Vegetable Gardening for the Lazy

...n’t natter on about this one, as we’ve covered the edible leaves here, jam making with the fruit here, avoiding the spines here and penned a very early potty-mouthed love letter to the plant here. Needless to say, a plant that needs no added water or fertilizer and grows in dismal, alkaline soil while producing an abundant crop is a plant that allows more time to get the perfect vermouth/gin ratio for those late afternoon cocktail sessions on the...

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Mallow (Malva parviflora) an Edible Friend

...into a green sauce and use the leaves as a substitute for grape leaves for making dolmas. Modern Mexicans also make a green sauce with the leaves. If any of you readers have recipes, please send them along. If that ain’t enough, the mucilaginous nature of the plant can be exploited by making a decoction of the leaves and roots to use as a shampoo, hair softener, and treatment for dandruff. And yet, like so many other gardening books, the oh-so-bou...

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America’s Worst Remodeling Disaster?

...should have to prove their worth, and that’s a high bar. But, perhaps, I’m making the same mistake. Only time will tell. Sources Biography of Greene and Greene, An Enlightened Client. Post-remodeling Dunn residence photos: https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/kt538nd8wj/ “Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams” Edited by Jocelyn Gibbs, Debi Howell-Ardila, Anthony Denzer, Lilian Pfaff, and Alan Hess. “This Pasadena House . . .” Sunset...

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Make Your Own Molding With a Table Saw

...d it if you hunt around online). Who wants to make holes in the wall every time you want to hang up a picture? I’m guessing it has something to do with the use of drywall after WWII. Lath and plaster walls, like we have, don’t take well to nail holes. That said, even a house made with drywall should have picture rail just for the convenience of being able to easily hang and move around pictures without making a lot of holes. Should you wish to joi...

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Book Review: My Side of the Mountain

...times we can figure things out by ourselves, if we persevere, but that sometimes we need good books, and sometimes we need good people to help us and show us the way. Erik and I speak of this often, in our books, on this blog and in our talks. Only now am I realizing that who planted the seed of this philosophy in my young mind. Jean Craigshead George died this spring at the age of 92. I wish I’d re-read this book a little sooner, so I could have...

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