Our new front yard: history

...planting our first vegetable bed in the back yard, and we soon caught the homegrown food fever, and as the years passed we added more beds and colonized areas for growing edibles in almost every possible nook and cranny. Eventually, the front slope was the only place we weren’t growing food or herbs or medicinals–unless you counted the lavender. We wanted more fruit trees, but didn’t imagine we had room for more than the couple we already had unt...

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Saturday Linkages: Controversy Edition

Gardening Homegrown polenta? Floriani corn plants deliver ‘amazing flavor’ http://fw.to/2ju3QtE The High Line in Person by Susan Harris http://gardenrant.com/2013/08/the-high-line-in-person.html?utm_source=feedly … Knocked Out—and not in a good way by James Roush http://gardenrant.com/2013/08/knocked-out-and-not-in-a-good-way.html?utm_source=feedly … Hackin’ Open Tech Forever: permaculture/open tech startup: http://boingboing.net/2013/08/21/open-...

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Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands

..., even if their form and their origin are heterogeneous.” -Jacques Derrida Homegrown Revolution loves cheap low-tech solutions (not to mention pretentious quotes), which is why we especially like “bricoleur” and Tucson rainwater harvesting guru Brad Lancaster and his ongoing book series Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands. Volume one is already out and volume two is due out this summer. Landcaster’s ingenious methods involve little more than careful...

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Chicago Kit Houses

...sion of a tiny house. Need a barn? They’ve got you covered. Want to open a store? They’ve got a plan for that too. The catalog contains customer testimonials such as this one from an early house flipper: Dear Sirs: We received the material for the house and was [sic] greatly pleased with the same. Everything was exactly as represented in your catalog and the lumber was of far better quality than I could have gotten here at a higher price. Before w...

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