We’ve got a new way to save power and reduce your carbon footprint. Our Manual Washing Machine uses no electricity, and it’s ergonomically designed for easy use. The Hand Crank Washing Machine can help you save water and electricity at home, and it also works great for off-the-grid locations such as campsites or isolated ranch houses.
If you live in an efficiency apartment, this washing machine takes up much less room than a traditional model, and it’s a heck of a lot cheaper. It’s also great for RV trips - the inside of the compartment doubles as a storage area when you’re not using it for laundry.
This product is also likely to appeal to rugged survivalists out there who are also clean freaks. When furnishing your underground survival bunker and storing up supplies for the apocalypse, there’s no excuse for having dirty fatigues!
Birds like seeds. They’re like candy to flying critters - high in calories, without any hard work needed to hunt for them. When you plant fields of scattered wildflower seeds, you have to be very careful to keep birds from flocking to the area for a tasty handout.
There’s an easy way to prevent birds from eating 99.9% of the seeds that you sow, and it also helps wildflowers get started. Here’s how to make protective mud balls for your seeds: Start with some potting soil or humus, add the seeds you’d like to grow, and then pour in some water. Mix everything evenly together, and then roll the blended mixture into balls.
When you scatter the mud balls around, birds will be much less tempted to swoop down and gobble up your seeds. But, the moisture and good soil will activate the seeds, giving them the boost they need to get started.
Are you tired of dealing rabbits, woodchucks, deer, raccoons and other pests in your garden? According to the NY Times article, “Peter Rabbit Must Die” you’re not alone in the frustration of half-eaten and demolished crops. Whether it’s a matter of ethics or emotions, some gardeners use organic or natural means to try and rid their garden of the unwanted pests, but some are taking a more hands on approach to the problem.
As summer closes in, gardeners around the country are starting to worry about the animals that may end up enjoying their roses and cucumbers more than they do. Any day now, they know, they may come upon a carrot patch ravaged by groundhogs, lettuce ransacked by rabbits and squirrels, or a massacre in the koi pond.
But for many gardeners — the tenderhearted ones, who pride themselves on their decency and compassion — killing pests, particularly those with big eyes, fluffy tails and cousins who work for Disney, could never be a solution of first resort.
Each animal comes with its own dilemmas. Some, like squirrels are territorial and hard to relocate. Others, like moles and woodchucks had underground tunnels that allow them to pop in and out as they please.
Taking pest control into your own hands, of course, is no simple matter. There are the ethical and emotional issues, and while it is often legal to kill a pest, there are innumerable federal, state and municipal laws and regulations that may make it illegal.
There would seem, at first, to be many alternatives to killing. Besides mesh and electric fences, there are nets to cast over trees and gardens; foul scents with names like Not Tonight, Deer; and home remedies like sprinkling cayenne pepper around the tomatoes and dumping used cat litter into woodchuck holes. There are scarecrows in the north and fake alligators in the south, and household pets to scare predators away or to do the gardeners’ dirty work. There are capture-and-release traps.
But none of these methods work all the time, and some, depending on the species you are trying to catch and the area in which you live, may not even be legal. The New York State Environmental Protection Law, for example, forbids anyone but a state Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator from transporting a wild animal, which puts the kibosh on the use of capture-and-release traps.
Not the type of person to stake out your yard with an axe, shotgun or lump of poison? Good for you! You still have other options, thankfully.
Here at Clean Air Gardening, we encourage the organic approach to pest-proofing your garden. For example, using a Hot Pepper Wax deters squirrels, rabbits, gophers and other small animals. An all inclusive repellent like our Shot Gun Repels-All Animal Repellent Granules repels all types of animals including house pets from getting near your prized garden.
Some products, like our Organic Mole and Gopher Repellent targets specific animal problems in dealing with individual types of animals.
For more ways to rid your lawn of the pests that dwell in it, check out our entire Organic Pest Control section.
