obon:

5 Biodegradable Seed-Starting Planter-Pots to DIY

Like many of us, the gardening plans of Michele Pacey (mentioned previously here and here) include growing plants from seed.

In a recent blog post, Michele describes her seed-starting setup: seeds planted in biodegradable newspaper “pots,” which are placed indoors on foam meat trays while the seeds germinate.  

After seedlings have sprouted, the plants — pots and all — can be planted in soil.

To make your own biodegradable seed-starters:

• Roll newspaper pieces around a jar and close the ends, as Michele shows in this short video, or roll pieces of newspaper around something like this.
• Fold newspaper pages, origami-like, into pots. For folding tutorial, see the For Greenies blog.

• Cut pieces of paper towel or toilet paper tubes, adding four slits on one end, then fold end pieces together to form a closed bottom. (Photo via girlgearstudio.) Ends also could be left open, as pictured in this earlier Unconsumption post.

• Use eggshells, as mentioned here (with description for blowing out eggs).

• Use citrus peels. (Found here.)

Another idea: Create mini-greenhouses from cut plastic bottles. Simply place bottle tops over plants. (Found on Poppytalk.)

What household waste do you use for starting seeds?

mmm

racingsunbeams:

What Ever Happened? - The Strokes

10/31/2003, Boston MA 

a perfect performance of this song.

veggiehighvision:

“When you have an asthma attack, you can’t breathe. When you can’t breathe, you can hardly talk. To make a sentence all you get is the air in your lungs. Which isn’t much. Three to six words, if that. You learn the value of words. You rummage through the jumble in your head. Choose the crucial…

Some insight

kqedscience:

Today is World Water Day

“The day to recognize the importance of earth’s most precious natural resource was proposed 20 years ago at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. While we often take water for granted, many cannot. And water plays a role in almost everything we do.”

obon:

Reclaimed bus yard begins life as a park and urban wetland

It took three years and more than $26 million to turn an old MTA bus yard in South Los Angeles into what it is today: a sprawling [nine-acre] park and urban wetland that will store and clean millions of gallons of storm water — while also giving children a place to play.

Residents say it is a welcome addition to a neighborhood that is sorely in need of green space.

City officials say decades of lax zoning practices have left many of the area’s residential streets blighted with warehouses, mechanic shops and scrap yards. The new park replaces one of those industrial islands with a novel feat of urban landscape design.

Unlike most parks, which feature green lawns and picnic tables, this one is composed of walking paths, native plants and several kidney-shaped pools filled with storm water. Naturally occurring bacteria clean pollutants from the water, which eventually feeds into a storm drain.

(via latimes.com)

shim-elyasmine:

Albert Hammond Jr | The Boss Americana

yuppienews:

Free Market Environmentalism | Walter Block

Interview with Walter Block from the mid-80’s discussing his book, ‘Free Market Economics and the Environment: A Reconciliation.’

Walter Block, an Austrian school economist and philosopher, is Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Chair in Economics and professor of economics at Loyola University New Orleans and senior fellow with the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is the author of the books Defending the Undefendable; Labor Economics From A Free Market Perspective; Economics and the Environment: A Reconciliation, and his latest, The Privatization of Roads and Highways. 

saturdayskids:

Favourite guided by voices song by my favourite band x

Went on a run and listened to this song the entire time, one of the songs where it is just done so right and beautiful.