Leave Your Leaves Alone

...rovide. A review of research by Linda Chalker-Scott (2015, Arboriculture & Urban Forestry, 41.4, 173-186) suggests that both native and non-native woody species can enhance biodiversity of urban landscapes by providing these essential services. At this risk of wonkiness, do we have a Hegelian plant dialectic here, perhaps? Are we on the cusp of a synthesis in the native/non-native plant debate? This is a complicated question, but I think that Eise...

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Scooters? Not a New Idea

Sun, Oct 8, 1916 – Page 58 · New York Herald (New York, New York) · Newspapers.com It turns out the urban scooter craze isn’t a new idea. From a story in an October 8, 1916 newspaper, “Skidding Through Fact and Fancy on an Autoped: Solo Devil Wagon Taken Up in a Serious Way Might Add New Terrors to City Life” is a description of motorized scooter not all that different than the ones we see today: You stand on the cute platform and get your feet n...

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007 RIP Handsome, 3 Power Tools You Should Own and Hipster Compost

...comment on the blog we review an old post on three power tools every urban homesteader should own: drill, circular saw and jigsaw. Lastly, we expand on a recent post about composting brew waste, coffee grounds, juice pulp and coconut husks. In other words, “hipster compost.” During the discussion we answer a reader concern about black solider flies in compost. For more info on soldier flies (they are beneficial in compost but can be a problem in w...

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The Gathering Storm

...5 off on a dark note. Yesterday, on my evening dog walk, I found a charred page from Winston Churchill’s book The Gathering Storm that must have come from one of the many destroyed homes in Altadena, carried aloft by hurricane force winds a distance of 12 miles. We have never lived in Altadena but Kelly and I both feel a deep connection to the place. We met a lot of people there in the years after our two books came out. Altadena is the kind of pl...

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