Green Options » organic gardening

Pesticides Linked With Childhood Leukemia

Cate Nelson — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:17:37 +0000

Like we needed one more reason to keep nasty pesticides away from our homes and children. They’re linked to respiratory problems and asthma. And a recent study shows that children up to age 7 have a harder time ridding their bodies of the chemicals.

Now a new study shows that kids with childhood leukemia have elevated levels of household pesticides in their urine. The study was performed at the Georgetown University Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

These aren’t industrial-level pollutants, either. These are everyday chemicals people pick up at the hardware store and use in their very own backyards.

Read more of this story »

Pest Control in the Organic Garden

Megan Prusynski — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:06:31 +0000

You’ve worked hard getting that garden planted and tending it with care, but inevitably nature takes its course and the bugs find those veggies. Is it any surprise they’d want to eat the delicious fruits of your labors? You can’t blame them, after all. But you can prevent pest damage and control problems.

Read more of this story »

Urban Garden as Sustainable Business in New Orleans

Kelli Peterson — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:01:49 +0000

Good ideas have a life of their own. That’s what Paul Baricos, Executive Director of the Hollygrove Growers Market and Farm (HGMF) in New Orleans is learning two years after the Carrolton-Hollygrove Community Development Center (CHCDC) set out to figure out how to bring fresh produce to a neighborhood with no real access to affordable food.

The result of this initial vision, and perhaps ten iterations later, is a one-of-a-kind one-acre urban produce and garden center located in the New Orleans community of Carrolton-Hollygrove. Initiated just two short years ago in partnership with the New Orleans Food & Farm Network, the site is in its fledgling stages of a well mapped out multi-use center. “We began this journey simply trying to figure out how to bring fresh produce to an under-served community. What has evolved is a vision for this center to be a resource for urban gardening that delivers fresh produce”, relayed Paul.

Read more of this story »

Greening Your Spring Garden: Companion Planting

Becky Striepe — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:00:54 +0000

Companion planting is a great way to deter pests without spraying nasty chemicals onto your garden.

Every Easter, I’m in charge of the veggie roast. That means my hubby and I get to hit up local Orlando farmers markets or farm stands on Easter weekend to pick out the goods. This year, we hit up a teeny stand near my in-laws’ house. We got more veggies than the seven of us could eat for under $10. Amazing! We also got to talking with the fellow who ran the stand. He was explaining that some of his onions were a little stained on one side, since the farm grows them alongside their strawberries to ward off pests. This was my introduction into companion planting.

I knew that marigolds would help keep certain bugs away from the garden, but that’s about as far as my companion planting knowledge went. Here’s a list of some other great plant pairings to help keep your garden pest- and chemical-free!

Read more of this story »

Growing Your Own Food: Green, Cheap, and Delicious

Megan Prusynski — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:37:18 +0000

“The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.” ~Hanna Rion

There is no doubt that human beings have become far removed from the natural world. It could be that this separation from nature is a root cause of many of society’s problems. When we deny ourselves access to the natural world, we lose a part of ourselves, our culture, and our sanity. Want to get it back? One of the simplest ways to reconnect with nature is to dig right in and grow something.

Read more of this story »

GreenTalk Radio: The Urban Homesteading Path to Freedom with Jules Dervaes

Sean Daily — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:13:38 +0000

GreenTalk Radio host Sean Daily talks with Jules Dervaes of Path to Freedom. Path to Freedom is a grassroots, family operated, viable urban homesteading project established to promote a simpler and more fulfilling lifestyle and reduce one family’s “footprint” on the earth’s dwindling resources.It was established in 2001 in Pasadena, California by Jules Dervaes.

[Courtesy of our friends at GreenLivingIdeas.com]

Click Play Below,or

This post contains additional media. Click here to view the full post.

Michigan Food Bank Grows its Own Fresh Produce

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:16:06 +0000

How do two trends — the rise of backyard vegetable gardening and the downward spiral of the economy — come together? The Family Care Network in Manton, Michigan, knows how.

