2013 in Review Part I

December 30, 2013

Straw bale garden: before and after. One of the side benefits of blogging is having a record of ideas and projects going back for years. I thought I’d spend the next two days looking at what happened, month by month, in 2013. January The main topic was how to deal with patellafemoral syndrome, aka bad knees. In May I did what I should have done 20 years ago: hire a personal trainer to set up a gym program tailored to my needs and weaknesses. Afte...

Read…

Saturday Linkages: Yet More Potty Talk

Mr. Homegrown

August 10, 2013

Saturday Linkages

10 Comments

....html … Gardens How to Win Friends and Influence the Environment: Put on a Garden Tour by Susan Harris » good read http://gardenrant.com/2013/08/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-the-environment-put-on-a-garden-tour.html?utm_source=feedly … Bike Rantings We still don’t really know how bicycles work http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/07/mysteries-bicycle … L.A.’s Real Growth Is in Car-Free and Car-Lite Families http://disq.us/8egmh7 Can you say “misce...

Read…

Picture Sunday: Images of Detroit

Mrs. Homegrown

June 30, 2013

Picture Sundays

4 Comments

...ely through gardening. She and her boyfriend, Michael, are growing a large garden on several vacant lots, and are looking to buy a house near their garden at auction. Land in Brightmoor is inexpensive. (One of the lots she gardens on cost $210.) She also says that there’s a 170 acre forest at the edge of her neighborhood, which makes it feel more like the country than the city. Looking at Google images of the Brightmoor areas, I agree. It does hav...

Read…

Our Keyhole Vegetable Bed: What Worked and What Didn’t Work

Mr. Homegrown

April 17, 2013

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

10 Comments

...future solar powered fountain that will be incorporated in a new vegetable garden we’re working on. Here’s what the keyhole bed looked like just after I installed it back in October. Note the compost repository in the center of the bed. I used straw wattle (available where professional irrigation supplies are sold) to form the sides of the keyhole. A month later in November a few seedlings were popping up. I had to robustify the skunk barrier (mad...

Read…

Nursery Customers From Hell

Mr. Homegrown

April 19, 2013

Gardening, Thoughtstylings

19 Comments

...nts in Los Angeles, check out the neighbors in your hood. EVERYONE grows a garden, all it takes is time. And in the end, I was able to achieve great results! I’ve always wanted my own staff of academics so, personally, I’m looking forward to spending a month “paying professors to analyze our soil.” As to “EVERYONE” growing a garden in Los Angeles, I suspect this Yelper is referring to the mowed weeds and Home Depot topiary that accounts for most o...

Read…