What Are Lean To Greenhouses? 

A lean to greenhouse refers to a type of greenhouse built up against the side of another structure. The lean to greenhouse has only one sloped roof. It has three sides of its own, and uses the side of another structure for the fourth wall.  

• Lean to greenhouses can be made of metal, plastic or vinyl (commonly referred to as polyvinyl chloride or PVC). The plastic materials used in building lean to greenhouses are usually coated with various UV protective materials to ensure the safety of the people who use them and so they last a long time.
• Lean to greenhouses are small, versatile buildings that can easily adapt to various climates and weather conditions. They work well in various environments and landscapes. Like fully-built greenhouses, they’re also able to withstand extreme weather conditions.
• Wondering what kinds of materials to use, and what sizes and shapes are available? Swgreenhouses.co.uk has a nice range here of lean to greenhouses for you to choose from.

Where to Place A Lean To Greenhouse?

Now that you know what lean to greenhouses are, it’s time to learn where you should place yours. Here are three options

• Over An Existing Porch Or Near Your Kitchen If you’re eager to grow more vegetables and herbs to eat, installing your lean to greenhouse near your kitchen makes a lot of sense. No matter what the weather, you can dash out to your greenhouse to gather herbs and greens or pick cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and other vegetables that can be grown in a compact space.
• Adjacent to Your Deck or Shed Accessibility is key. Place your lean to greenhouse in a spot you can easily get to.
• NOT Under a Tree! Never install your lean to greenhouse directly under tall trees because of the following reasons:
  • Trees will cast shade, encouraging growth of green algae. 
  • Tall trees block light, and their falling leaves and branches may cause damage to your greenhouse and block guttering. 
  • Also, tree roots could upset the greenhouse’s foundation and make planting into the beds tricky. 
  • In addition, honeydew from insects coming from the tree’s foliage can make the plastic or glass material of your greenhouse sticky and hard to remove.

NOTE: Position Your Lean To Greenhouse South-Facing

When placing your lean to greenhouse, take stock of how much natural light it will receive. It will be shaded by the structure it leans on for at least part of the day. You want the supporting side of the structure to be on its north side, so as much natural light as possible bathes the greenhouse from the south. Plan to supplement with lighting, and potential some heat, especially in colder climates.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many ways to position your lean to greenhouse in your property. You can install your greenhouse over an existing porch or near the kitchen, or against an existing shed or garage. Just make sure to avoid installing it under tall trees to avoid mold growth due to light limitations and pest infestation. Also, it’s best to position your lean to greenhouse facing south for maximum sunlight exposure.

You can get more tips for building a greenhouse here.

NOTE: Paid partnerships and sponsors help us bring you the expertise you need to live the greener life you want. Our editorial positions remain our own. 

The post 3 Places to Put A Lean To Greenhouse So You Can Grow More Food appeared first on Big Green Purse.

There’s no better way to eat locally than to grow your own food. Maintaining a home greenhouse lets you do that all year round. With a home greenhouse kit, installing and maintaining a greenhouse has never been easier. Because I’m such a huge fan of growing your own and eating local, I’ve teamed up with Emerald Kingdom Greenhouse this holiday season to highlight the benefits of having your own greenhouse. Maybe it’s time to put a home greenhouse kit on your Christmas list!

Why Put a Home Greenhouse Kit on Your Christmas List?

1) Go Organic More Easily

Growing your own food gives you the power to produce organic fruits and vegetables that aren’t contaminated by toxic pesticides and herbicides. It’s easier to protect your plants from infestations from bugs like Japanese beetles, tent caterpillars, locusts, spider mites, slugs, and other pests, as well.

Plus, when you’re able to create an ideal growing environment for your plants, with healthy soil and just the right amount of irrigation, additional fertilizers, which may be full of excess chemicals, may not be required.

2)Eat Locally Grown Food 12 Months a Year

A big benefit of having your own greenhouse is that you can grow many of your favorite vegetables 12 months a year. As long as you maintain the conditions inside the greenhouse that your plants require, you should be able to keep your greenhouse producing. Greenhouses enable you to garden 12 months a year, in good weather and bad.

