comments

...ive blog that synthesizes high tech and low tech in the service of growing food and community. The blog is run by the National Young Farmers Coalition. While geared towards agriculture, many of the posts will be of interest to backyard gardeners. Recent subjects include a project to develop an infrared camera to monitor plant health, smartphone tools for farmers and open source appropriate technology resources. It’s exactly this kind of innovation...

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Free Vermicomposting Workshop in Pasadena

Mrs. Homegrown

November 28, 2013

Events

12 Comments

...don’t need a lot of worms. The key is to provide the ideal environment and food to support their innate capacity to multiply exponentially). 100% of the proceeds from all items you purchase will be given to the Beta Epsilon/University of the Philippines relief project.*** PLEASE LET ME KNOW if you would like a starter kit so I can get the materials and make only what will be needed. What to bring: Garden gloves, if you prefer not to use your hands...

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Sweet Potatoes for Breakfast

Mrs. Homegrown

September 11, 2013

Food

31 Comments

..., but I’m awful tired of them. 3) Sweet potatoes are a much vaunted “super food”. Primarily, they are incredibly rich in vitamin A and beta-carotene. So high, in fact, I wondered if I might OD on vitamin A from eating them daily. The answer is no. You cannot harm yourself from eating too many sweet potatoes. You can take too much A in pill form, or too much cod liver oil, and you can kill yourself outright eating Retinol packed polar bear liver (s...

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Mown and Blown: The Problem With Leaf Blowers

Mr. Homegrown

October 6, 2014

Gardening

28 Comments

...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 about it, and the maintenance crews can mov...

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