Because everyone loves cartoons…

A lovely parable.

In spite of the oversimplification, this is the heart of living lime, I think. Introspection, and balance. Think very carefully about what is important to you because that’s what matters. This is a pretty good representation of what is important to me, except that I dislike fish and fishing 🙂

Via Transition Communities.

Friday Night at the Museum

Museum Underground is reclaiming Museum London for a new generation. Like this Friday at 9:30-1:30, with Friday Night at the Museum. Check it out!

Location

Raingutter gardens

I am stunned by the ingenuity of these re-purposed rain gutter gardens. They are an excellent way to increase your gardening space. They’re perfect the perfect size for growing herbs, leeks, and lettuce. Plus they’re beautiful to look at–they’d look amazing with trailing nasturtiums.

Via homegrown.org.

Inspiring Upcycling: Electricity-Free Lighting

It’s the simplicity of this project that makes it so beautiful. A man in Brazil is using soda bottles to light his workshop during the day (they’re rated at 50 watts!). This would never work in our climate, but I would love the opportunity to see pop bottles sticking out of people’s houses.

Via Make.

Spring Makeover: Our expanding Urban Homestead.

This weekend we removed the last of our grass, making way for more food. Grass represents things that I’m not into, not the least of which is mowing. Last year, an old Italian lady asked me, as I offered her herloom black cherry tomatos from my front yard, “Don’t you have a back yard?” Now I can answer that with, “You should see how much food I can grow back there!”
The Urban Homestead says that it’s best to avoid tilling, but sadly, we are too lazy busy to dig it up by hand. This means more maintenance work later, but at least I can get right in there. And it’s so satisfying to look at 🙂

Before:

That’s sawdust, not dead grass. Excellent soil additive! You can see the tiny patch of dirt around the perimeter that I used last year.

After!

I was so happy to tromp around in the fresh dirt 🙂

Space Broccoli: Gardens on the Moon?

Because shipping food from California isn’t far enough, scientists are working toward deploying miniature pressurized greenhouses on the surface of the moon by 2012. This is absolutely a fascinating endeavour, but perhaps we should be expending our efforts on sustainably growing food on our own planet?

Read the article on Inhabitat

Britain Waves Goodbye to Magical Forests

Conservationists suggest that by the end of the century, the UK will see traditional orchards disappear, due to the trend of uprooting orchards to build or plant arable crops. Traditional orchards, being pesticide free trees that are given room to grow and fall where they stand, and provide grazing space for livestock, are being replaced by chemically treated trees. That means a loss not only of biodiversity, but also of rare varieties of apples.

“Traditional orchards have become an extremely rare and precious habitat. We need to do something to stop this decline. Orchards bring people and wildlife together. It’s about food, the culture behind them, the heritage. They are magical places to be in.”

Read the article in The Guardian

Standing Up to the Madness: how four librarians beat the patriot act

An entertaining and inspiring story of four rebel librarians, standing up for what is right.

10 points for Genetic Purity (in food)

I’ve always been a little wary of GMO food. I’m not interested in eating tomatos spliced with fish genes. I’d rather not have my corn doused in roundup. And remember that big corn recall in the 90’s, when an innocuous bean gene caused fatal allergic reactions in corn?

My decision not to (knowingly) eat GMO food is a personal one, but it still makes me wary when GMO seed companies suggest that they are part of the solution to world hunger and “sustainable agriculture”. And when I learned from The Future Of Food about Monsanto suing a Saskatchewan farmer for patent violation after they contaminated his crops with their seeds.

and then I read this:

Herbicide-tolerant soybeans, herbicide-tolerant corn and Bt corn have failed to increase intrinsic yields, the report found. Herbicide-tolerant soybeans and herbicide-tolerant corn also have failed to increase operational yields, compared with conventional methods.

So, not only do my veggies taste better and fulfill my desire genetically pure food, but they also have the same yields as herbicide drenched ones. Take that, GMO advocates!

When to Plant?

Every year, I get overly excited and plant everything too early so that I can convince myself it’s spring. That’s why my indoor garden has grown from 1 bank of lights to 5 in just 2 years. I had to tape an organized list of things to plant, in order according to the times listed on the package, to the back door. This is an attempt to stop myself from greedily poring over my seed packets for permission to direct sow something new. But it’s hard to trust the times that are listed on the seed packet, given that they’re distributed through many USDA zones, and especially when our spring has been so consistently below seasonal this year.

Last year I experimented with a new trick I picked up from Dave’s Garden, since I’m too cheap to buy a soil thermometer, and I will never know what “mid spring” means. It worked out okay last year, except that we got a frost in June! I now use the following as a guide, in conjunction with daily attention to the lawn and garden forecast. Use plants to tell you when to plant!

Plant carrots, cornflower, peas, poppies, radishes and spinach when forsythia bloom.
Plant broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, onion, and pansies when domestic cherry trees and flowering quince bloom.
Plant beans, corn, cucumber, marigolds, morning glory, nasturtium, squash, sunflowers, and zinnias when lilacs are in full bloom.

Watch wild cherry trees and bridal veil spirea. Until they bloom, it’s not safe to plant out your frost tender plants, no matter what the date is. Peppers can’t go out until you’re sure it won’t get colder than 10 degrees, unless you plan on covering them.

I already thinned radishes and spinach today!