And consider this advice:
JOHN HADIDIAN, the director of urban wildlife programs for the Humane Society of the United States, is skeptical when he hears of gardeners who claim they have tried everything to rid themselves of urban pests. He also cautions that gardeners who kill animals and birds may be breaking the law, noting that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, for example, protects most species of birds.
Killing animals often does not solve the problem. “Woodchucks are a classic case,” Mr. Hadidian says. “If you do nothing to alter the burrow system or to protect against reinvasion, it’s going to be back.”
Ok, so your dad didn’t quite turn out to be He-Man “the most powerful man in the universe” like you imagined him to be, but he can still be your hero, right?
Right. That’s why this year for Father’s Day, forget ties, bathrobes and house shoes. Get your dad something for his manly side. Here’s a few manly Father’s Day gift ideas for any dad.
60 Volts just sounds manly. This cordless electric mower can run up to 60 minutes without a cord, or plug it in for more manly power and runtime.
With a key and lever, this mower starts every time without having to pull a string over and over. It comes with grass collection bag, mulching plug attachment, and (who could live without) a water bottle and holder.
This corded electric tiller now comes with a border edger and a kickstand. Using an electric tiller is a great way to give your back a break and really impress the neighbors with its brute force while it digs up the dirt.
Then, use the kickstand to display your tiller to the other dads in the neighborhood who wished they would have gotten one for Father’s Day.
Get your dad plowin’ with this electric tiller for Father’s Day for $339.99.
Wolf garden hand tools. German designed. Interchangeable system. Hardcore. Which dad wouldn’t enjoy the click and change gadget potential of this set of garden tools?
These interchangeable tools work with a single handle that allows you to easily switch from one tool to the next while keeping storage space to a minimum.
The wolf garden tools are sold individually for $14.99 or as a set for $73.99.
This knife was originally used by Japanese bonsai enthusiasts, but since it’s Father’s Day, let your dear ol’ dad tell his buddies it was used by Ninjas. It’s an excellent gardening tool and general purpose knife. It also comes with a sheath belt loop holster.
Every man imagines himself as some version of Indiana Jones or MacGyver, and this pocket chainsaw will kick up any man’s ego a notch. This manual chainsaw easily shreds through trees and branches.
Diatomaceous Earth is great for controlling a wide variety of hard shelled insects, including silverfish, tomato hornworm, bed bugs, carpet beetles, slugs, snails, house flies, fruit flies, red spider mites, and earwigs. The pests that devour your garden can be turned into useful fertilizer. These ground up fossils also provide valuable trace minerals to your soil - they contain approximately 3% magnesium, 86% silicon, 5% sodium, 2% iron and fractional percentages of titanium, boron, manganese, copper, zirconium, and other minerals.
One last thing to watch out for - it’s important that you choose Amorphous Diatomaceous Earth instead of Diatomaceous Earth that’s been processed for use in swimming pools. According to the Winter 1987 issue ofCommon Sense Pest Control Quarterly:
Both swimming pool grade and natural diatomaceous earth come from the same fossil sources but they are processed differently. The natural grades are mined, dried, ground, sled and bagged. The pool grade is chemically treated and partially melted and consequently contains crystalline silica which can be a respiratory hazard.
Dry-cell batteries, which we use in everything from pocket calculators to digital cameras, are highly toxic and difficult to recycle. One way to limit their proliferation is to use rechargeable batteries; another is to take advantage of ingenious devices powered by human muscle power, such as hand-pumped or hand powered wind up flashlights.
All you have to do with these gizmos is squeeze the handle continuously or crack the knob, and a tiny dynamo inside will generate the electrical current needed to create a bright beam of light. Hand-powered flashlights are most often used in disaster-preparedness kits, but they’re also handy if you have limited need for a conventional flashlight, but would like to keep something around just in case.
Have you ever heard the story of Sisyphus? According to Greek Mythology, he was cursed to push a rock up a hill for eternity, only to watch it roll back down every time he neared the top. For gardeners, fighting weeds can be a Sisyphean task. No matter how many we kill, they’re always trying to sneak back into our garden. That’s why herbicides are so popular - they offer freedom from weeds and freedom from weeding too!
