Green Gardening

Did You Know That Coffee Grounds Can Be Recycled?

Not only does filtered coffee taste better than instant coffee but also the grounds from filtered coffee can be reused and utilized in many different ways. Coffee grounds can be added to compost piles to enrich the nutrient content. Coffee grounds contain Phosphorus, Calcium, Sulfur, Nitrogen, Potassium, and Magnesium. It’s important to note that Phosphorous is not as easy to come by and so it is important to conserve it as much as possible. By simply reusing your coffee grounds, you help reuse some Phosphorus that would have otherwise gone to waste. Coffee grounds can be used as a plant fertilizer. Used coffee grounds can be sprinkled around the base of a plant in order to help fertilize the plant and help it grow. Coffee grounds can also be sprinkled onto a lawn that may be in need of fertilization. Another way to use old coffee grounds is to add water to them and let them stand for a couple of days. Once a couple of days have passed, drain the water and then use the coffee grounds as a liquid plant fertilizer. Another way to do this is to use cold coffee that you don’t want any more and drizzle it on ...

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Compostable Items

Composting is a great way to create quality fertilizer while reducing landfill waste. Composting is cheap, easy, requires no experience and you don’t even need a yard in order to do it. Dryer Lint Save your lint from the dryer and instead use it as compost in your garden. Grass and Lawn Clippings One option is to leave grass clippings from the lawn mower in the lawn where they will be utilized by the soil once they decompose. Grass clippings can also be composted, but should be added in very thin layers or thoroughly mixed in with other compost ingredients because they can get slimy and matted down, which stops air from getting in the pile. Fresh grass clippings are high in nitrogen, which makes them a green compost ingredient. Hair Both people and animals shed lots of hair that can be used as compost. When you clean out your brush, use it as compost instead of throwing it in the trash. Nail Clippings Nail clippings are protein and thus great as compost. Hay The greener the hay, the more nitrogen it contains. Make sure that any hay you compost is well hydrated. Urine Urine may be trickier to use but does the job. Used Facial Tissue Not only are tissues compostable, but whatever ...

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The Benefits of Keeping Chickens in Your Backyard

There is a trend toward chicken-keeping these days, and even urban and suburban dwellers are finding ways to incorporate these funny, feathered critters into their daily lives. Chickens do provide all sort of benefits besides just the obvious. Let's take a look at some of the advantages of backyard chicken-keeping. 1. Fresh Eggs If you are buying free-range, organic, and/or cage-free eggs at the store, you know how expensive they can be. One good laying chicken will provide you with an egg a day, or 30 eggs a month, for less than a dollar a month in feed (depending on your local feed prices of course). That's a big saving! 2. Weed Control Chickens need and enjoy eating greens. Some of their favorites include the aptly-named chickweed and dandelion greens, which most people are glad to get rid of. 3. Insect Control Chickens love to eat bugs. Guinea hens are particularly adept at eradicating ticks. Snails, slugs, and other pests will disappear as your chickens range around your yard helping themselves. 4. Fertilizer While it may not be the most pleasant topic, chickens are little fertilizer factories. You will want to start a compost pile into which you can dump the used nesting box and coop bedding when ...

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Beekeeping – Why It Is So Important

Keeping bees holds intrigue and interest for many, but the practice of beekeeping is more than just a pastime: it is becoming vital. Honeybee numbers have dwindled over the last five decades. Their decline has been variously attributed to disease, exposure to pesticides, climate change, and a mono-crop approach to agriculture. Regardless of the causes, the decline of the honeybee - officially called Colony Collapse disorder, or CCD - has the potential to affect humanity profoundly. Why Bees Are Important Of course, bees provide honey; but it is their role as pollinator that is so crucial to America's food supply. They pollinate more than three quarters of our flowering crops. If flowers are not pollinated, they will not bear fruit. That means that honey bees are responsible for wild and domestic apples, pears, strawberries, oranges, cucumbers, blueberries, broccoli, almonds, and much more. The enormously economical crop soybeans is pollinated largely by honeybees. Bees also pollinate alfalfa, a crop that farmers use to feed beef and dairy cattle. So honeybees have an effect on our steaks, burgers, cheese, milk, and other animal products. It has been said that, without bees, humans would have to survive on bread and water. And there would be no ...

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Keeping Your Garden Critter Free

Gardening is a wonderful hobby to pick up, a good source of relaxation and great way to take time for you. Seeing your flowers blossom and the vibrant colors fill your yard can be very rewarding until you find that pests have taken over. Whether they come in the form of insects, birds, or rodents, pests can quickly take the leisurely nature of gardening away and make it more work than you bargained for. Garden netting is a good way to stop pests from attacking your flowers or fruits and vegetables. Garden netting is available on the market in a variety of styles and shapes. The best way to choose which net is best for your garden is by what kind of pest is attacking your garden. You simply place the netting over the plants to protect them. There are specific nets for birds or insects, depending on what you're growing and what kind of pest you're attracting. Rodents are trickier because if they can chew through the netting. If this occurs, it may be wise to contact a pest control company to find out what other options you have. In trying to grow organic food, utilizing chemicals and pesticides to eliminate ...

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