Sustainable articles
Adding Rain Barrels
Submitted by tired_gardener on Mon, 08/18/2008 - 23:20.I've been wanting to put in a rain barrel. I found a barrel that had been used for compost at a garage sale. I paid $2 for it and a bunch of other stuff that they had in the free pile, like a bag a steer manure, another of lime and a couple other fertilizers. I made off pretty good. I didn't get it hooked up right away because I did not have a lot of time and never made it to the hardware store for a spigot.
I finally got the spigot. And now, guess what... It is raining. And I still can't install it. When I put the putty on around the spigot, it needs to cure for 24 hours, and I need to patch a small hole in the bottom. The silicone also needs to cure for 24 hours. By the time I get it all done, the rain will be gone and I'll be wishing I had it set up. Oh well. I have a couple of buckets out there, so I'll get a little rain water to hold. And then I'll get the whole thing properly set up and I'll tell you guys all about how to do it.
Rain barrels really are a great addition to your garden. Rain water is so much better for your friendly fauna than the chemical laden hose water that we normally put on them and it is also better for the environment. It can also save you some money, be a conversation piece, and if set up properly, add beauty to your home. I hope you get one too!
Making the Most of Your Mulch
Submitted by tired_gardener on Sun, 08/17/2008 - 09:17.Mulch on your garden beds helps to cut down on weeds, makes the weeds that do come up easier to pull up, and helps to keep moisture in the soil. It can also make the beds look a lot nicer. When you have a lot of beds to mulch, it can be very expensive to buy a big bunch of bark mulch. By the bag is really expensive. If you have a truck, you can get it by the yard for around $30 in my area. Or if you need more, you have to pay someone to deliver it. I need about 4 yards for my flower beds, plus I need something to mulch my veggies as well, probably 2 or 3 yards for that. I have a lot of garden beds, so I need a lot of mulch.
What is a guy with no discretionary income to do? I had an extra $30 a while ago, so I got some bark mulch in a borrowed truck and put it on my rose bushes. Now funds have gotten tighter as I look at the budget till I finish school and wonder how I'll make it, but I still need to mulch the beds or I'll be spending too much time and money watering and pulling weeds. What choices do I have. I came up with some and thought I'd share.
Steal It
I don't recommend this method. By the dog park we go to the city has piled up lots of mulch and I could just go and grab buckets full. I could not get a truck up close to it, as they have it gated, but I would not do that any way.
Grass Mulch
I've heard of a lot of people that would put their grass clipping on as mulch. This works well if you have a good grass lawn to do it with. My grass is mostly dead right now and when it is not, it is mostly weeds. I think I'd get too many weed seeds in it this way.
Newspaper
Newspaper works as a mulch, but you really should put something over it, because it will blow away otherwise. Besides, it is kind ugly. I use this method in the beds that don't have bulbs because it helps more with the weeds, just like the fabric you can buy.
Yard Chippings
If you have a chipper/mulcher, you can take any brush you have, run it through the chipper/mulcher and viola, you have a good mulch. I looked for one new, and saw that they cost $500-$600. I almost choked on my tounge. I had talked to my wife and said "if we can get one for around $100 it will be worth it, because it will cost more than that to haul off all this debris, and we will get mulch. I was disappointed, I wanted the mulch.
Then I went on CriagsList. I found one listed for $125. Went over, checked it out, and brought it home. It claims to do 3 inch peices, but it bogs down so much, if they are still green, that I would not do anything near that. When they are dry, if runs them much easier. It is not as pretty has the bark mulch, but it works well.
Coffee Grounds
You can go to coffee shops and they will give you their old grounds. While you probably would not want to use solely coffee grounds as that might make the soil a little too acidic and might make your worms a little too hyper. Adding it to the mulch will help with color and give it a little fertalizer for you roses and other coffee drinking flora.
Leaves
Not as easy this time of year, but come fall when the leaves are all over the yard, you can pick them up and put them on your beds. This works great for garden beds as in the spring you can then turn the rotten mess of leaves into the beds for extra organic matter.
Blocking out the heat
Submitted by tired_gardener on Wed, 08/13/2008 - 20:12.With the heat of summer hitting hard, one wonders, "how can I keep this heat out?" The best answer will also help with the winter cold: insulation. While insulation in the walls is great and helps a lot, much of your lost heat or gained heat comes through the windows. You could have a great insulation rating in the walls, but even with the best windows, much of your heat transfer still occurs in the windows. If it is cooler inside, the heat comes through those windows and heats the house. In the winter, you heat leaves your house the same way.
