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1. Cloth Napkin Pros - Green Home Reusable Cloth Napkins
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2. Mission Motors: Battery Tech Holds Key to Mass Market
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3. Konarka Raises $5M for Thin-Film Solar
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4. Where in the heck can you find cloth napkins?
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5. Daily Sprout
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6. San Francisco City CarShare Considering Think EV?
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7. DOE Chief Chu to Push for Smart Grid Standards
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8. Solar Shakeout Under Way, Serious Oversupply to Come, Report Says
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9. Swedish McDonald's to Charge EVs
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10. Our 10 Green:Net Startups That Are Using Infotech to Fight Climate Change
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11. San Francisco to Install Coulomb Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
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12. My family (and maybe your family) are killing trees in one fast swoop
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13. Sustainable Paper for Your Home Office
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14. Summer Rayne Oakes: The Invisible Green Girl's Highly-Visible Guide to Sustainable Fashion
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15. Early Organic Gardening Planning - Fast Green Gardens
Cloth Napkin Pros - Green Home Reusable Cloth Napkins
jchait - Home & Garden
This week we’re taking a look at cloth napkins. So far we’ve discussed basics of why you need to use cloth napkins, and looked at some places where you can get some for your home.
Now for some pros:
- Cloth napkins feel better and work better than paper napkins.
- Cloth napkins are very cost efficient. Even if you buy a super nice set, cloth napkins will still save you money over paper napkins.
- Cloth napkins are much healthier for the earth than paper napkins or paper towels. Paper napkins not only create waste because they’re made with paper, but they also come in wasteful packaging, take gas to ship, and are extremely hard to recycle.
- Cloth napkins last forever and serve other purposes. While paper napkins are a use and toss product, cloth napkins can be used to death, then switched over to cleaning rags. I still have good cloth napkins from over five years ago. My now scrappy and unusable napkins are used for dusting and cleaning. Pretty soon they're going to biodegrade right at my house they're used so much.
- Cloth napkins are NOT that much more work. To keep them looking good throw them in a wash when you do a load of cold delicate items. If you don’t care if they lose a little color, toss them in with any load of laundry.
- Cloth napkins, contrary to popular belief are still better for the environment than paper, even though it takes water and energy to wash them. Cloth napkins are so small - even if you have a big family, cloth napkins will only run you about one load of wash per week. If you wash on cold, hang dry, and use eco-friendly laundry soap, they just don’t add up to the same eco-badness as paper napkins.
Are you still using paper napkins?
Mission Motors: Battery Tech Holds Key to Mass Market
Josie Garthwaite - Startups
It’s crazy fast and eerily quiet. That’s the gist of what attendees at last week’s TED summit in Southern California learned about the Mission One electric motorcycle unveiled by San Francisco-based startup Mission Motors. I spoke with the company’s chief operating officer, Jit Bhattacharya, this afternoon to learn more about where Mission Motors is heading — and how it plans to get there.
The big dream? Have commuters riding electric motorcycles as an everyday form of transportation within a decade. But here’s the bottom line: As an angel-funded startup that reportedly only has enough capital to last six months and a motorcycle priced at nearly $69,000 (only about $11,000 less than the extended-range electric Fisker Karma sports car), the ride could be a bumpy one for Mission Motors.
So the company is taking it slow, starting with an initial run of 50 motorcycles, and plans to work on 250 standard-edition bikes the following year. Bhattacharya said the idea is to set a new performance standard for electric motorcycles with these high-end models before taking aim at the lower-end commuter market — similar to the route Tesla Motors mapped out back in 2007.
With electric cars, battery packs have to be much bigger and heavier (read: costlier) than packs for motorcycles in order to carry all that steel. That makes it harder to drive down the cost. But Mission Motors has to deal with the challenges of cooling and balanced weight distribution in a much tighter space on two wheels. It also needs capital. Bhattacharya said the company will likely seek a new round of financing before anything can roll off the assembly line, adding that it will take less than $50 million to get manufacturing up and running.
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Konarka Raises $5M for Thin-Film Solar
David Ehrlich - Big Green
Massachusetts showed its appreciation for local solar startup Konarka today with $5 million in financing for manufacturing and job creation in the state. Konarka officially opened its first thin-film manufacturing plant in New Bedford, Mass., last October, but the company has yet to announce the start of commercial production at the facility. This latest funding — a long-term loan from the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency and the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust — could be a sign that Konarka is getting ready to ramp up its operations — finally.
