Another Garden Tip Using old Newspaper

In my last post I talked about using newspaper to lay out paths that would remain weedless. Well last night in my Temple food crop class I learned another trick involving newspaper and gardening. We were constructing plots that were going to be used by members of the community, the problem was that all of this sunshine and rain has promoted weeds. The weeds completely covered these gardens with some being knee high. We started by dividing the big plot into individual ones using newspaper and wood chips to lay out paths. After words some students started to pull the weeds by hand but this would have taken days to complete. My teacher than showed us this trick. We started by removing any thistle, this is a particularly mean and tough weed that will poke right through any layering on top of it. Thistle is easy to identify by its fuzzy appearance and if you have any in your garden it is recommended that you get rid of it as soon as possible before it takes over. After the thistle was removed we completely covered the plot with newspaper, going at least a few sheets thick and making sure to carefully over lap all the corners of the paper. Then we just covered the newspaper with a layer of finished compost or top soil. This method will fry all the weeds underneath of the paper turning them into nutrients for the garden. When planting the plants in the garden you just cut a hole through the newspaper. The newspaper will allow water to seep through it to your plants roots. Some seeds such as lettuce can even be tossed right on top of the topsoil and the roots will go right down through the newspaper. This is an easy method that avoids pretty much any weeding and is especially good for areas such as a lawn that is being converted to a garden for the first time. The newspaper will compost by next year and you can do the same thing over again.

Building a Garden

This hot weather has got me in the mood to do some gardening. It is still probably alittle to early to put all of your plants outside but if your anything like me your garden needs plenty of prep work anyway. So thats what I did this weekend got my garden in working order. The first thing I had to do was get rid of all the dead plant material left over from last year. This went directly into the compost. The next step was to get rid of all the weeds, which have basically taken over my garden. This is weird but for some reason I find pulling weed relaxing and stress relieving. Weeds can actually go right in to the compost too. I was worried they would just take over that but the heat created in the composting process kills everything. Now that I had a weed free garden I wanted to make some garden paths through it so that it would be easier to collect the fruits and vegetables and continue to pull weeds through out the summer. Atrick I just learned in my food crop class at Temple was to use old news paper to make the paths. All you have to do is lay the paper down atleast a few sheets thick and than pour some wood chips on top and you will be guaranteed a weed free path, plus by the time the next season comes around the path will have fully decomposed into the soil allowing you to rearrange new paths anyway you would like. This is an excellent way of getting rid of old news paper and seems like the ultimate recycling as the paper is turned right back into nutrients for future plants. Now that your garden is ready you can start planting certain plants such as lettuce and broccoli. For other plants you should check their labels as I'm not a 100% sure. I know it seems weird after the temp has reached 90 but their is still a chance for a late frost. You can use milk cartoons to make mini green houses too that will better the chance of any plant living outdoors.

Yard Sales!!

A good way to avoid over consuming, a serious problem in America is to reuse old items. This doesn't only mean that you have to be the one doing the reusing! A good way to extend the life of old goods that are still good just old is by either having a yard sale or doing some of your shopping at yard sales. Just yesterday I took advantage of one of the nicest days of the year so far and did a little yard sale shopping. One particular stop paid off really well for me too in that not only was I able to get some good fishing lures but I picked up a lot of advice as well. One of the things that I really miss from my childhood is going to the local hunting and fishing stores. A few weeks ago with the opening of trout season I found to my sad surprise that all the ones in my area had recently closed down without me even knowing. The only place to buy fishing goods within a 30minute drive of my house are Walmart and KMart...Not much for choices! At one of the yard sales I went to though an old man was selling some of his lures(he had hundreds) in an effort to condense his toolbox size tackle box. He was kind enough to tell me about some of his favorite holes in the area, the kind of advice and service that's hard to find at Walmart! Also the price of 25cents a lure is hard to beat. The deals didn't stop there though. At another yard sale I went to later in the day I arrived at as the family was packing up. I asked how much an old but beside a few scratches perfectly good desk was. My answer was that if I took it now free because they didn't want to carry it back in the house. A price that again fits my budget!!
Heres some advice I have gathered from past yard sales my family has had in case you want to have your own.
1-In the case of my family the yard sales were more about getting ride of stuff that was to good to throw out then in actually making alot of money back. So take the day in stride and just have fun. A good way to look at a yard sale I think is as a relaxing day hanging out in your front yard. Don't look at it has a day of work.
2-That being said yard sales are a good way of making some money for things your would either throw out or give away, just don't stress about it.
3-My job as a kid was always making signs and than riding around and putting them on telephones with big arrows. This is a good way to get the attention of people just make sure you go and clean them up afterwards.
4-Haggling! This is your choice but in the case of my family we love a good haggle so we didn't really put price tags on things. I must warn you though that theres always a better haggler out there so if you have a price that you definitly want for something label it but even this might not stop the costumers from attempting to get a better deal. So I say gain some business experience and leave the price tags off and prepare to go toe to toe with the best.
5-This should probably be number one but check the weather!! A day thats too hot will keep costumers away and make for a miserable time and rain will ruin your stuff.
6-Make sure if you live in a house with other people that all of the items your selling are your own or you have the owners permission. I once witness my little sister chase a car down the street because my mom sold her favorite rocking chair.
7-Again just have fun!