Shade helps a lot in the summer, but in the winter those trees that blocked out the summer heat also block the winter sun which could help heat the house. How about exterior shutters? Shades inside are good in adding extra insulation, but the heat still get inside the house, trapped between the window and the interior shade. This heat slowly seeps out around the shade, getting into your house. It slows the heating of the house, but there is a better way. With exterior shutters, the heat never gets into the house.
Shutters should be mounted on hinges, not just nailed to the side of the house. If they are nailed to the house, they look cool, but serve no purpose. If they are on hinges, you can close them to help keep out the hottest hot and the windiest wind and the coldest cold. Shutters also add some great character to your home, as well as adding great insulation qualities to your home. With all the styles available, you are sure to find one that will match the style of your home.
Tire Swing
Submitted by tired_gardener on Mon, 07/28/2008 - 21:14.
I want to make Emma a tire swing. I've been seeing these swings on various sites around the web that are tires cut into the shape of a horse, a dragon, or a motorcycle. They come in many shapes. I found these basic instructions for a horse. Or you can click on the image to the right to be able to purchase the dragon from Shop.com. Buying them is of course the easy way. And might be safer, as cutting tires is not an easy business and that knife can slip. I've cut many and may use the plans to make my own, but if I had the money, I'd much rather buy it. It is not easy to manipulate the tires.
I think Emma would really get a kick out of having her own horse in the yard. This also is an easy way to make use of a garbage item that we have far too much of in the land fills. There are a lot of ways to turn your tires into something useful. But most of them work better with non-steel belted tires. Most tires these days have steel in them, so that makes these kinds of projects much harder to work with.
Here are a few of my favorite projects for making things from tires:
- Sandals last a really long time when made out of tires. In some countries, these are very common shoes. I think I'd want to wear socks or moccasins with them, but they will last forever.
- Flowering Tire Pot - This flower pot looks like a flower too. I've seen them nicely painted and can be quite nice.
- Hanging Bird Flower Pot - I thought I'd found plans for this at one time, but now all I can find it this place selling the pot. It is cool though.
Stumble Upon, Earthday Campaign
Submitted by tired_gardener on Sat, 07/26/2008 - 07:30.Stumble Upon has started a campaign to plant trees for Earth Day. All you have to do is go to this page and Stumble it and they will plant a tree for you.
It costs you nothing and it gets a tree planted. By stumbling the page, you will get others to see it as well and get more trees planted. Go now and get your tree planted!
There were 66,163 trees getting planted when I stumbled it. How many were there for you?
Adding Chickens to the Family
Submitted by tired_gardener on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 06:14.I've been wanting to add chickens to my family for a while. I'd love to have fresh eggs every day and one of the best pest controls around. I want to see the slugs tremble with fear as those hungry ladies come marching through.
I've convinced Elizabeth to let me. She has, however, requested that I don't get the chicks until I have their permanent home built. As chicks, they will not be spending a whole lot of time in their new home until they get larger, but it is still a good idea.
I'm in the process now. I've cleaned up the area along where I'm going to build the fence and I've drawn some plans. I'm going to fence in the west side of our lot, which I call the orchard. It includes three apple trees, a large shed, another tree that has never fruited, but I'm told is some sort of fruit tree, and a whole bunch of arborvitae. There is other stuff there that is getting removed, such as blackberry that I used an chemical spray in order to kill (shame on me).
I hope that the fence will go up this weekend, so that the free range area will be ready. I'm then going to clear about 8 square feet in the shed and build the coop right into it. I think this will be the safest place for them as the shed already has a good floor and the raccoons will not easily get at them. In the front I'm going to put a run made out of 1/2 inch metal netting that will have a bottom I'll bury a few inches down. This way they will be able to come out and play before I get up in the morning. I'm usually up around the same time as the sun, but this way I don't have to be.
The front and top of the run will open. So I can open the front, let the ladies free range, open the top and clean it out. Then close it all up again when they are safely inside. Since the run is extra, I'm going to do it last. I can get the ladies without it, I would just need to be up early to let them loose, and I'd be worried about their safety, perhaps.