3)Keep Your Plants Safe From the Elements

One of the great advantages of greenhouses is that they keep your plants safe from the elements. This is particularly useful if you live somewhere where the weather hits extremes, with very hot or cold temperatures, or even lots of winds or regular hailstones.

Apart from just generally keeping plants inside a greenhouse protected, this type of structure is also handy when you want to transplant some of your yard’s plants or grow new ones from seedlings or other small sizes. When they have been moved or are very young, plants can struggle to survive if meteorological events like dust storms, blizzards, and high winds come along and erode the soil and buffer them about too much, so this protection can make a huge difference. It will also save you from having to race home from another location to try and cover them up if the weather changes!

4)Create the Optimum Growing Environment

Another reason to utilize a greenhouse is that doing so gives your plants the optimum growing environment, regardless of the time of year. When you use these structures, you can typically set the temperature, light, feeding, and soil conditions to the ideal levels, even if the conditions outside are completely different.

When you can have control over these factors, it means you can plant new crops any time you’d like, rather than having to wait for a particular season. Ideal conditions also help fragile or smaller plants to grow more quickly, while giving you the chance to grow plants which normally aren’t found in your region because they’re not sustained by your local climate. Compost works great in the greenhouse, too.

NOTE: You can put a small home greenhouse like the one pictured above in the middle of an existing garden if you need to protect or cultivate plants that aren’t “ready for primetime” in the main garden yet.

5)Grow Flowers and Houseplants for Your Home and Yard, Even in the Winter Months

If you prefer to grow flowers and houseplants rather than food, a home greenhouse still does the trick. When you add a greenhouse to your backyard, you can quickly start building up your collection of plants, by propagating cuttings from existing plants, sowing seeds in flats you can transfer to pots or the garden, and cultivating exotic species like orchids and roses that might not otherwise survive outside the protection of the greenhouse. You’ll enjoy having a botanical paradise to admire in the depths of winter!

6)Enjoy Gardening Year Round, and Any Time of Day or Night

If you’re one of those people who loves to garden and hates to put away your tools when the bad weather sets in, a greenhouse lets you indulge your favorite hobby no matter what the weather. You don’t have to stop gardening when the sun sets either. Just string some lights in your greenhouse and keep going.

7)Make New Friends

Gardeners are a sociable lot! You could end up making lots of new friends or traveling to more interesting destinations if you join gardening clubs and associations as a result of your new passion for greenhouse gardening.

8)Develop a New, Healthy Hobby

If you haven’t started gardening yet, take it up as a new hobby. Even if you don’t think you have a green thumb or have never done any gardening at all before, you may find that once you have a greenhouse, this all changes.

Here’s another benefit: being active bending, digging, and otherwise moving about in your garden throughout the year will help you stay fit and get you out of your chair or off the couch.

Plus, it’s really fun to watch a seed turn into a tomato or a big head of lettuce!

9)Create a Soothing Place to Relax

You can get a home greenhouse kit that’s small and devoted only to plants. Or, get one that’s a little bigger so you can set aside a corner as a place to relax and de-stress. Put in a comfortable chair, some of your favorite gardening books, a journal and an electric kettle so you can make yourself a cup of tea. Ahhhh…

Ready to Get Started? 

You can probably find the home greenhouse kit that’s perfect for you at Emerald Greenhouse Kingdom. Let me know if you decide to put one up. Send pictures!

NOTE: Partners enable us to bring you the expert content you need to live the greener life you want. All editorial opinions remain our own. Thanks!

The post 9 Good Reasons to Put a Home Greenhouse Kit on Your Christmas List appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Food waste is costing you, and America, a lot of money.

As a nation, we waste 40% of the food produced.

As consumers, we throw away at least 30% of the food we buy at the grocery store.

Here’s what that means: if you spend $100 on groceries, you’ll end up throwing $30 worth away.

EcoScraps believes that’s wrong, and they’re right! That’s why we’ve teamed up with them to introduce you to the smart way they’re turning wasted food – including bananas – into potting soil and other garden products. They’re also offering a $50 WalMart Gift Card to one lucky Big Green Purse reader so you can purchase your own EcoScaps stuff. But more on that later!

