Organic Fertilizers



With the mounting concern for health and environment, consumers are now getting more conscious as to the quality of the food they buy from the grocery store.  As chemicals from fertilizers become a global concern for their carcinogenic effects, more and more people are buying organic fruits, vegetables and meat.  These products are grown using organic fertilizers and undergo very  little or zero chemical processing.  But what is organic fertilizer in the first place?

Organic fertilizer is defined as naturally occurring fertilizers or naturally occurring mineral deposits like saltpeter.   Examples of organic fertilizer include manure, slurry, worm castings, peat, seaweed, humic, guano and humic.

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Defining ecological footprint



Ecologists have come up with the term “ecological footprint”.  What does it mean?  Our ecological footprint is the amount of land and water it takes to sustain the way we live here on our planet.  It encompasses the people’s demand on the planet with its ability to regenerate.  Studies have shown that the way we live now, our ecological footprint is 1.3.  Meaning, it takes 1.3 Earths to support our lifestyle.

With the advent of global warming, pollution and other ecological disasters plaguing our planet, scientists, ecologists and environmentalists are scrambling to find a way to make our footprint smaller.  There are a lot of ecological footprint calculators so scientists are finding a way to standardize these tests in order to obtain a more accurate and consistent measuring system.

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What is Composting? How to Composte.



Composting is the natural decomposition of weeds, manure and other yard waste, fruit and vegetables.  The breakdown of these organic materials produces compost which can be made into fertilizer to enrich soil.    By composting we do not only help conserve our environment by reducing the amount of garbage sent to landfills, we also help promote healthier soil where we can grow healthy flowers or fruit and vegetables like tomatoes, carrots and herbs.

There are many ways to compost.  Some make bins from recycled materials or buy one at the store.  Others go binless, by digging a hole directly on the ground.  But there are some basic composting dos and don’ts.

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Cleaning It Green



Whenever it comes to a general discussion of hazardous chemical products, most people tend to feel worried about industrial wastes that are contaminating the air, water, and land around us. To give you all goose bumps, the threat of toxicity is more immediate – lying next to our daily life inside our very own houses. True that the levels of toxic chemicals used in households is usually much lower than those dealt with in industries or workplace. Nevertheless, houses do carry a threat to health and environment due to hazardous chemical products. While different substances in the house may contain higher than safe levels of toxic chemicals, household cleaners are particularly infamous for posing greater risks to health.
Aside from the composition of household cleaners, the latter are of worse concern to health-conscious families because they are used throughout the house for cleaning purposes. Since water is used with many of them, the vapors formed indoors may affect all the inhabitants of the house. Within a house, various cleaners of toxic composition are used in the kitchen, bathrooms, garages, and virtually anywhere. Two main reasons appear to be responsible for the use of potentially harmful chemical cleaners in our modern day houses. First, synthetic chemical cleaners are quick to use and help save the consumer’s time. Secondly, they are easier to use than many natural cleaners that were used prior to the popularity of synthetic cleaners. Given the health and environmental effects (both actually related) of synthetic cleaners, spending more time and effort is worth adopting.
Prior to going for natural and safer cleaners at home, it is important to identify hazardous cleaning agent used for household cleaning. This is easy since most of such cleaners are labeled with one of these three main alarming words: Danger, Warning, and Caution. Those marked with the word ‘Danger’ are the most toxic followed by those with ‘Warning’, and products labeled with ‘Caution’ are rather low in toxicity (though still not advisable for use). Generally, caustic and highly evanescent (solvent) substances used at home are mostly toxic to health. In the long term, they cause a large number of health problems ranging from skin problems to cancer.
For general safety to your health and environment, proper disposal of all waste/left-over materials is indispensable. Following the instructions on the container is the best way of safely using the product it contains. All labels need to be duplicated and affixed to a new container in case the user needs to change containers. People with access to the Internet (and who hasn’t got it these days) can get plenty of free information on safe disposal of household products. It goes without saying that all chemical cleaners need to be kept out of the reach of kids.

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Coping with Garden Bugs



One of the reasons why organic gardening can come as a real challenge is the limit on insect (pest) control methods. Green living means saving the ecological habitat from noxious pesticides. While environment and health may be smiling in relief at the non-use of toxic chemicals, our eco-conscious gardener is apparently at a loss here. But not really! A number of safe and environmental-friendly means of pest control can be practiced to obtain a healthy yield in plenty.

Organic gardeners, unless they are just about to begin with the gardening practice, know that selective plantation of certain plant species/families obviates the need of using any insecticides. A large number of herbs and vegetables – including radish, pea, turnip, sweet potato, beet, and onion etc – develop with little threat from insects. However, there are crops that fall a prey to garden bugs. These include potato, cauliflower, broccoli, beans, cucumber, pumpkin, and many other food plants. The first thing to do for an organic gardener, therefore, is to mark the pest-resistant and pest-prone varieties of crops.

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