There are many ways to compost, so I think I will just mention a few and post some links.
You can build your own compost bin out of pallets or fencing, or you can buy a compost barrel. The barrels usually have some sort of built-in turning system that makes it much easier to keep the compost moving along. Here are some pictures of both types, and some links to several articles and websites.
It’s really easy to see the benefits, so I thought we’d look at that first.
There are many environmental benefits. It has the amazing ability to regenerate poor soils. The micro-organisms break down the organic material to create extremely nutrient-rich humus. Compost is also able to clean-up contaminated soil; it absorbs odors and volatile organic compounds. It also traps heavy metals preventing their getting into the water. By using compost it is like organic recycling. The soil will improve which will enhance your garden produce, making them healthier for you.
Now, however, it’s time to take a moment to look at the disadvantages of composting.
Composting takes time. You’ve got to be willing to collect, pile, and turn you waste. It also requires at least some amount of land, somewhere to pile your compost and allow it to age. It takes a good deal of labor too. If it is not done properly compost can have a disagreeable odor, but this can usually be remedied by adding more carbon material. Depending on what you put into your compost pile, it can also attract animals. This obviously isn’t usually the most beneficial thing that could happen for your compost.
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Compost is organic material that can be used to amend the soil or even as a growth medium. It is a way to organically rid yourself of the kitchen and yard waste. After a period of decomposing and aging, the compost turns into a wonderful material that can be used on your garden. Compost drastically helps eliminate the need for other fertilizers as it puts natural nutrients back into the soil. However, there are some disadvantages to composting. We’ll look at this subject more in the next few days.
Many countries are experiencing water shortages, and, according to the UN, even more are expected to by 2025. So, with that in mind, is it really worth catching the rain? Those facing the shortages would certainly say so! The average American individual uses 100 gallons of water or more every day. Take that and compare it to the average African family that uses only 5 gallons a day!
Yet there is still another aspect that would be worth looking into: there is always the same amount of water in the world. So, the water just circulates and lands in different areas, causing some to have too little and some to have too much. When the time comes for your area to experience too little, it sure would be nice to have some sort of system in place to catch what little rain comes your way.
Time to tie in the cisterns again. They are an excellent way to hold excess rainwater. Though historically they have been kept underground in order to keep the water at a more constant temperature, with modern technology there is absolutely no reason why you couldn’t have an above-ground cistern almost as easily as you can have an above-ground swimming pool! Cisterns keep every pollutant out of the water except the contaminants that are already in the water itself, so that water is actually probably cleaner than normal fluoridated city-water. The water that is caught can be filtered, cleaning it even more, and used for small-load places such as hunting lodges and weekend getaways that are only used every now and then.
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We slightly touched on the topic of a “green” garden in this post. We mentioned the importance of truly organic gardening, and gave the reasons for avoiding the big companies. We also told about the fuel and grocery savings when you have your own in this article. So now I wanted to write about the amazingly aesthetic and flavorful benefits of an organic garden, and how you can be a part of an organic garden indirectly.
Can you ever drive by a beautiful, thriving garden and not think about how good the corn and beans taste? What about your grandparents? Wasn’t all the food out of their garden so much more flavorful than the exact same thing from the grocery store? That is because the fresh produce from the grocery store has to be able to be shipped all across the country or even world! Sometimes the produce is even harvested way before it’s ripe because it will ship better that way. Obviously this does nothing beneficial for the flavor. With the rising fuel prices the fresh section’s prices are also soaring. This is something you can help by growing your own. It doesn’t really matter, if you’re only going for flavor and savings, if you don’t know how to grow anything. Buy a couple of tomato plants down at the local co-op and water them well. Allow the tomatoes to get good and red before you pick them; almost nothing beats fresh, homegrown tomatoes. Of course, being if you’re going for a “green” garden, you can’t do this. The seed you use must be heirloom, so that you can save them for next year’s garden. And, obviously, you must save them! This is ultimately the best option, in my opinion, but there are a lot of things to learn in taking a step like that if you’ve never done a garden that way before.
I mentioned being a part of an organic garden indirectly earlier. This is another way to get delicious produce without actually doing the work yourself. Farmers markets are great for every-now-and-then customers, but if you love a variety fresh veggies all the time a CSA is the way to go. CSA is a Community Supported Agriculture. Most are vegetables, but some, where the laws allow, have farm raised meat too. Each week the operators of the CSA will put together a box or basket of the produce that is fresh that week. Granted you probably don’t have as much say in what you get like picking things out at a farmer’s market; instead you buy shares in the farm, and then pick your box up at an appointed time. Here is a good article about a new CSA explaining how it works. Here is their website.
