Sprouts!

I have started tracking my food on Calorie King, and it has come to my attention that my protein and fibre intake is sadly lacking. I *knew* that intuitively, but now I’m seeing it in black and white. I found a few lists of high protein vegetable foods, and at the top of the list was sprouts. I did a little googling around to find out how to grow them myself and came across this handy youtube tutorial:

Everything you need to know about growing sprouts. My mom used to grow sprouts when I was a kiddo, and I’ve always loved them on a hummus or cheese sandwich.

Tip: If you don’t have a lid with a screen, you can cut up a pair of panty hose to put over the lid.

Added bonus is my son is learning about seeds at school right now, so this will be a fun project to do together.

Gardening in the Sun

Well… turns out my camera is toast. I thought it just needed to be charged, but the auto lens function no longer operates, and goes in and out, but never turns on. Time for a new camera, I guess. Please use your imagination as I share my gardening adventures of the day…

The other day after cleaning up my kitchen garden bed a little, my stepmom came over to help me identify plants and weeds cause I’m not so great at that yet. I’ve discovered I have tons of daisies coming up, as well as a medicinal plant that I can’t remember the name of now. I do know Heather will be over to take a few of them (I must ask her again what it’s called) cause I have tons and she’s been nursing a couple little plants along, and was quite delighted to see I have so much of the stuff.

I have three or four (maybe more?) different types of bulbs coming up, some daffodils, bluebells, and a couple I will just have to wait and see what they are.

It’s so exciting watching all the perennials come up that the last owner of this house planted… I have a large bunch of poppies in addtion to my copious daisies, and there’s this flowering climbing plant that I’m going to have to find a trellis for cause right now it’s trailing along the ground and we’re missing the full benefit of its beauty.

My greatest find though is I discovered an entire herb garden along the front of the house! Heaps of parsley, a huge sage bush, oregano, and rosemary so tall it can’t stand on it’s own any more and is in dire need of staking.I think there was a clump of lemon balm in there too… but I might be mixing myself up with some plants I was looking at in Heather’s garden yesterday…

I also have a pot of mint and lavendar that I brought with my from my condo, and that’s doing very well. I had to cut back the dead lavendar from last year, and pulled a couple dead annuals out to make more room for the mint to spread.

I had 8 bags of Llama pooh ready to put on my lasagna garden, so today we finally had a sunny day, so my hubbie and I went at it with gusto. We divided the garden area into four raised beds, which will have bark mulch separating them, and give us better access to the beds for planting, watering, and harvesting.

After the Llama pooh was laid out, we covered it with 8 large bags of leaves that have been stewing away in black garbage bags in the carport all winter. We covered it with a big black tarp, and will let it cook away until the threat of frost has passed.

Doing Green Weekend Chores

Every Saturday is my “chore day”, so I thought I’d share what I do, and hopefully others will share their tips.

Laundry

I buy a biodegradeable concentrated liquid laundry soap called “Terge”. You put about 20 mls in each full load, with a splash of vinegar, no scent, no toxins, and your laundry smells really fresh! I also use reusable cloth dryer sheets.

Use an energystar appliance, and if you have access to one, a laundry line to hang out your clothes. I live in a very small condo, so I’m using an old apartment sized washer/dryer, but we’re saving up for a new energystar set, and should be able to make the purchase around Christmas time. In the meantime I wash MOST loads on cold, I always do full loads, and I am sure to clean out my lint tray regularly in my dryer.

I wash sheets only once or twice a month, more often, depending on whether they get soiled or start smelling bad.

Dusting

Mix a little vinegar and water in a spray bottle and wipe down surfaces with an old rag. Streak free, and the vinegar neutralizes any nasty smells that might have accumulated in the room.

Floors

This is the one area that I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t found a natural energy conserving alternative yet. Right now I’m addicted to my swiffer for my laminate floors because it works so well, doesn’t leave any streaks, doesn’t leave excess water on the floor (causing bubbling), and is SO easy and convenient. I’m open to any ideas that are equally convenient and successful.

Dishes

I have an energystar dishwasher, and I use ECOVER dishwasher tablets. I never rinse (benefits of having a newer machine), so I save water there… I never run a load unless it’s full. I probably run it once every other day, I’m guessing.

