These are the three R’s of springtime. After a long winter, who doesn’t want a new look for their home? We just showed you some great ways to liven up your bathroom, but we’re not stopping there.
What’s next on our redecorating spree?
Punxsutawney Phil has spoken, and if the groundhog is to be believed, it looks like spring is right around the corner. Time to start thinking about spring flowers?
Last week, Treehugger blogger Sami Grover wrote about a growing movement of people swapping seeds. These folks are planting more than plants and vegetables; they’re committed to biodiversity in their gardens. Many will be meeting up in England for a “Seedy Sunday” this weekend.
But if there’s too much snow on the ground to make it to a seed swap in your area, get started with our brand new wildflower seed bombs. Choose a packet from your region, and you’ll be ready to go with wildflower seeds native suited to your area. Each bag contains 5 seed bombs, plenty to fill your backyard or share with your neighbors.
Originally these bombs were created as a way to revive vacant lots in Cincinnati. But I think they might just revive all of us from the winter blues!
Read on for a full list of seeds included in each set.
So how many of you have bought a grow your own gift, like this Bonsai Forest, for yourself or a friend?
Just last week, Lauren sent me a pic of an UncommonGoods orchid she sent to her grandmother as a gift. Her grandmother has kept it growing three whole years!
Let us know how your plants are growing. And if your plant needs a little help recovering from the holidays (anyone else forget to water their houseplants before leaving on vacation?), don’t hesitate to ask for some gardening tips!
East New York Farms is no regular farm. It is an “urban farm” that was created in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Brooklyn. The organization literally transformed once abandoned lots into beautiful fields of fruits and vegetables. Its farmers are the young people who live in the community. The food they grow is sold at a bi-weekly farmers market, only to residents of East New York at a price they can afford. They also provide workshops and cooking demonstrations to make health eating more accessible.
They hire a small staff a folks who oversee the operations and development of the youth, including my friend Sarita, who is honestly one of the happiest people I know. It is clear to me she is fulfilled by the mission of organization.
I am passionate about this organization, because I too have been transformed by produce. I got interested in cooking ten years ago after discovering a farmers market across the street from my office. I made simple dishes based on quality ingredients, and slowly over time noticed my health improving. I eventually lost 30 lbs and had a number of health conditions clear up. My experience taught me that improving our food is the best way to improve our health.
It’s the unfortunate truth that poorer neighborhoods, like East New York, generally have higher incidents of obesity and diet-related health conditions. And I think a big reason for that is little access to fresh food and less education about the issue.
East New York Farms is the perfect model to address these issues. I encourage your support by voting for ENY Farms on Facebook.
– Ameet Maturu, Online Marketing Manager
In preparation for Compostapalooza, our partnership with Quirky to create the ultimate composting product, we’re running a series of compost education posts. Read up, then put those brainstorming caps on for kick-off on May 17!
I got into composting in 2008. I had never seriously considered doing it until I read the Omnivore’s Dilemma (by Michael Pollan) earlier that year – it helped me understand the food cycle and how throwing organic material into landfill was a lousy solution. Sanitation departments waste a lot of energy, money and land carting away food scraps that could otherwise be enriching the soil.
However, like recycling, composting is more work than just throwing something away, especially if you’re an urban dweller like me. To start with, you have to take the food waste and put it in a separate bin (no big deal). But you also need to cut up the food waste into small pieces to help it break down faster and then put the compostable material into some vessel outdoors. We were lucky to have a few friends and neighbors that were interested in the same thing and were able to convince our building to provide us with an outdoor space to place a compost tumbler.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that our sons knew all about composting from school and were only too happy to tell daddy everything he was doing wrong, which was plenty. There was nothing they enjoyed more than catching me putting compostable material into the trash. I then had to dig through the garbage to find the food scraps and move them to the compost bin. I learned the messy way that tea bags, coffee grounds and egg shells were all fine for composting.
In preparation for Compostapalooza, our partnership with Quirky to create the ultimate composting product, we’re running a series of compost education posts. Read up, then put those brainstorming caps on for kick-off on May 17!
I’ve officially caught the compost bug.
I never thought I’d get much satisfaction from dumping smelly food scraps into a bin of other smelly food scraps. But sometimes I surprise myself.
I now bring my raw food scraps (i.e. fruits, vegetables, egg shells, tea bags) to my neighborhood community garden in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The scraps are then processed into compost that is used to nourish the vegetables and other plants in the garden with essential minerals.
I love the concept of making something useful from something we have no use for. We recycle paper and plastic. Why not food? Food waste accounts for the largest component of our trash each year. Composting also reduces our need for chemically laden fertilizers, most of which are derived from oil. And why pay for something you can get for free?
I store my food scraps in the freezer. That way, you can enjoy the benefits of composting without the stink factor. I then make my weekly trip to the Garden of Union on Saturday morning. I simply look for the marked bin, add my scraps, and cover with sawdust. The sawdust helps keep rodents away and also ensures the proper chemical balance of carbon and nitrogen. And that’s it! I’m doing my part to reduce my footprint, and grow yummy food within my community.
Quirky and UncommonGoods are proud to present… Compostapalooza!
On Monday, May 17th we will be joining forces with Quirky — a social product development company with a great community and fun, innovative products to boot — to create the world’s best composter! We like to think of it as a Compostapalooza!
The mission: to create a useful, interesting, one-of-a-kind composter for indoors, outdoors or both. To enter this crazy earth-lovin’, garbage-hatin’ contest, just complete your submission and post it on Quirky between May 17-26 for a chance to have your design come to life.
Is this mission impossible? Of course not! With composting on the rise across the country, it seems that everybody’s doing it and tons of people have ideas on how to create the ideal composter or at least improve current models.
But, first things first, you gotta get hip to the dirty details of composting. For the skinny on how to compost, what to compost and where to compost, Quirky has you covered. Check out these informative posts on Composting 101.
