Peat Moss is Gardening Crack

August 13, 2015

When it comes to potted plants and raised beds we’ve used our share of peat moss. Many bagged soil providers like to say that their peat is “sustainably” harvested. The image above as well as an extensive list of citations and peat alternatives in the Facebook group In Defense of Plants proves that peat moss is as sustainable as tobacco is safe. Here’s those citations: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090904165253.htm http://hortsci.a...

Read…

Learn to Spin!

Mr. Homegrown

July 2, 2015

Events

2 Comments

...and plying yarn – in a way that can be easily controlled, and using an inexpensive tool! Even if your goal is to spin on a spining wheel, you will learn skills and principles that will also be used on your wheel! In addition to drop spinning, Anne offers private one-on-one spinning lessons. For more information, check out her website spinnerscircle.com....

Read…

How to Make a Breakfast Nook Comfortable

Mr. Homegrown

July 13, 2015

Design

9 Comments

...ded to be made. We had, after all, voted with our derrieres. Neither of us used the breakfast nook for anything other than as a repository for junk. Here is our nook, as it looks today, after some changes we made to make it more comfortable: Those changes were made possible thanks to handy a resource called Architectural Graphics Standards. AGS, offers a set of standard measurements for everything from table height to the length of a fencing piste...

Read…

A tip for bored chickens . . .

Mr. Homegrown

June 30, 2015

Animals, Chickens

11 Comments

...attended last week. Behavioral specialist Richard Blatchford of UC Cooperative Extension had a great idea for entertaining hens like ours that are confined to a run: give them a bale of straw and don’t even undo the strings. I used to cut the strings and toss them the bale in sections. Keeping it intact keeps them occupied for a much longer time. They’ve been obsessed with the bale for days now and are slowly breaking it down and spreading the str...

Read…

Easy Scandinavian-Style Bread

Mrs. Homegrown

October 8, 2015

Food, Recipes

7 Comments

...es me delicious, black hole-dense loaves of sourdough rye. Or at least, he used to. Now he’s on crutches, trying to recover from a bad case of Plantar fasciitis. This means he’s not doing anything in the kitchen anymore, and my bread supply is gone. Sure, I could wake up his sourdough starter, take on the mantle (or apron?) of Household Baker, and start making these loaves myself, but I’m already taking on extra chores with him off his feet, so I’...

Read…