Erik to Speak at South Pasadena Beautiful on June 3rd

...nity room at 4:00 pm (refreshments at 3:30). In addition to the usual subjects of chickens, bees, vegetables and the home arts I’ll touch on some hot button issues I find equally important: Tree care in a drought Creating walkable/bikeable communities Gardening with native plants Throwing neighborhood parties Why hay hooks are the new hipster fashion accessory (just kidding) It’s freeeeeeee! The South Pasadena Library is located at: 1115 El Centro...

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Top Six California Native Plant Performers

Between Kelly’s aortic episode and my mom’s passing, gardening took a back seat during the past six months. As a result, our yard doesn’t exactly look like Versailles. I’m thankful Kelly had the foresight, before our family emergencies, to reduce the amount of fussy annuals and increase the number of California native plants. While no garden is ever “zero maintenance,” some plants, such as these six California natives can survive with less care....

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Kelly Update and a Great Podcast

...g focuses on do not get counted by economists. All that cooking, cleaning, gardening, child and elder care count not one bit towards the sorts of calculations economists obsess over such as gross domestic product and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This is particularly unfair to women who tend to be more responsible for what happens in the home. And let’s not even get into the ethical difficulties of placing a dollar value on human beings. It’s...

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Nature Fest this Weekend!

...find booklets, done in collaboration with the Ecology Center, on container gardening, rainwater harvesting, bicycle basics, backyard chickens and food preservation. They’ll be priced to fly out of those boxes in my garage! I’ll also be doing a coffee demo at 1pm on both Saturday and Sunday and dispensing free advice in the booth for the entirety of the festival. Please drop by and hang out. And dig the book racks I built out of scrap plywood! See...

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The Call to Create: Marguerite Knutzen 1925-2017

...us to be creative and we all have it within us. Our lives are enriched by the activities involved in creativity around us. Not just in the art of drawing but in dance, theater, writing, reading a story to a child, entertaining in our homes, gardening, workshops, singing, playing an instrument and on and on. People are stimulated when encouraged and often find new abilities they never thought they had. I will miss my dear mom. But it gives me grea...

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