Konarka has said it plans to hire more than 100 people as it boosts production over next few years. The new plant, which used to be an advanced printing plant for the now-bankrupt Polaroid, will have a production capacity of 1 gigawatt per year when its fully operational.
Spun out from the University of Massachusetts in 2001, Konarka has racked up an impressive list of investors — including oil companies Chevron and Total — raising over $150 million in financing, as well as $20 million in government grants in the U.S. and Europe.
Konarka is already sending samples out to customers from its pilot manufacturing line in Lowell, Mass., where it’s headquartered, and a spokeswoman told us that the company plans to start shipping its first products from the New Bedford plant around the end of the first quarter or the beginning of the second quarter of this year.
The solar markets have not been kind in recent months. Many have cut staff and delayed plants. Earlier this month, thin-film competitor HelioVolt pushed back its own plans for volume production, saying it won’t be shipping its commercial solar material until at least early 2010. And Konarka and the other thin-film startups still have to go up against the 800-pound gorilla in the room — Tempe, Ariz-based First Solar, the largest manufacturer of thin-film solar modules in the world.
But things could be looking up for the solar industry with President Barack Obama signing the stimulus plan yesterday, which includes plenty of cash for clean energy.
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Where in the heck can you find cloth napkins?
jchait - Home & Garden
In the last post I had myself a little rant about how My family (and maybe your family) are killing trees in one fast swoop. I.E the cloth napkin vs. paper napkin rant. In any case, there are loads of cloth napkins on the market. AND they’re at all price ranges. There is no reason ever to use paper.
Where are all the cloth napkins…
- Thrift stores.
- Department stores.
- Trendy eco-stores.
- Antique sales.
- Ask for them on your wedding (or other) registry.
- Make some.
Some options…
$14.99 Bardwil Cobblestone 17-inch By 17-inch Set of 4 Napkins, Barley (other colors available).
Sew Your Own Cloth Napkins with Mitered Corners
From $38 per set - 100% Organic Cotton Napkins - In Prints
From $38 per set 100% Organic cotton napkins - in solids
diy: cloth napkins - really cute ones.
$13.99 - Ecolution Hemp Napkins - set of 2
Set of 5 Napkins: $22.95 - FUN for kids - from Fabkins - all sorts of cute kids cloth napkins. Many designs and colors.
You can score great deals at department store sales and thrift stores though. The only downside is that you may not be able to find organic.
Daily Sprout
Josie Garthwaite - Misc
Stimulus Sweepstakes: — The stimulus package may revive the fortunes of OptiSolar, Abengoa and other renewable energy companies stalled by the financial crisis, but the clock is ticking. — Fortune’s Green Wombat
Getting Smart with Biofuels: Key policy reforms can accelerate the transition to cellulosic feedstocks for biofuels and give them an important role in curbing climate change, according to a new report from the Sierra Club and Worldwatch Institute. — Press Release
U.S. to Get the Whip: RTEV’s Wheego Electric Cars plans to launch a U.S. dealer network. To start, it wants 50 dealers selling the Whip, a low-speed neighborhood electric vehicle. — AutoblogGreen
Mighty Microbes: Researchers at MIT think bacteria can help build better biofuels, clean up the atmosphere, and make biodegradable plastics and textiles. — MIT News
And the Winners Are: The Uptime Institute has named the corporations that made the cut for this year’s Global Green 100 list, which highlights energy efficiency achievements by major data center operators. Among the honorees: Accenture, Apple, Dell, Google, Halliburton and Mitsubishi Motors. — Press Release
San Francisco City CarShare Considering Think EV?
Katie Fehrenbacher - City CarShare
We were so excited about the news that City CarShare would be getting a new plug-in Prius in San Francisco that we logged into our account this afternoon to see when the car would be available. Once there, we discovered a list of cars that will supposedly be available for City CarShare customers in conjunction with the “Green Vehicle Showcase,” a group of green cars that the city of San Francisco is showing off near City Hall. Among the City CarShare vehicles listed in the showcase is the Think EV (see image below), which would be unusual, given that Think doesn’t appear to yet be selling its electric vehicles in North America. Then again, the company had been planning to offer its first vehicles to city fleets.
But when we chatted with City CarShare spokesperson Anita Daley, she said the inclusion of the Think EV and some of the other cars in the Green Vehicle Showcase was the result of a glitch that exposed the backend database; City CarShare does not currently have a Think EV in its possession. It had one several years ago (when Ford made them for the U.S. market), she said, but gave it up when the line was recalled. Daley did add, however, that City CarShare is considering a variety of new yet-to-be announced plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles (beyond the plug-in Prius announced this morning) and that it will be offering those sometime soon.
