Photo courtesy of Secret Tenerife at Flickr.com.

Even if you don’t grow your own organic vegetables, you can fight the good fight by asking for more organic produce in your local market. While most greengrocers are willing to make an effort to please specific customers, they’re business people first and foremost. They want to make money, so they’ll stock what people are willing to buy.

So make your desires plain; if they don’t offer an organic version of a particular item, let them know you’d be willing to pay extra for it. The more folks ask for organic produce, the more available it will become — and since organic vegetables are grown using sustainable agricultural methods and no chemical poisons, spending a few more pennies can go a long way toward saving the world.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Photo courtesy of Riverside Dreamer at Flickr.com.

The Osage orange or hedgeapple (also called the bois d’arc or bodark, depending upon where you’re from) is a fast-growing tree that produces large, warty green fruits that most creatures (except for squirrels) tend to spurn. Roaches happen to hate them.

To drive roaches away, cut a few hedgeapples in half and stash them along the baseboards, in cabinets, in the basement, or under your house. During the summer months, hedgeapples are easy to come by in many parts of the country, especially in the southeast and Great Plains. Anyone who owns a hedgeapple tree will be undoubtedly be happy to let you haul a few away.

Popularity: 4% [?]

We recently got a new computer for the office, and the amount of packaging that came with it is insane! Every component was individually bagged, including all of the screws and cables. Also, the case and monitor were thoroughly padded with foam. The packaging probably takes up twice as much room as the computer!

Photo courtesy of big_debacle at Flickr.com.

Right after setting up a new computer here at Clean Air Gardening, I sorted all of the packaging so that we could recycle it. Surprisingly, almost all of the plastics were clearly labelled. Because of new state laws, the plastic junk was easy to tell apart from the plastic gold. 39 states now require at least some plastics to be labelled with SPI Resin Codes. These codes are often stamped on plastic and show a triangle formed by three arrows, with a number inside.

Unfortunately, not every plastic with one of these symbols on it can be recycled. Certain plastics are almost impossible to recycle and the value of the others may be low if there’s no local demand. Because of this, recycling centers in your area may have some odd rules about what they’ll accept. For example, some cities will accept Type 1 plastic bottles with necks, but not Type 1 plastic bottles without necks.

If a bottle is type 1 plastic, why does it matter if it has a neck? Well, the code on a bottle doesn’t tell the whole story. Since there are hundreds of types of plastic, the 7 codes each include multiple types of similar plastics. Bottles with necks are made from plastics that have a different melting point than bottles without necks, even though they may have the same code stamped on them.

Recycling plastic is important!

Bags, bottles, cartons, packing peanuts, and other plastic waste are often carried out to the ocean by the wind and waterways. Since plastic floats, the result is a giant, floating trash heap that chokes the life out of the ocean. These dead zones are growing every year.

“This is a Texas-sized patch of the Pacific ocean that is literally covered in the floating detritus of our way of life—plastic bottles, styrofoam, bags, wrappers—all told some 3 million tonnes worth.”

Photo courtesy of wellingtondany at Flickr.com.

Even the plastic that doesn’t end up getting blown into the ocean can cause problems. Plastic can take up to 1,000 years to break down!

One way to reduce the amount of plastic that gets thrown away is to encourage companies to reduce their use of styrofoam (which is one of the hardest plastics to recycle). There are alternatives to styrofoam, such as the Type 4 plastic blocks that cushioned our computer. Also, if you come across some unlabelled plastic, try writing the product’s manufacturer and urging them to use the SPI Resin Labelling system. That way, you can enlist your favorite businesses to help solve this problem.

We only purchase biodegradable cornstarch peanuts to pack orders here at Clean Air Gardening. But there’s still a small chance you might end up with styrofoam peanuts in your box. That’s because we received them with some other delivery and are reusing them instead of throwing them away. It’s not because we bought them!

We recommend reading this page from eHow about How to Recycle Plastic.

And a great way to find out where to recycle plastic (or anything else) locally is the Earth 911 web site. Just type in your zip code and what you want to recycle, and the site will tell you your options.

Popularity: 4% [?]

It’s that time of year again, when early shoppers are getting a jump on the crowds. I’m not one of those overachievers. Quite the opposite! I don’t even have gift ideas for anyone on my list, and I change the radio at the first hint of Christmas music.

