Last summer CeeBee introduced us to some tips to get started herb gardening, and there are numerous kits available that make herb gardening super-easy.

Growing an herb garden in your kitchen makes green sense in a lot of ways:

1. It's a great way to try your hand at a little gardening without making a big commitment.  The green thumb requirement is pretty low and it makes a great project for kids!

2. With a nice planter they make a great decoration to beautify your kitchen.

3. You can grow one little pot or parsley or a fantastic multi-tiered herb garden like the one pictured.  So regardless of the size of your kitchen you can create an herb garden to suit.

4. The aroma of fresh herbs in your home is fantastic, especially first thing on a lazy Sunday morning.

5. It's so convenient you'll find yourself adding fresh herbs to all of your cooking.  A sprig of parsley here, a little mint there... it's a fun way to jazz up your meals.

6. Herbs aren't just for cooking.  You can also grow your own medicinal herbs or even your own tea garden.

I could go on, but you get the idea.  Now I'll be the first to admit that I would have a hard time keeping a chia pet going, so I'm the type of novice gardener that's looking for some kind of starter set to help me get going.  If you hit the jump you can check out this great site I found called HerbKits.com which carries kits for culinary herbs, tea, medicinal herbs, even kits so you can grow your own salsa veggies or strawberries.

So don't just sit there, get growing!  (oh, haha I crack myself up)

 

» HerbKits.com

You don't have to live on a farm to see the value in conserving water. While we know that the type of grass growing in a given region will vary depending on the climate of the area, there's a new grass in town that can conserve water and energy and save you some money too.

Pearl's Premium was developed by Jackson Madnick as an ultra low maintenance alternative to your typical lawn. The seed blend Madnick created only needs to be mowed once a month, is drought-tolerant thanks to its 12-inch roots and doesn't need to be watered after the first month post-planting. The blend is comprised mostly of fescue, ideal for cooler climates and earth-friendly in that it grows more slowly than the blue grassses that commonly make up most commercial lawns.

Pearl's Premium is available in two different seed mixes: the "Sun Mix" for 50 per cent sun to full sun per day or the original mix, called "Shade Mix," which is ideal for 50 per cent sun or partial to full shade. And for those who prefer their grass stay put, Pearl's Premium doesn't move once planted and won't make its way into your garden or the neighbour's yard.

Pear's Premium can be purchased directly from the official website, at one of Madnick's workshops or at regional Whole Foods stores. Visit the official site after the jump to find out how to get your hands on the product, as well as for workshop schedules and lawn installation instructions.

» Pearl's Premium

Life ain’t easy.  We all want to do the right thing, help the environment, live better lives, and leave the planet in a better state than we found it.  But, when it comes to taking action, things get tricky.  Every time we turn a corner we’re assaulted by conflicting viewpoints about what we should and should not be doing.  From global warming to recycling there are plenty of vocal people on both sides.  With so much dialogue flying past our heads every day it can be hard to cut through to the truth, and especially difficult to figure out how to use that truth to inform our actions.

Today we’re going to take up a topic that concerns most of us: pesticides.  Those unnerving chemicals they’re spraying all over our food.  Often it’s easier to just put this aspect of our grub out of mind.  But, while ignorance might be bliss, an educated perspective can do a much better job of putting you at ease while you chow down on your Cesar salad this evening.

Let’s start with the basics: What are pesticides?  Basically, they’re substances used to affect living organisms.  Your mind might initially rush to the image of a crop duster flying low over a farmer’s field, releasing a mist of chemicals.  That’s one use in modern agriculture, but pesticides have a long history of keeping crops healthy for human consumption.  The earliest recorded was the use of elemental sulfur dusting.  Since then numerous cultures have found ways to keep critters off of their food, making sure sustenance was saved from the insects, and maintained for the humans.

There are plenty of naturally occurring substances that have a history of being used as pesticides: Nicotine, derived from tobacco, was used as an insecticide in the 17th century, and Pyrethrum, derived from chrysanthemums, arrived in the 19th century as another natural pesticide.  

