Summer Nights in the Garden at the Natural History Museum

...tenance plants out there, and one that’s perfect for our dry L.A. climate. Urban homesteading experts Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne are here to help you plant your own succulent and give you tips on keeping them alive. Supplies are limited. Available to participants on a first-come, first-served basis PAINTING! Don’t have a green thumb? Stop by the painting booth and that can soon be changed. Artist Peter Tigler brings participatory image making to...

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007 RIP Handsome, 3 Power Tools You Should Own and Hipster Compost

...ecent comment on the blog we review an old post on three power tools every urban homesteader should own: drill, circular saw and jigsaw. Lastly, we expand on a recent post about composting brew waste, coffee grounds, juice pulp and coconut husks. In other words, “hipster compost.” During the discussion we answer a reader concern about black solider flies in compost. For more info on soldier flies (they are beneficial in compost but can be a proble...

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Thursday Linkages: Mason Bees, Hawks and Robot Cars

....com/2014/05/where-do-rats-go-when-they-die … Boxwoods? Bah! by James Roush http://feedly.com/e/KZ4uAoLm Bikesnob on robot cars: http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2014/05/its-end-of-world-as-we-know-it-and-i.html … Urban Beekeeping in San Francisco: http://wp.me/p4fosC-dQ Silent Watcher http://www.recyclart.org/2014/05/silent-watcher/ … For these links and more, follow Root Simple on Twitter: Follow @rootsimple...

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City Farm Chicago

...nevitable development comes, pull up everything and move on. Assuming that urban land is contaminated, the City Farm folks simply piled up about three feet of compost, soil and mulch right on top of the broken concrete and asphalt of its current location. All that soil will move when the yuppie condos replace the salad greens and radishes. City Farm is an idea that makes sense in big U.S. cities which, despite astronomical real estate prices, have...

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Journal of the New Alchemists

...) covers mostly their agricultural experiments, but occasionally dips into urban planning and other subjects. Biodome. Image: Journal of the New Alchemy. It’s interesting to look back at their work to see what ideas went mainstream and what faded away. What didn’t stick is what Nassim Taleb would call “top-down” approaches to design epitomized by the 70s fixation on geodesic domes and self contained ecosystems (though we’re starting to see a resur...

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