How to Build Walls with Pallets

...and jetsam. Mattresses, rotting couches and headboards accumulate, forming urban coral reefs under the blistering sun. It’s difficult to figure out a use for these objects other than as art. For utilitarian needs, such as building walls, we must turn to the many pallets that also litter our streets. Sketchup model by Ron S. But pallets can be tough to work with. The wood splinters easily making disassembly a tricky proposition (watch the Garden Fo...

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Saturday Tweets: Coffee, Bees and Bog Butter

...@rootsimple) June 17, 2016 A 67-Mile Hiking Trail Just Opened Through LA’s Urban Mountains https://t.co/tZg1QA0kEU — Root Simple (@rootsimple) June 18, 2016 Building a #garden wash station https://t.co/7VDEZ3oIYD #gardening — Tenth Acre Farm (@tenthacrefarm) June 18, 2016 Giant 2,000-year-old hunk of bog butter just found – and it’s still edible https://t.co/YDyjqBxyVZ — Root Simple (@rootsimple) June 13, 2016 Solid reclaimed Wood Chair https://t....

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Coffee Grounds in the Garden

...ctions and feed earthworms. Authored by Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott, Extension Urban Horticulturist and Associate Professor, this peer-reviewed pamphlet also provides a set of suggestions for using coffee grounds in the garden: Coffee grounds should be composted before used as a soil amendment but can be used fresh as a mulch. Fresh grounds are phytotoxic, so keep them away from direct contact with roots. Coffee grounds will not necessarily make your...

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Satan’s Easter Basket is Filled with Plastic Easter Grass

Easter baskets, a springtime ritual so loved by kids and adults alike should not have a dark side. So it’s more than a little ironic that this holiday, which in its secular form emphasizes rebirth and celebrates new life and baby animals of all sorts, actually causes accidental pain and suffering to many animals. The culprit is plastic Easter grass. The day after Easter this year, I took an early morning walk down to Echo Park and found Eastermag...

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Saturday Tweets: Compacted Soil, Bikes and Mirrored Headboards

New research on how to treat compacted urban #soil to help trees thrive https://t.co/tzhvk3pisZ @vtnews pic.twitter.com/x3QwSpKEgS — Thomas Rainer (@ThomasRainerDC) February 24, 2016 The Free Rider myth flipped: Are cyclists actually subsidising car drivers? https://t.co/qQaRd5eubE via @MomentumMag pic.twitter.com/fehEMXKh7B — Darren Davis (@DarrenDavis10) March 25, 2016 11-year-old's LA Times op-ed "My vision of a livable city is one where k...

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