Be Part of the Solution, not the Pollution: Use Swales in your Landscape
Be Part of the Solution, not the Pollution: Use Swales in your Landscape http://ht.ly/EI5cQ #Stormwater #KeepItClear
Why you should have a swale in your yard:
Swales mitigate stormwater runoff.
Swales are way easier than catching rain in a tank or barrel.
Swales are more efficient than tanks or barrels.
Swales build self-sustaining ecosystems.
Help Mother Nature Recycle fallen leaves
Help Mother Nature Recycle fallen leaves by MulchMowing them. Please don’t rake them into the street gutterpan or ditchline where they will clog the City stormdrain system. http://ow.ly/i/7w9t3 http://ow.ly/i/7w9ti http://ow.ly/i/7w9tt http://ow.ly/i/7w9tD
Please pick it up! Sign in a neighborhood
http://ht.ly/A8eN7 Sign in a neighborhood on the Westside of Muncie. We agree – Please pick it up! #petwaste #stormwater
“In wine there is wisdom; in beer there is freedom; in water there is bacteria”
“In #wine there is #wisdom; in #beer there is #freedom; in #water there is #bacteria.” — #BenjaminFranklin
Edyn smart garden monitoring system helps your garden grow
Edyn smart garden monitoring system helps your garden grow
http://ht.ly/xIaoQ
Edyn was developed to help users monitor and track environmental conditions in their garden, provide guidance on how conditions can be improved and water the plants automatically as required. The smart garden system comprises a sensor, a smart water-valve and a mobile app.
Company founder Jason Aramburu says Edyn was founded with the aim of helping people to better understand the environment. Aramburu studied ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University, before working on projects in Panama’s rainforests and with farmers in Africa. Edyn, he says, draws on those experiences and the use of technology to try and help people create thriving gardens.
Blue Ridge PBS and RCGA Welcomes Growing a Greener World’s Joe Lamp’l to Roanoke!
Blue Ridge PBS and RCGA Welcomes Growing a Greener World’s Joe Lamp’l to Roanoke!
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Joe Lamp’l, host of Growing a Greener World, will be in Roanoke on April 25 and 26 to film a segment for his nationally broadcast series. The show will feature the City Market area with its farm-to-table theme as well as local restaurants and the green roof at Center in the Square. Joe will also talk with Jon Bryant, of Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op, and Mark Powell, of the Roanoke Community Garden Association, to highlight Roanoke’s community gardens and the programs’ success.
The segment will be broadcast in the upcoming fall season of 2014. After the taping, Blue Ridge PBS will partner with Center in the Square to host an invitational rooftop cocktail event with Mr. Lamp’l.
Growing a Greener World combines the latest trends in eco-friendly outdoor living with traditional gardening know-how. The award-winning 26-part series travels the country to deliver compelling, inspirational, informative and entertaining stories about those making a positive impact on the planet through organic gardening, sustainable living and farm-to-table cooking. This season’s topics range from edible landscape design, urban homesteading and hobby farming to seasonal cooking, canning and preserving. In each episode, gardening and sustainability expert, Joe Lamp’l demonstrates a hands-on gardening project and later, Chef Nathan Lyon blends grassroots with gourmet to create simple, innovative cuisine using fresh, locally sourced ingredients.
Discovering a whole new universe in the Soil
Discovering a whole new universe in the soil
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by Sami Grover
“Scientists using new analytical techniques over the last decade have found that the world’s ocean of soil is one of our largest reservoirs of biodiversity. It contains almost one-third of all living organisms, according to the European Union’s Joint Research Center, but only about 1 percent of its micro-organisms have been identified, and the relationships among those myriad life-forms is poorly understood.”
This bastion is now increasingly at risk.
The new understanding of the complexity of soil, says Wall, is driving a shift of both the scientific and cultural paradigm:
“For many hundreds of years, we’ve simply thought of soil as providing us food. That’s been our cultural tie. Because of the research over the last 20 years, and the new technologies we’ve developed, we’ve learned that the processes going on underground are deeply complex. Just as we have ecosystems above ground, so too we see ecosystems below ground, each with their own unique conditions and mix of species. Whether you’re in Central Park or the Antarctic desert, its almost like we have lots of miniature cities beneath our feet. The science shows that this is very far from being just ‘dirt’.”
The shift in how we view the soil is already translating into changes in how we manage it. From the rise of SRI methods of rice growing among small farmers to no-till farming on the giant fields of the Midwest, farmers are realizing increased yields and lower inputs of chemicals and fertilizers by learning to manage and steward the soils they are responsible for.
Grow Salad In Your Kitchen Inside This Sleek Sensor-Driven Cabinet
Grow Salad In Your Kitchen Inside This Sleek Sensor-Driven Cabinet http://ht.ly/vVNB8
It started with an aquaponics system in a frat house. Now the two MIT grads want to scale the idea and make it easy to grow veggies right in your kitchen.
There’s plenty of excitement about urban farms using aquaponics and hydroponics. The idea of growing food closer to consumers means less fossil fuels burned, fewer chemical inputs, and fresher food. But logic says it should be possible to go further. Why stop with a farm somewhere on the edge of town? Why not bring it to the home and have even fresher food?
There are several home hydroponic systems on the market, such as this Internet-connected home garden, and even some involving fish. But what Grove Labs is talking about is more like an appliance, just like your fridge or washing machine.
To test out the OS, Blanchet and Byron are currently working with controlled-environment commercial farms in the northeast. Later this year, they’ll start prototyping the cabinet and piloting it in a few homes. The final product should be ready by the end of next year, Blanchet says. Grove has taken pre-orders.
