087 Foraging Controversy with Lisa Novick

June 15, 2016

Food, Foraging, Gardening, Native Plants, Podcasts

...the podcast Lisa mentions: Weeds of the West Telling a new story about our urban and suburban landscapes Talking to the neighbors Impact of the drought Design tips from the 2016 Theodore Payne garden tour Theodore Payne plant list Native gardening mistakes Edible California natives California natives in pots Hooker’s Evening Primrose in bloom. Photo: Lisa Novick. If you’d like to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2...

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Satan’s Easter Basket is Filled with Plastic Easter Grass

Mrs. Homegrown

March 29, 2016

Domesticus, Nature Awareness, Thoughtstylings

7 Comments

...round this morning, especially because Echo Park surrounds a lovely little urban lake full of birds. Read on to find out why. 4 Excellent Reasons to Avoid Plastic Easter Grass and use all of your influence to make sure other people avoid it, too: Domestic cats and dogs eat Easter grass and it can cause intestinal obstruction. Cats are particularly attracted to its stringy texture, but dogs might also gobble it up when they raid a kid’s Easter stas...

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094 The American Woman’s Home

Mr. Homegrown

October 26, 2016

Domesticus, Podcasts

6 Comments

On the podcast this week Kelly and I discuss a 19th century urban homesteading book written by Catherine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, The American Woman’s Home. The book was written mostly by Catherine, with some contributions from Harriet (author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin). It’s likely that Catherine realized that attaching her famous sister’s name would sell more copies. Published in 1869, The American Woman’s Home covers a great deal of terri...

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Paper Wasps: Your New BFFs

Mrs. Homegrown

October 31, 2016

Gardening, Insects, Nature Awareness

10 Comments

...ative European variant is more the wasp you will likely be dealing with in urban/suburban North America, because unlike their native counterparts, Euro wasps aren’t shy. They are the ones who will build a nest by your back door, or on the side of your mailbox. Paper wasps build those distinctive, easy to recognize papery nests made of many cells. There are other types of native wasps which build with different materials, such as mud. Honeybee colo...

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Saturday Linkages: Raccoon Robber, Facebook Phreaks and T-Bricks

Mr. Homegrown

March 4, 2017

Saturday Linkages

1 Comment

...ple) March 4, 2017 California Assembly bill would extend tax break to turn urban lots into farms https://t.co/jbXQ3KMVyW — Root Simple (@rootsimple) March 4, 2017 T-bricks, the easy way to make an #adobe home https://t.co/2pqQOb93Hp #naturalbuilding — Root Simple (@rootsimple) March 4, 2017 Re-purposed Laptop Screen for Raspberry Pi https://t.co/HuqOH6zxGM — Root Simple (@rootsimple) March 2, 2017 How to French Polish https://t.co/TttyWoHq9b — Roo...

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