Eco Friendly Grass Cutting

With summer just around the corner and all of this rain we are getting now I know before long I will have to be cutting my grass. Surprisingly, there are many aspects to grass cutting that can contribute to an eco friendly lifestyle. I knew before that gas power lawn mowers emitted pollution but I had no idea how adverse they could be. According to EPA statistics gas powered lawn mowers contribute as much as 5% of America’s air pollution! The pollution emitted by the average gas lawn mower is equal to that of 43 cars! A problem to is that until 1995 there were no laws in place concerning lawn mower pollution. Here is what you can do. First if you have an older mower(pre 1995) consider upgrading. When purchasing a new mower you should definitely consider other options besides gas power, as even new gas mowers are big pollutants. One option is electric. I know in the past I always hated the idea of electric mowers because I was afraid of running over the cord. This problem has been corrected though in that new electric mowers are actually cordless. If you really want to be eco friendly though consider getting a push mower! The biggest fear I feel people have against push mowers is that they don’t do a good job. I can assure though that this is not the case! I used a push mower when I was a little kid before I could be trusted with a more dangerous gas mower and let me tell you there is no difference in the quality of the cut. I’m going to switch back to using my old push mower this summer. It is important that you keep your blades sharp for good quality and that will be the first thing that I do.
The type of mower you use isn’t where the eco friendly lifestyle ends though. Cutting grass obviously produces a lot of grass clippings that are perfect for the compost. When racking up your lawn don’t be to obsessive about getting all the clippings as any left behind will compost on the spot providing your lawn with a nice natural fertilizer.
For more scary statistics on gas power lawn mowers check out the EPA’s website
Also this site provides a lot of information about the latest push mowers and other gas power alternatives.
http://www.peoplepoweredmachines.com/faq-environment.htm

Many cleaning products on the market are filled with toxic environmentally dangerous ingredients that I knew were there but accepted as necessary to do the job. This I am finding out is not true. You can use items you probably already have in your home to produce cleaning products that are safe for the environment, cheap, and do just as good a job of cleaning.
You can make your own window cleaner by mixing 3 table spoons of vinegar, 2 cups of water, and 1/4cup of a good liquid detergent in a spray bottle.
Having a tough time getting your oven clean? Try baking soda, warm water, and a little detergent.
What about that old piece of wood furniture? Want to make it shine again? Try mixing 2 teaspoons of olive oil and a ¼ cup of lemon juice. Apply using an old rag and your wood surfaces will look as good as new.
For more ideas on cheap non-toxic cleaning products check out this website!

An Eco-Friendly Night Out

If you read my classmates blog http://greenyourlifephilly.blogspot.com/ you would have seen the recent post about eating out responsibly. Well I put that to the test! I went to Govinda's Café a restaurant on my other classmates blog http://livingecofriendlylifestyle.blogspot.com/ of vegan friendly places to eat in Philly. To start I walked there, which was about 7blocks. I had never tried to eat vegan before so I was kind of worried if I would be satisfied with the food but my meal was very tasty, filling and healthy. I had brought my own container to take my leftovers home in but I kind of ruined that by eating it all. Like I said the food was good and maybe the walk there made me extra hungry. When I was done I was feeling pretty stuffed and not excited to have to walk home but after about a block I started to enjoy the walking as it got my metabolism going. All and all, it was a nice eco-friendly outing, next time I’m going to maybe order a little extra so I can use my own take home containers.

