Archive for The Garden And Yard
My Organic Garden: The Life and Times of an Arbour
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Greetings fellow organic garden enthusiasts. Well this has been both the best of times and the worst of times for my arbour project - actually for the season on the whole but that’s for a future blog. For those that have not been reading my organic garden reports, here’s a Reader’s Digest recap. The garden center where I purchased my plants mislabeled the seedlings so I accidentally bought Sicilian zucchini planets instead of the everyday garden variety zucchini. Not a good mistake if you’ve never grown them before as I’ve learned (and written about). I am sure that the Sicilian zucchini’s are incredible fare but you need some sort of degree to grow them as they started to take over my garden in almost a maniacal fashion. After trying the suggestions from my research (that included a call to Martha Stewart’s radio show) I decided to build an arbour for it to grow in/on. That pretty much catches us up to where we are now and, I am sad to report, that my arbour has been in trouble.
The bamboo I decided to reuse from the teepee experiment slowly fell off the arbour one by one. I was trying my best to make this a zero waste project but I’ve had to store them for use in a future project. I had to use more scrap wood along the top but luckily the very handy person who helped me construct the arbour had plenty on hand. I have no idea why or how scrap wood becomes so plentiful but I’ve learned it certainly comes in handy - waste not, want not. Unfortunately (the worse of times), I lost a few of the tentacles of the Sicilian zucchini plant. They had created a basket like weave through the slats of my fence and sadly the trauma of being moved killed them. Luckily (the best of times), the move did not kill all of the plants as I first thought as some tentacles thrived and continued to grow up the sides of the arbour.
My Organic Garden – It was the Best of Times, It was the Worst of Times
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Swiss Chard
Greetings fellow organic gardening enthusiasts! I’m taking a break from the arbor/Sicilian zucchini drama this week to discuss other garden news like the uprising of the brussel sprouts. I didn’t think it was possible but they have somehow gotten even larger and leafier since I last mentioned it. The brussel sprouts have completely taken over the poor unsuspecting basil and I fear that we will need to mediate the upcoming turf wars. On the bright side, I have red tomatoes! Yes, slowly (and I do mean at a snail’s pace), the tomatoes are turning red. With the amount of sun and extremely hot weather we have had this summer in Southern Ontario it confounds me. I have no idea why they are taking so long - over the course of a week they barely turn from dark green to a slightly lighter dark green. At this rate my tomatoes should be red in or around November.
Also, I have planted the largest cherry tomatoes on record. I thought I was growing little cherry tomatoes as I do every year, but the labeling skills at the nursery left much to be desired and my cherry tomatoes are the size of plums. That’s right, plums. They are very sweet though and are the perfect topping to a pizza with a little tomato sauce, fresh basil (from the garden) and a smattering of mozzarella cheese so I’m not complaining. There is nothing like picking something out of your garden and then eating it right away. Unfortunately that’s not happening as much as I would like this season but I digress.
I was given an heirloom tomato plant, and was excited to see what became of it as the seeds were apparently very old. This plant has grown to an impressive four and half feet tall and it is leafy, full and I prune it lovingly. Do you know that all this tender love and care has yielded me? One tomato! That right, one tomato is all it has grown. Now that I have picked that one tomato, it has grown two flowers so there is still hope. Maybe it’ll decide to give me another tomato before frost comes.
Eco-ideas to brighten your day, eco-boots, eco-lawn and an algae lamp
Posted by: | CommentsWelcome back to the blog! I feel I’ve been writing a great deal recently about fairly weighty topics, but with the current crisis in The Gulf of Mexico it has been difficult for me to research other issues. For a change of pace today I’d thought we would take a look at some of the more innovative and creative green inventions that I have come across recently. These might not be the breakthrough inventions for this century but every little bit helps!
Hiking gets greener with these boots
Do you like hiking? Is throwing on a pair of boots and climbing hills and traversing trails your idea of a good day out? If so then you may be interested in these rather fetching orange (yet green) boots. All the energy you expend shuffling up and down rock trails and riverbanks generates a lot of energy and heat down in your boots, now at last you can out that energy to good use. These boots designed by Gotwind store energy in batteries located in the soles of the boot (the warmest area) and the energy stored can be used to charge your phone! Really! After you have a good charge built up you can plug your phone into the heel and walk while you talk, all without the use of any electricity. According to the maker a 12 hour ramble equates to an hour of power, so boot up and learn more via their official site.
If hiking is not really your cup of tea but you still like to enjoy some green grass under 
your feet on your own property you might take a lot of pride in your lawn? I’m always amazed by the time, money and chemicals people spend to have the greenest lawn on the block. Unfortunately maintaining a pristine patch of grass often means the use of gas or electricity to constantly trim the grass, excesses of wasted water and fertilizer use. In fact keeping a nice lawn maintained is a fairly eco-unfriendly practice. It doesn’t have to be that way though, via Wildflower Farm its now possible to install an eco-lawn. According to the company it can make a huge difference to a traditional lawn, the seed blend results in grass that will grow more consistently regardless of sun or shade and require much less watering. They also claim that it requires substantially less fertilizer and treatment to achieve a healthy green and finally it grows in a way that results in shorter blades so that what they call ‘the carpet effect’ and doesn’t need cutting if you choose to do so. I love a beautiful lawn too and this looks like a greener way to have one. For more information visit the Wildflower Farm website.
Algae lamp is amazing
Science was never my strength and thankfully there are many people who offset this weakness of mine. I don’t truly understand how our final invention works but that doesn’t detract from how remarkable it is. What would you think of a lamp that consumes no electricity or batteries and relies on algae to create the current to power the lamp. Here is the part when I get confused…it seems professors at Stamford came upon the discovery that living algae during the process of photosynthesis create a current of energy. This lamp creates that living phenomena and can be used as a household lamp, apparently all the owner needs to do is breathe into the chamber, the combination of CO2 and sunlight will do the rest as the algae then create the energy the energy current! If I didn’t visit the website of the designer I wouldn’t believe it was even possible. The designer is based in the Netherlands and you can learn more here.
Three amazing innovations - I feel humbled.
Momentum Reel Mower Makes Ecomowing Possible
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You can really pick up all kinds of ecofriendly living tidbits listening to Martha Stewart’s daily talk show. For example, she recently talked about this product that will make going green easier and it wasn’t self-promotion. The product was the Momentum Reel Mower from Fiskars. For those interested in adding a little green to their lives can switch from a gas powered mower to a push mower and reduce their carbon footprint in the process. Some may scoff at the idea of using a push mower because of the added exertion required when going over rough patches like very high grass but they have considered that.
Fiskars’ solution to this problem is their “InertiaDrive™ Technology [which] combines a large diameter cutting reel and heavy blades to store energy (like a flywheel) until a burst of extra cutting power is needed”. The InertiaDrive™ Technology is what makes this change towards ecofriendly living easy. The mower even boasts a “StaySharp™ Cutting System [which is] precision engineered to cut grass without the blades touching – greatly reducing friction & blade wear”. Fisker even stands by their product with a four-year warranty - the best on the market for a push mower. All this is topped off by the fact that the mower was designed not only to be good for the environment but also for the person pushing.