Why you ask? Why not? They lay eggs, which give me extra food. They eat bugs, which reduces the work I need to do. They poop like mad, which fertilizes my yard. Yes, it is work to scoop up the droppings and compost it. They will eat just about anything, so feeding them is easy. And, if you get the right breed and spend time with them, they can be wonderfully social pets.
Housing from Shipping Containers?
Submitted by tired_gardener on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 14:35.I recently heard about architects turning used shipping containers into new housing. Shipping containers are used for a while, then they sit on our docks collecting dust. The US imports more than we export, so the containers often do not go anywhere. There is a place up the road from me that has them stacked up like firewood. Making use of these hunks of useless metal would be a very good thing.
Basically, the architect takes a container, or two, or 50, or 500 and alters them in some way to make them homes. They have been made into single family homes, apartments, schools, and more. If you had the expertise with a torch, you could even do the work yourself.
To see a list of some architects that design these, see the list here.
Reusing the waste: Donation Edition
Submitted by tired_gardener on Thu, 07/03/2008 - 07:46.When we are done with something, we can toss it in the trash, reuse it for something else, recycle it, or donate it so that someone else can use it. There are a lot of things that can be donated and a lot of organizations that can use your donations. There may even be some things that you do not realize can be donated that are really wanted. In this article I will focus on some of the items that may be less clear that they can be donated. Take a look at these cool ideas for donating your extra junk.
Crocs
Take your worn out Crocs and donate them to SolesUnited. This is technically recycling, as they will turn them into brand new shoes, but since they then take those new shoes and give them to shoe-less needy.
Hair
When your hair grows long, you get it cut. If you cut enough off, you can donate it to Locks of Love. They will turn your hair into a beautiful wig for children that have lost their hair. If you would rather donate to adult women cancer patients, you can notate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths.
You
Research is done on humans all the time. Medical students learn on cadavers. Body parts are used to transplant into living people with parts that are failing. When you are gone, your body can save lives. You have to let your loved ones know that you want to do this though. If you don't how can you let people know? You can check the little box on your drivers license, if your state or country does that, but it is your family that will make the decision. Talk to them. And check out MedCure in the mean time.
Autos, Boats, RV, Etc
I'm often surprised at how many people don't realize that your old worn out car, trailer, boat, RV, whatever can be donated. There are many organizations, local and national, that will take your old vehicle and sell it. Some just turn around and sell them as is, some have crews that fix them up and sell them. Some are used to train people in how to repair. I donated my old truck to Kars4Kids but there are many other organizations out there. Find one that means something to you and donate there.
Appliances
Ever tried to donate an appliance to Goodwill or some other organization? They will turn you away. They don't have the facilities to repair them and it takes them more money to dispose of them. Some people will just dump them at the donation site while no-one is looking. This is illegal. There are places that you can donate them though. GE has a list of a few national organizations. If you call around, you can find some local places too.
Blood
Yes, blood. The Red Cross collects at locations throughout the US. For non-us readers, I'm sure there is an organization near you as well. This donation costs you nothing, but time, and can save lives. No, it does not fit perfectly in this list, as many people know about it, and you are not technically done with the blood when you donate it, but it is so important that I thought I'd mention it.
Announce it!
If you donate, let others know. This may seem like bragging and it could be, but your donating could get someone else to do the same thing. Maybe you donated some hair. Someone else has long hair and wants to cut it short. They may not have known that hair could be donated. You can be a voice and let others know that they can donate. If you have a website, use our I Donate badge to let others know.
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comments: 1
Reusing the waste: Home Edition
Submitted by tired_gardener on Thu, 06/19/2008 - 10:48.In the last issue in the Reusing the waste mini-series, Reusing the waste: Crafters Edition, we learned about some cool crafts that can be made using waste material from around the house. In this issue, we will continue using waste material around the house, but instead of crafts, we will learn some of the best ways to reuse the waste to use around the house.
Keep in mind, this is only a start. If you have some ideas, please comment below and let us know. I will give you the 5 things I reuse the most:
1. Rags
Repurpose the old clothes
Old clothes that are torn, can't be sent on to the thrift store. Torn clothes just don't sell very well. Pull off the buttons to use in crafts. You can also use the pieces for quilts and such. If you are like me, then you don't craft with them enough to use it all. I do on the other hand need rags for projects and cleaning. T-shirts make great dusting rags. I have an old piece cut from a pair of slacks that I use for wood oil. I use others to clean up messes in the work shop.
