All You Can Feed On

10 DIY Spring Garden Projects

“Spring is nature’s way of saying, “Let’s party!” ~ Robin Williams

Gardening can be one of the most rewarding eco-hobbies. It provides healthy exercise with nourishing results.  Now grab your tools and your DIY (party) hat, and put that green thumb to work!

1. DIY Compost Bin

Start collecting kitchen scraps for composting. Skip the pressure-treated wood and opt for creating the compost bin using more sustainable option.

2. Start a Spa Garden

Whip up recipes for spa treatments from easy to grow herbs.

3. Garden Tote

Organize gardening tools is easy with this handy repurposed gardener’s bucket.

4. Seedling Cups

Make planting cups from newspaper. Why? Soy-based ink newspaper becomes biodegradable compost.

5. Repair a Leaky Hose

Hoses crack and leak. Save money and repair them yourself.

6. Build A Birdhouse

Do you love birds? Then build them some beautiful abodes.

7. Sharpen Garden Tools

There’s nothing worse that a dull tools. Sharpening will make your garden chores go faster!

8. Bring A Lawn Back to Life

Wake up and revitalize your dull winter lawn.

9. Build A Garden Edge With Wine Bottles

Like wine? A collection of colorful wine bottles provide the perfect material for upcycled border edge for your garden.

10. Build a Folding Plant Stand

If you start your plants from seed, why not keep those babies displayed on a stand.

Photo: Sunset Magazine

Ronnie Citron-Fink is a writer and educator. Ronnie regularly writes about sustainable living for online sites and magazines. Along with being the creator of www.econesting.com, Ronnie has contributed to numerous books about green home design, DIY, children, and humor. Ronnie lives in the Hudson Valley of New York with her family.

5 Easy Spring Lawn Tips

Even if the weather in your area is still a bit chilly, it’s time to start thinking about giving your lawn a little TLC.

“Spring lawns require extra care following chilly winter temperatures and dormant growth,” said John Buechner, Lawn Doctors Horticulture expert. “It’s also a critical time to take steps to insure a beautiful summer lawn. Fertilization, weed and pest control combined with proper mowing will stop problems before they start and keep your lawn looking its best.”

For many, this means heading down to the local home improvement warehouse to buy chemical products that might produce a green lawn, but will do a great deal of damage to the soil, water, and wildlife in the process.

If you’d rather take a more organic approach to lawn care, here are some tips to keep in mind:

Fertilization: Spring is a crucial time to fertilize because it replenishes the food reserves your yard draws from while dormant in the winter and fuels grass’ rapid growth phase. Hopefully, you’ve been composting your kitchen waste all year long, and you have the means to make compost tea to fertilize your lawn and garden. This will produce a thick, healthy lawn that also helps prevent weeds. (And don’t worry: if you haven’t been composting, there are lots of packaged organic fertilizers on the market, but just like when shopping for organic foods, be careful and read the label).

Weed control: Apply a pre-emergent weed killer on lawns to prevent grassy weeds from germinating. Spring broadleaf weeds like dandelions, clovers and plantains, are best prevented by maintaining a proper mowing height and fertilization. After a mild winter, annual weeds that germinate in the fall, like henbit and chickweed, will be more visible and require higher levels of broadleaf weed control through herbicides. Never use chemical weed killers! Check out natural and effective options like Burn Out, (made from clove oil, vinegar and lemon juice) instead.

Pest control/Disease repair: Severe winters may increase the incidence of winter diseases such as snow mold and Bermuda dead spot. Proper cultural care is important in helping your lawn recover from stress related winter diseases. Properly timed fertilizer application and mowing at the recommended height for your grass type are two items that will aid in the recovery of your lawn.

Mowing: Contrary to popular belief, setting your mower at a very low height can actually increase weeds by exposing the soil surface to sunlight and removing stored nutrients in leaf blades. Cool weather grasses, such as bluegrass, ryegrass and fescues, should maintain a height of 2.5 to 3.5 inches. Warm season grasses, like bermuda, zoysia, St. Augustine and centipede, should be kept at 1.5 to 2.5 inches tall. Also, think about skipping the loud, carbon-intensive, gas-powered mower for an electric or human-powered alternative.