The non-profit organization, which just won a $1,000 nutritional grant from the Consumer Wellness Center, will use the funds to buy the seeds and supplies it needs to plant three organic garden plots. When the harvest comes in, it will go straight to the network’s food bank for distribution to needy area seniors and families … giving them, as the Consumer Wellness Center says, “fresh produce instead of the typical canned and processed foods donated to food banks.”

But, wait, there’s more:

Read more of this story »

Ebooks - Green Holiday Gift Ideas From Ecobrain

Reenita Malhotra — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:14:38 +0000

Consider the gift of a green book this Holiday season.

Ecobrain, a green publishing company offers ebooks, the ideal green reading choice. Ebooks can be instantly downloaded to your desktop. Ecobrain has a series of ebooks that make ideal reading for Ecopreneurs.

The Next Sustainability Wave: Building Boardroom Buy-in, by Bob Willard ($16.95)

This book provides a compelling business case emphasizing the importance of how sustainability is presented to corporate leaders. It applies effective selling techniques to reposition sustainability strategies as a means to achieving existing corporate ends, rather than as a separate priority to worry about. It sells sustainability as a solution, a business strategy, and a catalyst for business transformation.

Read more of this story »

Gardening with Kids Promotes Environmentalism: 6 Benefits of Fall Cover Crops

Jennifer Lance — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:56:01 +0000

A new study by O.M. Aguilar, a graduate assistant in the Department of Horticultural Sciences at Texas A&M University, confirms what previous studies and parents know: Gardening with children makes them more sensitive to environmental issues. As reported in LOHAS, the study found:

Test results indicated that children that had any type of experience with gardening had more positive attitudes toward the environment when compared with students that had not gardened. The study showed that hands-on gardening activities are important to the development of environmentally concerned citizens, and that children’s involvement in informal gardening experiences has as much impact on their environmental outlook as involvement in formal school-based programs.

Read more of this story »

Ten Ways to Eat Local, Seasonal Food All Year

Bryan Luukinen — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:41:06 +0000

Food Prices Too High? Tired of overpriced, undersatisfying meals? Want to have fresh, local food on hand all year-round? Ten Ways looks at eating local, fresh and delicious.

It’s not hard to see the value in local, seasonal food, but how does one go about finding it, preparing it, and saving a little money along the way? Check out this installment of Ten Ways for a few tips on enjoying wonderful food 365 days a year.

Grow Something Edible

Planting seeds, starts or other edible living things in and around your home (wild yeast cultures or sprouts count too) are great ways to have fresh, delicious food on hand. Plus, it’s cheap. Seed packages start at less than a dollar, soil or compost can be purchased (or found) at pennies per pound, and water in the form of rain or out of the tap are both economical choices. Aside from an investment of time, growing your own food requires little else.

Read more of this story »

Green Diva’s Guide to Delicious Living: Food Not Lawns - A Book Review

Megan McWilliams — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:43:22 +0000

This is another one of those wonderful books that will get tattered and worn because it is so oft referenced. Food Not Lawns, by Heather C. Flores appeals to food and community activist that is sometimes buried underneath the suited business exterior that I don more days than I would like.

Her approach is very accessible and not aggressive, the writing style is friendly and inspiring, and the hand-spun illustrations are not only descriptive, but fun.

As I read through this book, I started applying sticky notes to areas I want to not only reference for myself, but share with my fiancee who is starting to become somewhat obsessed with our compost experiment in the back yard. There are like 50 sticky notes already . . .

Read more of this story »

Composting in Baby Steps: In Which I Prove That You Are Better Than I

Jessica Gottlieb — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:57:28 +0000

My family has just returned from an awe inspiring vacation on Catalina Island. One of the (seemingly endless) ways that the camp lessens it’s carbon footprint is by composting. Can I take a moment and make an announcement please?

I am not a farmer.

I am a housewife from Los Angeles who happens to have access to a computer and an insatiable need to leave the world a teeny bit nicer than I found it. That need does not include turning lemon rinds into bougainvillea. Travis Langen, I blame you, because today I am researching what we need to begin composting. Why? Because you presented composting to my children in such a manner that they are very excited about the process.