Let’s take a few minutes to look at this aspect of gardening. First, glance at the interstate. What do you see? Despite the rising fuel costs there is little change from when fuel was reasonably priced. There are still a lot of cars, probably more SUVs, and tons of semi trucks. Focus in on the semis for a second. Now think, many of those semis are bringing in grocery items from various parts of the country and world. There are, in my opinion, at least two things wrong with this picture: 1) the food they often truck in is not the best quality, it’s nothing like you can grow; 2) diesel exhaust accounts for approximately 26% of the total hazardous pollution in the air, and 66% of the particulate pollution from on-road pollution. Those truck create noise and smog; they’re just not good for us or our environment. One way that we can do our part in not contributing to bringing those big trucks through our area is to buy locally grown produce from local suppliers. By reducing the demand it is conceivable that the trucks, who bring in the supply for the demand, will drastically reduce also.
Okay, so you don’t really want to pay the higher prices for the premium produce from the farmer’s market. How are you going to do your part? There’s that ugly patch of nothingness out in the back landscaping. Why don’t you turn that spot of uselessness into a lushious garden that gives you top-notch vegetables for not much more that your labor? This would be the best option because you would, at the same time, not demand anything from the suppliers who use the semis to truck the produce in, and reduce your own air pollution by not going to the grocery store or even the local farmer’s market. I would imagine that if you had a green roof this would also be a wonderful area to transform into a productive garden. Gardening can be very therapeutic. You can pull up weeds when you angry, and watch the plants grow when your meditative. They’re a great way to work out stress.
We had looked at green roofs and root cellars pretty well recently, so I think that this topic comes in quite seamlessly. Gardening is an excellent way to save on energy. Growing your own food would save a good bit of money both in the fuel it takes to get to the market and in the produce you would normally buy there. How extensive your garden is is entirely up to you, the amount you feel capable of handling, and how much space you have available both for the garden itself as well as the area for the food you decide to preserve.
If a garden is going to be truly “green” it should be based on heirloom varieties and utilize “organic” methods. If the garden is not primarily heirloom and “oraganic”, then it is necessarily connected to gigantic seed and chemical companies. These companies do not have a policy of protecting our environment through the production of good seed and safe chemicals. their policy is instead one of profit. They will sell whatever as long as it rakes in a bundle of money. As I thought about this article I took a look at one very major seed company and its policies. There are fears that this company has too much influence in the government and that it is developing “Terminator” seeds. Terminator seeds are those that cannot be saved. The mature plant develops seeds, but the seeds are unable to complete the natural cycle and grow into mature plants. This is feared by many because of its potential to completely wipe out the small farmer who has been growing and saving his own seed for generations. There is even a campaign that is completely against this seed company.
This is another reason for doing your own gardening. You are able to control what seed you are able to use and what chemicals you apply. It would be a major step in both personal and even national security if people would once more turn to gardening for their food supply. It makes complete sense that the more food products we import the more we make ourselves vulnerable to subversive attack. Just think for a minute, we import food from hostile countries as a political move. That is endangering the entire country by opening it up to any sort of poisoning that the hostile country could come up with. The inspections that the food undergoes is not perfect, and all the hostile country would have to do is come up with a new type of lethal poisoning that the inspections would not catch and they’d have the whole country in its power. We’ve got the same thing going on here in the food industry as we do in the oil industry! Think national security and personal protection, people! Pull your head out of the lion’s mouth quickly before he decides to bite!
Green walls are full of benefits! They have the obvious benefits of attracting attention which could turn into business and then there’s the aesthetic benefit. Of course people would rather look at greenery than concrete; in this way, it may even have a psychological benefit. There’s also the environmental benefits: adding organic life to a sterile environment helps alleviate polluted run-off and improves the air quality. This is just a few of the benefits of living walls.
Here are several links to more information about green walls:
Green Walls, also known as vertical gardens, living walls, and biowalls, are typically composed of three parts:
The metal frame can be mounted onto an existing wall or free-standing. A 1 centimeter-thick layer of PVC is then attached to the frame. This adds rigidity as well as waterproofing. Then a layer of polyamide felt is stapled to the PVC. The felt gives good water distribution; the roots of the plants grow on the felt.
There are two main categories in green walls: green facades, and living walls. Green facades are usually climbing plants growing either directly on the wall or on specially design structures. Living walls are made up of pre-vegetated panels attached to a wall. These walls can be put up anywhere as long as there is access to artificial light, water, and fertilizer. The walls are watered from the top, and the watering and fertilizing are usually automated.
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This is another green roof category. It is not as common, and there is not a whole lot about it out there, so I thought I’d mainly do some linking. The best summary of semi-intensive green roofs that I have come across is: “This combines the benefits of lower maintenance and accessibility to the green roof area.”
Here are the links:
These are not nearly so labor-intensive as intensive green roofs. They do still need occasional maintenance, such as: irrigation during extreme drought, weeding until the plants become well established, and occasional application of fertilizers. Extensive green roofs are usually installed more for environmental benefits rather than for the enjoyment of the general public.
The soil depth for extensive green roofs is much shallower than most intensive green roof: 3″ to 7″ as opposed to 8″ to 4′. Because of the extreme conditions of many roofs the plants for extensive roofs are typically low growing and very drought and sun tolerant. The plant foliage is usually 2″ to 6″ long and designed to provide maximum ground cover, water retention, erosion resistance, and respirative transpiration of moisture.