That said, I tell myself every year that next time will be different. “Self,” I say, “If we get an early start, then we can spend more time choosing the right gift. By shopping early, we can avoid paying too much and we won’t get all stressed out.”

That’s one reason why Gift Guide for Gardeners from Better Homes and Gardens caught my eye.

But let’s face it, we both know that the REAL reason I’m telling you about it is that they have some great things to say about our Oxygenating Watering Can and Waistie Gardening Apron.

Have you written your Holiday Wishlist yet? Now’s a great time to make your list - that way, the early shoppers who care for you can get started, and the last-minute shoppers will have plenty of time to think about your ideas.

Don’t miss our Gardening Gifts section at the Clean Air Gardening site!

Popularity: 6% [?]

Photo courtesy of muschheather at Flickr.com.

While it may seem like a good idea to use efficient herbivores like sheep and goats to keep down the grass in your yard, the truth is, they’re usually more trouble than they’re worth. Simply put, they’re too efficient.

Goats in particular have no compunctions about eating your flowers, not to mention the leaves of your trees as high as they can reach. Sheep have a tendency to eat grass right down to the bare dirt, including the roots if they can get them. You can always fence them in so they can’t get at anything else, but a push reel lawn mower is easier to deal with, and you never have to feed it.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Flickr photo courtesy of waggener1.

For centuries, tobacco farmers mixed their seed with wood ash, so they could see exactly where the tiny seeds were being sown. The ash not only guided their rows, but also provided a ready-made natural fertilizer.

You can do something similar by mixing your fine seeds (such as poppy, eggplant, pepper and carrot) with sugar before you plant them. The white sugar will stand out sharply against almost any color of soil, so you’ll be able to see exactly where your seeds are going. The sugar itself is not only harmless to your seeds and seedlings, it’s beneficial to soil organisms.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Flickr photo courtesy of paul goyette.

Although gnats aren’t the bloodthirsty brutes that mosquitoes and ticks are, they’re annoying if nothing else.

Like mosquitoes, gnats have an aquatic larval stage, so all the recommendations useful for controlling mosquito larvae — using fish as scavengers in water features, cleaning your gutters regularly, and getting rid of any unnecessary sources of open water — will work for gnats, too. You can also control their populations using a strain of the insecticidal bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis.

For the ones bugging you right this minute, try rubbing peppermint or basil leaves on your exposed skin; both will repel gnats naturally. If all else fails, mix up a repellent made from essential oils: one ounce of canola, four drops of cedar, four drops of lavender, two drops of eucalyptus, two drops of rosemary, and one of peppermint.

Popularity: 25% [?]

There’s hope for those of us looking for an environmentally-friendly approach to killing whole populations of indoor bugs like cockroaches all at once. Scientists in Sweden are currently working on a process that uses carbon dioxide snow to kill indoor insects, and if we’re lucky, it will make it to market soon.

The minus-112 degree Fahrenheit snow is sprayed out of a tube using a specialized nozzle that causes it to crystallize on everything it touches. Bugs and their eggs freeze solid and burst from the cold, and the residual carbon dioxide evaporates from the affected surfaces without causing any damage.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Photo courtesy of mildewingtoo at Flickr.com.

If you’re thinking about planting some trees in your yard, consider the wide variety of fruit- and nut-bearing species.

Not only do mature fruit and nut trees provide the same basic benefits as your everyday shade trees — leaves for compost, raking exercise, erosion protection, water capture, and oxygen production — you’ll end up with organic edibles at the end of the summer.

At the very least, you’ll provide tasty fodder for local wildlife. The uneaten remains, even nutshells, can go in your compost heap, though it’s not a good idea to toss in seeds that might take root.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Photo courtesy of Charles & Clint at Flickr.com.

If you’ve got ornamental ponds in your yard and are worried about them becoming mosquito larva condos, don’t resort to nasty chemicals to keep them clean. Bring in a few mosquito fish (Gambusia), which are native to the southern and eastern U.S. These quick-breeding little fish (they never exceed three inches) can each gobble up to 100 mosquito larvae a day, cleaning the wrigglers out as soon as they hatch.

They’re very effective at their job, and in some states can be obtained free from your local insect control district. They also do well in off-duty swimming pools and animal drinking troughs, and when you no longer need them, the control district will usually be glad to take them back. In some states, you may need a permit to use mosquito fish, so check first!

Popularity: 12% [?]