Read more of this story »

Sustainability, the First Time Organic Gardener, and Carl Spackler

Robin Shreeves — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:15:38 +0000

If you were one of my Facebook friends, you would be able to see that right now “Robin is channeling Carl Spackler. Where’s the dynomite!”

You remember Carl Spackler, don’t you? The Bill Murray character from Caddyshack. The guy whose only goal in life was to get the gopher. No matter what he tried, he couldn’t. Because he knew. He knew that “a varmit will never quite - ever. They’re like the Viet Cong - Varmint Cong.”

Okay, let’s back up. Late last year, I read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Up until then, I had been focusing a lot on energy conservation and recycling. But Kingsolver’s book opened my eyes to the importance that food plays in sustainability. I got excited and couldn’t wait for the spring so I could plant an organic garden.

In April, my kindergartener and I planted seeds in yogurt cups and nurtured them while they grew on the window sill. In May, my husband (with a broken arm) tilled a plot in the back yard. My family loaded up garbage cans full of compost from a local department of public works and dumped it into the garden. I bought organic plant food from the farmer’s market. We planted four kinds of tomatoes, carrots, peppers, eggplant, green beans, and a variety of herbs. Then we waited, lovingly weeding and watering and watching.

Then came the varmints. First they got the carrots. I didn’t freak. I knew carrots were a risk with all the rabbits we have in the backyard. Then they got my cilantro. Next went the green beans and every single flower on the eggplants. I tried various natural critter control. None of it worked. I even planted marigolds that are supposed to repel the bunnies. The bunnies ate them. They invited their friends the squirrels and chipmunks to the party, too.

Read more of this story »

My Garden Rant: You Grow Girl!

Lucille Chi — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:58:45 +0000

Lately I’ve had a case of Spring and now nearing Summer fever for flowers and all things related to gardening for the soul. While my Garden Rants have focused on increasing indoor air quality with plants, let’s now take a look outdoors with a site like You Grow Girl, dedicated to making things bloom with grace! Featuring all kinds of organic gardening ideas and resources such as Abundant Life Seed Company which is a non-profit that preserves the genetic diversity of plants by growing and distributing open-pollinated certified organic (or with the biodynamic method of farming) seeds to home and community gardeners everywhere.

YGG has been inspiring healthy gardeners for almost a decade now with what they describe as a “contemporary, laid-back approach to gardening that places equal importance on environmentalism, style, affordability, art, and humour.”

Read more of this story »

Green Diva’s Guide to Delicious Living: ‘The Curious Gardener’s Almanac’ - a book review

Megan McWilliams — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:24:24 +0000

We come from the earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden.
Anonymous

Since we moved into our current home, we haven’t developed a serious vegetable garden. We’ve missed it, and every winter for the last 4 years, we have dreamed, planned, fantasized and even drawn pictures complete with fences (which are critical since we have a seriously hungry deer and critter population), vines, flowers and rows and rows of burgeoning edible vegetation.

The subsequent Springs have found these dreams beyond our capacity what with start up multi-media companies and other silliness occurring. However, we have managed to keep our perennial beds going and since I seem to have a flower addiction, these seem to expand a little every year.

For the last 3 years, we’ve been doing potted veggies and herbs on the deck, where our big scary guard dog (not), woody the wonder boy, our goofy golden retriever, keeps the critters from taking the entire harvest. We don’t mind sharing with the wildlife, but they tend to get greedy around here.

Read more of this story »

Green Diva’s Guide to Delicious Living - Straight from the Garden

Megan McWilliams — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 23:29:12 +0000

Spring is sprouting – at least here in the North East. I love having some basic herbs and vegetables growing outside my kitchen, and I’m ready to get started, even if the weather isn’t quite there yet.

Some years I’m more organized than others, but I almost always have some combination of edible vegetation to harvest throughout the growing season.

I take over the sunniest room in the house and cover every surface with my little egg cartons filled with wonderful nutritious soil and the baby sprouts that will become salad and pesto among other things in only a few short months.

