Green "Tricks" to Enhance your Gardening - Recycle Everything

Here's an online article that I can really relate to, although I think the title might deter some readers that aren't specifically into vegetable gardening. The article, Improve Your Vegetable Garden! Green Living Tricks to Enhance Your Green Thumb Success, is really about tricks for re-using various household items in your garden.

I am really into recycling and re-using almost anything that comes through our household, but writer Alex Bhaswara had a few suggestions that I haven't tried yet.

Here is just one idea from the article, referring to what you can do with the lids from metal cans.

Now, don’t throw away those lids! The lids can be placed at the base of light loving plants, such as tomatoes! The lids will reflect sunlight, thus providing extra light. In addition, the reflected light has been shown to repel plant eating insects and aphids. To deter birds from your fruits trees, punch holes in the lids and hang them from tree branches. Apparently the reflected light and movement scares these rascals away.

Other suggestions offer new uses for used jello and pudding containers, styrofoam produce trays, gallon milk jugs, popsickle sticks and other items. If you like to re-cycle everything, like I do, check out the article for more details!

What's the water footprint of the foods we grow?

I recently came across a book called The Green Blue Book: The Simple Water-Savings Guide to Everything in your Life, by Thomas M. Kostigen. The premise of the book is that "everything in your life" has a 'water footprint', which is made up of it's 'virtual water' content, or the total amount of water that it takes to make or grow something. Kostigan wrote the book to make readers aware of just how much water goes into the products that we use everyday so that we can make choices that will help us save water.

Although I think saving water is a really important fact of life, I'm not sure that knowing that the water footprint of a pound of beef (1500 gallons, according to The Green Blue Book is going to help encourage people to eat more soybeans (224 gallons per pound).

Determining the 'virtual water' content is pretty complicated for some things. The pound of beef listed above, for instance, takes into account the water required to grow the feed that the cow eats, the water the cow drinks, and the water required to process the beef. Kostigen doesn't go into the full details of how he came up with most of the numbers, such as the 39,000 gallon footprint for the average car.

I thought the book might list which fruits and vegetables required less water to grow, so that I could decide which ones I could plant that might survive drought conditions. After reading the book, I'm still not entirely sure that the figures he lists for fruits and vegetables JUST take into account the water required to grow them of whether something else is factored into his 'virtual water' number. Plus, although he does list that an apple, for example, has a virtual water footprint of 18.5 gallons per apple, you would have to try to figure out how many apples were on the average tree to come up with a number to represent how much water an apple tree would take. The same would hold true for the other fruits and vegetables he lists.

So, if you are trying to find a listing of waterwise fruits and vegetables to grow, The Green Blue Book probably isn't going to help much. But if you are curious about the water footprint of his book (42.8 gallons for the average book) or the computer you are reading this on (10,556 - 42,267 depending on the type of computer), you might want to give the book a read. Checking the book out of the library, like I did, will save the planet 42.8 more gallons of water.

Think pink for breast cancer awareness month

Since 1985, October has been designated as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM).

In honor of my incredible friends who are breast cancer survivors, I decided that I was going to walk through my yard and make a $1.00 donation to cancer research for every pink flower I found blooming. Well, my yard is FULL of pink blooms right now, so I couldn't be quite as generous as I had intended. But I will write my check, and I hope that I can encourage some of you to do the same.

Here are some programs that I found online that gardeners and snackers might find interesting:

Breast Cancer Awareness with Flowers- ProFlowers.com donates a portion of the sale of these special bouquets to Komen for the Cure.

Yoplait Save Lids to Save Lives- Yoplait conducts the highly successful Save Lids to Save Lives® program, which takes place during September and October each year. For each pink lid mailed in by customers, Yoplait will donate 10 cents to Komen with a minimum guaranteed donation of $500,000 up to $1.6 million.

Plant for Hope Program- From September 1, 2010 through November 30, 2010, EuroBlooms will sell a variety of packaged bulbs and perennials to benefit Komen for the Cure. EuroBlooms will donate 30 cents for each package of bulbs and perennials sold with a minimum guaranteed donation of $100,000.

Komen Cottage Birdhouse - From April 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011, Louisville Stoneware will donate $7 from each Cottage Birdhouse sold to Komen for the Cure.

