Back in August I wrote a post announcing that Patti ‘Garden Girl’ Moreno was once again back on the green gardening scene (she seemed to be MIA for a number of months), and was partnering with Farmers Almanac for future editions of her Urban Sustainable Living video series.
At the time, her website was looking a wee bit rough around the edges, but she was in the process of planning out a completely new design (which looked very promising).
Long story short, her new website has now officially launched - and I must say it looks AWESOME! Way to go, Patti! I highly recommend that you pop by and check it out: http://www.gardengirltv.com. There is a link down at the bottom that will take you to a preview of her upcoming series on the Farmer’s Almanac site - definitely should be interesting! I also highly recommend signing up for her newsletter - aside from providing updates on her progress, Patti always includes interesting blurbs about her urban mini-farm and what she is up to in general.
Technorati Tags: garden girl, sustainable living, urban agriculture, city farming, farmers almanac, gardening, gardens
Written by Bentley on December 12th, 2007 with no comments.
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It’s been ages since I last heard anything from Patti Moreno (aka ‘Garden Girl‘), and to be totally honest I was really starting to think she’d decided not to continue with her ‘Urban Sustainable Living’ tv show idea.
Given the fact that Patti had made such a great impression on members of the green community (myself included) last winter, this would have been a real shame! I know I wasn’t the only person who has anxiously awaiting the release of new Garden Girl videos!
Well, as I learned in an email she sent out today, Garden Girl is back! She also has some great news - apparently she has finalized a contract with ‘Farmer’s Almanac‘ and will be creating some content for their site in the near future. Very exciting!
Patti also mentioned that her site is being revamped and relaunched shortly. That said, I must admit to being somewhat puzzled when I stopped by the site today and saw some pretty strange advertising (”Smarty Knickers”?, “Love in the Uk”?, “Test your bandwidth speed”?). She mentioned getting hooked up with a new design/marketing company, so perhaps they are testing out a variety of offers.
Anyway…definitely NOT trying to rain on Patti’s parade here. I’m a huge Garden Girl fan, and am very excited that she is back!
Hopefully I’ll be able to share some new Garden Girl videos here on the blog very soon (as they become available).
Technorati Tags: garden girl, patti moreno, gardening, sustainable living, organic gardening, raising rabbits, urban agriculture
Written by Bentley on August 17th, 2007 with no comments.
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I just received my latest ‘Mother Earth News’ - yet another juicy issue, full of interesting articles! Now that I’m completely in the ‘grow zone’ myself, it’s no surprise that several cool gardening articles caught my interest - and whadya know two of the three are available online!
1) 8 Strategies For Better Garden Soil
You may recall in my first post about Mother Earth News (after receiving my first issue) I mentioned a great article by Harvey Ussery called “Our 21st Century Homestead”. Well that article actually marked the start of Harvey’s “21st Century Homesteading” column - something I look forward to reading each issue. In this issue (June/July), Harvey chats about eight strategies that will help enrich your garden soil - primarily revolving around the approach of disturbing your soil as little as possible. One strategy I find particularly intriguing is the idea of ’soil mining’ with certainly plant species - very cool!
Anyway, be sure to check out the article (link above) - definitely worth the read.
2) Maintain a weedless organic garden
To be totally honest, I have not yet had a chance to really take a close look at this article. Based on my brief ‘look-see’, it looks as though the author covers some of the same ground (no pun intended! haha!) as Harvey Ussery - talking about reducing soil disturbance, use of mulches etc etc.
Yet another cool article in the June/July issue (but not available online) is called “Wise Watering”, which declares in the subtitle that “organic mulches and the right watering equipment will keep your crops healthy and your yields abundant”.
This year I too am very focused on conserving water while maintaining lush gardens - so this one certainly caught my eye as well! I may chat more about it once I read it!
I’ve spoken earlier about my 2007 Water Conservation Project in one or two other posts, and will be writing a full article (with pictures) all about it for our upcoming newsletter (believe it nor not, we ARE indeed close to finally releasing our inaugural edition - apologies for the delay).
I’m absolutely LOVING my new rain barrel so far, and have been implementing some other key strategies inside the house as well!
Anyway - enough for now. Be sure to check out those articles!
Cheers
B.
Technorati Tags: gardening, water conservation, organic gardening, rain barrel, mother earth news, mulch, compost, garden, vegetables, farming
Written by Bentley on June 1st, 2007 with 2 comments.
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(Image courtesy of Backyard Aquaponics)
It’s certainly no secret that I’m pretty passionate about aquaponics (ok maybe only those who read the blog regularly would know that). This morning I came across a news alert mentioning a cool aquaponics site that I hadn’t visited in a little while (but one that is in my “favorites” folder) - ‘Backyard Aquaponics‘.
I was looking for something to write about at the time, so I decided to pop over and refamiliarize myself with the site. I’m really glad I did - what a great resource for anyone with an interest in aquaponics!
The site itself is quite simple in design so it’s very easy to navigate - always a nice treat! As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a pretty ‘visual’ person, so I definitely appreciate the abundant photos (such as the one above) as well.
Here is an exerpt from the homepage:
Aquaponics by definition is the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics. The beauty of aquaponics is that in the combining of the two they equal out the negative aspects in each of them. In other words, the sum of the two when combined is greater than the sum of the two individuals.
Nutrient rich fish water is pumped from the fish tank into gravel beds, where plants growing in the gravel extract the nutrients from the water. The water then drains back into the fish tank cleaned of excess nutrients and freshly oxygenated.
