Photo courtesy of winjama at Flickr.com.

Using rain barrels is always a good idea, because they save rainwater that would otherwise end up as unused runoff. However, their capacity is limited; even if you place a rain barrel at each of your home’s downspouts, you’re unlikely to harvest more than 200 gallons of rainwater at a time. A single inch of rain on a 1,000 square foot roof can easily result in more than 500 gallons of not-potable runoff.

If you have the space, consider using a large cistern instead of rain barrels to gather your roof runoff. For a few hundred bucks you can set up a cistern system that’ll supply you with all the water you’ll ever need for gardening, washing your car, or watering the lawn. Here’s how you can do it.

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If you’ve got more compostible materials than you have room for in your composting bin, don’t throw them away. Unused wire tomato cages can make excellent temporary compost bins. It’s a fairly simple process: just wrap the tomato cage in plastic, stick it upright in the ground, and fill it with your composting materials.

Treat the contents as you would any material in an open-air composter, turning and mixing them regularly with a pitchfork or similar tool. When room becomes available in your main compost bin, it’s easy enough to transfer the material in the cage to the main bin.

It’s ugly, but it works!

Really though, wouldn’t you rather just get an additional compost bin? (You know we had to ask!)

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While compost is an excellent way to condition your soil and fertilize your plants, it may be too alkaline for some types of plants. For example, azaleas, blackberries, camellias, citrus trees, and rhododendrons need more acidic soil conditions than most other plants.

If you’ve planted these species in your garden and they seem to be struggling, test the soil’s pH with an electronic soil tester or chemical testing kit. You can offset excess alkalinity by mulching with peat moss or pine needles or bark. Used coffee grounds and tea leaves are also effective, and old leftover coffee and tea can make a refreshing drink for acid-lovers.

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How much carbon were you responsible for producing last year? It might surprise you to learn that the average adult is responsible for 5-10 tons of carbon in a single year, based on lifestyle choices like home energy use, car travel, air travel, and diet (which comprises a surprisingly high percentage of the total, even for vegans). You can calculate your average yearly carbon use with this handy carbon calculator from Conservation International (CI). Once you’ve calculated your carbon use in both tons and dollars, you have an opportunity to make yourself carbon neutral by contributing directly to CI, or someplace like Carbon Fund, or Trees for the Future.

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Photo courtesy of finalgirl at Flickr.com.

The advantages of growing your own organic produce abound, but one that’s often forgotten is the fact that if you depend in part or in full on your garden, you’re drastically decreasing the amount of greenhouse gases you contribute to the atmosphere. Most modern agricultural systems, even those labeled as organic, are highly mechanized. This means that they use a great deal of hydrocarbon fuels — and burning hydrocarbons adds uncounted tons of carbon dioxide and water vapor (two important greenhouse gases) to the environment every year. You can reduce a lot of this impact by growing some of your own food.

Even a patio garden can make a difference, and what could be better than delicious, home grown vegetables and fruits?

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Photo courtesy of Jay Carriker at Flickr.com.

All trees attract lightning to some extent — which is no surprise, considering that they’re tall, moisture-filled structures that offer an excellent conducting medium for natural electricity. However, some tree species seem to attract lightning more than others, which makes them poor choices for any yard or garden in an area that’s subject to severe thunderstorms.

According to the Yardener’s Adviser Newsletter, species to avoid — even if they’re native to your area — include oaks, pines, hickories, silver maples, sugar maples, Norway maples, and tulip trees. Species that are less susceptible to lightning strikes include beeches and sweet gums.

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Photo courtesy of L’État c’est Moi at Flickr.com.

Most chemical pesticides are very effective at getting rid of mosquitoes, but they’re also pretty good at damaging the environment, too. While we’re all for using safe, natural pesticides to kill mosquitoes, there’s a simple short-term way to get relief: blow them away with a large fan.

Let’s say you actually want to enjoy your patio for a change. Just set a floor fan on the edge of the patio and turn it on high. Not only will you get a nice refreshing breeze, the mosquitoes won’t be able to handle the wind. Because they’re relatively weak fliers, they’ll literally be blown away. But beware — overhead fans don’t work as well, and other pests like flies and ants may be able to handle the breeze just fine.

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Photo courtesy of ~fb~ at Flickr.com.

Crows, starlings, and blackbirds are so fond of fruits, especially grapes, that they can be infuriating when they won’t stay away from yours. Fortunately, there’s an effective new generation of bird repellents that make use of methyl anthranilate, which is one of the natural chemicals that (ironically enough) contributes to the flavor of Concord grapes. In fact, it’s used to flavor artificial grape-flavored bubble gum.

It’s been used for years to keep migrating geese off golf courses, but it works just as well for lawns, and now the EPA has approved it for use on fruit trees and vines. Fair warning: though methyl anthranilate is a natural food additive that was originally isolated from natural sources, the version in bird repellents (and chewing gum) is usually synthesized.

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Photo courtesy of Lightchaser at Flickr.com

Did you know that one acre of trees sucks up enough carbon to offset the pollution produced by one car driven 8,700 miles? Or that an extra 100 million trees in our cities would decrease energy costs by $2 billion? Every ton of new wood sucks up 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide. It’s been estimated that the carbon sequestered in our urban forests saves us some $22 billion in control costs. And that’s just the trees growing in our cities: the calculation doesn’t even take rural forests into account.

As you can see, there are a lot of good reasons why the National Arbor Day Foundation and Trees for the Future are a couple of our favorite charities. With the help of our customers, Clean Air Gardening donated money to plant more than 20,000 trees in 2006 through 2007.

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While anyone can cultivate a compost pile with a little patience, it helps to start out with a dose of compost starter of one kind or another to get it moving right along. For regular composters or compost heaps, you can purchase commercially produced organic compost starters, generally in granular form, that will accelerate the decomposition of large amounts of compost by introducing millions of micro-organisms to the mix.

Vermiculture composters — that is, those that use worms to convert organic waste to compost — require double the normal number of worms to get a speedy start. That’s about 2,000 worms rather than the ordinary 1,000 for the average vermicomposter.

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