One of the best ways to get great compost in a hurry is to turn it regularly. Turning (mixing or aerating) your compost pile adds air to the mix, which speeds up the process of decomposition and prevents your pile from becoming stagnant. It also gives you a chance to assess whether your pile is […]
Composting
Cover me: the low-down on green manures
I didn’t do so well at planting a winter vegetable garden this year (I am terrible at planning for winter in the height of summer, which is, unfortunately, when you need to do your planting for winter harvesting). Other than some quick-growing salad greens that I managed to sneak in at the beginning of September, […]
Compostable diapers
gDiapers: cute – and good for the earth. In just four months, I’ll be contending with mountains of stinky diapers. It seems to be the one given in a postpartum world. I mean, there’s a chance the Lentil might take after his or her momma and sleep through the night from three weeks old (please, […]
Bright side to Vancouver strike
We’re in week eight of a municipal workers’ strike here in Vancouver, and a lot of people are pretty pissed off about the whole thing. But the tree hugger in me is kind of enjoying it. See, the City’s gardeners are on strike, as are the garbage collectors. Public boulevards haven’t been mowed, annual plantings […]
Go with the flow
I love the brilliant simplicity of John Arndt’s master’s thesis project, the Flow Kitchen. John designed the kitchen workstation to utilize natural processes (like gravity, evaporation, decomposition and growth) and create a symbiotic little ecosystem. The dishrack drains onto the herbs or other edibles stored below it. Food scraps go into a little cup that […]
163 Things to Compost
Just when you think you know everything there is to know about composting, someone says, “hey you, why aren’t you throwing that freezer-burned fish on the compost?” Huh? Marion Owen, creator of PlanTea, has a list of 163 things you can compost in her latest issue of the UpBeet Gardener newsletter. Hair clippings, wood ashes, […]
Meet peat
Since the 1950s peat has been used by gardeners as one of the finest soil amendments for ericaceous plants (including heathers, azaleas and rhododendrons), as a mulch, and as a growing medium. But peat is collected from wetlands, which harbour many rare and endangered species, and can take centuries to regenerate. “In the past half […]
Indoor composter
I’m pretty sure I need the new Nature Mill indoor composter. Here’s the scoop. Ben and I are moving into our new home within the next three months. And while I’m happy because it’s the first place we’ve owned together, it’s gonna be tiny. And the garden is going to be even tinier. I’ve been […]