Plant for the Planet

This month, the UN's Billion Tree Campaign, which was patronised by Wangari Maathai (founder of the Green Belt Movement) and Prince Albert II of Monaco, was placed into the hands of the Plant for the Planet Children's Initiative.

Some sceptics thought that this was the UN effectively dumping a project that was no longer getting publicity, but I want to say now that those sceptics were wrong.

Very wrong.

A Sad Day - The Passing of an Amazing Woman: Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai
Courtesy of dirtthemovie.org

Today I read on the BBC website that Wangari Maathai, a truly brave and inspirational woman, passed away yesterday after a struggle with Ovarian Cancer.

Aerating Your Soil with Perlite

One of the biggest problems we have with soil in Australia is one of compaction.  Agricultural soil becomes compacted through over-tilling, over-cropping and use of machinery.  Garden soil becomes compacted from the building process and then us walking on it when wet.  Soil in a natural bush environment also becomes compacted as a result of various processes, including water saturation.

If soil is compacted, then there are a reduced number of pore spaces available for water and air infiltration.  The soil will drain very slowly.  It may become anaerobic.  There will be little root penetration.

In short, a compacted soil is not great for growing plants in!

Zeolite

Zeolite is currently high on the list of soil amendments I use, following a close behind good old common or garden compost.

Soil Amendments

For me, the core of sustainable agriculture, horticulture, or just plain gardening, is the soil.

Caring for the soil, increasing it's carbon, nutrient and water holding capacity, and reducing or stopping practises that lead to soil degradation, should be the foundation block upon which any sustainable land management practise is built.

Green Manure

This is a thread I was involved in on HomeOne, which has some great information you might find useful!

One thing not mentioned there:  soil carbon.  Get that green manure dug into your soil and you'll be increasing your carbon reservoir.  Great for your garden and great for the planet :)

Glyphosate for the Home Garden

Many of us have used Roundup, or other glyphosate based products, in the home garden in the belief that they are fairly harmless and breakdown completely on contact with the soil, thus having no lasting effects.

A controversial future, from a controversial past

This thread on HomeOne kinda went a bit off track compared to what I intended, but it makes great reading and you might just learn something ;)

What are weeds?

This one is the second of my HomeOne posts I wanted to share with you :)

According to my grandad, a weed is simply something that grows where you don't want it to. So, the most beautiful rose could be a weed, if it's growing in your brussel sprouts!

Lawns

This is the first of some informational posts I made on the HomeOne Landscape & Garden Design forum at the start of last year and have been given that date (just to confuse you!!).  They've been amended a bit, as my views on some things have changed a little since then, but in general they're the same.  You can check out the forum here.

Without wanting to be too controversial, there seems to be a lot of posts on how to grow a new lawn, revive an old one, what's the best grass, how to kill the weeds in it without the grass etc etc. So many people want a perfect area of flat, healthy green looking, grass with nothing growing in it. Especially it would seem, the dreaded 'clover'.