2. Litter buckets
Litter buckets to hanging planters
This is one of my favorites. Take a litter bucket and make a hanging planter our of it. I use this for my tomatoes. You can also plant other things this way. I did find that if you use plastic handled buckets, you need to be careful how much soil you put into them. Smaller buckets can be used for other plants too, like strawberries. Keeps them above the slugs.
Litter buckets for trash
If you can't tell, I like litter buckets. I also use them to pick up the trash that the neighbors toss into my yard. When I pull weeds, I use them to hold the pulled weeds until I get them to the compost.
3. Butter and yogurt tubs
Tubs for paints
When painting, carrying the paint bucket around while cuting in the edges or touch up gets tiring. Put a little paint into a butter tub and carry around the smaller tub. If you need to mix paints, put the lid on when you are done for storage. You can't store for long times this way, unless it has a tight seal, but it will store overnight.
Tubs for leftovers
Tubs can also be used to store leftovers from dinner. You can also store leftover parts from you crafts or workshop projects. I've stored beads, buttons, screws and more in them.
4. Newpaper
Newspaper for wrapping paper
My wife does not let me do this anymore. She thinks it is cheap and you should spend the money on real wrapping paper. I like it thought. Just take the sunday comics and it makes a nice wrapping paper.
Newspaper for compost/worm bin
Not enough brown material for the compost? Add some newspaper. Newspaper also makes a great bedding for the worm bin. The worms will eat it and it is free and plentyful.
Newspaper to clean glass
Don't use a rag to clean the windows, it will leave streaks. Use newspaper instead, it leaves a streak free shine and will give you the cleanest glass in the neighborhood.
5. Glass bottles
Vases from bottles
Many glass bottles are pretty. I had a blue bottle of water that I used for years as a vase, until it broke. It only held a rose or two, but the bottle itself added to the decor.
Yard glasses
When working in the yard, or having a party that might get a little rambunctious you may not want to use your good glasses. Keep around some glass jars to use as glasses. Larger ones are bigger than most glasses, so you will have to fill up less often anyway.
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comments: 1
Reusing the waste: Crafters Edition
Submitted by tired_gardener on Sat, 06/14/2008 - 22:47.Reducing the waste is the first step to being more sustainable. Reusing what you cannot reduce is a good second step. In this issue we will discuss how to reuse waste products in crafts. Below are some ideas, with links to some places you can get more information.
I started this issue by going to our local Saturday Market to check out what they had. They had some cool stuff that people came up with. Check them out below. Not all of them have web sites, those that do I provide a link for. I took pictures at some places. I recommend getting permission before taking pictures at places like this. The crafts are the artists property. They have the right to tell you no pictures.
Metal Bugs
These
bugs are made out of scrap metal, old tools, silverware, what have you.
He was selling some really big ones for nearly $200. The price tag of
one is hanging in the picture. He did not have a website. Says it was
more work than it was worth so he dropped it.
They really are cool bugs. He is in Portland's Saturday Market regularly. Anyone with some minor metal working skills could make one of their own as well. I'm not that skilled with a torch, so I'll not be making one for my self right away.
Saw Signs
A little further into the market, I saw a
space that was selling metal crafts again. This time, he had taken
some old hand saws and turned them into signs. This was cool.
Unfortunately he left his stall unmanned while I was there, so I could
not talk to him about the signs. I snapped the picture anyway, I hope
he does not mind.
Mugwump Bags
Next I stumbled upon a real find. Suzanne Keolker is designing this great bags out of reclaimed materials. She used golden books, maps, board games, air mattresses, and more. Quite a wonderful collection!
Experienced Materials
Gina Nash of Experienced Materials had some wonderful lights made out of tin cans. It sounds so cheesy, but they were really lovely. Her website is still under construction, but you can see some of the cans there. Soon you will be able to purchase some of her line.
Spoonman
Finally at the end of the day, I ran across Spoonman. His whimsical collection of kitchen utincils gone astray is quite fun. He looks like the kind of lunatic who would be spending his days bending spoons and turning cleavers into hats and dinner sets into clocks.
Make a rose from a leaf
I ran across this cool little idea while surfing. Leaves usually go into the yard debris bin. If you have a compost pile, you will toss them there. How about making your dining table look a little nicer for a while with one of these great maple leaves to rose center pieces.
Shoes from tires
Making a shoe from a tire is common practice in many parts of the world. Many people third world countries have no shoes, so these are common. Learn to make them from a blown truck tire.
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