Image Credit: Flickr – gregslandscaping

 

5 Tips To Cut Down Food Waste

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by petrr

By Becky Streipe

The typical American family wastes between 25 and 50 percent of the food they purchase, and that’s just when you’re looking at the food itself. Add in the bulky packaging that goes along with many convenience foods, and that number shoots up even more. Food waste might seem like a fact of life, but with some careful planning and savvy shopping, you can help reduce the amount of food waste that you send to the landfill!

Four Organic Holiday Decorating Ideas

It’s that time of year! We’re all getting ready to deck the halls with holiday decor. If you’re trying to have a more eco-friendly holiday, you probably want to forgo the cheap plastic and paper decorations that will likely be headed to the landfill after a season or two. Instead, why not decorate with some of these all natural options that you can compost come January?

1. Gourds

Gourds are gorgeous and versatile! A cluster of different shaped gourds on the porch or as a table centerpiece adds a touch of fall flair. I also love Martha Stewart’s gourd garland project. Sure, she lists it as Halloween decor, but that fall feel can absolutely last through December.

If you want to really up the wow factor, check out the carved squash centerpiece from Paper Plate and Plane. What a beautiful way to spruce up a centerpiece or mantle!

2. Pine Cones

Pine cones are another natural material that makes a lovely garland. Just use natural twine to tie knots around the tops, and you’re ready to string it over a doorway or along a wall that needs some holiday cheer.

I also love this pine cone chandelier from Dollar Store Crafts! Her directions call for faux flowers, but you could use dried flowers instead to make this an all natural project.

3. Fall Leaves

It might be too late for some folks, but in warmer areas you can still find leaves in beautiful reds, oranges, and yellows. These look lovely scattered on a tabletop or a mantle.

Creating leaf bouquets is a fun project to do with kids, and you can hang your colorful creations with twine in doorways, from the mantle, or anywhere that you want a pop of fall color.

4. Sticks and Twigs

Sticks and twigs add a lovely, rustic feel to holiday decor. You can weave them into lovely wreaths, like the one pictured above or keep it more simple, arranging them in a vase with pretty, colored pebbles and marbles in the bottom. I really like the wreath in the photo, because rather than the ribbons and holiday trappings you’d expect, they embellished it with Spanish moss and air plants.

To up the festive feel even more, stick pretty ornaments onto the ends of your sticks to create sweet little ornament trees!

10 Creative Ways To Use Winter Gourds

I think it’s a shame that pumpkins get hijacked by Halloween. Although they make a brief comeback for Thanksgiving in pie form, their curtain call comes much too early in the season. So what’s a pumpkin lover supposed to do? This one makes a quick shift to other members of the Cucurbitaceaefamily: gourds and various winter squash. They don’t put me in a dizzy swoon quite the same way pumpkins do, but they’ll suffice. Gourds are great for cool-weather crafts, and winter squash will supply the awesome fodder for delicious dishes all the way until strawberry time (known by some as “spring”).

Gourds and squash are actually fruits by botanical definition–but because they are treated more like a vegetable than a dessert, they are typically considered vegetables. Most commonly, gourds are the product of the species Lagenaria siceraria (the calabash or African bottle gourd), native to Africa. This species is thought by many to be the oldest plant domesticated by humans.

Some gourds are put to culinary application, but most are used in the form of a vessel; think bowls, bottles, yerba mate cups, musical instruments, and birdhouses. Winter squash is used more for food than decoration. Following are ideas for ways to use both.

 

1. Bird feeder. Small birds, such as finches and pine siskins, will appreciate the protection from predators that these bird feeders offer. They’re very cute, especially with finches and pine siskins poking their little faces out of the windows.

 

2. Delicata squash, stuffed and baked. The version above is white bean and kale stuffed delicata squash from cooklocal.com, or try this easy recipe for cheese spread baked in a winter squash with dates, and cranberry chutney. Yum, yum, and yum.