Click on the thumbnail for larger view of the diagram.
These roofs can be installed over various roofs, but it must first be inspected to ensure that it can bear the load of a green roof. If it is installed on a flat roof another layer must be added to drain the excess water away from the root zone. The best roof slope for extensive green roofs is between 5 degrees and 20 degrees, but, if a grid system is used, they can also be installed on slopes up to 45 degrees.
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In general, there are two types of green roof: intensive and extensive. Occasionally a third, semi-intensive, is added to that list. The depth of the planting medium and the amount of maintenance required determines which category the roof falls under.
Generally intensive roofs are characterized by thick soil (8 inches to 4 feet), heavy weights, and elaborate plantings. The plants usually include shrubs and trees. Rooftop ponds, incorporated into the overall design, would also fall under this category. Intensive green roofs are installed primarily over concrete roof decks to enable them to withstand the weight requirements. The roof needs to be able to support from 80 to 150 pounds per square foot.
Intensive green roofs require significant maintenance, but they are beautiful. These are what generally come to mind when you mention green roofs in the city. They are usually park-like and accessible to the general public.
Green roofs, also known as eco-roofs, vegetated roofs, living roofs, and greenroofs, are becoming increasingly popular, although the market is weak and still underdeveloped in North America. They incorporate high quality waterproofing, root repellent system, drainage system, filter cloth and lightweight growing medium to make an economically sound, and psychologically easing environment right in the middle of the city. Rooftop ponds are another form of green roofs. These are often used to treat greywater. Vegetation planted in containers on the roof are not considered true green roofs, but there is some debate in this area.
Overall, green roofs are expected, when build and maintained properly, to increase the roofs life span two or three times! However, they do have much higher structural demands than traditional roofs; not all buildings can be retrofitted with green roofs.
These roofs can retain up to 75% of the rain water and gradually release it back into the atmosphere. This significantly cuts down on the pollution that goes back into the surrounding ecosystem. Installing a green roof isn’t cheap. The cost is five to thirty-five dollars a square foot and more. There are many benefits though. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing, but it also reduces sound, and can reduce your summer cooling and winter heating losses by 26%!
Proper shading can significantly reduce the load on your air conditioning unit, thus reducing the expenses too, in the summer months. Here are a few ways to landscape with efficient air conditioning in mind:
Landscaping can be purely aesthetic, or you can turn your design into something that will work for you as well as being a beautiful addition to your home.
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Windbreaks are very important to your home’s energy consumption; they can reduce winter fuel expenditure by up to 25 percent! Several things determine the effectiveness of the windbreak:
Where and how the windbreak is placed: Obviously this plays a large part in the effectiveness of your windbreak. In most areas of the United States the prevailing winter winds are from the north and northwest, so every effort should be made to plant your windbreak with that in mind. The break should be placed at a right angle, or a u-shape, along the north and west sides of your house. The tallest row of trees should be closest to the building, but without being close enough to crush it.
The number of rows in your windbreak: While one row is good, more is better. Wind may be slightly diverted or slowed by one row of trees, but if it has to go through more it will be much more effective. If you have more than one row the trees should be staggered for an even better windbreak.
The types of plants: White pines are a common tree for windbreaks because they grow fast. However, as they mature they begin to thin out their lower branches which, as I mentioned in the previous article, isn’t good. If used with another type of tree or shrub , though, they can be very effective. In general, you want a dense tree that grows quickly and matures about 50 percent taller than the house. Before you plant any single variety be sure that it will grow well in your area. When there is not enough room for trees as a windbreak vines can be used instead. Clinging vines work well for masonry walls, but you’ll have to use trellised vines for walls with wood siding.
Having said all this, it is ever important to consider your own microclimate. It may be that your piece of land has an unusual layout, and its prevailing winds come from the south. Or maybe the land is a bit swampy and evergreen trees don’t grow very well in your area. Try to read your land and work with it, not against it. Everything will grow better and be more effective in the end.
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Smart landscaping can dramatically reduce your heating and cooling costs. However, there are several things to take into consideration when designing.
Climate: Even among different climates there are a couple of common things you can do:
Still, climate is something you need to consider. If you’re in a cool climate you may not want as much shade, even in the summer, but if you’re in a hot-humid climate you’ll probably want all the shade you can get in the summer. (More information on specific climates here.)
Microclimate: This is the plot of land where your house is situated. Taking this into consideration is almost more important than your regional climate; it will help determine what and how you plant.
Shading: This is especially important to consider if you’re in hot-humid, and arid climates; 
however, it’s important wherever you are. Shading the roof and windows will help the air conditioning load on your home. Vines on lattices can help shade windows, and groundcover can cool the ground and pavement around the house so the air isn’t so hot when it hits the walls and windows.
Windbreaks: Windbreaks can effectively reduce the wind chill. They are also a good idea if your home is air conditioned all summer and your climate has warm winds. The best types block wind close to the ground.