Our new front yard, part 2: theory

November 13, 2015

Back to the Garden, front yard series, Garden Design, Gardening

...hy we continue to try to get away with it. So I don’t know about this one. Time will tell. For now, I’m praying we’ll get the new plants’ root systems established before the heavy rains hit. The primal landscape? Elephants on the Serengeti (Image courtesy of the Wikimedia Commons) The concept of legibility One term used by Rainer and West in Planting in a Post-Wild World that I really glommed onto was “legibility.” Landscapes have to be legible to...

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Leisure The Basis of Culture

Mr. Homegrown

March 6, 2015

Thoughtstylings

11 Comments

...and rediscovered in hard work. Fr. Mark Kowalewski, who tipped me off to Pieper’s book, describes this state of leisure as “profoundly counter-cultural.” And yet I hear Gmail calling me. Time to update my Facebook profile and get out some tweets. How do you deal with life’s distractions? How do you carve out some time for true leisure?...

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The Difference Between Mulch and Compost

Mr. Homegrown

March 31, 2015

Gardening

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...nning gag in the comic book Groo the Wanderer. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard “mulch” called “compost” I’d be a wealthy blogger. Let’s set the record straight. The Oxford English Dictionary defines mulch as, Partly rotted plant material, etc.; (Hort.) loose material consisting of straw, decaying leaves, shredded cuttings and bark, etc., spread on soil or around or over a plant to provide insulation, protect from desiccation, and deter...

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The Return of the Apron?

Mr. Homegrown

August 28, 2018

Cleaning, Domesticus

12 Comments

...s and pencils. A quick perusal of the interwebs will show you that, at one time, all of the trades had their own aprons. In addition to safety and tool holstering, aprons are from a time before the cheap, disposable clothes we now wear. The decline of the apron could also be about our modern world’s distaste for visible signs of physical labor. We’re all supposed to be spending our days in front of glowing screens. Speaking of which, I’ve got to g...

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Day to day, our decisions count

Mrs. Homegrown

April 30, 2015

Back to the Garden

6 Comments

...at all, especially if you chat with her every week. If you can’t find the time to shop at farmers’ markets, you might want to try a CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. If you’re not familiar with the concept, it’s like a subscription club you join, and, typically, you get a box of local produce a week which you pick up at some central point, or perhaps is delivered to your door. Some CSAs go beyond veggies and fruits to provide m...

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