Update on the Eco Life

Just to let you know how I’ve been doing changing my life style to an eco-friendly one I’ve created this update. The most important step for me was reducing the amount of trash and waste I through away. My compost has been a great success, besides the occasional absentmindedness when I forget to put materials in the paper bag in the freezer I’ve created a good amount of fertilizer I can’t wait to use when I start my garden in another month. I have also learned that it is safe to add egg shells to the compost but make sure you break them up first as they take a long time to dissolve and release their calcium. For a good web site on composting dos and don’ts have a look here. Delicious Organics . This last week by carrying my own water bottle to class, using my school bag when I went shopping, and reusing a tuber ware container everyday for lunch I only actually have one piece of plastic to recycle. That is from a mouthwash container that is a Number 1 type plastic so it will definitely be accepted at my local center. I also have a few milk gallon containers, which are Number 2 type plastics, but I am saving them for my garden. A cool trick is to cut the bottom off and place overtop of young sprouts to create a mini green house that allows plants to be planted outside a couple of weeks early.

The know how on plastic recycling

Plastic is an essential part of modern life and it makes many of the things that we do on a daily basis much easier. Part of why we use plastic so much is the convenience it creates. For example, someone can take a plastic water bottle out and when they are done with the contents of the bottle, the bottle itself is so cheap that it’s easier to throw it away than carry it back home to reuse. The problem that is produced from this situation is multifaceted in that not only is it not environmentally sustainable to constantly be making new plastic items to throw away but that all of this thrown away plastic has to go somewhere. The somewhere that all this plastic is going also has to be a permanent resting place considering that it takes over a million years for a plastic bottle to be fully decomposed. OVER A MILLION YEARS!!! So a good way to start living the eco life concerning plastic would be to try to reuse or reduce the amount you use as much as possible. For ideas on how to cut back on plastic bags and bottles check out my classmate’s blog at http://livingecofriendlylifestyle.blogspot.com. No matter what though you are going to have to get ride of some plastic and the best way to do that is by recycling. Plastic is not like other big recycle materials such as aluminum cans and glass bottles in that there are many different types of plastic with different degrees of recycling ease and this can get kind of tricky.

39 U.S states now require that all plastic contains between the sizes of 8ounces and 5gallons be marked with an appropriate number for their specific type of plastic. This number, which can be a 1 through 7, is next to a recycling symbol of a triangle made of 3 arrows. This system of plastic classification was created by The Society of the Plastics Industry in 1988 to help in the recycling process.

The number 1 is for polyethylene terephthalate(PETE) which is the most used and easiest plastic to recycle. It is the general ingredient used to make water bottles and when recycled can be used for a number of other things such as fiberfill for life jackets, sailboat sails, and even remade into other plastic bottles.

The number 2 is high density polyethylene plastics, such as the containers that hold bleach and motor oil. This can also be recycled into a number of different things such as piping and plastic lumber.

Numbers 1 and 2 are widely accepted at recycling plants because of the commonness and the usefulness of their recycling by products. Numbers 3, 4, and 5 are usually not excepted so reducing the amount you use of these types of plastics would be very environmentally beneficial.

Number 3 is polyvinyl chloride which is mostly used for shower curtains, medical tubing, and plastic pipes.

Number 4 is low density polyethylene which is used to make grocery bags and food wrapping film.

Number 5 is polypropylene which is mostly used to make Tupperware.

Number 3 is something that it would be hard to reduce your use of but with number 4 and 5 a small effort could reduce the amount you use to near zero. For example using a cloth shopping bag and washing out your Tupperware for reuse would make the amount of these types that you throw away minimum.

Number 6 is polystyrene or Styrofoam and is surprising accepted at most recycling plants. This is because it can be recycled into many of other products. This how ever doesn’t mean that it is an environmentally friendly product. Bringing your own travel coffee mug to get filled and reusing packing peanuts would cut back on the amount of Styrofoam that is produced, but what you do use you should know can be easily recycled.

The hardest plastics to recycle are given a number 7 or sometimes not assigned a number at all. These products are so hard to recycle because they are made from a combination of many types of plastics and cannot be broken down. You should pay attention to the number on the plastic products you by and if you see a number 7 try to avoid that product or look for it in a different type of packaging. It is suggested that if you do find yourself stuck with number 7 containers to take them back to the product manufacturers and give them the responsibility of getting ride of it.

Choosing The Best Light Bulb For You

For a long time I have been hearing different stories of what is the best light bulb to use based on initial cost and long term energy efficiency. So I have decided to do some research and get to the bottom of it. What I found is a bit confusing but here it goes.

