Celebrate World Water Day with New Keyhole Garden Collection

We think the best way to celebrate World Water Day is to honor the brands that are doing their part to reduce consumption and make a difference. 

Vita Gardens is doing just that. The company is on a mission to help gardeners from North America to Africa grow organic, healthy food in less space with less water. This spring, the company expands its line of Keyhole Gardens with four new portable versions.

Originally developed in Africa as a way to grow food in extreme heat and drought conditions, the keyhole gardening technique works by creating a space for both composting and growing in one raised garden bed. Keyhole gardens use up to 70 percent less water than a typical raised bed and produce more vegetables in a shorter amount of time.

Available for pre-order online, the new line expands on the popular Classic 6x6 African Keyhole Garden Bed by offering the same keyhole garden technology in a variety of sizes and styles. The Classic 4x4, 3x5 and Urban keyhole garden beds provide the same benefits of the traditional bed in compact, portable designs. The minimalist Urban garden comes in a sleek, wood finish with a 10- year warranty while the other options are backed by 20-year warranty.

Eddie DeJong, Vita Gardens’ head of business development and design, says the expanded collection meets the needs of gardeners who are looking to utilize small spaces.  

“The new Keyhole Gardens fit in smaller garden spaces allowing gardeners to grow more food efficiently in a tighter space,” says DeJong. “We want to inspire people by giving them options to grow healthy, organic vegetables, fruit and herbs whether they live on a small plot of land in the city or on several acres in the suburbs.”

For more information about Vita Gardens and its new line of water saving products, visit http://www.vitagardens.com/. 

GMG's Friday Find: Get Cranking to Win a Kitchen Compost Bin on Steroids

Composting is not just a trendy 'gardening' activity; in many municipalities across the country it will soon be mandatory in order to reduce our over-filled landfills. It's astonishing to learn that the largest component in our landfills is food, accounting for nearly 50% of all municipal waste.  There is more food in landfills than diapers, styrofoam and tires and although food decomposes by itself in nature, not so in landfills which are layered deep and saturated with water.  Since no oxygen can penetrate, our biodegradable waste will remain embalmed for centuries to come.

GMG's Friday Find: No Complaint Composting With This Sleek Shredder!

Finally!  A countertop pre-composter that takes the yuck, smell and mess our of recycling food scraps.

The Green Cycler, invented by Gail Loos, a single mom frustrated with efforts to find a product to grind kitchen scraps, has won the Pinnacle Award at the 2013 National Hardware Show.  Designed as a new class of appliance, the Green Cycler is a food scrap shredder and recycling system that vastly improves organic waste recycling.  By shredding organic material to the ideal size for composting, the Green Cycler speeds up the composting recovery cycle by 10 times or more.  Plus, it's super sleek and pretty, kid-friendly, dishwasher safe and totally recyclable itself.

Here are the features of the Green Cycler:

*  A self-contained, stainless-steel blade cartridge system that snaps in and out for a quick clean-up
*  Hand-operated, dual-direction grinding handles tough enough to chop all scraps, even avocado pits
*  Fully removable lid with clear viewing window for a birds-eye view of the shredding action
*  Lever-activated, industrial-strength suction cups keep it anchored while shredding
*  Micro-vented to reduce odor causing bacteria and promotes quick decomposition
*  Inner compartment holds odor and pest repellent filter (included)
*  Designed to fit neatly against a backsplash or under kitchen cabinets
*  Easy cleanup with all components dishwasher safe

The innovative ecodrawer is easy to carry and holds up to 8 pounds of shreds.  Once full, the drawer can be emptied right into the garden or containers where the nutrients feed the soil.  This means a full circle cycle of table to garden to table, allowing natural composting to enrich the soil, your vegetables, and your body with super nutrient rich food.

Plus, composting is on the rise, and mandatory city food scrap waste management is in the wings of many municipalities.  Understandably, as we generate 35 million tons of food waste, 97% of which ends up in landfills.  This decomposing organic matter generates 16.2% of the nation's emissions of methane greenhouse gas.

Thanks to the efforts of one inventive mom, a product is finally available to help every household put the "cycle" in recycle without the mess, stink or yuck of other indoor compost bins.  Shred your scraps, spread your scraps, and enjoy the benefits of composting.  Happy shredding!

~Peggy
Garden Media Group

GMG's Friday Find: Welcome to the Garden of Nash

There has been some chatter over the years about Gen Y's not picking up the mantle when it comes to gardening.  I beg to differ.

In Jamaica Plain, not far from downtown Boston, there is a renaissance happening, where cultures meld and mix, just like the landscape.  On a busy street where homes and businesses coincide, a little postage stamp backyard has been transformed from a weed patch to a sustainable oasis.  

Welcome to the Garden of Nash.

