Tag Archive for garden

You Don’t Need Worms for Success

SUNSHINE! Time to care for our traumatized yards. This year, grow vigorous plants without chemicals, prevent wind/water erosion, and use less water while decreasing the chance of plant-disease.  It’s easy.  Just start composting.

Hate worms?  No problem.  You don’t need the squiggly creatures, or even a container.  Start small, with a compost trench.  Rake those leaves into trenches between flower beds and forget them.  They’ll turn into mulch which you can spread around plants or mix into their soil. 

Compost pockets are easy, too.  They’re 18” deep holes into which you place scraps, like fruit, vegetables, and coffee grinds, then fill with dirt.  In a month, plant something there and watch it thrive. 

Consider this: by composting, most communities could reuse 50% of the waste they produce.  Give it a try and have some family fun.

Bio-degradable Mini-Planter

Here’s how to make a bunch of starter mini-planters that are bio-degradable: Cut 6-8 small slits in a toilet paper roll and fold them over each other.  Fill with damp soil and place, with others, on a cookie sheet.  Put in a single seed and care for them until it the seeds germinate.   Plant the whole roll in your garden.  

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[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]

Relax with Dakuwaqa’s Garden

During this cyber-shopping/black [name a day] shopping week, are you experiencing stress and frustration?  Take a little time to relax.  Click on this video and enjoy five minutes of underwater spectacle that most of us will never see in person.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/mcbHKAWIk3I

For the “I Don’t Wanna Garden” Person

Want a garden but don’t have space? Or have space but don’t know how to garden? Consider sharing a garden.  Go to www.sharedearth.com to learn how

[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]

 

Repairs & Clean-Up–Too Much!

WHAT A MESS!  The weather’s getting nicer, but there’s too many repair and clean-up chores.  What to do?!!!  Help yourself and someone else’s family by hiring a day-worker from a local day-worker center (e.g., St. Vincent de Paul).  Find one on Yelp or Google or even an old-fashioned phone book  Pay is usually $10-$15 an hour, and the center sends you people who are qualified to do the job you need done.  When not out on a job, these people spend their time in training, improving their English, and gaining skills that make them better workers for you while building a brighter future for themselves and their families.  So, what’s there to lose, except for that broken fence, or that peeling paint, or the hopelessness that these willing workers have felt in the past?

Expand Your Hobby this Season

We’re getting into the season of love, when we feel the urge to give and share and make the lives of others brighter. We buy gifts for loved ones and give money to charities. We may even break our long-standing rule and give a buck to the homeless person standing outside the grocery store.

But we can also personalize and humanize our help.  Someone who knits or sews for relaxation can make items for a specific charity (new, handmade items are a treat).  When you cook your specialty, double up and take the extra to someone who is sick or living alone.  Bake your favorite cookies, muffins, or scones to take to a shelter.  Go to the movies often?  Brighten the life of someone on limited income by treating him sometime, explaining that you’ll enjoy it more in his company.   Like gardening?  Help an elderly or disabled person plant a small, manageable garden at her home, then stop by often to admire its progress.  If you unwind by doing auto repairs, volunteer to help get that laid-off neighbor’s car into running order.

The key is this: figure out what you do as a hobby, then share.  You’ll find it more enjoyable—and more fulfilling—than ever before.

 

Sage Palm & Dogs & Kids

Most places selling Sage Palm, a popular garden plant, don’t affix a warning label, and they tell a customer of any danger only if he or she asks if there’s any danger.

In fact, the whole plant is poisonous, especially the seeds.

In 2010 the ASPCA reported 1400 dog-poisonings due to this plant.

Kids under age 5–those stuff-anything-into-your-mouth years–are often poisoned by it, too.

Before you buy any plant, look for a warning label.  If there isn’t one, look it up or ask someone in the garden department if it’s safe for kids and pets.

 

 

Garden-Friendly Recipe

You’d like to try your hand at composting but have heard too many versions of how to go about it.  This 5-minute video lays it all out for you in simple steps.  Give it a try.

 

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[For more easy, money-saving, earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000, choose a format, and download to your computer or e-book device. Or download a free copy from your favorite e-book seller.]

Clean Up Safely and Cheaply

 

Time for Summer house and garden clean-up projects.  Do something different.  Instead of spending a bundle on weed-killers and preventatives or cleaning products, make your own.  Search the Web for “non-toxic weed (or insect) control” and “homemade cleaners.”  Or send me an email at [email protected] and I’ll email you back a whole bunch of alternatives and recipes to do those jobs more cheaply and with far more earth-friendly substances.

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[For more easy, money-saving, Eco-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/ view/7000, choose a format, and download to your computer or e-book device. Or download a free copy from your favorite e-tailer.]

Earth Tip: Water Wisdom

Do you know all the ways to save money and conserve water in your lawn and garden?  Try these: Water before 7 AM (saves 15-40 gallons of water per day).  Use soaker hoses, drip irrigation, or a sprinkler that spreads large drops of water (mists waste water through evaporation).  Water only 3 days a week (all that most gardens need), saving 35-50 gallons per day. Collect rainwater and gray water (from tub, sink, or wash) for use in gardening.  Landscape your home with rocks, wood chips, or native plants, which use very little water.

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[For more easy, money-saving, Eco-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/ view/7000, choose a format, and download to your computer or e-book device. Or download a free copy from your favorite e-tailer.]