The Miracle Tree

Denis Ortega seems to have a green thumb. He is growing Moringa. It won’t be long before he is planting in neighbors’ yards and creating a reforestation program. His interest in gardening started during remote learning when his teacher gave a class assignment to plant a garden. With some added funding, this young man will have meaningful income. Moringa is a miracle tree. It provides necessary nutrition for those who are malnourished.

Teach the children. You can follow on Facebook – Sustainability Project – Honduras

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Teach the Children

We live in an affluent community. Composting for many seems to be too time consuming, too not cool, too many other things to do like workout at the gym. I think we can skip the adult generations so let’s teach the children.

Recently I did a workshop with a k to 5 Green Team in our Town. The students were truly engaged. They filled two Earth Machine composters with leaves in twenty minutes. And they are smart. Those kids knew about carbon footprints, molecules and photosynthesis. Teachers at the Foster School seem to be doing a great with environmental education.

The time is now to carbon sink.

Follow on Facebook – A Sustainable Hingham & Sustainability Project – Honduras

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• Charcoal
• Composting
• Danger
• Environmental Opportunity
• garden art
• Green School
• Honduras
• leadership
• Neighbors
• Organic
• red wiggler worms
• Roof Top Gardens
• Schools
• science
• Sq Foot Gardening
• STEAM
• students
• Teaming with Microbes
• Uncategorized
• Urban
• Worms

Food Security

Some think food security is overstated. Check out the lines at food banks in 2020.

Industrial farms release the most toxic elements to the environment – nitric oxide. It contributes in a big way to global warming. Yet there are many opportunities to live more holistic lives.

Are you horticulturally ignorant? There are internet and you tube resources available. You should not be afraid to fail. It all starts with composting. Be the first in your affluent, middle class or poor neighborhood to make a food source difference. We can save the planet but we need more than talk. We need you.

Marge and Joe do it. You can too.

Just Do Compost!

Venus and James are enjoying their new home. Venus was a member of our Quincy High School tennis team. They both want to do their environmental part. They just installed a simple compost container in their backyard. They had plenty of materials to fill the composter when I arrived. We added leaves, shredded paper, food scraps, starter compost, ash and red wiggler worms.

It appears that young couples understand that it is the little things that will make an environmental difference. James comes from Queens New York. He studied dentistry at Tufts Medical School and that is what brought him to Massachusetts. He mentioned that his parents composted in Queens.

Parents, you can influence your children by thinking that we all play a role in a sustainable future. Compost, compost, compost.

Garden Art

Sometimes it is difficult to get members of the family involved in our gardens. Julia posted on her blog an interesting idea from the Children’s Museum. https://anotherjsblog.wordpress.com/category/kids/art/

I would enjoy seeing gardens from the creative minds of children. When you send the photos to me, I will post some of them to exhibit the “Lens of a Child”. You might share with the child ideas as a stimulus for this project. Or, just give them your cell phone. Try to learn what your child sees: germination, pollination, seed development (seed savers), flowers just before the vegetable develops, harvesting, the family garden or the vegetable on the dinner table. You can teach your child a lot of science in a garden.

What is Land ?

This is a photo of Manuel. Cristian has told me that Manuel is a hard worker. Notice that Manuel is having his picture taken in back of a Square Foot Garden. The reality: the soil in Honduras is depleted, chemicals are too expensive for poor people to afford and weak plants are vulnerable to pests.

Yesterday, Manuel and Cristian planted yellow squash. It will be interesting to see the results when comparing the squash being planted in depleted soil as opposed to the composted mix.

Seeds for Honduras

For several years I used to be able to get left over seeds from garden stores to take to Honduras. Now the stores are required to send them back to the seed companies. I hope that some of you will send me your left over seeds. I will take them to Honduras for planting next year. Message me if you need my address.

The people’s diet consists of rice, beans and corn. The malnutrition stems from the fact that they are not eating enough vegetables and fruits with micro-nutrients. Right now we have people teaching others to plant, grow, harvest and cook nutritious vegetables. This is a opportunity for you to partner with us. Message me and I will send you my address.

Not just Water

When I fill the Britta water filter at home the chlorine gas fills the air with a foul stink. I think the Town is putting extra chlorine in the water during the pandemic.

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We can all filter the water that we drink. However when you spray plants from a hose the chlorine goes into the soil and kills the microorganisms. Those microbes build organic complex structures. Rain barrels are useful for eliminating the chlorine that kills those microbes. If you don’t have a water barrel you can eliminate some of the chlorine and florid chemicals by spraying into a watering can first. The chlorine gas will be released. If your city or town is using a lot of chemicals in the water you will smell them right away. Take just one more step to grow organic healthy plants and spray the chemicals away.

• Charcoal
• Composting
• Danger
• Environmental Opportunity
• garden art
• Green School
• Honduras
• leadership
• Neighbors
• Organic
• red wiggler worms
• Roof Top Gardens
• Schools
• science
• Sq Foot Gardening
• STEAM
• students
• Teaming with Microbes
• Uncategorized
• Urban
• Worms

Big Blue II

Today Big Blue was completed.  My motivation is to produce large amounts of compost and lots of red wiggler worms to share with other gardeners.   Using pure compost, we are able to grow a lot of food in a very small area of Square Foot Gardens.

The technique for using this compost bed is to fill it from left to right.  As decomposition takes place, the raw materials will be emptied and moved toward the right side of the bed.  Once the materials are filled at the far end, the left side of the bed should be ready to process.

Big Blue’s unique components are: PVC aerating tubes, a solar air pump, used shower curtain for moisture and heat control and easy access to the process the finished product.

 

Day 14: Why do so many people distrust scientists?

I be

That Hippie Looking Chick

From anti-vaxxers to climate change deniers to Covid-19 scoffers, fact-resistant humans are everywhere and they are wreaking havoc on society. When did people become so distrustful of scientists and professionals? When did humans start opting for non-professional propaganda that panders to their opinions and long-held beliefs? At times, these people are just a nuisance, like the flat-Earthers. Everyone’s free to believe what they want, right? But in the middle of a pandemic, denying science is a serious issue. What is causing this and how do we address it?

It’s not hard to notice the parallels between science resisters and their political affiliation. According to a 2019 Pew Research Survey “More Democrats (43%) than Republicans (27%) have “a great deal” of confidence in scientists” and “Most Democrats (73%) believe scientists should take an active role in scientific policy debates.” It’s especially evident when discussing climate change, a topic consistently denied or…

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