Growing Your Own Soapnut Tree

September 30, 2013

...at produces prodigious amounts of a soaponifying nut that you can use as a greywater safe laundry detergent, dish and hand soap. Mrs. Homegrown wants to rip out my beloved Mission Fig tree to plant the one that Craig at Winnetka Farms gave us last year. I’m going to chain myself to the fig. That being said, I wish we had more room to plant our soapnut tree. Sapindus Mukorossi requires a fertile soil and a frost free climate. It’s a tall tree that...

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Outdoor Sink Makes Water Recycling Simple

Homegrown Neighbor

August 13, 2009

Design

16 Comments

...inside to wash my hands or rinse produce from the garden, I can use the outdoor sink and easily recycle my water. Plus, there is less dirt and compost in my kitchen sink. This is the kind of so-simple-its-brilliant stuff I just love. While I would like my entire house to have a greywater system, that isn’t really feasible at this time. The house is old and the pipes are very difficult, perhaps impossible, to access. So we are starting with the si...

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On the Southwest Chief to Chicago

Mr. Homegrown

May 15, 2009

Events

1 Comment

...go. When I get back to Los Angeles, Mrs. Homegrown and I will be leading a greywater workshop at Good Magazine on the 27th of May. Details to follow. In Altadena on May 30th I’ll be doing a talk, “Living Simply, Living Abundantly” at the Altadena Community Center 730 East Altadena Drive from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. And, god help us, we’re twittering (so much for living simply). Follow our twitter feed along the right side of the blog–just above the ad f...

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Water Conservation

Mr. Homegrown

December 30, 2006

Water Conservation

...natives or from the Mediterranean, many of which are also edible. Reusing greywater from your shower and washing machine can also reduce the amount of outdoor water usage. Above all remember that lawns are the wasteful and evil thought-spawn of generations of golf-obsessed Republicans. Replace them with edible landscaping, or decomposed granite. 10.8% Toilet All toilets should be low-flush, and todays low-flush toilets are considerably better tha...

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Plantain!

Mr. Homegrown

August 10, 2007

Food, Foraging, Gardening, Water and Power, Water Conservation

...ied up, are a different story. They do require a lot of water to grow, but greywater expert Art Ludwig calls bananas (the same family as plantain) “the premiere plant for greywater in warm climates”. You can bet that as soon as the building inspectors sign off and leave the scene of our newly retrofitted foundation at our crumbling 1920s vintage compound we’re going to try to figure out a way to route the shower drain out to a new mini-grove of pl...

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