Because I live in the wild suburbs of Northern New Jersey, we have significant challenges in having vegetable gardens because the deer and other critters are abundant, confused, and starving! If you don’t build a Fort-Knox style fencing system, it is a wonderful exercise in feeding the local wildlife, but don’t expect to have anything for yourself or your family.

So, we opt for primarily container gardening and keep it up on the deck and our really scary (not) golden retriever, woody, patrols the perimeter. We lose a little to the chipmunks, which are kind of like mosquitoes and have gotten far more brazen than I remember.

Here are my favorite edible things to grow in my little kitchen deck garden containers:

Read more of this story »

Georgia Gardeners Welcome ‘Manure Day’

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:10:12 +0000

While Northerners are still hoping for the snow to melt and the temperatures to crack the freezing point, folks down South are rolling up their sleeves and slipping on their gardening gloves. Which is why the Little Creek Farm Conservancy in Decatur, Georgia, will hold one of its semi-annual “Manure Days” this Saturday.

Read more of this story »

Baltimore Foundation Offers Conservation-Grade Trees

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:50:22 +0000

Baltimore’s Parks & People Foundation is offering a special kind of tree sale this spring aimed at boosting the region’s tree cover quickly.

The foundation teamed up with RPM Ecosystems, a wholesale native plant nursery in Dryden, New York, to sell year-old trees grown with a root production method (RPM) that helps them grow three times faster than normal … meaning they can sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere three times faster than conventional young trees.

Read more of this story »

NatureMill Composters: The Super-Composting-Indoor-Robot-Machine

Joe Mohr — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:22:31 +0000

The Garbage Can died yesterday. Not really. But, what if? Could we get by? Or, would our waste fill our streets once again, as it did in the days of the industrial revolution?

We’d get by.

We’d get by with recycling (every house, city, state, and country would HAVE to) and composting.

It’s encouraging, of course, how much we hear of the former. Everyone is aware of the importance of recycling (coupled with the need to purchase goods made from recycled materials). But composting?! That’s just for gardener(d)s!

However, if we all recycled our food scraps some very fundamental changes would take place. First, we’d create less waste. Second, we’d have a home-made fertilizer better for our lawns, plants, trees, and veggies which is better than any chemical fertilizer ever created. Third, we’d once again have nutrient-rich soil (good for us, and for future generations). I’ll stop there and take a second to quote superstar writer and gardener, Michael Pollan (from his book Second Nature) on the benefits of compost:

Compost improves the soils “structure”. Compost helps “airy crumbs” of clay, sand, and silt form and be held together by humic acid–creating “ideal” conditions for plant-life to grow.
Compost increases the soil’s waterholding capacity. One hundred pounds of humus (the main constituent of compost) can hold one hundred and ninety pounds of water! Therefore, requiring less watering, and plants grown in it will better withstand drought.
Compost teems with microorganisms, which break down organic matter in the soil into the basic elements the plants need.
Compost contains nearly every chemical plants need to grow, including such elements as boron, manganese, iron, copper, and zinc, not often found in commercial fertilizer. Compost thus returns to the soil a high proportion of things agriculture takes out of it.

Read more of this story »

Is an out of control patent law system slowing growth of green products?

Philip C. Curtis — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 03:14:29 +0000

Even to the average lawyer, patent law is a bit of a mystery. I confess, I am a lawyer and it is almost as foreign to me as the practice of medicine. (I image the specialty of patent law in the legal community is like neuro-surgery in medicine.) In any event, I’ve been doing a bit of research on patent law which I haven’t dealt with since I took an introductory intellectual property law course in my second year of law school. My renewed interest in the subject was spawned by some recent research I was doing about corn gluten. I have a friend who is an organic lawn care professional and I also have a relative who is a gardener and entrepreneur who is thinking about selling corn gluten. Since both of them were talking about this product I thought it was worth spending 20 minutes on Google checking it out. I learned, as I am sure you organic gardeners know, that corn gluten is a natural herbicide. (*Corn gluten is a natural powdery by-product of the corn milling process.) The product is completely organic and not only is it a effective weed preventive it also contains a high percentage of nitrogen and is a great fertilizer.

