Image credit: EmbodyBruce
From
permaculture design principles, to close
mimicry of natural ecosystems, Permaculture is usually taught as a fairly methodical design discipline. But I learned about it somewhat differently. I make no apologies here for my bias in writing about my friend Mike Feingold - teacher, gardener, and co-conspirator who has been introducing the world, and Bristol, England in particular, to permaculture, sustainability and some fantastic varieties of fruit. It's my earnest belief the world could learn a lot from Mike - so I'm delighted to see a video on YouTube that explores his somewhat haphazard, yet incredibly productive, approach to permaculture gardening. It's also a first-hand example of why the
allotment gardens that still pepper every UK town and city are such a vital resource. Read on to learn more. ...
Photo by PinkMoose, via Flickr.
Plants are not all doom and gloom, like when it comes to
volatile organic compounds.
Plants can filter ozone from your indoor air. That's ozone as in smog, a common pollutant floating around in homes and offices, released by copy machines, laser printers and even some indoor air purification systems.
Don't expect an
Ozone Action Day alert at your office. The colorless gas has been linked to
reduced lung function in humans.
But there are ways to cut ozone in your home and office, by taking in a few plants.
Pennsylvania State University researchers recently conducted a study, looking at what three common house plants --- the snake plant, spider plant and golden pothos --- could do for indoor ozone.
Tests in a simulated indoor environment showed that each of the three plants helped deplete levels of ozone in 38 to 120 minutes.
All three species were equally effective.
The results were published in a recent issue of
HortTechnology, a journal of the American Society of Horticultural Science.
More from TreeHugger:
Indoor Air Quality: Causes Of, Testing, and Monitoring Indoor Air Pollution
Laser Printers are a Big Source of Indoor Air Pollution
Bad Green: Some Indoor Plants Release VOCs
...
The Peace Lily. By Paparutzi, via Flickr.
Run for your lives. It turns out that house plants like the Peace Lily may be waging war on your indoor air.
That's a slight exaggeration, but new research published in an American Society for Horticultural Science journal says you should take care when picking house plants....
photo: Chow.com
City slickers giving it all up for life on the farm. It's a romantic reverie for most of us; leaving a 9 to 5 existence for a simpler life with less people, less traffic, and more blue sky. But for Dr. Brent Ridge and his partner, Josh Kilmer-Purcell the purchase of an old estate in Upstate New York and the launch of Beekman 1802 meant the realization of that dream. ...
Image from baltimore magazine.net
Time to call in Sherlock Holmes. Police in Torquay, U.K. are on the hunt for a serial plant attacker. In the run-up to the Torquay Allotments Association annual show an award winning pumpkin was gouged using a pair of secateurs (a gardener's prized weapon). A few weeks earlier some one had sprayed weedkiller on 100 prized dahlias. A bunch of carrots were stolen and others had holes stabbed through their hearts.
Where to start to solve the crime? There are many possible suspects: more than 80 people have allotments there. As one of the
victims said: ""Everyone looks at everyone else with suspicion now. I just don't know who could have done it, but I am sure it was an inside job."
...
Image Credit: OmegaGarden
When I wrote about
marijuana as a possible gateway to farming, I noted that much of the hydroponic supply market seems to be marketed toward, shall we say, recreational growers of certain herbs - and often not very subtly. But as we've seen, hydroponics also has applications in everything from
rooftop agriculture to
integrated backyard aquaponics. But how energy and water efficient is it to grow under lights and without soil? One Vancouver-based company is aiming to optimize the efficiency of hydroponics with these rotary hydroponic ferris wheels. And they are marketing themselves firmly to the urban farming crowd, before you ask.
...
Image credit: Sami Grover (the tomato!), and The Seedbank (with help from CBay on photoshop).
I was in a local gardening shop the other day that specializes in hydroponics. I noticed that many of the plant foods and other products were being marketed to, shall we say, a certain herbalist demographic. (Don't ask me how I know - I just do.) Yet much of the interest on TreeHugger around this subject relates, on the surface at least, to
hydroponics for growing your own food,
hydroponic rooftop agriculture,
backyard aquaponics - even
commercial scale aquaponics. So this got me wondering - could illicit cultivation of marijuana be used to excite folks about growing food to feed the world? ...
photo: Ecoscapes Sustainable Landscaping
Most couples toast to 50 years with a nice bottle of champagne, flowers, or maybe a weekend away. But not the Wolks, instead they chose to mark the occasion with a
rain garden block party. See why their anniversary will not soon be forgotten....
