SITE VISIT | greyfriars garden

Say HELLO to the new Greyfriars Garden on Shuttle Street, Merchant City.

 S A T U R D A Y,   28th  J U L Y 

1 2 - 4 P M

A colourful celebration of local food.

Pop-up cooking stalls, growing workshops, free tastings, Fife Diet Seed Truck, live music.

Zofia will be waiting for you outside the SPT Kelvinbridge Subway Station at 12pm. Otherwise meet us 12.30ish in the garden. Hope to see you there.

REMEMBER | biodiversity vs. monoculture

{ via lexicon of sustainability }

❝ The conventional farmers next door call Rick's organic methods 'dirty farming'(they're 'clean'). Each winter their fields sit idle for months at a time. Since no cover crop is planted (a process returns nutrients to the soil and increases soil fertility), the soil remains exposed to the elements. Wind erosion will carry some of this precious top soil away, and in doing so releases carbon back into the atmosphere.❞

UPCYCLE | horizontal plastic bottle planters

{ via recyclart }

WATCH | the price of sugar

{ The Price of Sugar }

❝In the Dominican Republic, a tropical island-nation, tourists flock to pristine beaches unaware that a few miles away thousands of dispossessed Haitians have toiled under armed-guard on plantations harvesting sugarcane, much of which ends up in U.S. kitchens. They work grueling hours and frequently lack decent housing, clean water, electricity, education or healthcare. Narrated by Paul Newman, "The Price of Sugar" follows Father Christopher Hartley, a charismatic Spanish priest, as he organizes some of this hemisphere's poorest people to fight for their basic human rights. This film raises key questions about where the products we consume originate and at what human cost they are produced.❞

GROW | your own avocado

{ adapted from Australian Avocados }

1. Thoroughly wash your avocado seed.
2. Secure toothpicks into the seed so that they sit out horizontally.
3. Suspend the seed with the heavy, flat side down over a glass of water. About 3cm of the seed should be sitting in water.
4. Place the seed out of direct sunlight and top up the water as needed.

5. In 2-6 weeks, roots and stem should start to sprout.
6. When the stem is 15 to 18cm long, cut it back to about 8cm in length.
7. When the stem has grown leaves again and the roots are thick, plant it in a pot with half the seed exposed.

8. Water the plant lightly and frequently, with an occasional deep soak. The soil should be moist but not saturated.
9. Make sure it's getting plenty of sunlight.
10. When the stem is 30cm long, cut it back to 15cm. This will encourage new shoots.
Now you should be well on your way to growing you own avocado tree. ::

REMEMBER | eating in season

 { via lexicon of sustainability }

❝ Iso Rabins explains that a forager sees food everywhere. It's at the park where you way, in the pond you sit next to, in the trhees you walk by, even in your backyard (you just don't know it). What matters most is being aware.It's how to discover your own foraging spots (because Iso won't share his)and besides that the fun is the search. Iso's favourite is a rarely used city park. Most people have never heard of it, even though it's in the heart of the city.❞

UPCYCLE | self-watering seed starter pots

{ via Skruben }

REMEMBER | permaculture

{ via lexicon of sustainability }

❝ I asked Penny for a 'pithy' definition for Permaculture and she said it's … a 'whole system's' approach to the design of human settlements that integrates landscape, water, plants, animals, urban structure, agriculture, ecology, energy, economy and social justice into a framework that promotes opportunities for humans to become a benefit to the planet and all creation while supplying sources for an abandant existence.❞

HOW TO | build mini beds in milk cartons

MATERIALS | 

empty milk or juice cartons, knife, soil, small rocks

{ via ZEITonline }

{ NORMADISCH GRÜN 2012:117 }

BUILD |

1. Collect empty milk or juice cartons and rinse them well immediately to prevent them to go moldy.

2a. Put the cartons across, cut two quadrangles of the topside of the carton, pierce the bottom to let the water drain.

2b. Put the cartons upright, cut off the upside, pierce the bottom to let the water drain.

3. Layer bottom with some small rocks. Fill up with soil, put in seeds/seedlings and finish with another layer of soil. Water.

Cartons will last for 1-2 years until they start to rot.::