This means that farmers are going to be using stronger and stronger concentrations of Roundup and getting diminishing returns. A huge arms race is going on in the cornfields and gardens of America, and plants are just a bit more persistent than we are. Unfortunately, a lot of wildlife is going to get caught in the crossfire.
The company that makes Roundup has positioned itself to profit from this situation by producing more of the herbicide and also developing new strains of “Roundup Ready” soybeans, cotton, and corn that can survive stronger chemical treatments. In the long run, the weeds are going to keep evolving until glycophospates are uneconomical to use. There may eventually be a wild plant that drinks Roundup like office workers drink coffee. But before that day gets here, farmers will spend a lot of money that they could have spent elsewhere.
The only way to win this game is not to play. There are plenty of alternatives to chemical herbicides, and weeds aren’t as likely to develop a resistance to those. Over millions of years, plants evolved defenses of their own to edge out competition. By using those organic defenses, it’s possible to control weeds the natural way - and as the cost of treating and re-treating areas with Roundup rises, it can be more cost effective too!
Here are some of the products we’ve tested: Nature’s Avenger ORMI Organic Herbicide
This product works by killing the leaves of weeds. It breaks down quickly and will only kill the plants you treat directly (which prevents it from accidentally harming other plants or animals after it washes off onto the soil).
Black Jack Organic Vinegar The high acidity of this herbicide melts the cell walls of weeds. It uses natural Vinegar, Yucca Extract, Olive Oil, Garlic Oil, Citrus Oil and Molasses to bind directly to the weeds that you apply it to.
Organic Crab Grass Killer
This all-natural product kills Crabgrass, Chickweed, Basketgrass, and other hardy grasses that often displace St. Augustine and Bahia lawns. It’s safe to use on yards where children or pets will be playing and it only kills the plants that absorb it through their leaves.
Bradfield Organic’s Weed and Feed
This last product is a preventative treatment against weeds. It contains corn gluten, which has proven effective at stopping seeds from germinating. That means you can apply this to your established flower bed or vegetable garden and not worry about any intruders popping up.
In the heat of summer, healthy trees are especially important for your home. Trees provide shade as well as evaporative cooling (they release moisture that absorbs heat as it evaporates). During the hottest times of the day, it’s generally 5 to 10 degrees cooler under a tree. Use this to your advantage - each fully grown tree can reduce air conditioning costs $20-200 a year.
So, it’s easy to see the benefits of trees, but when the thermostat climbs it can be tricky to keep anything alive. Do more than keep your trees alive this summer - help them thrive! Here are a few tips to turn your yard into a tree haven:
1) Mulch, mulch, mulch
Mulch is amazing stuff. It contains nutrients that your tree can use, and it retains water like crazy. This low-tech solution performs better than all sorts of timers, sensors, and irrigation systems. Mulch is a natural way to drip feed water to your tree right at the place its needed, and mulch increases the water absorbing potential of your yard. Mulch made from certain trees will also repel bugs and can be used to adjust the pH balance of your soil.
That said, avoid using too much mulch. “Mulch volcanoes” can harm trees instead of helping them, by suffocating the roots and inviting rodents to nest against the tree trunk. Instead, spread a light amount of mulch starting about 3-4 inches away from the trunk and extending out for several feet to either side. This will position the mulch over the root system without harming the trunk. As an added benefit, this mulch will block the sun from the soil, which keeps unwanted plants from sprouting and further reduces the ground temperature.
Flooded soil kills the fine hairs of the root system. Excessive watering can compact the soil, which will make it harder for the roots to absorb water in the future. Also, drought tolerant plants are more susceptible to disease when they’re overwatered. Novice gardeners often mistake the signs of overwatering (ie; brown spots on the leaves and wilting of plant stems) as a sign of dehydration. This creates a vicious cycle where well meaning gardeners apply more and more water, drowning their plants and complaining about how the dry weather is responsible.