Disclosure: This blog post includes links sponsored by EcoScraps and their preferred distributor, Wal-Mart.

How Many Bananas Do You Waste? What About Lettuce? Grapes?

You may be so used to throwing away food that you don’t even think about it anymore. But you should. Consider this*:

Food Waste Causes Climate Change

All this food waste takes a big toll on our pocket books. But it’s also contributing in a major way to climate change.

At the front end, think of all the fossil fuels (and water) used to produce, harvest, process and get that food to your shopping cart or dinner plate. Burning especially oil to operate farm machinery and transportation systems generates tons of carbon dioxide that are adding to global warming.

But on the back end, all the food that’s thrown away – enough to cover 4,444 football fields a year – ends up in landfills.

As landfilled food waste starts to decompose, it produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that’s 20 times more harmful than carbon dioxide (CO2).

EcoScraps to the Food Waste Rescue

Since 2010, EcoScraps has been working to be part of the solution by reusing food waste and keeping it out of landfills. “We want to make sustainability mainstream,” says the company.

And that’s exactly what they’re doing.

Recycling 15 million pounds of food waste is equivalent to keeping 500,000 cars off the road for an entire day.

Between 2011 and 2015, EcoScraps recycled 75 million pounds of food waste, and they project recycling another 75 million pounds in 2016 alone. 

What are they doing with it?

Turning it into potting soil, compost and other garden products, including:

All Purpose Plant Food

Azalea, Camellia and Rhododendron Plant Food

Compost Accelerator

Potting Mix

Raised Bed Garden Mix

Rose & Flower Plant Food

Tomato, Herb & Vegetable Plant Food

Moisture Retaining Garden Soil

All Purpose Liquid Fertilizer

Moisture Retaining Compost

I used EcoScraps’ Moisture Retaining Potting Soil to pot up the impatience and begonias I keep on my porch. Don’t they look beautiful?

What Can You Do to Reduce Food Waste?

√First and foremost, buy less food! Rather than buy as much as you think you need, realize you can buy 30% less – if you eat it all. Be smarter about what you buy and keep track of it so you eat it all.

√That goes for restaurants, too. When you dine out, order smaller portions, or share one large portion so you waste less. Bring home the leftovers so the restaurant won’t toss them in the trash.

√Change your shopping habits. Bagged salad, for instance, is one of the number one foods wasted. Buy bagged salads only on the days you plan to use them.

√And of course, choose products like EcoScraps that are made from food waste that’s been recycled.

What other ideas do you have for reducing food waste? Please share!

NOTE: Sponsors like EcoScraps enable us to bring you expert content at no cost to you. Our editorial opinions remain our own.  

*Source – Packing News

WIN A $50 GIFT CARD!

EcoScraps wants to make it easy for you to try their product, so they’re offering one lucky Big Green Purse reader a $50 Gift Card, which you can use at any WalMart store. For a chance at winning the card, please leave a comment in the comments section below telling us what you are growing in your garden this year and why you think gardening organically is so important. The winner will be chosen at random.

Please leave your comment below by Noon ET on June 28.

The post Why Does EcoScraps Turn Old Bananas Into Potting Soil, Plant Food? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

As green and glorious as your yard may be, it could also be packed with hidden hazards for your pet. In fact, it could be packed with hazards precisely because it’s green and glorious, as hundreds of plants are potentially poisonous to dogs and cats.

We’ve teamed up with PetInsuranceU.com to bring you this list of outdoor plants that could make your cat or dog ill if they munch or brush up against them. We’ve also listed other hazards to keep out of reach of your pet. Many of those you wouldn’t want to be around yourself!

Plants

From azaleas and aloe to wisteria, the ASPCA lists more than 400 plants that are potentially toxic to dogs and cats. Poisonings from plants most frequently involve cats and indoor houseplants, but the plants listed below can also cause pets to vomit, suffer diarrhea, pant excessively, drool, and have difficulty swallowing (symptom will vary depending on the plant).

