Dolce Verde - a little urban homestead in Midtown Phoenix

Uh huh - how many of you are reading this blog post just because of the titilating title??? =) Caught you! But seriously.... I have a relatively small property - 1/6 of an acre - in Central Phoenix and I'm trying to grow as much food as possible. One of the things I love to grow and eat are MELONS - and boy do they love the summer weather. They also love a lot of water. In order to pack in more of these sprawling ground-hogging plants into my yard, I put up trellises made from metal stakes and… Continue

The Phoenix Permaculture Guild holds a special place in my heart for a number of reasons - not the least of which is that it is becoming a community resource to train people in the skills necessary to transition to a more sustainable way of living. Now some may think we have a choice whether or not to live sustainably. To me, the question is moot. The time for choices has passed and it… Continue

As I continue along the path of growing my own food, I have successes and I have failures. Right now I probably average more failures than successes. I guess I have to admit to being a serial mass-murderer of plant life! (watch for the FBI "Most Wanted" poster!) One of the crops that I have yet to master is tomatoes. Can't seem to get that one right. They mock me. I've tried many different locations and they die - either from hot or from cold (in the winter). It's maddening. I don't even LIKE t… Continue

It seems like everyone's trying to cut back, conserve and generally reduce their use of those pricey utilities. I'm no different. In fact I started tracking my water, gas and electric usage in earnest about a year ago. Below are my "stats to date" compared to 2006 and 2007 values. Gas Gas season is pretty much over for me even though my stove, water heater and dryer are all gas. In the summer, however, I hang washing on the line (actually I do this MOST of the year except sometim… Continue

In a spate of summer cleaning I've been doing a lot of washing of things like area rugs, seat cushions and the like. In other words, I've been doing more laundry than usual. Fortunately for me, my washing machine is outdoors on my back porch. It's connected up to a 55 gallon recycled food… Continue