By: Chris Dailey

Many people are tea drinkers. Whether they are drinking Oolong tea or black tea from their local grocery store, that person has a certain image as to what it is, what it tastes like, and what it is for. There is a certain kind of tea that no one should drink but is one of the most beneficial, nutrient filled solutions that has ever existed. It is called worm tea. What is worm tea? Here are a few tips on how you can create and use worm tea otherwise known as compost tea to enhance your organic gardening needs.

Used for hundreds of years, organic gardeners and farmers that have known of the value of vermicomposting have been creating this potent nutrient filled liquid that is better known as worm tea or compost tea. This liquid which some say has a fragrant odor or is completely odorless can be used on the leaves of potted plants and also in the soil to enhance plant growth as well as help protect the plants that you grow.

It is actually a very simple process with a couple of not so simple steps if you have never done it before. Basically, the vermicast is put into a filter like a nylon and added to a jug of water and oxygenated in order to encourage microbes within the mixture to flourish and grow. Some additional ingredients to add to this tea include molasses or sea kelp. The oxygenation process will continue for about a day or sometimes longer.

Once done, it can be bottled and sprayed on plants or poured into soil at the base of the plants in order to inject a kind of a topical fertilizer that not only helps plant growth but also repels insects and disease such as spider mites and various pathogens, respectively.

There are various ways to get compost tea and one of those ways is through the collection of worm castings. Worm castings are essentially the poop of the worms. Their manure feels like soft little nodules that can be bagged up and cooked like a tea (except at room temperature water) and then used in the same manner that the worm tea was used in liquid form. Usually distilled water is used in the sifting process when using the castings and can actually be a much neater process when doing this on a large scale.

Most compost tea is concentrated so even if it does come in a bottle that looks ready to use, treat it the same way you would miracle grow or other non organic fertilizers. Castings tea should not burn the leaves of plants or over fertilize the soil but it is a good idea to use it more often in diluted form than less often in concentrated form. Red worms and their castings have become a hot commodity for all of those in the organic gardening field.

In essence, you are putting healthy microorganisms back into the soil which can then begin to thrive and multiply creating the ideal environment for your plants and a natural barrier at times for things that would come to destroy them. And unlike most nonorganic fertilizers, if you happen to spill too much into an area of your crop, it will not burn your plants.

By taking the time to create your own worm farm, and making your own tea for your garden or crops, you should see not only a positive growth in your vegetables or fruit, but a noticeable taste difference and production difference in how long it takes your crops to grow. You will also notice that your plants succumb less to fungus and other pathogens and diseases.

Also, by regularly adding this special tea into your garden area, it will also help you regulate the watering of your garden which is very important for crop growth. If you are doing this on a larger scale, you may need special equipment in order to harvest the worm castings and process them, and also to make worm tea on a commercial scale requires significantly different equipment than a small scale operation.

Overall, it will be worth your while to go the natural way and create a worm farm that will supplement the nutrient needs of your garden no matter how big or small. The use of compost tea as not only an additive of nutrients but also as an insecticide to protect your crops will make your organic gardening growing experience more pleasurable each and every year.

So the next time that you hear about a special tea that can enhance the growth of your crops, make your food taste better, and increase your overall yields, you will not think about the kind of tea that you sip quietly at the kitchen table, but of natures key that is given to us by red worms to help all organic gardeners grow more plentiful crops called compost tea.

By: Abhishek Agarwal

A gardening enthusiast can get all the equipment and paraphernalia that they would need for their garden at the Home Depot store in the gardening section. All kinds of machinery for gardening like rakes and pruners,

shovels, clippers, and shears are available here in the gardening section of the Home Depot Store. One can also

get seeds, plants and plant products, fertilisers, pest control products and any other fancy stuff for your

garden. You can get yourself stuff to do a good landscaping job, watering equipment, and decorations for your

garden at this store. Gardening tips and books on gardening are also available here.

Tips on planting

According to the expert tips of the Home Depot, it is better to plant flowers on a day when the sky is overcast and it may rain instead of on a warm sunny day. The rain will do the plants a lot of good. So it is better to

plant the new plants for the year and the perennial plants before the last frost date for he season. Perennials should be planted during the early fall in the North, and during the late fall in the South.

How to choose your new plants

It will help to be careful while choosing your new plants. do not buy plants that are wilted and discolored

and with spindly stems, but select those that have a healthy foliage and with short and sturdy stems and only a

few flowers to start with. To repot it you will have to knock the old pot off and then disentangle the roots

before you plant them in the soil. this way the roots will spread out better. It is also better to pinch all the flowers and buds off so that the plant can use all its energy in developing firm and healthy roots instead of putting all its nutrients into the flowers in the beginning. This way you will get a better crop of flowers later.

