Homegrown Evolution Book Signing and Lecture

Thursday, June 26th, Homegrown Evolution will sign and read from their handy The Urban Homestead book at the Los Angeles Eco-Village.

where/when/what
Talk, Slide Show and Book-Signing with Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen
Thursday June 26th 2008 7:30pm at Los Angeles Eco-Village
117 Bimini Place, LA 90004
Directions at www.laecovillage.org
Suggested donation $5, no one turned away for lack of funds
Books sold separately for $15

Rebar Bean Poles

Ever since reading The Year I Ate My Yard by Tony Kienitz, I have wanted to experiment with using rebar in the garden. I like that it is an unromantic material which can actually be unexpectedly beautiful as it ages from new iron to a dark rusty brown. We have also discovered that it can easily become a whimsical yet still practical addition.


"Three-eighths rebar can be curled and coiled, bent and boxed in just about any direction and it can be done by hand...

...Rebar gives the garden a sense of age, of decay, and ruin, but ironically, it is sturdier and easier to negotiate than bamboo stakes, redwood or any of the other manufactured verticality offered."

Tony Kienitz - The year I ate my yard

We decided to try it out on two wine barrel green bean plantings. The concept was to create a vine or tendril-like top to the typical teepee shaped bean support. The supports were fun to make. We'll see how they look once the vines have climbed to the tops.

The Urban Homestead by Homegrown Evolution

Homegrown Evolution's book The Urban Homestead is out. Visit www.homegrownevolution.com to buy a signed copy. The book offers practical tips on starting your own urban homestead whether you live in an apartment or a house. Learn about planting and preserving vegetables, cleaning your home without toxins and more.

Or visit your local bookstore like Skylight Books on Vermont in Los Angeles. NPR's Marketplace Morning Report recently ran a commentary by owner Kerry Slatterly. In the era of small bookstores closing, like Dutton's in Brentwood, Skylight Books is expanding. Slatterly credits savvy consumers. Hear the story at www.marketplace.org.

Rethink Your Yard

Thinking about starting a garden? What about a small suburban farm? A group of inspired Colorado individuals are doing just that.



Maybe take that stimulus check and make it work for you.

Thanks to www.SouleMama.com for the link.

The Real Treasure of Sierra Madre--Neil the Pig

Neil has been around for at least a decade, although I was only introduced to him over a year ago. And what a fine friend he has become to my sons and me. He lives in the city of Sierra Madre, California, a tony foothill village community. He splits the yard with a few dogs and a kid's swing set.

My sons and I went to visit him about a month back only to find an empty yard. My heart sank with fear Neil had gone down the path that leads to bacon. To my delight, we returned to find our porcine friend fit and well. Neighbors and friends are welcome to feed him. However, the owners request that you only feed Neil lettuce or rice cakes. He's on a diet.

Where to start?

You have to start somewhere, so the beginning is as good a place as any.

Sometime about May, 2002 my wife Julia and I, for the 10th time, placed a bid on a house we hoped to buy. This was the last chance, the wedding was approaching and we had decided that we could no longer handle the stress of signing an over-asking-price offer on the trunk of our realtor's car moments after having walked through a house for the first time.

This time was different. We were on a routine MLS drive-by when we called our realtor from the chain link fence in front of lucky number 10 without having been inside. "We want to make an offer on a house." The offer was exactly the asking price this time. There were no competing bids where previously there had been up to 20 or more and there was a certain sense of resolve: either we would get the house or we wouldn't. The one thing that was certain was that we would no longer be in the market for a house.



To try to make the start of a long story short, we got the house - 1000 square feet of ramshackle loveliness set on 23,000 square feet of a former olive orchard, moderately sloped and slightly terraced with a view to the six or so mile distant downtown Los Angeles skyline.

We have been slowly working to transform the property and our lifestyle into something that makes sense for us. We hope to document that transformation and it's lessons through this blog. We hope to connect with others who share some of our interests (urban homesteading, organic gardening, native plants) and values (DIY, creativity, simplicity) exchange ideas, and, if all goes well, find a sense of community.