Photo courtesy of birdw0rks at Flickr.com.

Want to contribute to the sustainability of the planet? Try installing a green roof.

Simply put, a green roof is one that’s partially or completely covered with plants. This can range from a simple rooftop garden like you might find in Manhattan to the 42,000 square-foot roof of the Ford Motor Company’s River Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan, which is covered with sedum.

Residential green roofs are also common. If you’re interested in converting your roof to a green one, be aware that you’ll need to prepare the roof carefully first, and you may even need to reinforce it to handle the extra weight of the soil and plants. Here’s where you can get more information on installing a green roof.

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Photo courtesy of Eric I. E. at Flickr.com.

On February 13th, Congress passed The Economic Growth Act of 2008. This new law will give a one-time boost to the pocketbook for many Americans. The average taxpayer will receive a $600 check in the mail ($1200 per married couple) after filing their 2007 returns. For more information about the refund size and eligibility, click here. This $600 rebate is in addition to any refunds that taxpayers are due (a rebate is a gift, a refund is money that is returned to taxpayers who overpaid).

Congress hopes that you’ll go spend your $600 right away to boost the US economy. The stimulus package is intended to get consumers spending money - perhaps even more than the $600 that’s being returned to our pockets. But, splurging on a new big screen TV or a designer handbag isn’t the wisest way to spend this windfall. Instead, consider all of the ways you could multiply your savings:

1.) Save electricity:
Add insulation and seal air leaks in your house to cut your heating and cooling bills.
Audit your energy usage and identify where power is being wasted.
Replace your appliances with higher efficiency models.
Replace alkaline batteries with rechargeable options.

2.) Save gas
Service your car - a tune-up can save you gas and prolong the life of car components.
Switch from gasoline powered tools to electric tools (ie; electric leaf blowers, electric chainsaws, and electric lawnmowers).

3.) Save water
Upgrade faucets and shower heads to low-flow models that cut your water bill.
Switch to drip irrigation technology and save on landscaping
Install a rainbarrel
Install a greywater system

Here are a list of some of our favorite conservation products:

The Kill-A-Watt power meter - with this monitor, you can evaluate just how much power each of your appliances is using. It’s great for spotting ways to save power, and it can also identify your vampire electronics.

Solar Battery Charger. After replacing your batteries with rechargeable batteries, you can go one step further with this off-the-grid charger. It’s perfect for camping or just charging batteries in your windowsill.

1.5 GPM Low Flow Showerhead - this showerhead has a novel design that oxygenates water so that the trickle of water it uses doesn’t feel reduced at all.

A 50 Gallon Recycled Rain Barrel - It’s the perfect size for watering a garden for one rainless week. (1 inch of rain on 100 square feet of roof will fill this rainbarrel - if you have a larger roof, you may want to consider multiple barrels).

edit: Here’s the latest information about when the Tax Refunds will be processed. According to the article, mailing dates are going to be based on the last 2 digits of your SSN.

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Photo courtesy of BugMan50 at Flickr.com.

If you’re fighting a rearguard action against aggressive insects in your garden, don’t despair and reach for those nasty pesticides. There are effective tactics that can target and kill specific insect species.

Here are three examples. First: if bark beetles are bugging your trees, dose them with a spray of white vinegar. It not only attracts them, it quickly kills them. The geranium species Geranium maculatum will do the same with Japanese beetles, so it’s a good idea to plant it as a companion species for your other flowers and veggies.

Finally, dusting your plants with dry wheat bran or corn meal can control Colorado potato beetles. The bugs will ingest it along with the leaves. When they drink, the moisture will cause the bran or corn meal to expand, killing the beetles.

For more advice and guidance on controlling your garden insects, check out this book.

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Photo courtesy of Isabelle Ann at Flickr.com.

Most of us have heard about compost tea, but how about manure tea? If you have access to herbivore manure — from goats, sheep, cows, and horses, for example — you can process it into a nutritious manure tea for your plants much quicker than you can compost it. (DO NOT use manure from meat-eating animals!).

