green household Archives

Posted on March 16, 2021March 14, 2021 by Author — Leave a comment

Green Green Green is the Thing

Green for St. Patrick’s Day!

Hey, remember everything coming up green in spring and summer?

Today we celebrate all things green, with all the green pictures from last year’s garden! Once again, it is time for March Madness, grow lights, and starting seedlings indoors in zones 4-6 or so.

Whether you enjoy green beer or not, let’s use this week as a reason to celebrate! Celebrate spring. Celebrate a new year. Celebrate health, if you are blessed with it. Celebrate a hot cup of coffee. Celebrate the first baby seedlings poking their heads up out of the potting mix.

I lost all my stored garden seeds.

I am actually behind on my spring planting this year. My shoebox of garden seeds was THROWN AWAY to my great sadness. It used to live in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator. Then, we got a new fridge.

Maybe you can see where this is going.

The new fridge turned out not to work, but we had already put a few things into it. We called and were able to have another new fridge delivered the next day. The replacement fridge worked just fine, and is still going strong…

You can see where this is going.

We took out the few things we had put into the original replacement refrigerator–except for the onions and the box of garden seeds in the bottom drawer. Also, I failed to realize this. Until a few weeks later when I was ready to start planting. So, now it will be a little while longer.

Anyone who keeps a stash of garden seeds will appreciate how crestfallen I was to realize that probably $40 worth of seeds including, marigolds, a variety of heirloom tomato and pepper seeds, and various annuals that we grow every year. I am not going to be able to replace all of the varieties in one go since that would be pretty wasteful.

The garden will be just fine, though.

Happy Spring!

green plant clover close up photography — Photo by Elias Tigiser on Pexels.com

Posted on February 9, 2021March 3, 2021 by Author — Leave a comment

10 Tips For A Zero-Waste Life — existential ergonomics

Are you pursuing a zero-waste life? Is this the first you’ve heard of it? The low waste and zero waste movement is having a huge moment right now. Consider learning more. Start with this list of beginner-friendly tips. Take or leave the pieces that work for you. Maybe just give some thought to the time and effort getting rid of junk mail and packaging you have to get rid of every day and week.

My zero-waste journey began as a broke college kids with an allergy to the one-time-use plastic in grocery store bags and very few possessions, over a decade before the idea of sustainability even became popular. The developed world is filled with stuff, often more stuff than we really need. In my mind, zero-waste comes down […]
10 Tips For A Zero-Waste Life — existential ergonomics

Posted on February 2, 2021March 3, 2021 by Author — Leave a comment

Oregon Permaculture Garden — EWSP Consultancy

smiling woman touching bright blooming hibiscus on shrub

Check out this Oregon permaculture garden in an accessible, illustrated case study.

The primary goals for this permaculture design were to create a plan that would allow the residents of this historic property in coastal Oregon to grow food and other resources for themselves and guests that they will welcome onto the site in a sustainable way. The goal was also to create a garden that could […]
Case Study: Oregon Permaculture Garden — EWSP Consultancy

Posted on July 9, 2020March 2, 2021 by Author — 1 Comment

Fifteen Garden Ideas

Now it is summer in the garden.

I started this fifteen garden ideas post in winter. Originally, it contained fifteen ideas looking ahead to the summer. Now I find that it is summer and some of those ideas worked out. Others not so much.

Here are the fifteen garden ideas that actually were implemented this spring.

Put up the fence. Simple wire fence with t-posts that we take down at the end of the growing season. With the addition of an electric fence along the top to keep the deer out.
Fixed an old bird feeder and added it to the other two.
Added compost to the top of the straw bale planter, and planted onions, garlic, and peppers. (This is where the tomatoes were last year.)
Added three new raised beds, and planted tomatoes, basil, cilantro, nasturtiums.
Refreshed the large raised planter, and planted rosemary (annual here) and onions.
Cleared last year’s annuals from the front planters. Planted Swiss chard. Re-planted it after squirrels dig up most of the seeds, and added pothos vines to the front of the planters.
Planted another raspberry and blackberry in the back.
Planted black beans and pinto beans in large pots. (Deer LOVE bean vines, so these are in pots to keep them portable and close to the house.)
Moved the lemon and fig trees out to the garden in their pots.
Planted parsley and nasturtiums in pots.
Planted some marigolds and echinaecea, but to no avail. May try again if I can figure out what went wrong.
Started figuring out where to put the Egyptian onions, Alpine strawberries, peppermint, and Russian comfrey from last year, all of which are pretty much outgrowing their respective containers. Great problem to have. They should all be perennial. The strawberries especially will need to be kept safe from critters. TBD!
Harvested the first few alliums as well as parsley, dill, and cilantro.
Experimented with using bean vine leaves in lieu of spinach, since it is difficult to grow greens here. Pretty tasty, especially on pizza or in egg scrambles. About as tasty as spinach is, anyway. It’s not so much difficult to grow greens, but rather to keep the wildlife from eating them.
Also, installed a second rain barrel.