We’re not sure if the software glitch on City CarShare’s site means that it will be getting one of the new Think EVs. A couple hours later CityCar Share changed the Green Vehicle Showcase to feature just the one plug-in Prius that it announced this morning. But it would make sense that City CarShare would be considering adding a Think EV to its fleet, especially since the new Thinks, which are due to be sold in the U.S. sometime this year, were meant to be handed out to cities looking to green their fleets.
But the glitch made us wonder, will the Think EV’s actually be available in the U.S. this year? The Norwegian electric car maker Think created a 50-50 joint venture called Think North America with venture firms Kleiner Perkins and RockPort Capital Partners, and announced that partnership last April. But all of that was before Think ran into financing trouble earlier this year — yikes!
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
DOE Chief Chu to Push for Smart Grid Standards
Josie Garthwaite - Big Green
The electricity grid can only get so smart without a framework for interoperability; a common protocol would make it easier for utilities, appliances and software to share data about energy use and supply — in other words, it would help put the “smart” in smart grid. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said today that devising a workable one is among his top priorities. “I want to get standards for the smart grid out there,” the Nobel Prize-winning physicist said in a call with reporters. Utilities need confidence that grid investments won’t become obsolete if the protocol of choice changes in a few years, he said.
His comments came just a few hours after Chu ignited buzz over a possible shift in the role of the Secretary of Energy: At the National Electricity Delivery Forum this morning in Washington, D.C., Chu said OPEC is “not my domain,” although it has been very much the domain of past energy secretaries. As Reuters explains, they have typically communicated U.S. stances on oil prices and met regularly with ministers from OPEC’s member nations.
Chu gave smart grid standards as an example of energy issues in the domestic arena, which he sees as the agency’s primary focus. Other priorities include finding ways to clean up coal power generation (the agency is “looking very hard” at carbon capture and storage technologies), generally “planting the long-term seeds for research,” and streamlining the application and distribution process for DOE loan guarantee programs.
The task of actually implementing an interoperability framework falls to the National Institute for Standards and Technology. The stimulus package that President Obama signed yesterday includes $10 million for NIST to collect input from groups like the GridWise Architecture Council) and start building a framework “that includes protocols and model standards for information management to achieve interoperability of smart grid devices and systems,” as EETimes reports.
So when it comes to launching standards, Chu’s primary runway will be funding utility-run smart grid programs and pilot projects. If he thinks like smart grid company Trilliant’s Chief Solutions Officer, Eric Miller, he’ll fight to get technology out of the lab and into the field. “We’re past the point of R&D here, but Washington doesn’t seem to see that,” Miller said to Ars Technica recently. “The perception is a little behind reality here.”
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Solar Shakeout Under Way, Serious Oversupply to Come, Report Says
Josie Garthwaite - Energy
There has been no shortage of projections that this will be a dark year for the solar market. Lux Research forecast nearly a year ago that solar supply would exceed demand in 2009. Last fall, the firm reiterated its prediction and said it expected margins to become increasingly difficult, with the weakest players either failing or being acquired. And in December, the Information Network said it anticipated global growth in the solar market to slow to 26 percent in 2009, down from 48 percent last year. We’ve been approaching the tipping point for awhile now, and according to the latest research from Lux, the solar market is finally tumbling over — with a push from the global economy.
“While oversupply in the solar market has been looming for some time, the correction has been more aggressive due to the economic crisis,” Lux senior analyst Ted Sullivan said in a release this morning. At this point, Sullivan and his team expect cell and module capacity to reach 10.4 GW, outpacing demand nearly twofold. The overall market will shrink to $29 billion and 5.3 GW, down from $36 billion and 5.5 GW in 2008, according to the Lux report.
But it’s not all doom and gloom for the solar industry. Despite expecting “widespread company failure,” Lux anticipates gains for thin-film and CIGS this year and significant strides toward grid parity — making the survivors more competitive than ever on the larger energy market.
Photo credit SunPower installation at Nellis Air Force Base
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Swedish McDonald's to Charge EVs
khallgeisler - Bikes & Cars
Swedes will soon be able to offset their guilt at supporting big agribusiness and cultural hegemony by charging their electric vehicles while they eat at McDonald’s.
