016 The Urban Bestiary with Lyanda Lynn Haupt

...ot Simple Podcast we interview naturalist Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of The Urban Bestiary, Crow Planet, Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent and Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds. During the podcast Lyanda covers: The effect of the drought on urban wildlife Invasive species How to get along with wildlife such as skunks, possums, raccoons and coytes The problem with relocating animals (except rats!) Moles and gophers Seeing raccoons during the day...

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Urban Livestock and Bikes!

India: chickens and bikes in a photo by Shabbir Siraj Urban Livestock Workshop Homegrown Evolution will be hosting an urban livestock workshop at our humble abode in Silver Lake on March 1st from 1-4pm. We’ll be talkin’ chicken, permaculturist Joan Stevens will be rapping about rabbits and Leonardo Chalupowicz will share his recent experience of becoming a “backwards” beekeeper. We’ll discuss how to integrate these animals into your backyard and...

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Planting in a Post-Wild World

...erstand that this is a cared-for space. Pic from the book. An unidentified rooftop garden showing good use of “frames”: design elements which make spontaneity palatable. I want to live there. But the real challenge in this process is designing a plant community which is attractive and functions in a sustainable, self-supporting way. These landscapes are not completely care-free, but if designed correctly, they should require less in terms of human...

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Let’s Democratize Permaculture

...urses are out of the budget and time constraints of backyard gardeners and rooftop apartment growers. Toby Hemenway’s book Gaia’s Garden: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture is a step in the right direction. We need more voices like Hemenway, who can explain the design principles of permaculture to the masses. And let’s take these principles and apply them not just to gardening, but to the ways we arrange our schools, offices, homes and public spac...

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2014: The Year in Review

...otices . . . February Advantages and Disadvantages of Raised Bed Vegetable Gardening After a successful straw bale garden in the summer of 2013, I finally got around to building new raised beds to replace some that we had taken out. Our lead and zinc contaminated soil necessitates this, but I wish I didn’t have to use raised beds for reasons I outlined in this post. March Is Ham Radio Useful? The jury is still out on this question, to be honest. I...

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