Results tagged “eco-friendly” from Joe's Dirt Blog

Dear Santa,

As you know, I’m really into gardening, especially the ‘green’ kind, like environmentally friendly things such as not using a gas-powered engine for my lawn mower when a rechargeable model would do. I know you get what I’m talking about. You’re one of the original pioneers of eco-travel, circling the world every year on nothing but reindeer power (or is that considered natural gas)? Never mind, the point of my letter is it’s been a good year for me in regards to getting some cool stuff for the lawn and garden that’s eco-friendly too. So this year, you can skip my house, conserve a little energy and cut down on the packaging. But, if any of my friends have listed lawn and garden gear on their wish list, can you make it the green kind too?

Just in case you need a few suggestions, here’s what I’d offer them if I were you. First, it’s going to be cold and not much gardening is really going on after the holidays, so lets get them a good book on the subject. The Green Gardener’s Guide by…uhhh, never mind about the author. But it is the perfect resource to get them in the right frame of mind for spring.

Next, rechargeable lawn and landscape tools are awesome and these days, they’re a lot more powerful and more like the gasoline burning, CO₂ spewing mowers and blowers. Personally, I’ve been using my engineless push reel mower, made by Brill and it works quite well. Those would make great gifts since they’re pretty cheap and don’t take up as much room in your sleigh. By the way, if you run short on product, I found a neat online store that sells a lot of eco-friendly tools. They’re called Clean Air Gardening and you can check them out for yourself online when you get a chance.

And of course, the greenest tools are people powered. I’ve been having great success with all the neat stuff from Fiskars. You probably use their scissors a lot up at the workshop but I’m telling you, if you want to score points with all your gardening buddies, load them up with their pruners and other cutting tools.

Finally, we all need a good pair of gloves. I recently heard about the newest style from West County Gardener that will be out in early 2009. It’s made from recycled plastic water bottles. For every pair that’s made, one less bottle makes it to the landfill. Now that’s very cool, don’t you think Santa? So, that’s it. I know you have a lot more letters to read and work to do.

All the best and safe travels to you, Rudolf and the others.

Thanks Santa. Your friend,
Joe Lamp’l

Q: I read a September 6, 2008, Denver Post article talking about how you all are tackling the issue of getting planter pots recycled. Even though I'm a true champion for recycling, plastics are made from oil, and thus it's better to find an alternative when possible. I hope you will consider the following as an option to research: I was at an event where the table center pieces were plants in compostable planter pots. Made from coconut pieces, these containers can biodegrade in the ground in moister climates; otherwise, they can be composted. Even if they end up in a landfill, they would break-down long before plastic. The plants+pots were donated by the Denver Botanic Gardens. ... www.botanicgardens.org I realize they may not work for trees or some larger plants, but they could most likely work for a majority of plant pots.

-Susan

Somewhere in his repertoire, Rodney Dangerfield surely had some pretty good material on weeds. Talking about getting no respect! After all, when you consider how much they put up with and still look good, how can you not at least admire their tenacity? If we could only learn to love weeds for what they are, our gardening lives would be a lot easier and there would be a lot less use of chemicals out there too!

In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that some weeds were actually promoted as a good thing. Take clover for example. Ironically, until a few decades ago, grass seed came with clover mixed in because of its many desirable traits, including the ability of the roots to fix nitrogen in the soil. That gave the clover and the grass around it the nutrients they needed to green up naturally.

Unfortunately, clover was reclassified from lawn-worthy to weed when it could not be selectively excluded when herbicides were applied to grass.  Now, clover is considered an undesirable thug, even though its flowers are a favorite of pollinating bees, stays green all year, provides valuable nitrogen and organic material to the soil, and its hardiness is sufficient to crowd out more detrimental lawn weeds. But instead of growing it, we’re now supposed to kill it.  Did the clover change?  No, we did.

Now don’t get the idea that I love weeds. I don’t. But I will say my tolerance for some, like clover, is much greater than in years past. These days, my lawn isn’t weed free any more. Part of the reason I’m more tolerant now is due to my increased awareness of the beneficial aspects some weeds play in promoting biodiversity, combined with my commitment to use chemicals only as a last resort. And frankly with weeds, there are several options for control before chemicals ever become necessary.

You might find this odd but I don’t mind pulling weeds. It’s the ultimate selective and eco-friendly option available, and there’s no greater way to work out some frustration then by going out after a soaking rain and pulling up those suckers intact! Talk about instant gratification. And my favorite weeds to pull up…we’ll that would be anything with a taproot, such as dandelion or thistle. The reason being, if you don’t get the entire root, it’s coming back, just as certain as death and taxes.

Yet I have to admit, even after a soaking rain, getting every bit of that taproot is the exception to the rule. That’s part of what makes weeds like this so darn tough. And that’s when other options become necessary for complete extraction. There are a number of great tools on the market for this and Fiskars has my favorite; The Extended Reach Weeder. It essentially plucks the weed and roots from the ground while I operate this lightweight device from a standing position. There’s even an ejection feature that clears the weed from the tool and allows me to cover a lot of ground in record time. And these days, that’s the bonus. Although I don’t mind pulling weeds once in a while, I don’t want to spend all day doing it. I’m sure you’d agree!
JL

Q: As I begin planning for my spring garden, I am very interested in making a compost bin. Can I make a homemade one, or do you recommend a 3-bin professional model?