Andromedia Japonica, also known as Pieris or Pieris japonica
American Mandrake, also known as Mayapple
American Holly, also known as English Holly or Winterberry
Azaleas and Rhododendrons
Begonia
Black Walnut
Burning Bush
Scented Geranium
Vinca
Iris
Sweet Potato Vine
Wisteria

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Dogs usually don’t eat plants unless there’s something else on the plant that smells good to them, like feces, dead animals, or some kind of food that’s been tossed onto the plants rather than thrown away. Keep an eye on your dog when it’s in your yard, and keep a close watch when walking your dog so it doesn’t nibble on the vegetation along the way.

Cats might nibble on grass when they’re out if they’ve got an upset stomach or just need to clean their guts. The grass or vegetation will make them throw up.

The ASPCA maintains a 24-hour emergency animal poison hotline. The number is 1-888-426-4435.

Poisons

Insecticides, weed killers, plant food, soil additives and fertilizers can be hazardous to pets, especially if they contain iron, feather meal, blood meal or bone meal.

Dogs are particularly at risk since the meal can be rather tasty, but ingesting large amounts can consolidate in the stomach, block the gastrointestinal tract, and lead to pancreatitis.

Iron can be toxic, too, as can even small amounts of a substance found in plant-care products known as organophosphates.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Garden organically without the use of toxic chemicals. Keep all soil amendments, fertilizers, and plant food on a shelf or in a cabinet so pets can’t get into them. When you apply plant food or any other amendments to your plants, keep your pets indoors and away from the treated yard.

Poison Ivy

This nasty plant deserves its own mention – not because it makes a pet sick, but because you can get poison ivy from your pet. The oils in the ivy leaves can get onto your pet’s fur, and you’d have no way of knowing. Then, you could pet your animal and voila! Poison ivy everywhere.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Chop or dig out poison ivy as soon as you spot it in your yard. Make sure to wear gloves, long sleeves, pants, and boots. Dig the ivy out to the roots, and toss it in the trash (but bagged, so the trash people don’t touch it). Definitely do not put it in your compost pile.

Mulch

Mulch may contain cocoa bean shells or husks, by-products of chocolate production. The hulls may also contain caffeine and theobromine, the two poisons that make chocolate highly toxic to dogs and cats.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Use shredded pine bark, shredded hardwood, or leaf mulch rather than cocoa bean shells or husks. Spread the word in your neighborhood so that your dog doesn’t accidentally come across cocoa bean mulch on a walk.

Compost

Compost contains decomposing matter, which can prompt the growth of molds that contain tremorgenic mycotoxins. If ingested, the toxins can rapidly make a pet sick, resulting in panting, drooling, tremors, seizures, vomiting and agitation.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Most dogs love to roll around in mulch because they love the smell. Keep dogs away from mulch piles or freshly mulched garden beds until the smell dies down, which it will eventually.

Pests

Fleas can torment your pet with all their biting. Ticks (seen right, in dog fur) can spread Lyme disease to your animal.

Other yard pests can range from foxes to rattlesnakes to raccoons, and skunks to bats and rats.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Apply chemical flea and tick prevention medication with utmost care, following all directions and ensuring the dose is designed for your specific animal and size. Keep on the lookout for animals like foxes and rats that might actually prey on your pet. Every spring a mother fox or two dens in our suburban neighborhood, and once she gives birth, she goes on the prowl for food. We all keep our cats and dogs under watch and definitely inside from dusk until dawn, when the foxes are most likely to be hunting.

Having a poison control number handy can be a helpful measure, as can knowing the number and location of an emergency vet. Since you never know when an emergency may arise – or how much treatment may cost – pet health insurance is another precautionary step for an additional layer of protection and peace of mind.

NOTE: Sponsors like PetInsuranceU.com enable us to bring you expert content at no cost to you. Our editorial opinions remain our own. Thanks!

SOURCES:
ASPCA
NOLA.com
Pet Poison Helpline
Humane Society Flea & Tick Care 

The post Do You Know Which Plants Can Poison Your Pet? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Microgreens pack a lot of delicious punch in a tiny pouch (well, leaf to be exact).

I started eating them almost by accident. I was weeding mustard greens out of a community garden patch, and rather than toss them into the compost, I just started nibbling on them. They were much tastier than the full-grown plant, and offered a few other benefits as well.