What surprised me about this was not that a corn by-product was a natural herbicide and also acted as a fertilizer; I was surprised that our patent law system allowed a Iowa State University researcher to patent the use of corn gluten as a herbicide. I understand the basic policy behind patent law: to encourage people to expend their time and energy developing new products by rewarding them with exclusive rights to the fruits of their labors for a period of years. This makes sense to me and I think it is generally a good system in most cases, but sometimes it just seems to go to far.

Take corn gluten for example, this is a product that has probably been around for thousands of years. People have used it for a number of different uses, the primary use being feed for livestock. Sometime in 1985, a scientist at Iowa State University is claimed to have discovered that the product can also be used as a herbicide. Shortly thereafter he filed for, and obtained, a patent for the use of corn gluten as a herbicide.

So I’m a little bit torn about this. The lawyer in me says, “well, without the protection of the patent law system Dr. Corn Gluten and Iowa State wouldn’t have any incentive to discover new uses for products and it may have never happened.” The normal person in me thinks, “what the fu@%!, its corn meal mush! How can you patent that?!” I understand the policy from an intellectual standpoint but is seems that in some cases (like this one) it goes a bit too far.

The part about this that I think most concerns me is that I’m not sure if the patent system actually achieves its intended result. At least in this case (and the case of my relative) the fact that the patent exists will likely prevent him from producing and selling corn gluten. I am sure there are several other potential marketers of this product who will be deterred from bringing a environmentally friendly alternative to toxic herbicides to market because they do not have the capital to pay Iowa State licensing fees to sell it.

I guess I’m still not entirely certain about how I feel about this. I guess there is just some part of me that feels like ti is unfair to let someone of exclusive rights to any use of something as common as corn. From a legal prospective, I think the fundamental flaw in our patent law system is that it assumes that the patent holder will do a good job of bring the product to market or finding those who will. That doesn’t always happen and as a result we are deprived of use of a valuable product until the patent expires.

Green Options » organic gardening

Pesticides Linked With Childhood Leukemia

Pest Control in the Organic Garden

Urban Garden as Sustainable Business in New Orleans

Greening Your Spring Garden: Companion Planting

Companion planting is a great way to deter pests without spraying nasty chemicals onto your garden.

Growing Your Own Food: Green, Cheap, and Delicious

“The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.” ~Hanna Rion

GreenTalk Radio: The Urban Homesteading Path to Freedom with Jules Dervaes

Michigan Food Bank Grows its Own Fresh Produce

Ebooks - Green Holiday Gift Ideas From Ecobrain

Consider the gift of a green book this Holiday season.

The Next Sustainability Wave: Building Boardroom Buy-in, by Bob Willard ($16.95)

Gardening with Kids Promotes Environmentalism: 6 Benefits of Fall Cover Crops

Ten Ways to Eat Local, Seasonal Food All Year

Food Prices Too High? Tired of overpriced, undersatisfying meals? Want to have fresh, local food on hand all year-round? Ten Ways looks at eating local, fresh and delicious.

It’s not hard to see the value in local, seasonal food, but how does one go about finding it, preparing it, and saving a little money along the way? Check out this installment of Ten Ways for a few tips on enjoying wonderful food 365 days a year.

Grow Something Edible

Green Diva’s Guide to Delicious Living: Food Not Lawns - A Book Review

Composting in Baby Steps: In Which I Prove That You Are Better Than I

Sustainability, the First Time Organic Gardener, and Carl Spackler

My Garden Rant: You Grow Girl!

Green Diva’s Guide to Delicious Living: ‘The Curious Gardener’s Almanac’ - a book review

Green Diva’s Guide to Delicious Living - Straight from the Garden

Georgia Gardeners Welcome ‘Manure Day’

Baltimore Foundation Offers Conservation-Grade Trees

NatureMill Composters: The Super-Composting-Indoor-Robot-Machine

Is an out of control patent law system slowing growth of green products?