John Paul Mitchell jump-started Grow Appalachia through infrastructure investment
Through providing the initial infrastructure investment, John Paul Mitchell jump-started Grow Appalachia
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Grow Appalachia has supported thousands of gardens through hundreds of community partnerships in five states; from backyard gardens to community gardens to school and summer camp gardens to greenhouses to mini-farms; producing more than 1,151,000 pounds of healthy, organic food for thousands of people in its first four years. The gardens are worked by nonprofits, farmers’ market entrepreneurs, the elderly, the Girl Scouts, inmates, the disabled, and others who believe a better food system equals better lives. Some participants garden to save money. Others garden to make money.
The program seeks both to educate communities and to learn from communities. It works to preserve the past, build hope for the future, and empower Appalachians to live healthy, productive lives. Grow Appalachia is proud to be a part of the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center of Berea College.
Last year, Grow Appalachia worked with over 25 partner sites in 39 counties with more than 1500 families and 50 community gardens. We were fortunate to feed 19,500 people growing over 1,151,000 pounds of food. We facilitated 100 jobs in central Appalachia through gardening projects with Grow Appalachia and our participants sold more than $54,000 in produce.
Rather than apply a cookie cutter approach to nutrition based wellness, Grow Appalachia meets families where they live and addresses their specific needs. Some families need only help with tillage and fertilization. Some families need to start from scratch. Some elderly and disabled gardeners need help with the hard labor of preparing beds, planting and cultivation, and Grow Appalachia connects them with young people to enable them to keep food security at their own homes. We provide each family with what they need to succeed.
Soils need food and cover to be healthy
Soils need food and cover to be healthy
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Soils need food and cover to be healthy by Robert Schiffner, NRCS
Soil should always be covered by growing plants, their residues, or a combination of the two. Healthy soils are full of microorganisms that have the same needs as other living creatures. They need food and cover to survive. The healthiest soils are those with a diversity and abundance of life.
When you have a vegetative cover on the soil, especially in living cover, you offer those microbes both food and shelter. Some feed on dead organic matter and some eat other microbes. As a group, they cycle nutrients and build the soil and give it structure. The tiny fraction of soil composed of anything and everything that once lived – organic matter – is more than an indicator of healthy soil. The carbon in organic matter is the main source of energy for all-important soil microbes and is the key for making nutrients available to plants.
Organic matter supplies, stores and retains such nutrients as nitrogen, phosphorous and sulfur. Soil properties influenced by organic matter can increase water infiltration rates and increase the ability to store water, soil structure and soil organisms. One percent of organic matter in the top six inches of the soil can hold about 27,000 gallons of water per acre. Organic matter can also help reduce soil erosion.
Read More: http://ht.ly/tiOFD
Ready for Spring? 1. Compost or Mulch? 2. If Mulch, Type depends on plants and location
Ready for Spring? 1. Compost or Mulch? 2. If Mulch, Type Depends on Plantings & Location
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How to pick the right mulch By Dean Fosdick – The Associated Press
Compost or mulch? People often confuse the two, although each fulfills a different function in gardening. Which one you want depends on your needs.
“Compost is used to feed crops; mulch is used to suppress weeds,” said Daniel McGrath, a horticulturist with Oregon State University Extension. “Compost is decomposed organic matter that is generally higher in nutrients and relatively low in carbon compared to mulch. Mulch is raw, un-decomposed organic matter.” Unlike compost, mulch is generally not mixed into the soil, he noted, but is applied 2 to 4 inches deep on top of the soil around a tree or shrub.
Mulch has fewer nutrients and is not meant to replace fertilizer, which should be added as a supplement. Mulching does, however, maintain soil moisture, prevent most weed seeds from germinating and keep soil temperatures constant around plants, said Martha Smith, an extension horticulturist with the University of Illinois.
If you have fallen leaves to rake today, try MulchMowing instead
If you have fallen leaves to rake today, try MulchMowing instead. http://ow.ly/i/3FUPd
This pic is from late afternoon last Sunday. MulchMowing is quicker, easier, and recycles the nutrients back into the soil.
MulchMow your Leaves this fall to return nutrients back to the soil while slashing wasteful costs
MulchMow your Leaves this fall to return nutrients back to the soil while slashing wasteful costs http://ht.ly/pRLZS
The advantages of mulch mowing are threefold:
Financial improvement. As a property manager, you can gain efficiencies in on-site labor, autumn season preparation time, disposal costs, transport time, equipment costs and more once you properly configure your existing mower equipment with mulching blades, install the proper mulching kit, and gain the skill.
Soil benefit. By rediscovering The Law of Return and employing mulch mowing in your land care practice, you’ll be feeding the organisms that help make your soil rich. Instead of breaking the natural soil nutrient cycle, you’ll be working in concert with it.
Changing client perspective and doing the right thing. In my experience, as long as I maintain a cared-for appearance, my clients want to do the green thing. In the end, it saves them money while making my business more profitable! That message travels by word of mouth and brings me pre-qualified clients.
Improve your soil this fall for for better Lawns, Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables next spring
Improve your soil this fall for for better Lawns, Flowers, Fruits and Vegetables next spring http://ht.ly/pgJSr
It is essential to improve soils before seeding or sodding a lawn. Unimproved soil is a major cause of poor lawn performance or failure. Annual flower beds and vegetable gardens also need continued amendment and will become fertile and productive over the years
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