Pack the manure into a porous bag, like the ones they sell onions and oranges in, then hang it over a large, water-filled garbage can. Dunk the “tea-bag” regularly over a three week period, and you’ll end up with a garbage can full of nutritious elixir that your plants will love. For best results, dilute it with water somewhat to make it even gentler, especially when you use it on seedlings. For a more detailed recipe for manure tea, click here.

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Photo courtesy of yvetteu at Flickr.com.

Once spring rolls around, you can usually sow your seeds whenever you like — but don’t be too eager to start transplanting your seedlings. Just because it’s shirtsleeve weather doesn’t mean the ground has warmed up enough to host delicate young plants. In fact, the ground temperature often lags behind the air temperature for several days, and sometimes longer.

Before you transplant anything, research the minimum healthy soil temperature for your seedlings, and then take the temperature of the soil using a large commercial thermometer. A temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit or above is congenial to nearly all flower and vegetable seedlings.

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Photo courtesy of kd_arvin at Flickr.com.

What’s a voracious carnivore when it’s little, and a peaceful nectar-drinker later in life? Your average parasitic wasp, that’s who.

Most are absolutely no danger to humans — in fact, they look more like flies than wasps — but they lay their eggs in prey species and the larvae eventually eat their way out, killing their hosts. This may seem gruesome, but it’s a very effective, all-natural method of insect control.

To attract parasitic wasps, plant a border of small-flowered herbs around your flowerbeds; the wasps are usually so small that they can literally drown in a large flower. Dill, fennel, parsley, cilantro, and sweet alyssum are especially good at attracting parasitic wasps.

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Photo courtesy of azoomer at Flickr.com.

One simple, if long-term, way to increase the viability of your organic garden is to let Mother Nature do her work over the years, and sort out the weaker varieties and species of plants like she’s supposed to. No matter how much you like a particular type of plant or flower, if you’re lavishing your attention and resources on a weak breed you’re doing the rest of your garden a disservice.

Keep an annual journal of the plants that do best in your garden, and plant the winners every year. In time, you’ll end up with a plant mix that will provide the maximum benefit from the minimum outlay of time, resources, and expense.

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Photo courtesy of sirwiseowl at Flickr.com.

As we’ve mentioned before, a vermicomposter is a great way to use the natural strengths of earthworms to produce rich compost, worm castings, and liquid fertilizer — but it’s also an excellent way to create a self-sustaining worm farm to provide wrigglers for your garden.

Worms are crucial in the aeration and enrichment of most soils, so it’s advantageous to dump a batch into your tilled garden soil on a regular basis. Your local birds will also appreciate the appetizers, so keep an eye on your garden’s new residents until they can make it underground. For a step-by-step method of raising far more worms than you can use, with or without a vermicomposter, click here.

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Photo courtesy of Precious Roy at Flickr.com.

If you see black spot on your rose bushes, it’s too late to do anything about it — you’ll have to remove the diseased leaves and canes and throw them away. However, if you want to keep your roses from taking ill in the first place, it’s easy to cook up an organic preventative.

Mix one tablespoon of baking soda, one tablespoon of vegetable oil, and one tablespoon of Fels-Naphtha soap solution with a gallon of water, and spray the mixture on your rose bushes every couple of weeks. It’s imperative that you do this with any varieties that have yellow roses in their ancestry, as yellow roses are especially susceptible to black spot.

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Photo courtesy of heritagefutures at Flickr.com.

If you’re browsing a garden center and see a new plant or tree you’d like to add to your garden, you can use the shape of its leaves to get a rough-and-ready estimate of its water needs.

Plants with long, wide, thin leaves need more water than most; a great example is a banana plant. On the other hand, plants with thick, succulent leaves need less water, as do plants with leathery leaves, silver leaves, and needles. Most desert plants, aloes, and pines serve as good examples. Furthermore, plants with tiny leaves, such as spiny cacti, are also easy on the watering can.

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