Smell Like Dirt
In Spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” Margaret AtwoodArchive for Green Living
Put all your egg(shells) in one basket!
Another Down & Dirty tip using eggshells to feed the birds. Eggshells are high in calcium and if you put them out for your birds to eat, it will give them “strong teeth and bones” as the saying goes, but will also give them the nutrients they need to lay strong eggs this spring. So start putting those eggshells to work instead of putting them in the trash.
Spud-O-Matic Update!
Ok, I’ll admit it. I’ve been horrible about keeping everyone updated on the potatoes. But here’s the good, the bad and the ugly. First, I will say that we enjoyed wonderful organically grown Red Pontiac and Yukon Gold potatoes. BUT, not as many as we could have enjoyed if I had not made a couple of mistakes. Mistake #1: Grow only one kind of potato per bin. The varieties grew at different rates and when one would be 6″ above the leaves and therefore time to add more leaves or compost, the other was only 2-3 inches tall so I had to bury them too deep and think I killed a few of them. Also, in July, I had to relocate my potato bin because a local TV station wanted to come and shoot a piece on composting, and I had to move the bin to make room for the cameraman to get a good shot. And if you remember from the video, I used chicken wire instead of hardware cloth so the pile didn’t move very well. And the last issue wasn’t really a mistake: At some point, a volunteer Butternut Squash started growing and at first I didn’t know what it was and my curiousity dictated that I had to let it grow, and then when I realized what it was, I decided I wanted some BN squash as badly as I wanted potatoes, so I just stopped adding leaves about half way up the bin and let everything grow. After the vines bloomed and started turning yellow, I dug up the potaotes and we ate them with dinner that evening adn they were wonderful. Then I let the BN squash continue and we got 5-6 off of that vine (I had two more volunteer vines in the garden area, so it was a good year for BNS, especially since I did not plant any). But don’t let any of this discourage you from using this method to grow potatoes in your garden. I have seen this work with my very own eyes at Renfrow’s Hardware in Matthews. And David says to start bins at separate times so you have a succession of crops throughout the summer. He recommends (for our Zone 7B) March 15, April 15 and May 15. But, I don’t think I have the attention span to grow vegetables. Plants have to be able to take care of themselves in my garden because I’m too easily distracted by everything else that’s going on out there. But, I wanted to grow something to eat and I did….just not as many potatoes as I thought…..but a banner crop of rogue Butternut Squashes!
Edible Landscaping!
By now you know I do more landscaping for wildlife than gardening for my own food, but I’m a huge Locavore committed to eating as much locally grown food as possible. I’m at the Farmer’s Market every Saturday morning and buy as much food as I can that is grown within 50 miles of my house. Its a big movement that is spreadiing around the county and one committed soul is campaigning to have the next President of the United States (whomever that might be, let’s just get it over with already!) to plant a garden on the front lawn of the White House. Remember Victory Gardens? During WW II when most of our resources were going to feed the war machine, Americans were asked to plant a Victory Garden to help feed themselves. Now, a movement is afoot to encourage Americans to grow Energy Gardens. The concept is to grow at least some of our food to cut down on our dependency on industrial farms and reduce the amount of energy is takes to truck our food the average 1500 miles before it hits our plate. The following video was produced by Eat The View and if you agree with the message, go their site and sign the petition. But, even if you don’t sign the petition, try adding some plants to your landscaping to feed something….either you or wildlife.
Composting Season Approaches
Yes, another re-run but for good reason! Composting season is just around the corner. The very best thing you can do for your garden is to add compost. And spreading free compost that you made yourself is the most satisfying feeling you can imagine. So, we’re re-posting the compost video, Part 1 (part 2 at right in the VodPod) and if you live near Charlotte and want to take a 4-hour composting class, here’s the schedule. I’ll be teaching the classes on Oct 4 at Reedy Creek and Oct 25 at Latta Plantation.
Are you Certifiable?
Ok, so most of us know about getting our backyards (or schoolyards, or businesses, etc) certified as a Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation, right? It’s a fun thing to do and gives you great bragging rights and a wonderful opportunity to educate friends and neighbors on providing the four elements of a habitat (food, water, shelter and places to raise young) while reducing (eliminating!) chemical usage and practicing other eco-friendly gardening methods. But why stop there? Look into getting your yard certified as a Monarch Waystation. Like a lot of wildlife, Monarchs are struggling due to loss of habitat, pesticide usage, loss of wintering grounds, etc, and need all the help we can give them. Monarchs are particularly needy because in their caterpillar stage they are incredibly picky about what kind of plant they will eat and only have one host plant—Milkweed (Asclepias)— and milkweed is becoming increasingly rare. And as with all butterflies, if you want butterflies, you have to provide the host plant for the caterpillar.