How to prepare a flower bed

Mix at least one inch of organic matter into a flower bed that has been prepared with a spade. Every year, to

improve the soil you should add some organic matter or rotted manure, compost, pear moss and sphagnum to it.

Another different method is to cover the top of the flower bed with a compost layer of at least 2 inches. For

plants that have to be planted annually you should loosen the soil up to a depth of 12 inches and for perennials to a depth of 18 inches. After this smoothen out the ground with a rake and then plant the plants at the same level in the soil as they were in the pot.

After you have planted the potted plants in the soil, add between one to three inches of organic mulch like

pine needles, bark, grass clippings or wood chip mulch. This covering will conserve the moisture, prevent any

diseases and also prevent the growth of weeds.

You can get a lot of information and guidance on pruning a hedge, starting a lawn, and planting trees in the

Home Depot gardening. There are guides for buying planters, pond pumps, hoses and valves too.

By: André Lee

According to the report from the Ministry of environment, Mauritius produces some 120 tons of plastic wastes daily amounting to a total of 43,800 tons of waste every year of which only 4%, representing some 164 tons, are recycled. In 2006, the population’s consumption of non-biodegradable plastic products amounted to some 70 million Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottles, 7 million PVC bottles, and 113 million plastic bags.

Now just imagine a process able to clear our environment of plastic wastes, creating jobs in waste management and collection and at the same time bringing useful resources such as petrol and gas, which can be beneficial to our economy. The Liquid Hydrocarbons pilot project proposed by the Green Hydrocarbons (Mtius) Ltd has the ambitious desire of turning our plastic wastes into hydrocarbon petrol.

The environment friendly project, realized with the collaboration of the initiators of the project in India, Unique Waste Plastic Management & Research CO. Pvt. Ltd., will enable Mauritius to get rid of its plastic wastes while at the same time providing resources such as petrol. The initiator of the project will bring all the technology and equipment necessary for the setting of the pilot plant while the government, in collaboration with Green Hydrocarbons Ltd., will provide the necessary location and licenses.

The ratio of the conversion of the plastic waste into petrol is one kilogram of plastic into the volume of 1000 cc of petrol. The pilot project will hence be converting some 2.5 tons of plastic wastes daily into some 25,000 liters of petrol and other by-products. This project is a green alternative to the palliative solutions that have been found so far to deal with plastic wastes. Land filling, incineration, recycling, gasification and blast furnace have shown their limits in the treatment of plastic wastes.

Recycling is unfortunately not a practical solution in that the cost of collection is quite high; there is a limited market for it, with an absence of marketing. Moreover, plastic can only be recycled three to four times, after that it loses its strength and can’t be recycled. The project realized with the collaboration of Indian partners is due to start in the course of the year 2007, once the EIA obtained.

Beginnings

The concepts of plastic conversion into hydrocarbons was elaborated by Professor Alka Zadgaonkar of the Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur in Indian, in the year 1995. While giving a lecture on Applied Chemistry, she came up with the idea of turning plastic back into hydrocarbons. She worked with a team on the formula and in 2004; they succeeded in turning 300mg of plastic into hydrocarbon liquids.

Unique Waste Plastic Management & Research Co. Pvt. Ltd of India later launched a pilot project where some 5,000 tons of plastic wastes were converted everyday. The process was later extended to treat 25,000 tons daily in 2006 and the objective of the project is to treat some 450,000 tons. She asked for analysis by Indian Oil and made a number of recommendations for the use of the final products.

After about one year of operation, the project was realized with the help of loans. Representatives of the State Bank of India acknowledged that the project is already running on profit, thus proving the efficiency of the method. The world produces no less than 60% more plastic wastes than it did some ten years back with a production of 100 million tons every year. India produces 10,000 tons of plastic wastes everyday which 40% are recycled.

This project has enabled India to better manage the country’s plastic wastes while at the same time creating jobs. Actually India sells its hydrocarbon at 40% to 50% less than normal diesel. The technology is presently being exported to other regions such as Rajasthan and even to America; for instance, some hospitals are being operated using their own wastes.