However, just because people have been using pesticides for a long time doesn’t mean that they’re safe, or even that we ought to continue using them.  The idea that something is being put on our raw food in order to keep other living organisms away can easily make us wary when we consider eating it ourselves.  After all, we don’t want to be ingesting poisons in our system.  But, consider what Paracelsus, 14th century thinker, and regarded as the first systematic botanist, said: “All things are poison and nothing is without poison, only the dose permits something not to be poisonous.”  All substances considered toxic are safe at a small enough dose.  All things that we consider safe become toxic if the dose is large enough.  Pain medication, for example, becomes quite dangerous if ten times the recommended dose is consumed.

So, before we get to carried away and start running in terror of anything that’s been sprayed with a pesticide, insecticide, or fungicide, we need to consider the fact that rigorous testing has been done to ensure that the dose being applied is safe for human consumption.  And, as we all know when it comes to pain medication, certain substances can to a lot of good to decrease human suffering and increase quality of life for all.

Some people might rightly point out that some harm has come out of pesticides.  Cancer, the antithesis of the ever popular ‘live, love, laugh’ motto, likes to rear its ugly head whenever it can.  In some cases pesticide residue has the potential to cause cancer in a small number of the public.  But, before we once again begin running in terror, it’s important to look at things in perspective.  In his 2001 book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, Bjorn Lomborg takes up the terrifying view of our future presented by environmentalists, and offers a well researched alternative view.

One of Lomborg’s examples, addressing the use of pesticides, is summed up in Denis Dutotn’s review of the book in the Washington Post:

“Many well-intentioned environmental policies can have surprising outcomes: Suppose minute pesticide residues have the potential to cause cancer in a tiny number of cases -- one estimate would have it around 20 cases per annum in the United States (not very many in a country where 300 people drown in bathtubs every year). So we ban the pesticides. This in turn, Lomborg points out, would sharply drive up the price of cancer-preventing fruits and vegetables. By reducing consumption, especially among the poor, the pesticide ban in the end would cause more cancer (perhaps 26,000 cases annually) than the pesticides would have caused in the first place.”

Every time we hear about a new, or old, issue, we have to be willing to consider it from multiple perspectives.  Pesticides have benefited our society in a number of ways, and while improper use of these substances can be dangerous, correct application can increase our quality of life.  Pesticides help increase food production, which means more nourishment for the plethora of people fighting daily for their meals; they reduce the number of disease carrying insects, leading to a safer environment for all; and they keep meddlesome rodents out of our homes.  The next time you’re hit with a barrage of bad press for one of the helpful pesticides working to increase our food supply, make sure you do your homework before passing judgment.

» Buginfo

If you've seen one lawn you've seen them all right? If you don't look too closely or think much about it, the green (or perhaps brown!) grass covering the front and back of your house probably looks like the countless photos you've seen of other lawns. However, as we learned about golf courses recently, not all grasses are created equal. In fact, most are actually designed with certain considerations in mind.  Think about the climate you live in. Do you get a lot of rain? Are your summers hot and dry? Does it stay humid throughout the winter or do moisture levels and temperatures drop? Chances are, whatever grasses grow in your region have been designed especially to thrive in the conditions that exist in your area and are conditioned to use (or survive) the natural conditions as effectively as possible. 

Use Ecollo-land as an example (otherwise known as Calgary, Alberta). Our winters are cold and extremely dry, while summers can be warm to hot, somewhat windy and still relatively dry. Lawns here are covered in snow for the better part of the year (sometimes even well into the spring months) and rain during the later spring and summer months is sporadic. Therefore, the type of grasses that grow successfully here are drought-tolerant and can handle the extreme weather variations throughout the year.

Some of the grasses you might find grown here include:

Blue Grama - You'll most often find this grass in Alberta, Manitoba and the Rocky Mountains. It can grow in a wide range of soils and topographic positions and are resistant to drought and cold conditions. Described as an "opportunistic" grass, it rapidly uses water when it is available, but becomes dormant in less favorable conditions.

Fescues - Fescues can be anywhere from 10 centimetres tall with fine thread-like leaves to two metres tall with large leaves. They can withstand the effects of drought and since they grow slowly, don't require much mowing.

Buffalo grass - This type of grass is one commonly found on golf courses, since it doesn't require a lot of maintenance or water to survive. It's a North American prairie grass that can still survive whether faced with heat, cool weather or drought. The University of Nebraska is currently working on improving several cultivars to make it more efficient.

