Archive for the 'Organic Gardening' Category

Fighting Bacteria in the Garden

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

The bacteria caused disease Salmonellosis is in the news with detectives tracking tainted tomatoes. It’s a serious issue:
In severe cases, the Salmonella infection may spread from the intestines to the blood stream, and then to other body sites and can cause death unless the person is treated promptly with antibiotics. . .Some people afflicted with […]

Alemany Farm: San Francisco Urban Farming

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

Inspired by the historic Victory Gardens of San Francisco, which supplied the area with 40% of the food consumed during WW2, and motivated by a desire to eliminate the high energy costs of trucked-in produce, the Alemany Farm started by volunteers taking over a former illegal dump as an experimental urban garden, with the […]

Amazing Number of Perennial Veggies

Monday, June 9th, 2008

The co-author of the permaculture design title Edible Forest Gardens (2 volume set), Ed Toensmeier, has a new book out called Perennial Vegetables.
The publisher, Chelsea Green, describes it further in the subtitle:
From Artichokes to Zuiki Taro, A Gardener’s Guide to Over 100 Delicious, Easy-to-Grow Edibles
Cindy Dyer of the Garden Muse blog photographed Toensmeier receiving an […]

Boing Boing Editor’s “Vegetative State”

Thursday, June 5th, 2008

One of Boing Boing’s editors, Mark Frauenfelder, must be in a “vegetative state” today, but at least he doesn’t have the steampunk fixation to Cory Doctorow’s extent. (Speaking of Steampunk, my brain puts today’s RepRap breakthrough news in that category.)
Back to Mark and his veggies, he’s joined the gardening brigades, but is having trouble identifying […]

Natural Pest Repellents on Daryl Hannah’s Farm

Saturday, May 31st, 2008

Media star Daryl Hannah is known to geeks mostly as the replicant from Blade Runner and to green activists for her protesting the bulldozing of the South Central Farm by living in a tree on the site until she was removed by the authorities so another warehouse could be built.
I find the natural pest repellent […]

Revolutionary: “The Most Calories For The Least Work”

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

A Homesteading Today thread begins with a post by the self-described “Revolutionary” Ernie, who says:
Gardening is hard work. It’s backbreaking, sweaty, blistering, and monotonous. While I love the alchemy of turning soil, sunshine, and water into calories for my family, I would much rather sit in the shade underneath the old maples and fritter away […]

20 Common Cooking Ingredients That Act As Medicines

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

Digg links to an article at Remedicated.com about “20 Common Cooking Ingredients That Act As Medicines”.
Find out what turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, garlic, rosemary, honey, chili peppers, olive oil, rice, parsley, onions (and related plants such as chives, shallots, and leeks), lemon, mustard, cloves, apples, kale, licorice, peppermint, horseradish, and avocado can do for you besides […]

Water Ya Gonna Do With Windfall Profits?

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

The Futurist May/June 2008 issue (if you’re reading this after then, check their archives) includes the cover feature article “Draining Our Future: The Growing Shortage of Freshwater” by Lester R. Brown. A free guest article at TreeHugger by Brown covers water shortages worldwide. It seems like the OPEC countries in the Middle East will […]

On Guerrilla Gardening

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

Richard Reynolds, who appeared in a recent Current TV Guerrilla Gardening video, has a book on the subject available May 27 with a pre-order discount.
 
 
  
 ctv

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Review: Grow Your Own Pharmacy

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

Grow Your Own Pharmacy by Linda Gray, published last year by Findhorn Press, describes in detail the nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and other herbal compounds in various plants. The first chapters cover “Ingredients For A Healthy Body” and “Introduction to Gardening.”
The book gives some history, the conditions and methods of sowing each plant and […]

UK Guerrilla Gardening on Current TV

Friday, May 9th, 2008

Site for worldwide guerrilla gardening featured on video from Current TV about an action taken in the UK to enhance neglected public landscape.

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Green Survivalism

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008

A few months ago, John Laumer wrote about Survivalist Green for TreeHugger.
The most prominent face of Survivalist Green is that of the city dweller; the second is of the suburban or exurban dweller. (Covers everything from apartments along the rail line to Mega-Mansions in the exurb zone.)
The third face of SG extends to the house […]

Food Up Front

Saturday, April 19th, 2008

The Independent describes a version of a Food Not Lawns/Edible Estates-ish organization in the UK.
Twelve months on and Food Up Front is now signing up people for year two. It has a network of more than 30 street rep co-ordinators, and has attracted the interest of would-be urban farmers from neighbouring boroughs and beyond.