√ For starters, microgreens can be harvested within weeks of planting, rather than the two months or more it would take to get to full size.

√ Because they’re so young, they’re often extremely tender and sweet.

√ You can plant and harvest them in the winter when most fresh greens come from far-away places.

√ Plus, you can plant a lot of seed in a smaller space, since you’re weeding them out before they get taller, more straggly, and need more soil and water.

Happily, you don’t actually need a garden to grow microgreens. You don’t even need special microgreen seeds, since all you’re really doing is eating the very early growth of the regular plant. Here are sixteen microgreens you can grow in a jar or a box on your porch, patio, windowsill or anywhere else they’ll get plenty of direct sunlight and moisture.

1)Lettuce
2)Spinach
3)Tatsoi
4)Radish greens
5)Peas
6)Cabbage
7)Basil
8)Watercress
9)Parsley
10)Beet greens
11)Kale
12)Mustard
13)Spinach
14)Arugula
15)Endive
16)Broccoli

Here’s the process:

→ Get seed. Most hardware stores and garden centers sell all these seeds, but you can also shop for them online or in the Big Green Purse Amazon Store. One packet of seeds will grow a lot of microgreens, so don’t buy more than you need.

→ Get the right container. You’ll need something that’s a few inches deep. Again, hardware stores and garden centers sell special containers for sprouting seeds, but I use planters I have around the house or wide-mouth jars. You can also use egg cartons, or the bottoms of paper milk cartons. I prefer containers that have drainage holes on the bottom. If I use a glass jar without bottom holes I try not to overwater the seeds. If I buy anything, it’s usually a biodegradable peat pot.

→ Use good soil. For seeds, loose, crumbly soil full of organic matter is best. You can buy an organic potting mix, or make up some from your garden by mixing soil with compost and a little organic fertilizer if you have it. I usually make up a big pile of potting mix at one time and then use it to fill all my containers. You can also use something like this seed starter mix.

If you are interested in planning an organic garden for next spring, don’t miss our Top Green Tips for Organic Gardening!

→ Sprinkle the seeds on top; cover with just a little more dirt. Scatter the seeds over the potting mix, then cover with no more than 1/8 inch dirt.

→ Water gently but thoroughly. You don’t want the soil so wet that the seed rots. However, you don’t want the soil to dry out, either. Sometimes, a plant mister works best. Spray the soil until you can see that it is wet but not muddy.

→ Put in direct sunlight. Seeds need at least four hours of direct sunlight every day. A nice sunny south-facing window should do the trick. You can also use grow lights, but for microgreens, I prefer the sun.

→ Harvest. Keep an eye on the seeds. They’ll start sprouting within a few days. Wait ten days to two weeks, when they’ve got their first set of true leaves, to start harvesting them. You can use scissors to snip them off right above the soil, or your fingertips to pinch them off the stem. Try to harvest them the same day you’re going to eat them for the freshest flavor.

→ Eat. I usually start eating them as soon as I pick them. Otherwise, I toss them into a salad, use them as a garnish on an omelette or in soup, or tuck them inside a sandwich. You could also add them to your juicer with any number of other fruits and vegetables.

RELATED

5 Reasons Why You Should Build Your Own Greenhouse

Compost: Crack for the Garden

The post 16 Microgreens You Can Grow in a Jar or a Box appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Why grow grass when you could grow so many other things that are better for the planet? Not that grass isn’t pretty to look at, or fun to play on – it can be. But grass comes with a big price tag. To keep grass green and healthy requires toxic chemicals – fertilizers to keep it growing, pesticides to keep the bugs out. Plus, there’s all that mowing and seeding and watering and …the list goes on and on.

Fortunately, there are lots of natural alternatives to growing grass that will look great, free up time, and save money. Here are the top 8.

