Our new front yard, part 3: design

...sses, shrubbery and trees, which is to say, the elements of the classic suburban yard. 3. The forest, which is design in cooperation with stands of trees. They take apart each archetype in detail and discuss the design considerations for each, the possibilities and potential problems. I focused on the grassland section, because I had already decided that I wanted my slope covered with low growing, meadow-type plants. As I’ve already discussed, we...

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Saturday Tweets: Happy Feet and Sad Feet

...triot @GeorgeMonbiot tells it like it is: Driving a gas guzzler is killing urban life and the least cool thing you can do!https://t.co/hZcF20OBxd — MonkeyWrenchGang (@M_WrenchGang) June 23, 2019 “At a certain point, if you’re playing Dr. Pangloss to people who administer a monstrous social order, then at some point you’re going to rub shoulders with and do favors for actual monsters,” https://t.co/JiGukRJXfi — Root Simple (@rootsimple) July 17, 20...

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California Dreaming

...o fall into the gloomy, apocalyptic trap of some of the other folks in the urban homesteading movement. After a enjoyable evening last night at a fundraiser for the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, my dark mood lifted as I was reminded that good things are happening out there. Change comes slowly, one step at a time, requiring great patience. Like gardening, bread baking and home brewing there will be mistakes and setbacks. But there will als...

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How to make your soup wonderful: Wild food soup stock

...ood, but go on to make really good stuff with it. One of their websites is Urban Outdoor Skills, and I like to go there to check out a section called the Food Lab, where they talk about food products they’re experimenting with, and give how-to’s. A few months ago Erik brought home a beautiful bouquet of nettles. I decided to try one of the Food Lab projects that intrigued me — Wild Food Soup Stock Preserved with Salt. This is no more than a bunch...

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A Homegrown Revolution manifesto by way of a short (true) story.

...you, I was staring at you.” Robert Hurst, in his excellent book The Art of Urban Cycling covers this very problem. Fixed gears, high traffic speeds, poorly designed bike lanes, inattentive motorists, and voyeurism make an especially dangerous cocktail. Stay alert out there folks and read Hurst’s book (read an interview with Hurst here). 7. Karma The hipsters jumped back on their bikes leaving Homegrown Revolution, the two women, and the security g...

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