Nash is 23 and knows a thing or two about sustainable living.  Although his family were not gardeners, fresh fruits and veggies were readily available in his hometown of Miami.  When he moved to Boston he wanted the accessibility and affordability of fresh produce, so he did his research.  With the help of his fellow apartment dwellers, he brought his vision into fruition.

First he cleared the little plot, leaving some of the weeds because “they’re pretty and add texture” to the space. Knotweed can also be eaten when the rhubarb runs out. 

They made a picnic table out of pallets, leaving natural moss on the underside of the table.  The chairs will be be hand painted by people from each apartment, expressing the individual artistic designs of the residents.

Nash even added a  pond with water lilies and a small filter fountain.  Koi fish will be added shortly.

A heartshape firepit was made with a nice size log for seating.  A hammock was hung for the occasional afternoon snooze. Sweet planters accent the yard with repurposing always in mind.

Nash made, so far, 3 raised bed gardens where the lettuces and other spring veggies are flourishing. Tomato plants are growing and many little seedlings came in with the compost soil which they’re saving and replanting. They have many garden containers as well, some with flowers, others with veggies.

 

They installed a solar panel!  It connects to the second floor apartment where music can be piped from, as well as solar powered lights strung high for ambient lighting at night.

A large water basin collects water from the winter snow, which in Boston is plentiful, and now it's providing water for the gardens and containers.

A community compost bin continues to be a source of nutrient rich soil.  Bagged up leaves are scooped up from curbside and used for brown matter in the compost.  The worms love their bin and help circulate and aerate the super fertile soil.

Vertical gardening is also shaping up in the garden of  Nash.  After covering pallets with burlap and filling with soil, strawberries and herbs will spill over for handy picking.  Succession planting is planned, and melons are starting their journey with vines along the garden boundary.

Nash and his friends came together for designing and digging, planting and participating in the fulfillment gardening brings...the fruits of their labor will be enjoyed throughout the summer, and probably well into their future gardening years.

We’ll visit the garden of Nash later in the season to see how it’s thriving..  The GenY’s are not only picking up the torch when it comes to sustainability, they are running with it.  

Happy DIY gardening!

~Peggy

Garden Media Group

GMG's Friday Find: A Vertical Gardening Tower That Does It All

The Garden Tower is a revolutionary gardening and composting system developed by a small company with big ideas in Bloomington, Indiana. This system is incredibly efficient utilizing a design that provides the benefits of a self-contained ecosystem. The features and benefits of the Garden Tower include:

* 50 plants in 4 square feet

* Significantly faster growth

* Generates worm-activated compost

* Turns kitchen scraps to fertilizers

* Self conditions and fortifies soil

* 100% recyclable

* Weed-free, accessible and senior friendly

* Reduced watering

Check out this video and see how the Garden Tower system works.

With gardening and sustainability an ever present challenge, we applaud the ingenuity and dedication of the team behind the Garden Tower to empower people toward their own food security. We'd love to hear your thoughts. 

Happy sustainable gardening!

~Peggy
Garden Media Group

GMG's Friday Find: Packaging that's Grown, not Manufactured

Eben Bayer is co-founder of Ecovative, a green material science company developing an alternative to plastics using fungi and agricultural waste. In a world where less than half of all recyclables are actually recycled, and when recycled generally yield lower and lower grade materials at very high costs, a system of manufacturing that 'grows' materials is revolutionary.

Recycling is a worthy endeavor for most of us in our daily lives, and will continue to be for years to come. Now imagine a society where everything is recycled using a system with no electricity and runs forever. Forever is a very long time, but at Ecovative, it is here and now.

The material is 'grown' from agricultural byproducts and mycelium, which is a fungal network of threadlike cells. In a week or less, in the dark, with no watering, the mycelium digests the agricultural byproducts creating a beautiful structural material which can replace plastic foams, particleboard and more.

Ecovative starts with materials from the farm, parts of plants that cannot be used for food or feed.  A patented process cleans and prepares a blend of these agricultural byproducts inoculated with mycelium. The mixture is filled evenly in forms in an automated process, and then the magic happens. The mycelium mixture grows in a week without light, or watering, or petrochemical inputs and can be grown in any shape needed. At the end of the process the materials is dehydrated and heat treated to stop the growth and ensure there are no spores or allergen concerns. Uses for these eco-material products range from aerospace to fashion to gardening.

These ultra-rapid renewables may be the next packaging you purchase, and when you're done with it, it can be composted to return the nutrients back to nature.

Ecovative is committed to not just sustainability, but actually making the planet a better place for all organisms on earth.  We applaud their efforts in the 'kingdom of fungi' to grow ultra-rapid, renewable, eco-materials.


~Peggy
Garden Media Group