Today’s Wall Street Journal writes about watering restrictions and the challenges of keeping your plants green, as we mentioned in a previous post.

Here’s a potential solution in the Dallas Morning News — rain barrels!

From 30-gallon barrels placed underneath a gutter downspout to 1,000-gallon tanks set up in the back yard, the systems provide an alternative source of landscape water, which is becoming a long-term issue in North Texas, despite the recent rains.”Rain barrels have been around forever, from the ancient Greeks to the Old West,” says Clean Air Gardening owner Lars Hundley, whose Dallas-based mail-order business offers several models online. “They are making a comeback because it’s an easy way to get free water.”

In the simplest set-up, a rain barrel with an open top is placed underneath a gutter downspout, catching rainwater runoff from the roof. Commercial containers typically hold 50 to 80 gallons of water, have screening devices for keeping out debris and insects, and come in different shapes, such as flat-backed models that sit flush against the house. Some are made from recycled materials such as old wine casks and previously used PVC food containers. Prices start around $100 and go up based on features. Resourceful do-it-yourselfers can purchase valve fittings and build barrel systems themselves. Multiple barrels can be connected to increase storage capacity.

Don’t miss the rain barrel section of our web site, where we have many models to choose from.

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Photo courtesy of Flickr.

Today’s Wall Street Journal writes about “Desperate Sprinklers” who go to any length to keep their grass green in the midst of tightening watering restrictions around the country.

There are 58 million lawns in the U.S., more than one for every two households, and homeowners spent $29 billion last year on their yards, up 9.4% from 2002, according to the National Gardening Association. The average American family of four uses about 400 gallons of water per day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, with roughly one-third going to maintaining a green lawn and lush garden. In total, Americans drench their lawns with some seven billion gallons of water per day, and by some estimates, as much as half of that is wasted — dumped onto sidewalks by poorly aimed sprinklers, blown away as mist from overpressurized spray nozzles and poured into gutters as runoff from over-saturated grass.

Watering restrictions aren’t new, but they’re getting tougher, and experts say this summer’s are the strictest yet. In the Southeast, which is suffering from a severe drought, some Alabama and Georgia homeowners are facing outright bans on outdoor watering while some South Florida counties have their first-ever once-a-week watering restrictions. In some areas of Minnesota and Ohio, a combination of dry conditions and development have prompted regulations. In the Southwest, where water shortages are nothing new, officials are taking bolder steps — raising water rates, charging premiums to heavy users and offering rebates to people who install more efficient irrigation systems. Denver has imposed fines on homeowners who waste water by letting it run into the street. Las Vegas has banned front lawns on new developments.

Near the end of the article, they mention people who ignore bans and simply water anyway.

Another problem: Some people don’t care about fines. In Eden Prairie, Minn., where more than 800 people have received citations this year, city officials have noticed a pattern. Habitual offenders tend to live in wealthier neighborhoods, where a $300 fine “is well below the threshold of what it’s worth to have a green lawn,” says City Manager Scott Neal. One homeowner in Palm Beach, Fla., recently used 11.7 million gallons of water in 12 months — running up a $33,629 water bill, according to public records.

You have to have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal to read the entire story, but they do have a video that goes with it.

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Some gardening solutions demand an organic solution, if only because chemicals don’t work. Black spot on rose plants is an example. If it’s visible, it’s already too late to eradicate it chemically — you’ll have to remove every single infected leaf as it appears, and rake fallen leaves out from under the plants. Discard the infected leaves; don’t compost them.

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Here’s a video review of the Tumbleweed Composting Bin, a compost tumbler.

The Tumbleweed Compost Bin is available at Clean Air Gardening.

Don’t miss the test results from the National Home Gardening Club for the Tumbleweed.

Do you have a Clean Air Gardening product at home that you’d like to review? If so, contact us and we’ll explain how you could do it.

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For a bigger harvest or lusher growth, try foliar feeding. This involves spraying an organic fertilizer solution directly on the leaves of your plants. Liquefied kelp and fish emulsion solutions make excellent foliar sprays.

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Hydrogen Peroxide

Originally uploaded by Andres World

Instead of using chlorine bleach to clean or disinfect, use hydrogen peroxide instead. It’s more environmentally friendly and doesn’t form dangerous by-products like bleach does. In fact, hydrogen peroxide is just water with an extra oxygen atom, and that’s all it breaks down into: air and water. But be careful — you should rarely use concentrations above 3% strength.

We’re trying it out at home for our cloth diapers and it works great. It also doesn’t break down the cotton fibers like bleach does. Bleach can really destroy fibers if you use it regularly on your laundry.

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Now that the government has deregulated the electrical industry, it’s possible, in some areas, to purchase electricity from companies that generate energy from renewable sources such as wind and water. Check into the opportunities in your area. It may cost a little more at this stage of the game, but using 100 kilowatt-hours of green energy provides environmental benefits equal to planting a half-acre of trees.

Here in Texas, there are several renewable energy options for electricity. I use Green Mountain Energy both at home, and at our new Clean Air Gardening building location. They use 100 percent renewable energy sources.

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Here’s a great way to grow asparagus without using pesticides: let a few of your spears grow fronds. Asparagus beetles and other insects will focus on the fronds and leave your precious spears alone.

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Time Magazine writes this week about the perils of buying and planting invasive plants in your yard, potentially spreading them throughout your entire local ecosystem.

Known as invasive non-indigenous species, such garden mainstays as garlic mustard or Japanese barberry are often cultivated for their beauty and hardiness. Green-thumbed Americans spend $9 billion a year on plants, flowers and trees, but what so many avid gardeners don’t know is that by introducing an unfamiliar species to their local topography, they could be triggering a domino effect of significant environmental damage. Though most of the thousands of non-indigenous plants on the market are harmless, the few varieties that cause trouble have sprouted in every corner of the U.S. landscape.

Kudzu is a flowering, ropelike vine, first introduced from Asia in 1876. The U.S. Soil Conservation Service once paid farmers to plant it to stop erosion; now kudzu rampages across large swaths of the South, strangling and killing trees and all other plant life in its wake. Benign-looking cheatgrass carpets the shrub-steppes of the West and feeds some grazing species and birds. But it’s also explosive kindling that increases the frequency and intensity of wild forest fires. Drive along any U.S. highway and you’ll likely catch sight of purple loosestrife’s telltale slender stalks and magenta flowers. Brought over from Europe in the 19th century as an ornamental plant, it flourishes in ditches and marshes in 48 states and costs the American government $45 million a year in eradication efforts. Left uncontrolled, purple loosestrife grows aggressively and chokes the life from wetlands and marshes, reducing populations of indigenous insects, amphibians, songbirds and fish.

The article also mentions a problem tree, the Norway Maple.

So what should you do if you are buying landscaping and don’t want to contribute to the problem?

In the meantime, individual gardeners need to become educated consumers. Landscape architect Smith suggests that you begin by checking the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture website for state-by-state listings of invasives. He also recommends that you do your research before you buy: “If you ask trained horticultural staff about local alternatives to invasive species and they can’t answer your questions, go elsewhere.”

USDA Invasive Species site.
InvasiveSpecies.org

If you are in Texas and you are looking for good plants, I highly recommend the Texas Superstar plant site, with a great selection of plants picked out by Texas A&M University because they thrive in Texas. The Texas Gardening Tips site is also a good resource for Texans.

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Egg Shells

Originally uploaded by maxed

An excellent way to control slugs is by using crushed eggshells. Dry them in a paper bag, then crush them up and sprinkle them around the plants you want to protect. Slugs won’t crawl on the sharp shells, and when the shells decompose they’ll add calcium to the soil.

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