Saving your own seeds for the eco-friendly gardener

Every gardener will know that feeling twice a year when the seed catalogs begin to come through the mail! Spending hours perusing the pages of lovely vegetables, especially in the winter months when the Summer season lays ahead and photo's of succulent homegrown tomatoes and eggplants fill the pages, or as we gardeners call it - garden porn! But really is buying seeds the only way to go? Naturally we can purchase organic non-GMO seeds from sustainable seed growers but how can we gardeners get more eco-friendly? By saving our own seeds and making ourselves more self-sufficient.

Vermicomposting

We discussed regular composting in a previous post, but what about those of us with small gardens? or a patio garden? Where we don't have room for a full compost pile, how do those of us with a small garden reduce our waste? Or those of us with big gardens that just want to do more? Well how about trying vermicomposting? That's worm composting! It's really easy to start composting with worms and unless you plan on investing in a specific vermicomposting system it can in fact be done with items you probably already have in your home, it just takes a little time and some worms!

A yurt?

green gardening - compost

If you're a gardener then you'll know that store bought compost or top soil costs a pretty penny and is virtually impossible to find NOT in a plastic bag. Whether you buy a small or large bag those plastic bags soon mount up and waste valuable natural resources and usually the bags end up in the landfill, so why not try composting at home instead? Composting is an extremely eco-friendly activity. Not only is it free to do and easy to maintain but you also get an end result which means less out of pocket costs for your household. Also by composting you'll find that your trash output is lowered considerably, which is another plus for the environment!

Gardening goes Green - pots & containers

Every eco-conscious gardener knows that it's virtually impossible to avoid plastic when gardening. Whether on your gardening tools, plant stakes, plant labels or plant pots plastic is everywhere no matter what garden center you visit. This week I thought we'd share some eco-friendly alternatives to those store bought plastic pots!

Easy seed starters
For starting seeds try egg boxes, newspaper pots and starting seeds in toilet roll tubes. All of these work well for small seeds, but beware, being made from paper/cardboard they do soak up a lot of water this can lead to problems with over/under watering which can cause issues with either plants ...

Flowers for valentines day

According to studies by Hallmark 32% of US households will choose to celebrate Valentines day by sending flowers. 73% of flowers are bought by men, and just 27% are by women, and 22% purchase flowers for themselves. Valentines and Mother's Day are head to head in 2nd place for the biggest bloom festivities, second to the Christmas holidays. Roses are the most commonly purchased flower for Valentines day and the most traditional. But whether plastic or real let's look at the environmental impact of purchasing those floral bouquets for your loved ones!

Plastic
Any ...

Sustainable seeds

Gardening has seen an increase in the last year and especially food gardening. The downturn in the economy coupled with the food poisoning scares have people thinking more about their food and where it comes from but there is more we need to be aware of when purchasing seeds for gardening. Not all seeds are created equal for the eco-conscious consumer, and if you are ready to dig in (pardon the pun) to gardening for food then there are certain 'green' aspects to consider.

Organic
More and more consumers are looking for organic fruits ...

Homegrown in all sizes!

Last week I mentioned how we changed part of our garden into a vegetable garden, easy if you are just converting lawn to garden but what about those of you that don't have enough space? Well not to worry there is plenty you can still do to lessen your impact on the planning rather than buying industrially produced food. You can grow food in containers! Whether you use existing containers, seek out containers on freecycle, craigslist etc or borrow from friends containers are useful gardening tools even if you already have an existing garden, more is always better!

Homegrown is greener

I say started my eco journey about 2 years ago but realistically it's always been something I've thought about and wanted to embrace the lifestyle, I guess I just started making more of a concerted effort about 2 years ago. That's when I watched a movie on youtube about the Dervaes family in Pasedena, Southern California (about 50 miles from where I live), who grows 80% of their food in their own garden! All that on a regular sized lot? Well their garden didn't happen overnight so I wasn't expecting miracles, we already had a couple of citrus trees, but what else could I grow? Well that was the start of my food garden ...

Recycling the holiday trees

Well the Holiday season is almost over and it's time to start thinking about taking down the decorations. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, over 33 million real Christmas trees are sold in North America every year and Christmas tree recycling helps return a renewable resource back to the environment. Many waste collection companies offer free holiday tree recycling programs so check out your local resources to see if yours offers a Christmas tree recycling program. My own refuse collection company is Waste Management and they offer free tree recycling within the two week period from 26 December  to January 9th.