3. Gourd bowl. Meet Karen LoCasale, gourd artist extraordinaire! Watch hereHow video to see how someone makes making a gourd bowl look easy.

 

4. Butternut squash lasagna. There’s this version by Giada De Laurentiisthat has amaretti cookies (is that even fair?!), and there’s my version–no cookies, but it does have lots of sage, raisins and pine nuts!

 

5. Pumpkin treats for luscious skin. You knew I’d have to sneak some pumpkin in, didn’t you? The pumpkin in this facial mask and sugar scrubcontains a lot of anti-oxidant vitamins A and C, as well as zinc and beneficial alpha-hydroxy acids–a perfect combo to reveal your lovely autumn skin.

 

6. Amazing gourd lamp. Leave it to Martha Stewart to describe this gourd lamp project as “simple,” but then again, if you use the recommended kit that is usually used for turning a bottle into a lamp (available at most hardware and crafts stores)–maybe it is. I have always wanted to make one, I think they are clever and lovely.

 

7. Winter squash candles. If the gourd lamp seems too ambitious, there’s these super easy winter squash candles from hgtv.com–no sawing or wiring required, just a little hot wax and winter squash as the mold.

 

8. Maple roasted acorn squash. This scrumptious recipe is so easy, it practically makes itself.

 

9. Gourd garland. Here’s another project from Martha (she’s good with the gourds, by golly). This gourd garland is pretty user-friendly, and very sweet on the eye.

 

10. Butternut cheesecake bars. Yes, that says butternut cheesecake bars–and they are a very wonderful invention. I will go ahead and give pumpkin one last spin in a pie for the season, but starting tomorrow? Butternut cheesecake bars all the way!

11 Organic Holiday Decorations

For many of us, December brings the holidays, and whether it’s Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, or Christmas that’s celebrated, family and tradition are always in the forefront.

To celebrate, we can add some festive touches from our own natural landscape and bring the sense of calm and serenity we usually feel in our gardens inside our homes during this often-hectic time.

Here are some quick and easy ideas using collected branches, seeds, plants, leaves, fruit, and other natural items to extend the garden’s bounty into the winter holiday season.

• One of the simplest things to do is to decorate the house with fresh greenery from your garden. Greenery gathered from your own garden will be much fresher than any that you can buy. Just remember when gathering live greenery from your shrubs and trees you are actually pruning the plants so carefully consider which branches to cut and which ones to leave.
• You can use the greenery to create garlands, wreaths, swags, and to add to centerpieces and flower arrangements.
• Door ornaments are quick and easy to make from evergreen branches. Wrap a sturdy wire around the ends of branches of several types of evergreens for contrasting color and texture. Then add a large bow to cover the attachment point. You can also substitute rope or raffia for the ribbon for a more natural look.
• Use winter berries from your shrubs such as holly, pyracantha, and toyon to add to your garlands and wreaths.
• To add unique color to your decorations, attach shiny, red, and gold apples to your wreaths and garlands. Cranberries, citrus, and pomegranates also look great in holiday decorations.
• Gather dried pods, pine cones, dried wildflowers, and twigs and display them in a basket. They can be used as they are, sprayed with gold or silver paint, or sprayed with potpourri oil. You can also put a dab of glue on each point of the pine cone and sprinkle them with glitter.
• All different sizes of candles, from votives to pillars, can be scattered with metallic painted pinecones and branches of leaves to make a decoration for the mantle.
• For a simple Hanukkah centerpiece, you can light nine assorted candles (to represent the nine candles on the Menorah). Scatter colorful clementine or other tangerines from your garden, dreidels, and chocolate gelt with the candles. That way, between dinner courses, your family and friends can snack on a tangerine or chocolate and the children can play with the dreidels.
• Add some sparkle to your decorations by including glitter or small mirrors.
• Use fruit for decorating your holiday table. Pears and small apples are great for spray painting with metallic colors or in your favorite holiday color.
• Oranges, lemons, or apples sprinkled with cinnamon or cardamom and stuck with whole cloves make fragrant pomander balls and are a great rainy day project for the whole family.