Pears Care Program- From July, 2010 through November, 2010, specially marked packages of California Pears will be sold in retail stores nationwide to benefit Komen for the Cure. On behalf of the growers of California Pears, The California Pear Advisory Board will donate $25,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure in connection with this program.

Dove Chocolate - Promises of Hope- DOVE® Chocolate Promises of Hope™ feature messages of hope and inspirations written by breast cancer survivors. These messages capture the strength, compassion and voice of women who have overcome the battle of their lives. In 2010 DOVE® Chocolate will donate $75,000 to Komen for the Cure.

Simon Pink Ribbon Gift Cards - From September 1, 2008 through December 31, 2010 Simon Malls will sell their Simon Pink Ribbon Gift Cards in their retail centers nationwide and online at www.simongiftcard.com. Click here to find a Simon mallnear you. Simon Malls will pay $1 to Komen for the Cure for each gift card sold, with a guaranteed minimum donation of $250,000 per year.

For a list of other Corporate Sponsors of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, visit their site.

What's the best way to go green? 1616 answers and counting

Most of us know about social networking. We use Twitter to share interesting news we find or to pass along short bits of info. We use Facebook in a similar way, with room for more details and more personal comments with friends and fans. But when it comes to serious discussions, I have to say that I really prefer LinkedIn. I cross-post some of my messages from this blog onto LinkedIn and I end up with very detailed, educated responses to my questions.

But the LinkedIn discussion that really has me interested lately is one in which Dave "The Wire Man" Maskin, owner of WireNames.com asked, "What is the one thing every single human being on the planet can do that's considered GREEN?" Dave posted that question five months ago to the "Green" discussion group on LinkedIn and as of this morning, there were 1616 replies!!! The Green Group, by the way, was started by John Horsley, who calls himself an Internet Evangelist, and is the founder of GreenProfs.com

I haven't been following the discussion from the beginning, and I certainly don't have room to list them all here, but if you are a member of LinkedIn, I encourage you to join the Green group and follow the discussion. Here are some of the answers I found this morning:

1) Recycle
2) Adopt
3) Give up your car
4) Give up meat
5) Buy locally produced products
6) Plant a tree
7) Install a dual-flush retro kit
8) Print less
9) Use organic coffee
10) Remember - there are no small actions!

Gardening Tips from the Smithsonian Butterfly Garden

I firmly believe that butterfly gardening can help save the planet. Why? For two reasons.   1) When you begin gardening for butterflies, and watch the miraculous transformation from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly, you gain a whole new respect and appreciate for nature and you want to protect the environment more; and 2) when you garden for butterflies, you need to quit using pesticides.

If you don't already garden for butterflies, here is a great video from the Smithsonian Butterfly Garden to help inspire you.

Is artificial grass "eco-friendly"? What about the wildlife?

I was just reading an article that I found online called 12 Ways to Make Yard Care More Eco-Friendly. I was reading down the list of items, which included things like collect rainwater, use a lawn moisture meter, don't hose down your sidewalk, and thinking that it was a pretty good list, until I got to number 9) which said "consider using synthetic grass." That's the one that made me go "hmmmmmm".

I don't really know anything about synthetic grass, so I did a little research before I decided to form any opinion. The first sentence that I found about synthetic grass was all I needed. It said "no mowing, no weeding, no chemicals, no bugs, no birds......" Oh UGH, UGH and double and triple UGH!

To me, one of the wonderful things about gardens and landscapes is the life that they support: the birds, the butterflies, the insects, the worms. As someone who loves to garden for wildlife, I spend a lot of time encouraging people to choose plants that attract birds and insects. The thought of choosing something for a landscape that has NO value for wildlife just goes against SOOO much I believe in. If you are going to use artificial grass, you might as well use plastic and silk flowers. And perhaps you could have an outdoor sound system with music that "simulates" the sounds of birds and other garden wildlife.

But what do you think? Do the benefits of using something that requires no chemicals or water out-weigh the fact that it also provides nothing for the native wildlife? My opinion is a definite "NO!"

OTHER than the synthetic grass comment, the rest of the article had some pretty good advice. Check it out!