Kentucky Bluegrass - The versatility of Kentucky blue grass makes it one of the most popular grasses in North America, and over 100 varieties have been developed in the past 25 years. Despite its name, it can tolerate the cold winters common here, however does not thrive as well in drought as other grasses. It also requires more water than other grasses as its roots are somewhat shallow.

Bermuda grass - Another grass that might be misleading thanks to its name, Bermuda grass grows quickly, can recover from damage and is tolerant to heat and drought. It also doesn't need a lot of water, so researchers have been working to create varieties to use it to phase out grasses that require more of the resource.

There's you quick education about lawns in this area. But enough about us: what about the grass that grows in your region? Could you identify it or the properties that make it suitable for your climate and conditions? If not, hit the jump to learn more about the types of grasses your own lawn may contain.

» AllAboutLawns.com

As the name indicates, community gardens are the gathering of a group of people to garden. That is about as structured as you can get with the description because these community gardens take on many forms, depending of course, on the area in which they are being grown. Some involve large plots on the ground while others may consist of planters on rooftops, or in some cases, they may even be a combination of these. The structure of the garden may also differ. A community garden may be comprised of individual plots, in which each person or family is responsible for their own crops, or they may be communal gardens where the work is shared among community members. The gardens may grow vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers or a combination of these things.

The City of Calgary began a pilot community garden project in 2009, in which communities were invited to apply to be part of. Each group approved for a garden was granted up to $10,000 to support the development of the gardens, which were established on public land. Those in Calgary communities who wish to start a garden at their local community centre are invited to talk to their community association to see if such a project would be supported, and then apply online to participate in the future.

If the process isn't quite this simple or user-friendly in your own community, here are a few ideas for kick-starting your own community garden project:

☆ First, find a group of like-minded individuals who want to participate in the project. Discuss issues such as the type of garden you would like to grow, who the garden will benefit and how the garden will be funded (sponsors are common). This group will form your planning committee.

☆ Next, find the ideal site for your garden. It may be public or private land, so ensure you know who to talk to for permission to start the garden. Make sure the amount of sunlight is adequate, and also conduct a soil test to ensure the proper nutrients are present. You'll also need to consider factors such as the availability of water and the way the land has been used in the past (ie. contaminated land isn't the best spot to choose).

☆ Once you've found the perfect location, begin to prepare it for use. It will need to be cleaned and a more formal plan and layout will need to be designed, including individual plot sizes or communal crop locations, areas for tool and equipment storage, and of course, an area for composting.

...read the rest...

If you currently use the balcony of your apartment for storage, you may not be taking advantage of the aesthetic potential of the space. Instead, keeping your junk up there makes it look - well, junky. It's bad enough that we subject ourselves to basements or secret closets that are full of crap, but now our neighbors are becoming victims of our pack-rat ways.

Homeowners are instead encouraged to think back to the 90s when balconies were miniature retreats where one could relax with a cup of coffee and the newspaper and enjoy surrounding sights - yes, even in a concrete jungle. To achieve this, try turning the space into a "pocket garden" with a few well-placed plants in containers and perhaps a couple of comfortable chairs and maybe even a small table.

The plants should be as low-maintenance as possible. Let's face it, we're all busy and if you don't think you'll have the time to maintain upkeep of a particular plant, don't bother planting it or you'll just end up frustrated when it dies and turns into an ugly, brown shriveled mess. Focus on ones that are easy to water and can withstand heat. Ideal flowers are petunias and geraniums. Bougainvillea vines and their vibrant flowers will thrive in balconies facing south, east or west and even better, can withstand the winter if moved indoors and then put out again next season. Balconies facing the north make good homes for begonias, ferns, lobelia and impatiens. Vegetables and herbs are other great options. Red lettuce and curly endive are known to have calming properties (similar to those of flowers), while basil, oregano, marjoram and dill are useful to have around for cooking.

So what are you waiting for? Grab a coffee (or a margarita) and go enjoy all that your balcony has to offer. You'll probably enjoy it more than your pair of skis will anyway.

» househunting.ca