040 Natural Beekeeper Kirk Anderson

March 25, 2015

...ees Michael Bush’s method of re-queening a hot hive How to keep bees in an urban environment Why Kirk doesn’t use foundation What’s ailing the bees and what’s wrong with the big beekeepers Movie: More Than Honey Langstroth vs. top bar Kirk’s and Russel Bates’ how-to videos on Youtube Kirk on Facebook If you want to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to rootsimple@gmail.com. You can subscribe to...

Read…

Why We Have No Vegetables: Raccoon Gangs

Mr. Homegrown

March 24, 2015

Animals, Gardening

6 Comments

...mpoline/wrestling ring. Apologies for the haphazardly applied banjo music. The Crittercam may have revealed an emergent phenomena: raccoons in urban locations discovering the benefits of social behavior....

Read…

My Apologies to the Skunk Community

Mr. Homegrown

March 19, 2015

Animals, Gardening, Pests

21 Comments

...only when that netting is firmly secured with many staples). Perhaps it’s time to consider escalating to metal wire. The “citizen science” lesson this week: raccoon and skunk diets overlap considerably. Both are highly adaptable urban foragers. In the case of our raised beds, both the skunks and raccoons are digging for figeater beetle larvae (Cotinis mutabilis). These huge larvae must be a delectable treat, the equivalent of a raccoon and skunk...

Read…

038 The Ground Rules with Nance Klehm

Mr. Homegrown

February 18, 2015

Composting, Gardening, Podcasts

3 Comments

...resulting compost along with mushrooms and plants to bioremediate damaged urban soils. Nance describes The Ground Rules as “re-imagining waste and biological infrastructures.” You can find out more about the project on the Social Ecologies website and on Nance’s personal website. There’s also a video about The Ground Rules. If you’re in Chicago you can visit Nance and Emmanual Pratt’s exhibition, For the Common Good: Meet the Remediators. Nance’s...

Read…

Councilmen Want to Astroturf Los Angeles and Turn it Into a Big Minigolf Course

Mr. Homegrown

November 3, 2014

Gardening, Water and Power

7 Comments

...l in the Los Angeles Times, about giving rebates for artificial turf. It’s time for all of us in this dry Mediterranean climate to go beyond the lawn and bad topiary paradigm. Yes, we need to reduce irrigation, but we also need to create landscapes beneficial to all life: to insects, mammals, reptiles and human beings. And we need beauty. Gardens are both ecological and spiritual. If the author of the Times editorial needs a good example of what’s...

Read…