There are basically 3 different kinds of household light bulbs to choose from. The traditional incandescent bulbs, Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL), and Light Emitting Diode (LED). If you think it doesn’t matter which one you choose your wrong as it is estimated that up to 25% of the average household energy cost goes to lighting.

In terms of energy efficiency LED’s take the cake using less than 1/30th of the energy of incandescent bulbs. CFL’s are pretty efficient themselves using 50-80% less energy than an incandescent bulb.

In terms of life time of the bulb LED’s again take the cake lasting up to 10times as long as a CFL which lasts up to 10 times as long as an incandescent.

In terms of pricing LED’s take the cake here but in a bad way they have the highest initial cost, CFL’s are somewhere in the middle with incandescent bulbs being the cheapest by far. In the long run however both CFL’s and LED’s turned out to be a much better bargain than incandescent bulbs. LED’s only come out to be slightly cheaper than CFL’s and if you factor in that they require more money up front it really isn’t that big of a deal.

In terms of functionality, meaning does the light actually light up the room is another area where LED’s don’t work out. Many people say they are really only good for reading lights. New CFL’s are on par with the best incandescent bulbs.

What about pollution? LED’s contain no mercury at all. CFL’s contain trace amounts of it and per bulb more mercury than an incandescent. This is misleading stat though considering that when you factor in the mercury used to light the less efficient incandescent bulb CFL’s are actually more environmentally friendly. You can even dispose of burned out CLF bulbs at your local Home Depot or Ikea.

When all of this is considered I think the best option for me is CFL’s. I don’t have a lot of money to invest up front but can see the long term saving CFL’s will provide me. Also, I need a light that actually lights up the room for when I am doing home work so I don’t think LED’s would work for me. I am not going to go switch all of my light bulbs right away but as my incandescent bulbs burn out they will be replaced with a new CFL bulb!
Always remember to turn off the light when you leave a room to no matter how efficient your bulb is because as I’m sure you’ve heard lighting empty rooms is just a waste!!

I got a lot of these facts from these websites
http://www.productdose.com/article.php?article_id=1142
and
http://www.eartheasy.com/live_energyeff_lighting.htm
Check them out if you would like to learn more or hear what others are saying.

Composting
In creating a compost bin I used an old trash can with a firmly fitted lid. I first cleaned it out of any trash residue and then poked small holes all around it with a screw driver. The firmly fitted lid is important because it will enable me to turn the can on the side and roll it around. Besides just being fun this is helpful for a few reasons. First it rotates the material being composted which is very important in the decomposing process. Secondly, when it comes time to use my new nutrient rich soil in the garden, I will save time by being able to move my compost bin right to the area I need it at. Now it comes time to start to fill my container. If you’re anything like I am constantly taking food scraps outside can become a hassle great enough to scrap the whole project but the idea of them sitting on the kitchen table isn’t much better. To fix this I am using an acme paper bag, which is big enough to collect at least a few days worth of my food scraps, in the freezer. This way you only have to empty it every few days and by keeping it in the freezer it will not smell or attract flies, also the bag itself is compostable. The material that can go into a compost bin doesn’t end in the kitchen either. I took advantage of the warm weather this week and cleaned my gutters of leafs which all went directly into the bin. Leafs and other “filler” materials such as straw or small sticks, actual helps the decomposition process too. They speed the rate up by keeping the conditions inside the compost aerobic, minimize the formation of volatile fatty acids from certain foods, and keep a beneficial Carbon to Nitrogen ratio in the soil. (Y.Eklind and H.Kirchmann. “Composting and Storage of Organic Household Waste with Different Litter Amendments”, Department of Soil Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences)

This week our group has been working on recycling. Recycling is a big part of our project of eco friendly living. It is very important because according to Susan Carmichael, director of the Montgomery Clean City Commission and the city's recycling division, more than 70% of the average households waste can be recycled, and a majority of what is left after then can be composted and turned into valuable garden nutrients. The sad part about this is that in Philadelphia the actual recycling rate is only around 7%. Think about that unnecessary amount of waste, 30% of which is incinerated and the other 70% which just sits in dirty landfills. So the question I would like to answer is why only 7% of Philadelphia’s waste is recycled when close to all of it could be? Specifically, this week I will create a compost and attempt to recycle 100% of the plastic I use.