The company is buying bright-yellow curbside charging stations with the red-and-gold arches logo for customers to use, though the system will be run by the national grid. Each charger supplies 230 volts, which is enough power to charge up one of the EVs currently on the market in under an hour.
The first McPowerstation, as I’m sure they are not called, will be installed in the next few months. No word on how much — or if — customers will pay for the electrons fueling their cars.
Our 10 Green:Net Startups That Are Using Infotech to Fight Climate...
Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups
You’ve probably never heard of our 10 selected startups, because most haven’t launched or raised funding yet. But take it from us, you’re probably going to hear a lot more about them — they’re innovators who are developing software, wireless networks, consumer electronics, and web tools to reduce energy consumption or boost clean power:
1). Visible Energy: There are a couple companies called Visible Energy out there, most of them focused on representing energy consumption data. But our selection has a big picture of a UFO-looking gadget on its site, has an iPhone app, and is still in stealth mode. We won’t say much more than that, but their demo at the launchpad will identify the mysterious energy object. We got a sneak peak, and we think you’ll be impressed.
2). Packet Power: The company uses “smart power cables” that monitor power consumption and temperature to help IT organizations see the energy consumption of their hardware on a small scale. PacketPower is producing its cable-based tech now and will be at commercial scale in the summer.
3). FarmsReach: FarmsReach is a web-based tool that helps local food sellers and farmers streamline their logistics and sales. With easier online management, more organizations and institutions can buy locally-grown food and more local farmers can find a marketplace online. That all results in lowered energy consumption for the creation and transportation of food.
4). dot UI: dot UI is a stealthy startup working on open-source middleware called OpenURC that can bring networked HVAC controls, light switches, consumer electronics and web services together in a single user interface. The tool can help utilities deliver demand response tools and enable residents to control their appliances.
5). GreenWizard: The company’s web-based software creates a marketplace for the analysis and purchase of green building materials. Architects, engineers and contractors can use it to source green building products and suppliers.
6). Adaptive Meter: Adaptive Meter is a group of developers that are using gaming and entertainment to take energy data and make it more effective in changing consumption behavior. Their product, Lost Joules, is a competitive stock-market style game that enables users to place bets on energy consumption data using virtual currency. The company hopes to build its game using Google’s PowerMeter API once it becomes available.
7). Wattbot: While we covered Wattbott a few months ago, we thought the young company’s tool, which acts as a sort of middle man for interested consumers and energy providers, was a smart use of Web 2.0 and clean power.
8). OneDidIt.com: This Finnish startup is building social networking tools around green communities. While a lot of social networks have been created to tap eco sensibilities, OneDidIt specializes in taking consumption input data and transforming it into information that can affect energy consumption behavior.
9). The Almanac: The Almanac is working on an online tool called the Consumption Log, which takes information like credit card purchases and uses it to create a visualization of consumption and energy use information. The Consumption Log seeks to automate, as much as possible, the data collection for energy information, and will use its data sets to compare consumption info between users.
10). BLDG 2.0: The folks at the Case design firm are working on developing open-source-based online tools and protocols to provide meaningful and actionable feedback on building energy performance to designers, owners and occupants. While there are several proprietary tools that can deliver this, the BLDG 2.0 tool will help provide an open standards-based interface and API for consistent, standardized performance data for building energy. The firm’s been around the block, but the concept is bleeding edge. (Update: Sorry not the other Case design firm).
Don’t miss these 10 great companies at their debut. The $395 Super Saver Ticket deal ends Feb 28, so buy your Green:Net ticket today and catch up with the LaunchPad10 in March.
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
San Francisco to Install Coulomb Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
Katie Fehrenbacher - Automotive
Coulomb’s score in San Francisco comes on the heels of its installation of three electric vehicle stations in San Jose, Calif., last month. In addition, Coulomb said last month that it has raised $3.8 million in its first round of venture capital funding led by Berlin's Estag Capital.
While the three electric vehicle chargers in San Francisco will be used for a two-year demo, the startup’s business model is based on subscription plans. Prices include a limited-time "Basic Access" subscription offer, which the company says includes free charging through 2009. Then there are several monthly plans, including: $15 per month for 10 night time charging sessions, $30 per month for unlimited night time charging sessions, $20 per month for "grid-friendly" charging sessions, $40 per month for unlimited "grid-friendly" charging sessions, $25 per month for 10 anytime sessions, and $50 per month for unlimited charging at anytime.
