One CleanLife reader saving the world
The following blog entry is an extract from email we recieved from a CleanLife reader Marrhea. She has given us permission to reproduce it here, so if you need a little inspiration to get back to your green roots, read on;
I have already converted most of our garden into a vegetable patch. I am still new to vegetables, so it is more something I do enjoyably, and less productively so to speak. I started with the garden beds out the back, and my motto was, if you cant eat it we dont need it. Most of the plants came out, a few were left in, (mainly to placate my partner who was quite distressed at my ripping out all of his plants). I kept a bucket in the kitchen, and anything that could be composted, I dug directly into the empty beds, I was surprised and delighted by how much grew. It wasnt long before all of my garden beds were full, and I hadnt planted a thing.
I tried to put seeds into one bed, to be later transplanted into other beds, however, the cat thought this patch made a great kitty litter, so everything that started to grow got ripped out. Now I put seeds into trays, and transplant once they are bigger. The trouble I have with this, is finding a bed to put the seedlings into, as like I mentioned earlier, all my beds were full with plants self growing. So I started ripping plants from the front garden, so that I could plant the things I grew from seed.
We then purchased a worm farm, which I thought would help with my composting, as with little spare garden space, there was no room to dig buckets of vegetable scraps anywhere. Worm farms do not use as many vegetable scraps as I thought they would though, and so shortly after, we also invested in a compost bin. Our worm farm is situated near our front door, and along with all the vegetables now growing in our front garden, I have lots of conversations about vegetables with anyone who happens by our house, from neighbors and friends, through to door knockers and delivery people. I get two buckets of liquid fertilizer a week from the worm farm, with very little food scraps necessary.
I have also ripped up all the lawn from out the back under my clothesline, and am in the process of replacing it with creeping herbs, which smell delightful under my feet as I am hanging out the washing. Under the kids climbing frame, I am putting in a creeping flower, the name of which I do not know, which unlike grass, does not need mowing and whipper snipping, and is a lot softer if the kids should happen to fall or jump off.
The main problem I have found with growing vegetables (I do not have the verge problem, my partner will not let me go past the letterbox with my planting, still there will be plenty of room out the front once I get rid of all the other non productive plants) is watering. With only being able to use retic twice a week, alot of hand watering needs to be done. One of the ways I combat this, is by using recycled water. I have buckets in the shower, which catch the water before it heats up to temperature, and I leave these in while I am showering to see how much more I can save. I have also taught my children and partner to do this. As we only use organic body products, I do not have a problem with putting the water into the garden. The buckets I then empty out into the garden via watering can during the day sometime when I get a spare minute or five. I also have a bucket in my kitchen sink, which is always situated under the running tap, I was really surprised with how much water goes down the kitchen drain. I empty this bucket at least six times a day, note that I said at least. With all this recycled kitchen and bathroom water, I hardly ever need to hose water. My partner has suggested installing recycling drainage so that I do not have to haul buckets through the house, however, I find that emptying the buckets regulary through a watering can, gives me an opportunity to get rid of the weeds as they start to appear, and spot new seeds as they are starting to sprout.
I do not have any conventional vegetable patches throughout my garden, as most of it is grown of its own free will through my scraps. I merely plant any seedling in between what has decided to grow on its own. I have moved a few avocado trees begining to grow near the house to somewhere near the verge where there is a bit more room, although, I now have so many of them I can see I will need to start giving them away as presents. I have put in some herbs also, and have a list of more I would like to put in as well as fruit trees, and berries. Now that I am begining to see how growing vegetables works, I am starting to put a plan to the garden space we have, which includes the removal of all the grass on our block, except of course that on the verge. After all, I do need some grass clippings for the compost.
Another thing I found when planting vegetables, is that they do need work to get them going. Especially with the removal of weeds. Once I had established the vegetable beds, with the weeds firmly removed by the root, they were extremely easy to care for. The kids love to do caterpillar and snail patrol. I give them a bucket and let them see how much they can get. I did try putting these into the bin, but found they crawl back out, so unfortunately, these I do destroy. Maybe I could walk them around to the park and set them free there, however, at the moment I just dont have the time, and my neighbors dont want them in their yards either. I have not done well with store bought seedlings, and so tend to just grow from seed or scraps, and have found that my vegie patch has been achieved rather cheaply.
Well, that is what I have done so far with my garden, wish I could send you some pics, but like I said, it is still in its early stages, and there is so much I still need to do, that I do not have any for you at the moment. Oh yeah, my friends looked at me like I was some kind of weird freak when I first started ripping out plants, and putting in vegies, but now whenever they come over, I seem to be giving them tips on how to grow their own, and they always love to see what I have growing this time around.
If you have advice, information or inspiration about your own green projects, please share them with us!
I have already converted most of our garden into a vegetable patch. I am still new to vegetables, so it is more something I do enjoyably, and less productively so to speak. I started with the garden beds out the back, and my motto was, if you cant eat it we dont need it. Most of the plants came out, a few were left in, (mainly to placate my partner who was quite distressed at my ripping out all of his plants). I kept a bucket in the kitchen, and anything that could be composted, I dug directly into the empty beds, I was surprised and delighted by how much grew. It wasnt long before all of my garden beds were full, and I hadnt planted a thing.