The investments for the pilot project in Mauritius are estimated to around 100 to 300 millions Rupees. Land filling, incineration and recycling 4% are presently being used but they do not resolve the problem of environmental damage caused by plastic. The Waste to Compost project, will however give a new dimension to the processing of plastic in that hydrocarbon and the other by-products used as compost.

http://MauriTravel.com

By: James Sawyers

Summer farming can briefly rocket into a steep undertaking if you do not input into the chance with certain and very explicit account constraints in brain. If you proposal according to your account and obtain according to your detail strategy and requests you are expected to find that your summer backyard is more resources affable than the sizable maturity of other summer gardens on the frustrate. I hope the opinion that follows will help you cut the detriment of summer plot and help you find account open conduct to construct the summer patch of your dreams.

Do not buy what you do not necessity. It doesn’t matter how good the agreement if you do not basic the seeds, tools, and numerous other objects there is no factual senses to acquire them. It is a dissipate of money that could be better tired away to finish money that doesn’t essential to be depleted.

Don’t pay for shipping if it can be avoided. You may find a few stuff cheaper online but be very concerned of the overheads occupied in shipping. If it outlay more finally than it would have rate to obtain the same items locally you port’t saved something at all. Look at the big picture very than since only the cheaper asking outlay. It is also a good idea to proof small native businesses when probable as they are departing to be more prone to bargain, swap, and pitch in freebies.

Check locally for unbound composting equipment. Many communities proffer these gratis to residents. When compared with the price of purchasing these materials the savings can be significant over the course of a summer.

Work out an exchange among farming links. This is a great way to incorporate new plants into your summer plot lacking purchasing each factory you wish to enter. This is a great way to make new farming friends, segment a passion, and avoid money. It’s a win situation for most gardeners who are constantly waging war on the high outlay that can be intricate in gardening.

Select plants that are native to your area for your summer plot. This is a colossal money hoarder that is regularly overlooked. The outlay of non-native plants can be extreme in the best of circumstances and the added tending incurs foster costs. Keep costs down by selecting plants that will simply thrive in your climate and those that are locally cultivated. This isn’t an all or nothing proposition of course. If you absolutely dear a pair of non-native plants, by all means incorporate them into your plot. However, if you forecast a patch from nick desire as many native plants as viable for wadding.

Check your limited classified ads and limitless-round list for used backyard tools that are in good rider. There are many reasons the people sell or give away garden tools and a bargain is a bargain on these tools that are leaving to be used to play in the dirt. You do not poverty to be incredibly selective about the tools you hold and reduction money is almost forever a good thing. It’s even better, of course, when you get them for no sacrifice at all. You also might find a few boundless plants presented through these sources too.

Mulching saves time and money. Really! It saves water to mulch because the mulch holds the moisture in. This lowers the price of watering and eliminates many of the pesky weeds that crop up-which saves time. We all know that time is money and most of us despise weeding unless we have some strictly aggressive emotions to work through that is.

By with all the steps above you should find that you have saved a good deal of money in the planning and growing of your summer garden. Combine them with tips of your own that you learn along the way and next summer your garden should price even minus.

By: Green Rewards

Here’s our essential guide to skiing and snowboarding the green way

Skiing and snowboarding are not the obvious choice for an eco-friendly traveller. After all, air flights, luxury spas and hacking your way through the pristine snow are a far cry from a tree-planting camp in Devon.

But it doesn’t have to be like that – winter sport is about enjoying the great outdoors, so we’ve looked at some of the best ways to respect it too. Here’s our advice on how to get there, where to stay and what kit you should bring with you. 

Take the snow train

If you’re looking for a greener way to the slopes than flying and are tired of the inconvenience of flight delays, then travelling by train could be for you. Thousands of skiers and boarders choose to make their journey to the heart of the slopes this way every season.

Rail Europe’s Snow Trainis an overnight sleeper service from London St Pancras and Ebbsfleet International, Kent, to a number of skiing destinations in the French Alps. There is a specially designated sound-proofed disco carriage, so you can party all night, or if you’d rather save your energy for the slopes, there is comfortable, flat-bed sleeping accommodation.

In many cases, ski train journeys are similar in length to flying. Remember, by train there’s no two-hour check-in time, fewer delays and (on most trains) no long transfers to your resort.

Plus, most independent research says that travelling to the slopes by train produces a relatively small carbon footprint compared to flying or going by car.

It’s worth remembering though that you need to change platforms at Paris before travelling onto the stations at Chambery, Albertville, Moutiers, Aime la Plagne, Landry and Bourg St Maurice.