While I probably won’t be buying an EV this year, I’m a City CarShare member, and I would definitely pay a bit extra to be able to use an EV in my neighborhood. Update: Zipcar says it will add a plug-in Toyota Prius converted by A123 System’s Hymotion to the San Francisco fleet. CityCarShare says it will use a plug-in Prius that was converted by 3Prong.
Coulomb’s public event leads us to ask, where is Better Place, which announced a deal with the state of California and the city of San Francisco in just November? That event also took place at City Hall and featured Mayor Newsom. Better Place has previously said that Bay Area network planning and permitting would start as soon as January 2009, and infrastructure deployment could begin in 2010. A Better Place spokesperson tells us this morning that the company had staff from Mayor Newsom's office and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed's office at its headquarters last week, taking a test drive of the Better Place eRogue and reviewing its charging spots and software.
Update, Notes on Press Conference: Newsom notes that there have been some failed attempts at alternative vehicles before — the missing hydrogen highway, and compressed natural gas cars. Now the city is looking at the private fleet and plug-in hybrids. He acknowledges that some mistakes have been made in the past by prescribing winners and losers, but he says the future is in electrifying our fleets. “So, we decided to do something with Zipcar and City CarShare. We want people to know City Hall ‘gets it’,” Newsom says.
The charging stations are on loan from Coulomb over the next two years, explains Newsom. You wonder what takes so long in government — this took seven departments to get this done, he quipped. But San Francisco wants to be the center of electric vehicles, and Newsom also notes the city’s deal with Better Place. To the big car companies he says: “Enough is enough; I don’t want to continue to fund failure.” He says to Detroit, “If you’re going to ask another $17 billion from tax payers, then it’s time for real change, not marginal change. It’s time to increase fuel standards dramatically. We need a lot more of this.” (Wow, also the Mayor and other city officials routinely mispronounced Coulomb’s name — time for a name change?).
Coulomb’s CEO Richard Lowenthal announced some new “green fleet management products.” He says the new service can see which electric cars in a fleet are available and fully charged. In addition the service can send notes to fleet manager’s smart phones to remind them to plug in the vehicles, and to alert the manager if unauthorized persons open the vehicles.
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
My family (and maybe your family) are killing trees in one fast swoop
jchait - Home & Garden
The other night I went to a family dinner at my dad’s house. There were maybe 15 people there. We had pizza (good), salad (good), ice cream cake (even better) and LOADS of paper napkins. Oh my.
At my own house, all we use are cloth napkins. We’ve never used paper napkins, and we don’t even use paper towels. I was a little shocked about all the paper napkin use at dinner the other night, and almost considered wiping my hands on my jeans just to cut down on the excess. On a given day, (not a family dinner night) there are still about 5-8 random people at my dad’s. If you do the lowest math that’s about 5 people x’s three meals and snacks a day. That’s possibly:
- 20 paper napkins a day.
- 140 paper napkins a week.
- 7,280 paper napkins a year! For ONE household. Not to mention the family dinners.
Wow right?
How many trees is that affecting? Let’s use a basic bulk pack of Bounty Quilted Napkins, 100-Napkin Packages (Pack of 20) for our calculations. If you buy in bulk, that’s about 12 pounds of paper napkins. In my family, you’d need about 3.5+ bulk packs for the year.
Semi-fuzzy math calculations:
Conservatree notes that paper calculations are tricky, but they offer some estimates. One estimate is that it would take a rough average of 24 trees to produce a ton of printing and writing paper. It’s harder to find calculations for napkins.
The NRDC notes that “If every household in the United States replaced just one package of virgin fiber napkins (250 count) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 1 million trees.” Obviously, if all households used only cloth napkins, those 1 million trees saved would grow to many million.
There are 2000 pounds per 1 ton, and I found one calculation that estimates that it takes about 3.84 trees to make 2000 pounds of paper. My family is using about 42 pounds a year of paper napkins, which granted seems ok, that’s not even one whole tree. BUT what about all those other families using paper napkins? It would take about 47 families (with five members) to kill around four trees yearly with paper napkin use. That’s a fairly typical neighborhood size, and smaller than most apartment complexes.
The current U.S. population count is 305,837,897. If just half of this count uses paper napkins daily that’s 1092 napkins a year per person; 166,987,491,762 napkins a year total; 83,493,745 packs of napkins (bulk) a year; 1,001,924,950 pounds of napkins a year; 500,962 tons of napkins a year; which kills about what? 1,923,695 trees a year.
