Garden Like a Pirate

...Revolution would like to introduce the concept of Pirate Gardening. Pirate Gardening involves claiming unused land that does not belong to you for growing food crops. The first bit of land we hijacked was our own parkway, that bit of dirt between the sidewalk and the street that technically belongs to the city, but is the responsibility of the homeowner to maintain. It’s yet another space, like the vast asphalt hell of parking lots, garages, freew...

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Silver Lake Farms

...radius of her unique urban farm. But best of all Kolla will be sharing her gardening knowledge with a new class she will be offering: “Organic Gardening: Introduction” takes place at Silver Lake Farms on Sunday, March 18 from 1pm-3pm. There are 12 spaces available for this class so register now at http://www.silverlakefarms.com or call (323)644-3700. Also, as a reminder–permaculture expert David Khan will be offering his regular introduction to pe...

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The Homegrown Mailbox: How and Where Do I Get My Soil Tested?

...kindly sent me the following list of labs with comments. Biological Urban Gardening Service PO Box 76 Citrus Heights, CA 95611 (916) 726-5377 URL: www.organiclandscape.com Email: bugs@organiclandscape.com Organic recommendations, very user-friendly Owner Steve Zien and I co-author “Organic Matters” organic gardening column in Sacramento Bee for 20 years. Wallace Laboratories 365 Coral Circle El Segundo, CA 90245 (310) 615-0116 www.bettersoils.com...

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Piet Oudolf’s Enhanced Nature

...at’s pragmatic, recognizing both the need for natural ecosystems within an urban environment, while at the same time providing visual interest. Oudolf’s imprint is on the landscape, but to most people that human touch will remain on a subliminal level. It’s a brilliant “third way” strategy outside of the dualistic smackdown between the simulated nature of English style gardening and the rectilinear hedges of Versailles. Oudolf’s plan for the Serpe...

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Garden Amendments as Placebos

...ot me thinking about other controversial soil additives popular in organic gardening and farming circles right now such as rock dust, mycorrhizae additives, and biochar. Now I prefer not to touch these topics with a hundred foot pole. But let me go out on a limb with a thoughtstyling outside of the usual debate about the benefits or worthlessness of these soil potions. I’ve started wondering if the strong anecdotal evidence supporting things like...

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