Imagine, your own permanent supply of fresh herbs, vegetables and fresh fish growing right on your back patio, enough to feed the whole family. With no chemicals and no wastes, using about one tenth of the water required for normal vegetable growing. This may all sound a little too good to be true and you might be wondering where’s the catch, but there isn’t one!
For the past few years I’ve been experimenting, designing and building aquaponic systems in my own suburban backyard in Western Australia. The further I delve into aquaponics and its possibilities, the more I’m convinced that it holds the answers to safe urban food production so many of us seek.
Aside from providing a nice introduction to the topic of aquaponics, the site also offers those who are serious about learning more, the opportunity to do just that. For sale on the site is a full info kit (book/DVD/CD) created to help others set up their own systems.
One thing to keep in mind is that the site is based in Australia, but I did notice he has listed an all-inclusive price (in USD) for shipment of the package to any international destination.
One other important feature to mention - it looks like he now has a thriving forum (more than 700 members!) as well. If you have any interest in aquaponics as a potential hobby I would highly recommend signing up for the forum. In a previous post I mentioned an email list that I am a member of - while still a quality resource, I’ve noticed that is has become pretty quiet, so this forum looks to be a great alternative.
Anyway, I highly recommend you check out Backyard Aquaponics when you get the chance! It’s easily one of the best aquaponics resources currently online.
Past EcoSherpa Aquaponics Posts:
Cool Aquaponics Set-Up
Aquaponics - Hydroponics, Mother Nature Style
Other Relevant Links:
Compost Guy Aquaponics page
Technorati Tags: aquaponics, hydroponics, aquaculture, bioponics, fish farming, greenhouse, food production, grow beds, tilapia
Written by Bentley on April 13th, 2007 with 3 comments.
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I just came across a really interesting article about an Aquaponics (among other things) greenhouse in New Jersey.
Juicy tomatoes, scrumptious fish, lettuce, herbs, exotic flowers and ornamental plants can all be found growing year round in Burlington County under a single roof.
The place is a dump. Literally.
Hard to believe? The Burlington County Resource Recovery Complex, more commonly known as the county landfill, ships between 150 to 200 pounds of tomatoes to a Princeton restaurant weekly.
Another 1,000 pounds of silver-striped tilapia leave the complex every six weeks headed for a fish market in the Chinatown section of Philadelphia.
An Israeli company is now growing lettuce and herbs, and a company from Taiwan is growing colorful orchids, all within the environmentally friendly confines of the resource recovery complex, which straddles the border between Florence and Mansfield.
The complex is also host to the Rutgers EcoComplex, a research and development center devoted to helping environmental research and entrepreneurship.
“We’re obviously involved in a lot of different things, but they all fall under the overall sustainability effort,” said Dave Specca, acting director of the EcoComplex.
The 46,000-square-foot green-house opened in 1996 on the Florence side of the landfill and the EcoComplex opened four years later on the Mansfield side.
Both are powered by methane, a byproduct gas produced by decomposition in the landfill, which is converted into electricity by microturbines outside the greenhouse. The electricity powers the sunlamps in the greenhouse and also heats the building so that the tomatoes and other plants can be grown year-round, Specca said.
Be sure to check out the full article: Bounty from county landfill
Also you might be interested in checking out the Rutgers EcoComplex Website as well.
Related EcoSherpa Articles:
Dr. John Todd: Eco-Visionary
Aquaponics - Hydroponics, Mother Nature Style
Technorati Tags: aquaponics, rutgers ecocomplex, sustainability, greenhouse, tilapia, tomatoes, aquaculture
Written by Bentley on March 28th, 2007 with 4 comments.
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What a beautiful day! I was just out in the yard checking on my compost bin and was blown away by just how warm and sunny it was. It’s currently 16 C (60.8 F) and should get even warmer this afternoon.
I was very happy to see lots of springtails and red worms active in the bin - temperatures are still quite cool in the lower regions, but I have little doubt the heat of the sun combined with increasing biological activity will lead to rising temperatures in the composting mass.
Anyway, enough about composting - this is supposed to be a post about chickens!!
I guess the beautiful weather, along with my most recent (huge) issue of Mother Earth News has really helped to kickstart my excitement about my plans for this year.
Referred to as “Giant Garden Issue”, this hefty edition definitely seems to live up to it’s promise - but it wasn’t actually the gardening articles that first caught my attention! It was a couple articles related to raising your own chickens. This is something I’ve had ‘back-of-mind’ interest in for quite some time, but I guess have not really given much thought to simply because I’ve always lived in an urban area. Well, as one of the articles suggests, it’s actually quite common for people to keep chickens within the confines of towns and cities.
Of course, I definitely should have known this…
When I was young (10 or so) I spent most of one summer in England. One of the things I can still vividly remember about the house we stayed at was that the owners kept chickens in a small coop beside their driveway. Interestingly enough, the house was located in the middle of a pretty big city. I can still remember being absolutely blown away by the difference in taste between the fresh eggs from these chickens and those from the supermarket back in Canada.
According to the main Mother Earth News article, there can also be some significant health benefits to raising your own as well! While I’m not sure I could ever bring myself to eat the chickens themselves, having lots of fresh eggs available would be great!
This is definitely something I’m going to look into a little more. I even chatted with my wife about it, and the only question she had (something I’ve wondered myself) is how to care of the chickens during the winter?
Anyway, I will definitely write more once I do some more research.
In the meantime, you might want to check out the Mother Earth News Chicken and Egg page for more info.
Technorati Tags: chicken, chickens, chicken eggs, free range chickens, poultry, raising chickens, chicken coop, homesteading, urban agriculture, sustainable living
Written by Bentley on March 27th, 2007 with 2 comments.
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