How native plants create drought-tolerant yards in Sun Valley, Idaho by Kirsten Dirksen on January 8, 2011 Sun Valley, Idaho landscape expert Kelly Weston likes to make clear native landscapes don’t have to be messy. “I have …
Apartment in-a-suitcase: tiny flat + 2 trunks of furniture by Kirsten Dirksen on December 29, 2010 In 1996, Barcelona architects Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores were hired to convert an old community laundry into a penthouse. …
Scion exchange: how to graft a backyard of fruit by Kirsten Dirksen on December 27, 2010 If it hadn’t been for introduction of grafting, we wouldn’t have domesticated apples or cherries and since these heterosexual fruit …
Barcelona’s Sagrada Família: Gaudí’s monument to Nature by Kirsten Dirksen on December 18, 2010 He became one of the most famous Modernist architects- responsible for many of Barcelona’s most famous monuments-, but Antoni Gaudí …
1st rule of gardening: build up the soil by Kirsten Dirksen on December 13, 2010 Every year Jacqueline Kennedy starts her garden by throwing local horse manure under her veggie patch. Her soil is now …
Dirty rags (trapos sucios): zero waste redesigned clothing by Kirsten Dirksen on December 9, 2010 When a company that collects the trash and cleans the city of Barcelona had 1,285 uniforms to get rid of, …
Non-toxic, no-VOC paint for any wall (+ finishing plasters) by Kirsten Dirksen on December 7, 2010 Michael G. Smith has spent the past couple of decades using natural materials to build all parts of a home, …
Avoid VOC: homemade natural paint (clay and milk) by Kirsten Dirksen on December 7, 2010 Paints are one of the biggest sources of VOCs- Volatile Organic Compounds- inside the home and their synthetic ingredients have …
Urban composting toilet: poo from loo to garden in 1 year by Kirsten Dirksen on December 2, 2010 Flush toilets allow us to avoid confronting just how archaic our sewage systems are. Ninety percent of the world’s sewage …
Heirlooms, hybrids, non-GMO corn & breast of Venus tomatoes by Kirsten Dirksen on December 1, 2010 Heirloom vegetables are big at farmer’s markets, popular among backyard gardeners and now they can even be found in supermarkets, …