My notes about horticulture, permaculture, less toxic living, etc.
For some of this stuff, I spent a freaky huge amount of time trying to figure something out. And then I post what I learned. Those things are constantly evolving.
Some of this stuff is nothing more than a documented experience that seemed like it would be helpful to share with others.
There seems to be quite a few folks that like my stuff and ask me to keep writing. And there has been more than one person shouting from the rooftops that I'm an idiot and should stop misleading people. So I set up the forums so there could be feedback on each article. Anything that appears to be less than accurate can be contested. I have to admit that I've written some stuff that later turned out to be dead wrong (soap with cast iron is a great example).
There are three articles that I think are the most important:
By far, the article that gets the most traffic is organic lawn care for the cheap and lazy. I wrote this in 1994 to hand out to some folks at an organic lawn care workshop. About 20 people came. I posted it on the internet in 1995. I think that is probably the main reason why the article is so popular. It has just been around so long.
By studying all of the traffic for that article, and considering all of the folks that have told me that they have stopped using pesticides and chemical fertilizers after reading it, I figure that that article may have ended the use of hundreds of tons of toxic gick every year! A little unnerving, and a little happy happy joy joy - I'm fixing the world in a big way! I should write about something else I suppose ... but while I know a lot about horticulture, I'm not sure what else I could write about .... and then ...
I started using cast iron and glass cookware to get away from the toxic gick on so-called "non stick" cookware. I had a miserable time. Other people seemed to have no trouble at all. Finally, I decided to approach this problem like a scientist. I did lots of experiments, collected mountains of anecdotal information and started to create a path to success. I then pushed all of my notes into a new article: using a cast iron skillet ain't so hard! As of this writing, I am still seeking the recipe for the perfect cast iron seasoning. But at this point, my eggs no longer stick!
I didn't have much experience with fleas. I would always just toss down a little DE and they were goners. And then a household I was connected with got some fleas. The problem wasn't the fleas really - it was the panic. People thought they might actually die! The misinformation put out by companies selling pesticides is designed to scare people into parting with their money. I couldn't find a web site that carried enough information about what needed to be said. When I tried to talk to somebody at the house about the problem, well .... they were hysterical and sure they were going to die - I couldn't get them to even consider that they weren't going to die, let alone tell them how to take care of this. I wrote this web page out of a need to express what I couldn't express. I eliminated all of the fleas from that house, organically. It gave me a chance to try a few experiments along the way. I have polished the article pretty well now, and I think it's a good read even if you don't have fleas: Flea Control: Organic Beats Toxic! Cheaper Too!
I was getting a lot of e-mail where folks were asking a lot of the same questions. Or folks were asking questions where I knew somebody that had a better answer. I set up the permaculture forums, and this has been a huge help. I added some forums in there to talk about quite a few of my interests. I spent some time living in Seattle, and while I was there, I added some Seattle specific stuff. I check the forums at least once a day. If you have a question for me, please write it there.