Judi Gerber is a University of California Master Gardener with a certificate in Horticultural Therapy. She writes about sustainable farming, local foods, and organic gardening for multiple magazines. Her book Farming in Torrance and the South Bay was released in September 2008.

Bringing Fresh Food To The People

In the past couple of years, food trucks have become popular across the United States, in cities like Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, and San Francisco. You can find nearly every kind of food on them, from typical fare like tacos, to the more exotic like fusion Asian-Mexican cuisine, and even sweet treats like ice cream and cupcakes.

The local food and sustainable food movements have also been growing.

So, it isn’t surprising that some clever entrepreneurs are capitalizing on both trends by bringing farm fresh produce to those in both urban and rural areas. They are calling themselves Mobile Farm Trucks or Mobile Farmers’ Markets, and they don’t just cater to high-end shoppers, but provide low-income residents with affordable, fresh produce, grown using sustainable and/or organic methods.

For example, in New York City, the Holton Farms Mobile Farm Truck has taken to the streets. Not a mobile farm stand, but a CSA on wheels. As they say on their site, “Our Farm Truck is a progressive mobile farm stand concept, that will operate throughout New York City, to serve as the main distribution point for our CSA Select program and restaurant wholesale clients. The Farm Truck allows us access to neighborhoods throughout the Five Boroughs without having to open a store.”

The Farm Truck is run by sustainable farmers who partner with other farms and artisan producers to bring other products to its members including ice cream, cheeses, breads, coffee, grains, and soaps.

They are still working on getting the appropriate permits to sell to non-CSA members and they are also accepting Food Stamps and discounting their prices by 20 percent for low-income New Yorkers.

Last year, Maine’s Jordan Farm started a Mobile Farm Stand that travels to senior housing sites in South Portland and to Portland and Scarborough businesses. Using a renovated school bus, they offer the same fresh produce that is available at their farm stand in Cape Elizabeth.

Like Holton Farms, Jordan’s Farm uses sustainable farming practices, and also brings products from other producers in their area, including eggs, cream, butter, meat, cheese, pasta, honey, and maple syrup.

The Mobile Farm Stand participates in the state’s FarmShare program that helps both Maine farmers and provides seniors with needed fresh produce. Maine residents 60 and older who meet income guidelines can get up to 50 dollars of fresh produce free during the growing season. Participating farmers are reimbursed by the state.

In Virginia, The Farm to Family truck makes healthy local food available to people in central Virginia. Using a converted diesel school bus, they provide urban communities with fresh, locally grown produce and other homemade products. As they say on their web site “We grow and source produce within the community, concentrating on quality chemical free products and building relationships with small local growers and producers.”

They target areas that don’t have access to fresh food and teach people what it is and how to cook it. In order to do this, they also accept food stamps.

Another southern farm on wheels is in Greeneville Tennessee, the Mobile Farmers’ Market, is another converted school bus. It is operated by Rural Resources a nonprofit organization dedicated to “promoting family farms and environmentally friendly farming practices.”

The Mobile Farmers’ Market provides neighborhoods and communities around Greeneville and Greene County with fresh locally produced food via the food stamp ready Mobile Farmers’ Market.

 

Judi Gerber is a University of California Master Gardener with a certificate in Horticultural Therapy. She writes about sustainable farming, local foods, and organic gardening for multiple magazines. Her book Farming in Torrance and the South Bay was released in September 2008.

Living On The Land

In the last several years, many have dreamed about chucking city ways and living on the land as a small organic farmer. Here’s the story about Michael Paine, a man who went to college in the Bronx, then joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Lesotho to grow trees.

He concluded that growing food was more pertinent than forestry and when he came home he decided to be a family farmer. The bank wouldn’t lend him money to buy a farm, but based on his wife’s earnings they would lend money to buy a country estate.

It’s an inspiring story and while most of us won’t end up as small farmers, we can appreciate those who do.