Best Natural Alternatives to Growing Grass

1) Vegetable garden – If you have enough sun to grow grass, you definitely have enough sun to grow a garden. Dig up the sod, till some rich organic compost into the soil, and plant the vegetables you want to eat. It’s a great way to ensure you’re getting totally local and organic produce for the cost of seeds and water for the plants. If you put in raised beds, you’ll significantly reduce weeding, and it will be easier to pick your harvest when it’s ready. Even if you live in a colder climate, you should be able to grow food three seasons of the year. Talk with your county extension agent or local garden shop to learn what you can plant when. Want more tips to help you get started? Don’t miss our Top Ten Organic Gardening Tips.

2) Flower beds – Wouldn’t you rather look at a bank of beautiful flowers than a boring old lawn?  Plant some flowers you’ll leave to enjoy, and others you want to cut and bring into your home. You can also put in “theme” flower beds. For example, have one bed designed specifically to attract butterflies, another for flowers like sunflowers that the birds will love. Plant perennial flowers, which will bloom year after year, but keep pots of annuals ready to fill in when one part of the garden is finished blooming.

3) Berry bushes – Grow raspberries and blueberries instead of grass for delicious fruit you can pick right outside your door. You may need to put up netting to protect the berries from hungry birds, or use scarecrows and flags that will wave the birds away when the wind blows.

4) Fruit trees – Apples, pears, peaches, plums, apricots and cherries need room to spread their branches. But if you give it to them, they’ll reward you with delicious fruit. Of course, you do have to pick it. But isn’t that half the fun? And so much better than eating grass!

5) Hardy ground covers – If you need a place for the dog to cavort or the kids to play, replace your lawn with a hardy, low-maintenance ground cover that requires little mowing or watering and no chemicals. For example, Blue Star Creeper (Isotoma fluviatillis) is rugged, fast growing, and can handle lots of foot traffic. It flowers beautifully in the spring and summer, an added bonus. Elfin Thyme (Thymus serpyllum) is very drought tolerant, grows low to the ground, and forms a solid mat of green foliage. You’ll love the light pink flowers it sports in the summer, too. Ivy, vinca and bishopweed are other options. Liriope works great, too. Though it dies back in the winter, for a solid three seasons it has lush foliage that never needs mowing.

6) Decorative stones, fountains, birdbaths – For a really low maintenance yard, replace sections of your lawn with stonework. Use gravel for pathways, larger boulders to make statements and different sized rocks to add visual interest. Fill pots large and small with some perennials, some annuals. Install a water fountain, a pond, and some birdbaths to complete the effect. Don’t forget a bench so you can sit near the fountain and take in the view.

7) Woodchips – If your kids need a play area, woodchips may serve them well. Pick large, smooth woodchips, not fresh chips that may easily splinter, and scatter them about two inches deep.

8) Green weeds – If the lawn look is what you want, or you feel like the kids just need some kind of grassy area to play on, go for “faux” grass – or, as it’s known around my house, weeds. Weeds are not uniform in appearance like grass is. But their low maintenance, while still covering the ground in green, makes them a hands-down winner. I never water or fertilize my weeds and mow them only about a third as often as I’d have to mow grass. But I still enjoy my yard greatly.

Want More Information?

Natural Weed Control

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Want to garden organically but don’t know how to beat the bugs? This handy infographic, prepared by the good folks at First Choice Environmental, suggests 4 tricks that will help you create a healthier garden overall. It tells you which bugs are good, then helps you avoid more toxic pesticides in favor of biological pest controls that use the good guys to control the bad guys. It lists a few beneficial flowers you’d probably want to plant anyway – but especially after you find out how effective they can be at warding off plants. And suggests a simple barrier you can put up so bugs don’t land on your plants in the first place. For organic pest control for your garden, try these eco-friendly DIY steps.

The post 4 Steps to DIY Organic Pest Control for Your Garden appeared first on Big Green Purse.

A new study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that “organic crops and crop-based foods are up to 69% higher” in antioxidants than crops grown using toxic chemicals. In fact, shifting to organic fruit, vegetables and cereals, and to foods made from them, would provide additional antioxidants equivalent to eating between 1-2 extra portions of fruit and vegetables a day! Why does it matter? Many studies link antioxidants to reduced risk of heart disease and certain cancers. Eating organically can help reduce those risks.

The study also shows that organic food contains “significantly lower levels of toxic heavy metals.” Cadmium, a heavy metal that can cause a number of serious health problems, was found to be almost 50% lower in organic crops than conventionally-grown ones.