Images from La Finca del Sur
Deep in the South Bronx in New York, sandwiched between railroad tracks and an expressway, is a community garden that is raising pride as well as vegetables.
Called
La Finca Del Sur/South Bronx, it's an "urban farmer cooperative run by women of color in the Bronx community." These volunteers and community groups are turning three acres of scruffy marginal land into an urban farm complete with farmers' market, children's programmes and performance space. ...
Image credit: Tao of Change
When I wrote about Carrboro, NC based
Goat Patrol landscaping, while being generally positive about the concept, I did ask about the carbon footprint of moving a bunch of goats around. Anonymous told me in no uncertain terms that I was (again) throwing my
"negative what-ifs at a positively alternative idea by asking a useless hypothetical question." Never having thought of myself as a nay sayer, I thought I should contact
the Goat Patrol to get their take on the transportation question. Here's what they had to report.
...
Murray Isman, Ph.D., of the University of British Columbia, is developing essential oil pesticides to offer better pest control on organic farms. Photo by Martin Dee, University of British Columbia, via the American Chemical Society.
Some delicious herbs and spices may be the key to
natural pest control on organic farms, according to researchers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
Dubbed "killer spices" and "essential oil pesticides" by researchers, the
essential oils of clove, mint, rosemary and thyme can be mixed together several different ways and diluted in water to create a spray that either detracts or kills pest insects, but is safe for farmers to handle and consumers to ingest. ...
Image from Globe & Mail
It turns out that former Canadian prime minister
Joe Clark is a treehugger--who knew? He is involved in a controversial project in Ghana to reclaim dead trees that have been submerged under water for years. These trees--ebony, teak, mahogany and other tropical hardwood--are hidden deep in the waters of Lake Volta and could be worth $1,500 to $2,500 each. They have been preserved by the lack of oxygen in the lake water.
According to a story in the
Globe & Mail, the controversy stems from the divided views of the populace over the damage that the project will cause to fishing and the environment--or not, according to the varying points of view.
...
Regent's Canal is a wilderness in an urban setting. The 8 1/2 mile long canal cuts through the northern part of London and passes through a varied mixture of wildlife and urban regeneration. Established in 1816, the canals were used to transport goods long distances, with horses pulling narrow boats along the waterways. A series of locks were built to connect the waterways at different levels.
Now it is a wonderful way to experience nature, wild and tamed, in the heart of a city. Baby coots make their way with their mother along the waterway.
...
Image credit: Wild Seed
Lloyd has reported before on the
return of the scythe, and there is also a
scythe revival underway in the UK - and there was TreeHugger Mike thinking he was all cutting edge for being a
push mower addict. Scything is undoubtedly a dangerous looking business though - but UK-based newbies wanting a little help can head down to London this weekend for a day long course from Scything expert Simon Farlie. ...
The
original urban wheat field was planted in New York in 1982 and has become the first real example of serious ecological art. Somehow the contradiction between the urban and the farm and the connections with food and its production struck a note.
In homage to this event, an
urban wheat field was planted in an abandoned plot in an edgy part of London in July. We visited it at the end of its life, this week. Keeping in mind that it has been a rainy and sunless month, the field was flourishing, but looking like it was ready to be harvested....
Plant DNA 'barcodes' can help identify plants quickly and easily, without requiring an on-site visual ID from a botanist. Photo by Victoria Porter via Flickr.com.
After four years of research, scientists have decided on a standard 'DNA barcode' for identifying plants. It sounds cool, if you like science (which I do), but is it perhaps one of those findings that's great if you're a researcher, but pretty much useless to the rest of the world? Well, no.
According to a
BBC article, DNA barcodes can be used to investigate illegal trade of
endangered plant species....
Image from National Trust
Purists
sneered at this garden made out of plasticine when it was first exhibited at the
Chelsea Flower Show. Designed by the star of Top Gear, James May, it offended the sensibilities of the traditionalists who believe only real flowers and gardens belong in the show.
But the last laugh is for car-loving May: not only did the "garden" win a gold (plasticine) medal at Chelsea, but it is now on display at a stately home in the English countryside, as part of the National Trust's "
Food Glorious Food"
campaign. What is going on here?...
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the
if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
on 11. 3.09
Image credit: 
Image credit: 
Meet the gardeners... Image credit: 
