Killer Gardening Mistakes: Haiku
When planting gardens, / you shouldn’t confuse okra/ pods with Orca pods.
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Wildflowers and Butterfly Beauty: Three For The Price Of One
Wildflowers and butterfly beauty is one of the best parts of rural life. As people go back to the woods or the fields, focusing on being self-sustaining and off-the-grid, one of the first questions they ask is: “What should I DO?” One of the most vital things I tell them is what they should NOT…
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Trouble In Paradise — Dealing With Pests And Problems
Every place has pests and problems to deal with, its own Trouble In Paradise. Wisconsin mosquitos and cold, Arizona’s oppressive heat and poisonous bugs and snakes, Washington state’s rain and mold and rain and dampness, Georgia’s bugs and heat and humidity and CHIGGERS! As part of the #LightTheWorldNow #BuildHisKingdom project, I was thinking about the…
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If You Look For Mushrooms, Will They Appear?
It’s a dream to find edible wild food, but you have to really look for mushrooms. Gene and Jan are interested in putting up tree houses on their acreage on Vashon Island, WA, and running a bed and breakfast. They also enjoy foraging for wild food (and creating their own, where possible). Dreaming of oyster…
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Identifying Plants In Our Yard
Identifying plants — especially native ones — can be a somewhat difficult process, especially if you’ve moved (as I have) to a bio-zone different from where you’ve lived before. I was talking about this issue with my brother Gene, out in Washington State. He’s gotten very good at identifying native plants on Vashon Island, where…
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My Thoreau-ly Walden-esque Experiment: Is This Lifestyle Sustainable?
Is Nature’s Guys nature-focused lifestyle sustainable? It is a question I’ve asked myself a lot, perhaps no more than yesterday when, with an allergy-induced fever, I worked myself into a sweat clearing away privet bushes, planting an elderberry plant and a yellow squash by the creek, cleaned out the ditch of old, disgarded tires; and…
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What To Do? Does It Matter? Just DO!
What should I do today? Do you ever ask yourself: Does it matter what I do? What should I do? When I made the decision to live a “Nature’s Guy” type of life, I don’t think I knew what I was getting myself into! There is SO MUCH to do! So much to experience! So…
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Using Carpet as Mulch and Weedkiller: Video How To
Rather than throwing old pink shag into the landfill, I decided to use carpet as a weedkiller and a mulch. As my dad said: Deprive weeds of light, and they will die. Four months ago, when I ripped out some old pink carpet from my house, I put it over a large rectangle of my…
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Finding And Completing A Cedar Circle
When my brother moved to Vashon Island, WA, he became friends with a couple who studied Native American traditions. One thing they did on their property was plant a group of cedars in a circle, creating a sacred space cedar circle. I’ve tried to respectfully learn more about this tradition, but haven’t found much. This…
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Fresh Seeds: What A Concept!
Being the frugal guy I am, if I don’t use seeds one year, I try them the next. Not that there is anything wrong with that, because seeds usually germinate for several years (although the germination rate goes down the longer you keep them in storage). My wife has A LOT of old seeds, so…