Takoma Area Green Homes and Gardens Tour, Oct 2

It stands to reason that those interested in adding solar power to their homes might also be interested in environmentally friendly gardening.

As part of the regional DC Solar Homes tour, the Takoma Area Green Homes and Garden Tourhas a handful of solar homes, but will have several additional homes and sites highlighting other green building features – from energy efficiency and conservation, to non-toxic and salvaged materials, to corn stoves, biodiesel furnaces and cars, to green roofs, rain gardens, storm water management and native landscaping.

Since many of these homes are within a 1-2 mile radius, it will be easy to see many of them by walking or bicycling all in one afternoon.

Download the guide for the DC Solar Homes tour at: http://www.solartour.org/

Virginia Native Plant Society Wildflower Sale, Oct. 2

The Virginia Native Plant Society will hold a wildflower sale on Saturday, October 2, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Green Spring Gardens, 4603 Green Spring Road, Alexandria .

Visitors will be able to buy native plants and get free advice about the benefits of using native plants in a landscape.

Proceeds support education and conservation efforts of the Virginia Native Plant Society

Here are some nice resources from the Virginia Native Plant Society website

Wildflowers for Butterfly Gardens (pdf file)

Wildflowers for Woodland Gardens (pdf file)

Stopping stinkbugs without poisons

Every now and then, a bug will come along that is so annoying, that you are tempted to turn to toxins, no matter how eco-friendly you are trying to be. If stinkbugs have made it into your home, you may be ready to pick up the poison and let them have it.

But before you start filling your home with a bunch of unhealthy chemicals, here are some tips from the local extension services about how to handle stink bugs in a more environmentally friendly way.

I emailed the Home and Garden Information Center of the University of Maryland Extension and this was their reply:

You are so ahead of the game in looking for eco-friendly ways to deal with stink bugs and we are happy to help. Getting the word out on the environmentally friendly ways of control is important, as we are hearing from homeowners who are indiscriminately spraying all kinds of pesticides, and even herbicides, ignoring labels. 

As background, the stink bugs that you are bothered by are not native, but an invasive species which has arrived here from Asia. They are congregating in large numbers to try and find a warm place to overwinter, and our homes look pretty good to them for this purpose. Now would be the time to make sure that doors and windows are tightly fitted with good screens and sweeps. Look closely for gaps in your home, and fill any with caulk.

If they do get inside, using a vacuum to collect them (and then throwing away the bag) works, as well as fitting the hose end w/a rubber-banded piece of pantyhose to collect them. A shop vac with some soapy water in the bottom works well too. The shop vac is great outside as well. They tend to drop straight down when disturbed, so sweeping them from around doors with a bucket of soapy water underneath works. We have seen people fashion a 'catcher' with a rectangular container with an inch or two of soapy water in the bottom attached to a broom handle to pole. It should be mentioned that these bugs do not bite, and are not reproducing or feeding inside our homes, just resting.

Here is more information from our website: hgic.umd.edu/content/timelytips.cfm

The reply I received from the Virginia Cooperative Extension was very similar, but did contain this extra tidbit of advice:

Do not use any indoor house foggers. They will kill them but then you have just created food for all of the predators that are feeding on insect such as carpet beetles.

More about the Brown Marmorated Stinkbug can be found on the Invasive Species page from the University of Maryland Extension.

As always, I highly recommend contacting your local Extension System office for answers to your gardening question. Be sure and let them know if you are looking for an environmentally friendly option!

Where to find answers.

Top 10 Rookie Gardening Mistakes

Saw this great blog post on planetgreen.com called Top 10 Rookie Gardening Mistakes (and how to avoid them). The detailed list (with photos), which was written by Colleen Vanderlinden, lists things that a lot of gardeners do wrong.

Here's a brief synopsis of the list. Be sure to read her full blog post for the details of "How to Avoid them"

1) Clueless watering

2) Wrong plant, wrong place

3) Not giving plants enough space

4) Not knowing your zone

5) Haphazard fertilizing

6) Not mulching

7) Half-a**ed soil preparation

8 ) Sun/shade fairy tales

9) Not knowing your site

10) Listening to Experts

And visit my blog post, 12 Relationship Rules for Gardeners , to learn more ways to do things RIGHT in the garden.