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Archive | Yard+Garden

Bokashi: Fighting Smelly Compost and Dirty Water with Microbes

Bokashi: Fighting Smelly Compost and Dirty Water with Microbes

The more I read about bokashi the more amazing it sounds! Sometimes used in kitchen composters, this mixture of bran, molasses, and microorganisms is stellar at breaking down food scraps. The key ingredients are bokashi effective microorganisms.

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Art Glass: Bottles in the Sun

Art Glass: Bottles in the Sun

Western Art Glass creates amazing art from reclaimed bottles: building a mobile from beer bottle bottoms, or wrestling a curving leaf from the side of a discarded wine bottle.

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Truck Farm: the Concrete Jungle’s Mobile Garden

Truck Farm: the Concrete Jungle’s Mobile Garden

I am intrigued with the creative way concrete jungle dwellers are finding ways to grow gardens whether it’s through yardsharing or fire escape farming, and now, Truck Farms.  Film makers Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, the creative minds behind King Corn and The Greening of Southie are proving that you can garden anywhere with their [...]

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10 Killer DIY Garden Hacks

10 Killer DIY Garden Hacks

Gardening is one of the most rewarding home hobbies you can do. It’s fun, sustainable and you get healthy, tasty results. A lot of people like the idea of gardening but find excuses like it’s too time consuming, it’s too expensive, they don’t have enough space, blah blah blah. There’s no room [...]

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Space Saving DIY Upside Down Herb Planters

Space Saving DIY Upside Down Herb Planters

I was reading some comments on an organic gardening post in which apartment dweller were lamenting that they don’t have the room to garden.  Don’t tell that to Mike Lieberman (@CanarsieBK), the force behind UrbanOrganicGardener.com.  Actually, I’m sure he’d be happy to hear from you and he’d share some great tips, like these upsidedown hanging [...]

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DIY Vertical Herb Garden with a Shoe Organizer

DIY Vertical Herb Garden with a Shoe Organizer

Confounded by vegetable digging cats and toiling in the vegetable patch, Instructables member pippa5 came up with this cool DIY vertical garden  solution.  In case you don’t recognize it, she used an old closet shoe organizer.  Meant to keep your shoes off the floor and save you some space, this new use saves some space [...]

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Coconut Husks Replace Peat Moss and Mulch in the Garden

Coconut Husks Replace Peat Moss and Mulch in the Garden

Coconut shells can be used for other things besides making cute faces on Flickr or banging them together to pretend you’re riding a horse like Monty Python.  Several companies are now distributing a range of gardening products made from coconuts husks.  The hair of the coconut shell or coir can be easily used to supplement [...]

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Hyperlocavores, Yardsharing, and Distributed Urban CSA Farms

I’ve heard the cliché recently that “Local is the new organic.” In response to that, a buddy of mine said “No, local is the original organic.” And he’s right. In the last 100 years, our food system has gone from a local farm, kitchen garden, and green grocer model, to a globalized heavily travelled agri-industrial [...]

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Veggie Trader: Trade, Buy, or Sell Local Homegrown Produce

Veggie Trader: Trade, Buy, or Sell Local Homegrown Produce

So you've harvested more apples than you could possibly eat, but you really want a bunch of tomatoes to put up for the winter. Or all of a sudden you have oodles of cucumbers in your garden, but no peppers. Maybe you want to sell your garden surplus to other local folks, but don't have a way to get the word out. A new online community, Veggie Trader, could help you to make all of the local garden connections you need this summer.

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Rainwater HOG: Discrete and Functional Rainwater Catchment

Rainwater HOG: Discrete and Functional Rainwater Catchment

This summer, give your local water supply a break by catching rainwater for watering your yard and garden. It’s low-tech, passive, and the yield of water from one rainfall can be phenomenal. A barrel or two under your gutter downspouts is the quick and easy solution, but if you’re looking for a better looking rainwater [...]

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