That’s not all. Pesticide residues were four times more likely to be found on conventional crops than on organic ones.

So add the nutrition and health benefits of organic agriculture to a long list of environmental benefits we enjoy when farmers skip toxic chemicals or when we grow our own organic gardens. Those environmental benefits include cleaner air, safer drinking water, protection for birds, bees, and other wildlife, and even healthier soil.

With so many benefits to growing and eating organic food, there still seems to be one barrier to choosing it: cost. In some cases, organic food can be more expensive than conventional. Here’s what we suggest to make organic food affordable. If you have other ideas, please leave them in the comments section below. Thanks!

SUMMARY OF BENEFITS OF ORGANIC FOOD

1) It’s more nutritious.

2) It offers more antioxidants.

3) It’s far less contaminated with toxic heavy metals.

4) It contains less toxic pesticide residue.

5) It protects clean air, safe drinking water, and the natural world.

For More Information

Afford Organic Food! Top Ten Organic Food $$$$ Busters

Florida Resident Shifts $1,137 to Organic Foods, Native Plants & Worm Poop

Organic Food Backgrounder

The post Benefits of Organic Food: It’s More Nutritious appeared first on Big Green Purse.

 When you add it to your soil, it makes the earthworms shimmy, the bugs boogie, and plants positively pop.

(From what I’ve read, crack has a similar effect on the people who use it; let me say for the record that I’ve never tried it!)

Just as good, compost strengthens your soil and reduces your need to use synthetic fertilizers or toxic pesticides. If you’re NOT using compost, why are you bothering to garden at all? Really!

WHAT EXACTLY IS COMPOST?

Composting is Nature’s way of turning waste into organic gold.

• Through good old-fashioned biological processes, composting converts kitchen scraps, yard waste, and other organic matter into rich and crumbly, soil-like material that attracts healthy worms, fights disease and improves the fertility of the soil.

WHY IS COMPOSTING SO GREAT?

• Composting saves money by reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers and toxic chemicals.
  
• Composting could save communities money, too. Yard trimmings and food waste together constitute 23 percent of the U.S. municipal solid waste stream. That’s a lot of garbage to send to landfills when it could become useful and environmentally beneficial compost instead!

I compost fruit and veggie kitchen scraps in my backyard. My town picks up our fallen leaves every autumn, lets them biodegrade at a municipal site, and delivers them back to us in the spring to use as mulch on our gardens and around our bushes and trees. You can also buy ready-made compost at most hardware stores and garden centers, or online at places like Amazon (we sell some in our store here). NOTE: If you buy compost, make sure it has been made from certified organic plant sources.

 YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN COMPOST

You can make compost from kitchen waste, debris from your lawn and garden, or both. You can either build your own compost pile, or buy a compost tumbler or bin. You can even get composting bags to keep on your back porch, deck or patio.

Whether you make your own or buy it, the key is to use it. To encourage more gardeners to use compost, on Earth Day, the U.S. Composting Council is launching a Million Tomato Compost Campaign, a program to build healthy soil and help bring fresh food to underserved communities and food pantries. Starting this month, members of the Council will be donating thousands of pounds of compost to community gardens to help them grow one million tomatoes in just one growing season. Nathan Lyon (co-host of PBS’ “Growing a Greener World,” and the author of the best-selling Great Food Starts Fresh, one of the Washington Post’s top 10 cookbooks of 2012) is on board to help get the word out. Here’s how your community can join in.

Now…get crackin’!

 MORE COMPOST SUPPLIES IN OUR AMAZON STORE

We’ve combed through the offerings on Amazon to help you find supplies to get started composting at home. Here’s a sample of what you’ll find:

The Complete Compost Gardening Guide

Odor-free Countertop Compost Keeper

Back Porch Kitchen ComposTumbler

Charlie’s Compost: Concentrated Organic Plant Matter

Note: We earn a very small commission on your purchases. It doesn’t add to the cost of what you buy, but it helps us continue to provide our recommendations to you for free. Thanks.

