News From Nowhere

May 25, 2018

...for everybody; so that no man is sacrificed to the wants of another. From time to time, when we have found out that some piece of work was too disagreeable or troublesome, we have given it up and done altogether without the thing produced by it. Now, surely you can see that under these circumstances all the work that we do is an exercise of the mind and body more or less pleasant to be done; so that instead of avoiding work everybody seeks it: an...

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The Hugelkultur Question

Mr. Homegrown

November 17, 2014

Gardening, Permaculture

48 Comments

...ecided to post the hugelkultur question to the Garden Professor’s Facebook page. One of those horticulture professors, Linda Chalker-Scott is someone who I seek out when writing a magazine article. A civil discussion ensued on that Facebook page, proving that Facebook is good for something other than angry political screeds and cat videos. A summary of some of the points made: There is no peer reviewed research on hugelkultur. The concept seems to...

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Creating a Perpetual Garden Journal

Mr. Homegrown

October 5, 2021

Gardening

12 Comments

...perpetual garden journal. To make one, you get a blank journal with enough pages to devote one or two pages for each week of the year. When you want to record something you go to that week and do your drawing. You can, of course, add written notes. As the years roll by you keep adding to the same pages thus creating a week by week visual diary of what’s going on in the plant and fungi world in your garden or in the world around you. I know that dr...

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On Living in Los Angeles Without a Car: A Debate

Mr. Homegrown

May 21, 2013

Bikes, Transportation

41 Comments

...setting up that system, finding partners, finding a car, committing to the time it would take to maintain such a project and really making it happen, or are we just going to talk about it? This is getting pressing. I can get by for basic things without a car, but not having access to one has clipped my wings, especially when it comes to outdoor activities, which are important to me. I’ve already rented a car for a weekend outdoor skills course but...

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Our new front yard: history

Mrs. Homegrown

November 11, 2015

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

19 Comments

...ake, or a mistake that you’ve made publicly, or a mistake that you’ve been making for a long time. This is why people keep climbing Everest even when they see a storm is rolling in. This is why we ended up with an ugly yards full of struggling trees. The cactus, however, grew exponentially. Its position was front and center of the slope, so–for better or worse–it blocked the view of the rest of the yard from the street. For several years it was ve...

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