I tried to put seeds into one bed, to be later transplanted into other beds, however, the cat thought this patch made a great kitty litter, so everything that started to grow got ripped out. Now I put seeds into trays, and transplant once they are bigger. The trouble I have with this, is finding a bed to put the seedlings into, as like I mentioned earlier, all my beds were full with plants self growing. So I started ripping plants from the front garden, so that I could plant the things I grew from seed.
We then purchased a worm farm, which I thought would help with my composting, as with little spare garden space, there was no room to dig buckets of vegetable scraps anywhere. Worm farms do not use as many vegetable scraps as I thought they would though, and so shortly after, we also invested in a compost bin. Our worm farm is situated near our front door, and along with all the vegetables now growing in our front garden, I have lots of conversations about vegetables with anyone who happens by our house, from neighbors and friends, through to door knockers and delivery people. I get two buckets of liquid fertilizer a week from the worm farm, with very little food scraps necessary.
I have also ripped up all the lawn from out the back under my clothesline, and am in the process of replacing it with creeping herbs, which smell delightful under my feet as I am hanging out the washing. Under the kids climbing frame, I am putting in a creeping flower, the name of which I do not know, which unlike grass, does not need mowing and whipper snipping, and is a lot softer if the kids should happen to fall or jump off.
The main problem I have found with growing vegetables (I do not have the verge problem, my partner will not let me go past the letterbox with my planting, still there will be plenty of room out the front once I get rid of all the other non productive plants) is watering. With only being able to use retic twice a week, alot of hand watering needs to be done. One of the ways I combat this, is by using recycled water. I have buckets in the shower, which catch the water before it heats up to temperature, and I leave these in while I am showering to see how much more I can save. I have also taught my children and partner to do this. As we only use organic body products, I do not have a problem with putting the water into the garden. The buckets I then empty out into the garden via watering can during the day sometime when I get a spare minute or five. I also have a bucket in my kitchen sink, which is always situated under the running tap, I was really surprised with how much water goes down the kitchen drain. I empty this bucket at least six times a day, note that I said at least. With all this recycled kitchen and bathroom water, I hardly ever need to hose water. My partner has suggested installing recycling drainage so that I do not have to haul buckets through the house, however, I find that emptying the buckets regulary through a watering can, gives me an opportunity to get rid of the weeds as they start to appear, and spot new seeds as they are starting to sprout.
I do not have any conventional vegetable patches throughout my garden, as most of it is grown of its own free will through my scraps. I merely plant any seedling in between what has decided to grow on its own. I have moved a few avocado trees begining to grow near the house to somewhere near the verge where there is a bit more room, although, I now have so many of them I can see I will need to start giving them away as presents. I have put in some herbs also, and have a list of more I would like to put in as well as fruit trees, and berries. Now that I am begining to see how growing vegetables works, I am starting to put a plan to the garden space we have, which includes the removal of all the grass on our block, except of course that on the verge. After all, I do need some grass clippings for the compost.
Another thing I found when planting vegetables, is that they do need work to get them going. Especially with the removal of weeds. Once I had established the vegetable beds, with the weeds firmly removed by the root, they were extremely easy to care for. The kids love to do caterpillar and snail patrol. I give them a bucket and let them see how much they can get. I did try putting these into the bin, but found they crawl back out, so unfortunately, these I do destroy. Maybe I could walk them around to the park and set them free there, however, at the moment I just dont have the time, and my neighbors dont want them in their yards either. I have not done well with store bought seedlings, and so tend to just grow from seed or scraps, and have found that my vegie patch has been achieved rather cheaply.
Well, that is what I have done so far with my garden, wish I could send you some pics, but like I said, it is still in its early stages, and there is so much I still need to do, that I do not have any for you at the moment. Oh yeah, my friends looked at me like I was some kind of weird freak when I first started ripping out plants, and putting in vegies, but now whenever they come over, I seem to be giving them tips on how to grow their own, and they always love to see what I have growing this time around.
If you have advice, information or inspiration about your own green projects, please share them with us!
Labels: CleanLife readers, green projects, inspirational
posted by Gina Cacho | 9:38 PM
1 Comments:
By reading the title's article, I suddenly thought of how pleasant it may seem if we can build or turn our mother Earth into a green world. A place where there's no pollution but has plenty of fresh air to breathel a refreshing green fields that can make us enjoy the beauty of nature without worrying anything. Along with the pure blue sky above. I know, we can achieve this if we start to move on and act at once. Every circumstances, is a reminder that we should act now for our own good. So, my idea about a cleanlife is what I've said earlier. But how can we do it? I'd like to suggest the elimination of the production of the plastic use because it does not only cause air pollution, it also can bring damage and contamination in our surroundings that results to climate change. Considering also the irresponsibility of humankind in disposing waste and others. So, as an alternative to plastics, we can use stainless steel containers for the storage of our foods that can bring anywhere. I have known a very beautiful stainless steel container that you can store as many as you like. The one at Happy Tiffin, http://www.happytiffin.com these stuffs are really safe to use and very stylish so you're still on the go. That's all I can say! ;)
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