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Saving Energy

Reader Bonnie installed a programmable thermostat. It cost her $35, but she expects to easily recoup the cost on her heating and cooling bills. StudioJMM of http://profile.typepad.com/studiojmm put solar panels on her roof. Ann started a “no idling” campaign to get buses to turn off their engines when they’re waiting to pick up kids at school. Saves energy AND keeps the air cleaner.

Green Cleaning

Hana, aka the Green Granma http://thegreengrandma.blogspot.com/ discovered “the unending merits of vinegar” for greener cleaning. Celine spent a few dollars on cleaning rags she purchased at Goodwill. Lynne at http://greenertoday.blog.ca/ is now making her own green cleaners, plus buying local and kicking the throwaway water bottle habit.

In the Kitchen

Kerri (of www.realhartford.org) installed a worm composter. She spent $125 for the worm bin, and got the worms for free from a friend. She’s already harvested three bins full of compost, which she’s used to enrich her garden soil. Next steps? Making better use of bulk food. Barathi has given up bottled water and other beverages completely, and now, not only uses a reusable bottle, but gives them to friends to encourage them to do the same. Jeanne, a student in Quebec, France, became a vegetarian, a move she feels is saving her a lot of money (tofu is cheaper than meat!).

Cher over at http://creativeandtasty.blogspot.com/became a vegetarian, too. So did Anna at http://www.green-talk.com/. Jen of http://www.jenandjoeygogreen.blogspot.com/ planted a big organic vegetable garden. She thinks it cost less than $100, but is saving much more in food she doesn’t need to buy. Lisa of http://condo-blues.blogspot.com/ joined a CSA (community supported agriculture, which meanss you buy a farm’s harvest for a season). Denise got a hand-me-down solar oven, and has been making her own granola. Kathy began composting kitchen scraps to reduce the amount of garbage she threw away, and found she didn’t need to buy fertilizer for the garden! Sherry is getting her family to eat more locally grown food and less meat; they’re wiping their hands and mouths on the new cloth napkins she’s bought.

Home Furnishings

Bonnie also completely redecorated her apartment for $500 by buying everything second-hand on Craig’s list. On a larger scale, Diane left her home in Costa Rica to become an “eco beaver” in Oregon, where she and her husband are building their own abode. You can read about the many changes they’ve made – and plan to make – at http://connect.oregonlive.com/user/EcoBeavers/index.html. One smart move: they’re building three tall and narrow stories instead of something more sprawling to protect as much of their forested property as possible.

Personal Care Products

Jeanne, a student in Quebec, France, replaced feminine hygiene products with a reusable diva cup. Shannon of http://www.workingmomgoesgreen.com/ switched to more natural personal care products for herself and her family. She’s making her own deodorant, and using baking soda for shampoo, and cider for conditioner, saving at least $50/year.

Transportation

Beate of http://www.levananaturals.com/ started sharing a car. Hana, aka the Green Granma (see above) traded in her Buick for a Honda Insight Hybrid.

Started Their Own Companies and Blogs!

Talk about ambitious! Linda at www.ekobear.ca started this toy company to make sure her kids (and yours) had safe toys to play with. This, on top of greening all her family’s cleaning products, switching to reusable bags, using a clothes drying rack, and installing a motion sensor light in the bathroom, which is better than constantly reminding her 4-year-old son to turn off the light. Beate (see above) also opened her own online store. Take a look at http://www.levananaturals.com/.

Meanwhile, Renee set up a blog –  http://nevertoolatetogreen.blogspot.com – to chronicle the many small but meaningful changes she’s making to green her life. What’s she done so far? She’s stopped using nasty cleaning chemicals, has started to grow her own food or buy local, and started using a clothesline, actions, which she says saved her hundreds of dollars. Lori launched  http://groovygreenlivin.com/. And still more new blogs: Christina started writing
http://www.greenerparents.com/, where you can find her stories about switching out paper Kleenex for reusable cloth hankies and tips on giving a green birthday party for your child.

Congratulations to everyone who took a new green step, or who walked farther along the environmental path they’ve begun. You make a difference!

The post Need Help Getting Inspired for 2011? Learn From These Great Green Role Models. appeared first on Big Green Purse.