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Archives for March 2012

0March 29, 2012Productive Home by Erica

The Simple Decisions of a Complex Life

Want to know why I really keep backyard hens? The eggs are great, the chicken TV is a blast, and the deep-litter compost might actually make our hens a financially reasonable investment. But that’s not really why I have the girls. I keep laying hens because the sum total of the work involved in feeding,…

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88March 28, 2012Gardening by Erica

Half-Ass Hugelkultur

Hugelkultur is all the rage right now. This permaculture method of raised bed building is supposed to reduce irrigation needs and provide long term fertility to plants while giving the gardener a kind of hipster garden cred that only comes from funny foreign-sounding growing techniques. A hugelkultur bed is built with hunks of wood as…

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25March 27, 2012Growing Vegetables by Erica

Potato Chitting Problems: Pale Shoots

When I placed my order for seed potatoes with Irish Eyes this year, they asked when I’d like my potatoes shipped. Based on my zip code, they recommended a date a few weeks hence. “Oh, no, just send them now,” I said, “I like to chit them before I plant them.” Ah, hubris. So my box of…

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56March 26, 2012Solar Power and Greener Living by Erica

DIY Wall-Mounted Clothes Drying Rack

The ad on Freecycle said, Wooden Baby Pen, and described some sort of a freestanding baby jail made from dozens of dowels. With visions of a garden cucumber support in my head, I said I would love to have it, and could promise reliable pick up. Before I could worry about trellising cukes, laundry room inspiration hit…

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24March 22, 2012Homestead Animals by Erica

Solitary Confinement for Chickens

When I let the hens out for some free range time yesterday, I noticed one of the Austra Whites was bloodied about the comb. We have two of this breed, and the other one was bullied a few months ago in the same way. I was so concerned about the mess of blood on our…

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3March 21, 2012Motherhood by Erica

Burning Polly Pocket: My Clutter-Clearing Fantasy

I can tell it’s officially spring because yesterday I was hit with an overwhelming urge to take everything in my house, pile it in the driveway and burn it. In my pyromaniacal fantasy I haul room-fulls of stuff out into the street and pile it up until all my precious individual things have blurred into an undifferentiated mountain…

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16March 20, 2012Solar Power and Greener Living by Nick

Battle Coffee Pot vs. Microwave: An Energy Cost Analysis

For Christmas this year I got a new coffee pot. Among the wonders it offered over and above our old coffee pot (in addition to working) was a fabulous keep-warm feature that holds a pot of coffee at steaming hot perfection for four hours! Amazing, what will they think of next? While I love the…

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0March 19, 2012Gardening by Erica

March Photo Tour of the Garden

March in the garden is a time of transition. I’ve always thought there was a sort of irony, that as weather just starts to warm up and the gardener finally starts to feel spring in her heart, we enter the leanest months of a year-round vegetable garden. The earliest fall-sown greens and overwintering brassicas are…

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74March 15, 2012Gardening by Erica

Seedlings Started Under Lights vs. On A Windowsill

In early February I started some broccoli seeds the way I normally do, under a bank of full spectrum fluorescent light tubes. At the same time, using the same seeds, the same seed potting mix, and an identical pot (a 6-cell starter tray of 72-sized-cells), I started some broccoli seeds for a friend. She took her…

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10March 13, 2012Natural Body Care by Erica

The 7 Best Strength Exercises For Gardeners

Gardening can be remarkably physical. Over President’s Day Weekend I converted some lawn area into a wide swath of planting beds. In the process I shoveled, raked, pushed 200 pound filled wheelbarrows around the yard, bent over to grab building materials, squatted down to grab rocks, swung a mattock, split logs, flung weeds, lifted and…

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2March 12, 2012Gardening by Erica

The 5 Best Vegetables To Grow With Kids

I wrote the article below for the website of a local magazine called ParentMap about a month ago. It’s all aglow with the joys and benefits of gardening with kids, and these are many. But I gotta tell you, this past weekend I turned around to see my son standing in the raised bed I’d just been…

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0March 8, 2012Motherhood by Erica

Escaping The Cult of Busy

Note to Self: Life on Garden Time does not mean Life on Frantic Time. “Oh, I’ve just been so busy.” “With all the kid’s activities, I’ve just been so busy!” “With the new job, I’ve just been so busy!” “I don’t know what it is, it’s just crazy busy right now.” “Wow, I wish I…

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Hello, thanks for visiting! I’m Erica, a professional chef turned gardening and urban homesteading fanatic.

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