The Snow Train can also be more convenient if you’re taking your own gear, as there is no charge for carrying your skis or boards in their ski locker. You arrive early Saturday morning and depart last thing the following Saturday, so you get maximum time on the slopes.

Eco-friendly coach travel

Coach travel to the Alps is a long-haul option but it is also great value. National Express’s Eurolines service runs from London Victoria to nine resorts in both France and Switzerland, and there is no charge for skis and snowboards.

The journey takes approximately 18 hours and most coaches leave in the afternoon and arrive early next morning. Reclining seats means you should get a decent night’s sleep and there’s usually a film to watch in the evening.

Greener accommodation

Finding a good value eco-friendly hotel or chalet can feel like an uphill struggle, as they are few and far between. But if you look hard, you can find wood fires, solar panels, and composting heaps among the hot-tubs, spas and gyms.

If it’s composting toilets you’re after you may well be out of luck, but lots of companies are increasingly looking out to protect the environment that their holidaymakers enjoy. Here are some of our favourites…

Whitepod

This unique Swiss eco-camp located above Les Cerniers, a small village at the foot of Dents du Midi, features five wood-fire heated domes around a 19th-century chalet. The igloo-shaped pods are each made from weatherproofed cotton stretched over a storm-proof steel frame, which should keep you snug and warm.

Inside, the pods are lit by petrol lamps and are furnished with recycled or sustainably made furniture. You can only get there on skis or snowshoes and your luggage is delivered via snowmobile, so it’s a good choice if you’re looking to get away from the crowds.

If you don’t want to ski or snowboard you can always go snowshoeing, dog-sledding, relax in the hot tub or try the star-gazing platform with telescope. If you have children, the site also offers an Eco Kids Camp from July to August, which includes wildlife observation, local farm visits, organic picnics and evening games.Winner of the Responsible Tourism Awards 2005 for innovation.

From 325 euros per night including coffee and afternoon tea.

For more information:Whitepod

Whitepod is renovating the camp to cut its footprint and ensure that the level of service remains high. As a result, it will not be open for this coming winter 08/09. However, their mountain refuge, which sleeps up to 60 guests, is open from 1 December 2008.

Green Rides – Challet Montperron

This luxurious 18th century eco-chalet is based just outside Bourg St Maurice. With five large double bedrooms, it includes all the usual chalet amenities such as wi-fi and cable as well an open log fire, spa area and a wood pellet-fired hot tub.

The electricity is sourced from wind and solar farms in northern France. All food waste is composted, the rubbish is recycled and energy efficient light bulbs are used throughout the property. The owners are also planning to install a solar panelled roof and offer a discount to customers who take the Snow Train.A week typically cost from £385 per person.

Green Rides

Karibuni – Lodge Aravis

This 100 year old catered chalet is set in the Aravis Mountains near La Clusaz and sleeps 35 people. It has a gym, sauna and massage room as well as a children’s area and an onsite ski hire shop.France can be hard for veggies but Lodge Aravis has been accredited by the Vegetarian Society, soust ask for their vegetarian menu. All waste is either composted or recycled and they aim to source as much fair trade, local, and free range produce as possible. The chalet also offsets its carbon emissions through Climate Care.

The people behind Lodge Aravis also run a number of other smaller chalets, including Chalet Aravis which can sleep up to 11 people and uses solar panels to heat all of its water.

From £580pp a week (including a lift pass for seven days of skiing).

Location: Aravis Mountain, French Alps. For more information: Karibuni

Green shopping for snow gear

When it comes to being green on the slopes, skis, snowboards and winter gear can pose a problem. Nearly all of them are made of a combination of wood, fibreglass, foam, plastic and steel, which are stuck together by epoxy resin, and are nearly impossible to recycle.

However, many manufacturers are taking green steps, from carbon offsetting to using sustainable materials, such as bamboo, and even solar-powered factories.

New Zealand company Kingswood Skis won a product sustainability award for their bamboo-core carbon neutral skis. They are also looking into a flax alternative to fibreglass which is used in almost every ski and board made today. And they provide a clear breakdown of all the materials used in their products on their website.

Arbor makes its snowboard’s cores from renewable, fast-growing bamboo, which has come from sustainably managed forests and the bases are made with leftover poly-ethylene. They have pledged to donate a portion of all their revenue to organisations involved in protecting the environment. Also, its factory’s machines are wind-powered.

Don’t forget the eco-benefits of buying secondhand gear or renting ski or snow equipment. Freecycle and Ebay are just a couple of online places you could try. 

Take a look at our shop now for the best eco friendly shopping.