Why bother adding this all up?:
So, I’m hoping my math is close. I did the above calculations fairly quickly. And yeah, the figures above would be more accurate if I had some sort of paper napkin weighing lab, a math genius, and some tree mill company to help me out, but overall, the basic idea is clear - paper napkins waste WAY too many trees.
Imagine if everyone used cloth napkins? It would be a HUGE change for the better. Later tips for folks who want to argue that cloth napkins waste water and electricity, plus some cloth napkin options, ideas about how cloth napkins save you cash, and maybe some other paper napkin alternatives.
Does your household use paper napkins or cloth?
Sustainable Paper for Your Home Office
jchait - Home & Garden
I recently read that Americans use about 580 pounds of paper per year. That is a ton of paper and tree waste if you’re using new virgin fiber paper and not recycling.
Easy tips for more sustainable paper use:
Switch to a mostly paperless office - use your computer calender, electronic fax, pay bills online, and don’t print out emails. Cut paper use wherever you can.
If you have to print, make sure you REALLY need to print. For example, as a writer, I can’t proof on my computer, it just doesn’t work as well for me as a print out and a red pen. However, I know this about myself, so I make sure I’m close to an end proof draft before I print out copies. I never say, print out a first draft.
When you do print, use both sides of the paper.
When you do print out something unimportant (say like my proof drafts I mentioned above) use old scrappy paper you’ve got laying around. You’re the only one who is going to see it.
Recycle all your paper after it’s been used.
Buy the best eco-friendly paper. You want to look for 100% post consumer waste paper, chlorine-free paper, acid-free paper, and paper with smart eco-packaging (soy inks, paper not plastic, and so on). You can snag some earth-friendly paper from the following companies:
NOTE: Even places like Office Depot and other mainstream office stores carry recycled content paper nowadays, so if you don’t want to shop online, you still can find eco-paper.
Learn more!
- Where to Get Eco-friendly Home Office Supplies
- Green Your Home Office - Home Office Eco Ideas
- Learn How to Make Your Own Paper
How are you greening your home office? Do you recycle all your paper?
Summer Rayne Oakes: The Invisible Green Girl's Highly-Visible Guide...
susan - Sustainable Ideas
By Susan Seliger
Summer got tired of hearing you can't be green and stylish at the same time. This model for eco-friendly fashion labels and the host of Discovery Planet's Green-Jobs show, has written the book on how to do it – from cool purses made out of recycled tires to clothes, makeup, jewelry – all as sustainable as they are fashionable. Oakes doesn't preach – she says her aim is to be "invisibly green."
So check out the Invisible Green Activist's visible results in this video about her excellent new book: Style, Naturally: The savvy shopping guide to sustainable fashion and beauty.
If you have no more room in your closet for any new clothes – no matter how eco-chic – check out Summer's advice on what to do with your old clothes.
RESOURCES:
For more on Summer, see her web site.
Photo credit: Photos from Summer’s web site.
Early Organic Gardening Planning - Fast Green Gardens
jchait - Home & Garden
If you’re planning an organic garden for spring, I hope you’ve been gathering ideas for non-toxic, healthy landscaping. If not here are a few eco-garden starter ideas.
Make your own non-toxic weed killer: Mix 1 ounce orange oil and 1 teaspoon liquid soap (I’d use natural) with 1 gallon of 10% white vinegar. Put some in a spray bottle and use it to spot spray weeds that pop up. Shake well before use.
Start collecting egg cartons: Use these for seed starting vs. plastic cups. You can also try composting or biodegradable seed starting pots.
Plan for crop rotation: Crop rotation is important for an organic garden. This keeps soil at a fertile level and inhibits disease and insects. So, if you’ve been planting your lettuce and carrots in the same places year after year, this season, sit down with a notepad and sketch out a new planting plan.
Save your coffee grounds: During the planting season you can sprinkle used organic coffee grounds into the soil to both enrich the soil content and keep pests like slugs and snails away. You can use non-organic, but organic is better due to the rich mineral content.
Get a better bag for leaves and debris: Snag some 100% biodegradable cornstarch-based leaf bags to gather the leaves and other debris from your yard then toss it straight into the compost bin.
Need more organic garden ideas?
- Choose the Greenest Plants for Home Landscaping
- Organic Garden Planning - Pick Up Organic Garden Seeds Now
- Tree Planting Where You Live
- Using Environmental Landscaping at Your House
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