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Ecotopia According to Forbes

Saturday, April 12th, 2008

Browsing recent bookmarks at del.icio.us led me to a series about Utopias in Forbes.com, including an interesting article called “Ecotopia”. The author is not as skeptical about the anti-capitalist lifestyle as you might expect from a business journal.
And despite the new commune members’ reliance on local barter and low-tech sustainable gardening, the use of satellite […]

Green Living Expo at LA Convention Center

Saturday, April 12th, 2008

Green Living Expo is in Los Angeles this weekend. Free Admission!
“Over 200 exhibits.” Organic food, alternative energy, sustainable fashions, clean household goods, music, art, and health products.
I’ll be wandering around there since I’m in town.

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Guerrilla Gardening in Vancouver, BC

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

Al “Bokashiman” sent me a more direct link to The Vancouver Guerrilla Gardeners Meetup Group.
On their description page, an elegant statement from the Toronto Public Space Committee is quoted:
“Without permit or license, we plant seeds and seedlings in all those neglected corners of public space. Join us as we vandalise the city with nature!”
Al also […]

Poisonous Plants or Parts

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

Digg links to an Environmental Graffiti humor piece about toxic plants titled “Five Household Plants That Can Kill You.” Some commenters said the title was inaccurate, but since it says “CAN kill you” (if eaten or leaves/petals/seeds brewed as a tea) the title stands. It’s not saying the plants ARE killing you.

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Urban Gardening Top Trend

Friday, March 28th, 2008

Anne over at My Urban Garden Deco Guide is another voice in the Food, Not Lawns movement.
Having a lawn and flower beds may soon be a major faux-pas, sign of selfish vulgarity.
Yep. So make sure your garden designer is an early adopter of the tidal wave about to arrive in every magazine, in every […]

Funky Butte Ranch

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

One of these days, after I get the transportation challenge figured out, it will be me explaining my first year off the grid. Until then, you’ll just have to get Doug Fine’s book, Farewell, My Subaru. Thanks, Boing Boing TV!

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Animal Rights Debate audio

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

As a defender of chickens in the backyard and not being a vegan, I took the villainous position against the little animals in an animal rights debate held at Dinah’s on March 17, 2008.
MP3 (Just shy of 70 minutes so as to fit on audio CD)
The political range was from libertarian to conservative, which […]

Cuba Encourages Private Farmers

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

BBC reports “Cuba lifts farmers’ supplies ban” as a small change by Raul Castro to improve agricultural productivity.
Small-scale farmers in some parts of the country will be allowed to buy such items as seeds, fertiliser and clothing equipment from state stores.
This seems to be further encouragement of family subsistence by the central government through permaculture […]

Drought Resistant Plant Genetics

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

BBC reports “Scientists advance ‘drought crop’”.
The researchers say that this understanding could allow them to modify plants so that they continue to absorb carbon dioxide but reduce the amount of water released into the atmosphere, enabling them to thrive in very dry conditions.
I know that some of you objected when genetically modified plants were made […]

Salad Alien

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

As seen on Digg, link to Framebox alien art designs made from salad fixins, by artist Till Nowak. And big agrobiz claims genetically altered food is safe.

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Permaculture in Cuba

Sunday, February 17th, 2008

A Global Public Media article from 2006 describes the adoption of permaculture concepts from Australian teachers by Cubans back when 80% of foreign trade was abrubtly cut off from the Soviets and their partners. I’m surprised as a U.S. citizen at how supportive the Cuban government seems to have been to the new idea, according […]

The Economical “Square Foot Gardener”

Sunday, February 17th, 2008

When googling the phrase “stretch grocery money” (yep, I’m dollar-challenged at the moment), I found that America’s Cheapest Family recommends the organic garden methods at Square Foot Gardening. The site has photos and everything. I’d be concerned about using the optional “durable” vinyl boxes. Vinyl, a.k.a. PVC is reputed to be toxic. I’d stick with […]