Fortunately, there are over 100 species of milkweed, so no matter where you are in the country, chances are there’s a milkweed native to your area. You’ll also need to provide nectar providing plants for the migrating, so make sure you research what’s native to your area and plant nectar sources that will be blooming when the Monarchs migrate through your area, especially fall blooming Asters
And while you are learning what you need to provide to become a Certified Waystation, go ahead and see what other certifications might be available to you. Here in North Carolina, those of us trying to incorporate as many native plants into the garden can be certified as a Native Plant Habitat by the NC Native Plant Society. In Colorado you can even take classes to become a Native Plant Master, which I think would go nicely with my Master Composter certification!
You’re doing all the hard work to provide for wildlife anyway, and your friends and neighbors already think you’re certifiable, so prove them right!
Out of Thick Air
Well, summer arrived ahead of schedule and with a vengeance! We broke a record today here in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. 98 degrees. Hasn’t been that hot on this day since 1899! And we’re going to grow gills if it stays this humid for the rest of the summer. We wait until the candles melt in the house before we turn on the A/C but we finally broke down and turned it on. The water dripping out of the condensation pipe inspired this video. I hope you enjoy!
Clean AND Green (and cheap)!
We love it when readers send us stuff! and Friend of SLD, and SLD Photographer, Marketing Manager, Publicist, Agent, and Chief Bottlewasher, Lauri Shubert, alerted us to a recent article in Good Housekeeping magazine. While she was sitting on the veranda, sipping mint juleps (editors note: this is a lie. With two boys in school and involved in multiple sports, a full time job and a husband running a business out of their home, Lauri NEVER sits down anywhere. If she has a minute of free time, I assure you she’s on her hands and knees in the garden) when she came across this article rating a variety of home cleaning products that are environmentally friendly. To her surprise, she found that not only did they rate the effectiveness of the products as very good, but in many cases the green products were less expensive than their toxic-chemical- laden cousins! Read the article for the details, but here’s a summary:
- LAUNDRY: #1 Arm and Hammer Essentials 2x Concentrate ($3.49/50oz) but a close 2nd at half the price per load Purex Natural Elements ($7.00/100oz)
- DISH DETERGENTS: Runaway winner Planet Ultra Dishwashing Liquid ($3.09/25oz)
- ALL PURPOSE CLEANERS: Sun & Earth ($3.79/22oz) with a close and much cheaper second showing by Green Works All Natural Cleaner ($3.32/32 oz). Both of these were good grease cutters in the kitchen but for heavier jobs, count on Simple Green. Its concentrated so you can dilute it a lot or a little depending on the mess
The article says that most products that make the Green claim are biodegradable, phosphate and chlorine free, and get their ingredients from plants like coconut or palm (renewable resources) rather than petrochemicals like crude oil or natural gas (which are not renewable). But always read the label and keep away from children and pets. Just because it’s green doesn’t mean it’s not toxic. Other green steps to take: try washable, reusable microfiber cloths rather than paper towels, spray cleaners on cloth rather than surfaces and you’ll use less and use the cold setting on your washer when possible.
So all of this gives us more proof that sometimes doing the right thing for the environment can also be the right thing for our wallets!
Stop those Catalogs!!
If you’re like me, you get TONS of catalogs in the mail each week. And since you are on a environmentally-themed blog, I assume you are recycling those catalogs instead of tossing them into the trash. But have you ever wished you could stop those catalogs from coming in the first place? It drives me crazy when I think of the trees that are killed for the pages in the catalogs, the energy that’s used to print them and then the fuel that the post office uses to move them all over the country. If there was just some way to stop them. Well, now there is! A friend recently shared a new website that you can use to stop receiving catalogs. And the best thing is that you can pick and choose which ones to stop. Can’t bear to live without yourLL Bean? You don’t have to! This service is not like the “do not call” service for telemarketers that stops everything. You can select which ones you no longer wish to see. And its easy. I let my catalogs pile up for a few days and then when I have a few minutes, I go to www.catalogchoice.org. The first time you will need to join (its free!) and then it will ask you to enter the name of the catalog you wish to stop. Chances are, its already in their database, so you click on it, but if not, you can enter a new one. Then it will ask you to enter your name, exactly how it appears on the catalog (this is important), and your customer number if you have one–usually printed on the address label– and that’s it! They will notify the catalog company and you will be taken off their list. I figure its going to take me a few months to get all of the catalogs I receive stopped, but its worth it. I wonder if my mailman will notice?
Smell Like Dirt 