Recycle, eh

Did you know that you can re-grow celery using the bottom part that you normally cut off? Yup, you can. I discovered Mary Andrews' and Tim Vidra's wonderful blog, 17Apart yesterday and share their step-by-step tips. They also show you how to re-grown bok choy, sweet potatoes, and green onions (scallions). 

As for me, I plug garlic buds that are starting to turn green into a pot of soil to grow garlic chives. They're great in salads, soup, and sandwiches.

Okay, so I missed blogging on the day designated as the official Earth Day; but shouldn't every day be earth day? Come on, folks, we're not doing that great evironmentally and things seem to be getting worse instead of better. For me, everyday is earth day. There isn't a day that goes by when I am not attempting to cut back on my carbon footprint, recycle, reuse, and reinvent stuff so that my trash bins are as empty as possible.

And believe it or not, it takes very little effort to do so. I watch what I buy so that I don't bring home excess packaging. I buy locally whenever possible and I read labels to ensure that what I do buy was grown or made at home rather than imported from thousands of miles away. If I can't use something, I find someone or somplace that can take it (e.g., clothing, books, magazines, cardboard, etc.). My food scraps go into the compost. - since I don't eat meat, it's easy.

Living like this is a habit and once you've gotten into the groove, it's a piece of cake (chocolate, of course!!).

Keeping the kids entertained and yourself sane during school breaks and professional days can sometimes be a challenge. Gardening is one way. Why not check out my Ottawa Citizen article for a few ideas you can easily do without breaking the bank.

I know, I know, spring is still just an idea right now but staying here in Edinburgh where I'm surrounded by green gardens and flowering plants, I can't help but look forward to some early planting. Today I spotted this innovative garden on Treehugger - recycling 2 litre plastic pop bottles into a hanging wall garden feature and have to admit that I was quite taken with it.

This 'garden' was designed in collaboration with Brazilian design studio Rosenbaum and the TV show Caldeirao to help poor families improve their homes and surroundings. I'm not sure how much time it would take to water these as container gardens always need a lot more watering than ordinary gardens. Still a good idea if you live somewhere where it rains a lot. If you go to the Rosenbaum site, you will find out how to make it. It's in Portuguese but you won't need a translation as the illustration is pretty self-explanatory.

I can't show you the completed projects for my Thanksgiving Day Decor Ottawa Citizen article (which will be on the newsstands this Saturday - buy a copy to see what I did) but I can show you what I worked with. If you start with only a few things you won't need to worry about dusting and keeping everything looking fresh. I tend to stick to table decor and reuse what I have on hand. 

The gourds and pumpkin came from a friend's garden in the Glebe. I promised her to make a tart once I'm finished with the pumpkin. But it and the gourds will have a second reappearance for Halloween before that happens.

I picked the leaves from her lawn but a lot of them had little white pupae on the back waving away in the breeze (yuck!!) so it took me quite a while to find perfect ones for another article project. And to be on the safe side, I even washed these with soap and water once I got home. Meanwhile my kitchen is taking on the appearance of a madhouse. My plastic milk jugs, white dishes, picture frames, and other stuff are all being roped in to create the perfect mad scientist's lab.

Until next time, my pretties................

Helping out friends with gardening cleanups in the fall is always a chance for me to bring home all kinds of material that I need to inspire my articles. And because I'm not particularly handy, the simpler the idea, the better. Anything too complicated is beyond my feeble brain. 

My next article in the Citizen is on Thanksgiving Day decor ideas (we Canadians have an early Thanksgiving) and so I can't show you pictures of what I came up with. However, here's a taste of what is possible. This hydrangea wreath is easy to do - just stick the stem ends into the twig base form and you're done. No glue required. The base is a twig wreath form made from a friend's grapevine cuttings. Also simple to make - just twist and turn while the vine is still pliable. Use a bit of thin wire to hold it together.

Next, my Halloweeeeeeeen ideas.