If I want to handwash dishes, I use Nature Clean All Natural Dishwashing Liquid. I LOVE the smell of the lavender tea tree oil scented one. I even went and bought some lavendar and tea tree oil essential oils to use as air freshners after finding this dish soap. Another tip… I use this as liquid hand soap in the bathroom. I have an old dispenser that I refill. Much cheaper than all the organic hand soaps on the market, it smells awesome, and it’s biodegradeable…

Bathrooms

For the tub, I have a Nature Clean All Natural Tub & Tile Cream Cleanser that is chlorine free. It has a bit of grit to it so it gets the tub really clean. We also found some reuseable no scratch scouring pads, and throw those in the bathroom cleaning bucket, instead of using paper towel.

For the mirrors, I use a vinegar/water mix. I need something reuseable to replace the paper towels that isn’t going to leave streaks on the mirror. I’ve heard newspaper is great, but I don’t accept flyers or newspapers here, so that’s out. Suggestions anyone?

For the toilet, I found a cool toilet cleaner at a local natural cleaning supply store. It looks like a large cotton ball on the end of a stick, and has this plastic thingie you push down to squeeze the excess water out of it. It’s rather nifty… I use Nature Clean All Natural Toilet Bowl Cleaner (septic safe).

For the sinks and counters, I use Simple Green all-purpose cleaner concentrate, watered down… I bought a 650ml bottle of this 3 years years ago, and the price tag still on it says $6.99, and I’m still using it! Good stuff! I use an old towel rag, and wash and reuse them.

The garbage in the bathroom is usually just paper products, so I sort it out into the recycling, and very rarely have anything more than one or two items that go to the landfill…

Recycling

I collect all our cans and bottles and give them to a co-worker’s kid towards his spending money. When my son is a bit older, I’ll let him do the chore of sorting and cashing them in at the bottle depot, cause I personally loathe those places.

I have a system in place that is working wonderfully. In my hall closet next to my kitchen: Top shelf – box for bottles and can. Bottom of closet I converted a garbage can (one of those ones that has the foot pedal to open the lid) into a recycling bin, and taped a sign to the top of it indicating everything that can go into it. That one gets emptied into the recycling bin in our condo unit. Next to it is a canvas shopping bag, and anything that needs to go to the recycling depot goes in there. It gets full about once a month, and I make a trip to the depot (which is conveniently close to my work) and sort it into the appropriate bins. Under the sink in my kitchen I have a plastic bucket with a lid and a handle, and all our food waste goes in there, and then gets emptied into the compost bin, which I started in our condo unit, thank you very much. I throw out a grocery shopping bag sized bag of garbage once or twice a month, MAX. Often less. For a family of three. Can you tell I’m proud of our efforts in that department?! LOL

Patio

We have recently planted a small herb garden in a large pot. So far we have mint, chives and rosemary. There’s also a climbing jasmine and lavender. I plan on buying a bunch of basil for another smaller pot to keep out there, cause there’s nothing like fresh basil to spice up a dish.

I’m having ant issues. The condo unit had an exterminator out to check them out, and they are just sugar ants, so aren’t destructive, but they are EVERYWHERE. I could really use some suggestions for getting rid of them naturally. I’ve noticed the neighborhood kitties like to hang out on my patio, so nothing that is going to harm local domestic life.

Now that I’ve covered all that, I’m going to go do all the chores. Wish me luck!

Gardening in a condo

I have zero green space. There was a patch of bare hard dirt under a tree just outside my dining room window, where nothing would grow, so my landlord (who is also my dad… go dad!) built an amazing patio (he’s also a talented finish carpenter), and installed sliding doors in my dining room.

I’m planning out a patio garden that includes hanging herbs (to keep the cats and other animals from peeing on, marking and otherwise destroying plants I want to eat) and rectangular boxes of bamboo plants to screen the patio from the driveway and provide some privacy. This plan won’t go into effect until mid June cause I’m getting married and will be leaving for Jamaica.

In addition, I’m prodding the condo organization to start letting me use the huge compost bin that I found out behind the garbage bins. They want more people to participate, and I’m planning on going door to door if I have to! If I can’t get them on board, I am considering a wormery.