Rather than watering at every chance, the best option is to water once a week (or less) and water intensely. Intense watering soaks deep into the soil, beyond the reach of evaporation but not beyond the reach of your tree’s roots. Intense watering of the root ball (the area right under the tree trunk) encourages your tree to put down deep roots that will also anchor it against high winds. To water the root ball with the least amount of wasted water, you can plant trees against irrigation piping, or simply strap a tree gator around the trunk during hot weather.
Pruning is very stressful for trees. Think about it - pruning a plant during a drought is like amputating someone’s finger during a marathon race. Trimming a tree creates an open wound on the plant - this cut gives parasitic bacteria and bugs a chance to rob the tree of nutrients. The healing process takes up valuable resources that the tree needs for other life processes. Also, these cuts are areas where moisture and sap can leak out of the plant, which is especially troublesome when water is in short supply.
During a drought, its best to delay pruning. Put the shears away until the weather improves, and take advantage of extra shade in the meantime.
One last thing to consider - are your trees planted strategically around your house, condo, or apartment? You can use the different behaviors of evergreens and deciduous trees to your advantage. Since deciduous trees drop their leaves in the winter, they’re ideally suited for the Southeast, South, and West sides of your home or office. During the summer months, when the sun is at its hottest, their leaves will offer shade and protection. During the winter, when you want sunlight to warm up your building, the leaves will be temporarily gone.
Research by former NASA scientist BC Wolverton suggest that plants are an efficient and cost-effective method of controlling indoor air pollution. These air quality studies tracked common indoor air pollutants such as benzene, trichloroethylene, and formaldehyde - chemicals that often leech from paint, carpeting, and treated lumber and are often found at unhealthy levels within the home and office.
Wolverton’s tests with various plants found a 45.1% average abatement of these pollutants within a 24 hour time period. He theorizes that biological processes are at work - both plants and soil bacteria have several ways of breaking down chemicals and neutralizing them. Whether the plants or bacteria do more work is something of a moot point - soil bacteria often co-exist with specific plants (thriving on their decayed leaves, or symbiotically living in their root system).
Here’s a graph that shows the removal of Formaldehyde from sealed chambers (the vertical axis shows micrograms per hour removed when formaldehyde is at peak levels): Photo courtesy of the_real_berserker2 at Flickr.com.
The plants on this graph include:
Boston fern (Nephrolepis exaltata “Bostoniensis”)
Dwarf date palm (Phoenix roebelenii)
Bamboo palm (Chamaedorea seifrizii)
Janet Craig (Dracaena deremensis “Janet Craig”)
English ivy (Hedera helix)
Weeping fig (Ficus benjamina)
`Mauna Loa’ Peace lily (Spathiphyllum “Clevelandii”)
Areca palm (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens)
Mass Cane/Corn plant (Dracaena fragrans “Massangeana”)
Lady palm (Rhapis excelsa)
Some of the plants recommended here are poisonous if eaten - that means you’ll want to avoid placing them where pets or children can chew on their leaves. Peace lily, English Ivy and mums are poisonous (lilies are particularly dangerous for cats). Weeping figs and rubber plants have a minor level of toxicity in their sap that can irritate the mouth and skin, but they aren’t particularly harmful (and may be more resistant to insects).
The safest non-toxic plants for cleaning your air include bamboo palm, lady palm (especially effective for removing ammonia and formaldehyde), parlor palm (good at removing ammonia), and moth orchids (good at removing xylene and toluene). It’s important to avoid doing more harm than good with these indoor plants - if you’re allergic to any of them, the toxins that they scrub from the air are less important than the allergens they add. Also, beware of mold - mold spores can counteract the air filtering benefits. Try putting a layer of gravel on top of the soil and avoid excessive watering.
If you can convince deer that your lawn is dangerous, they’ll usually go away and find somewhere safe to get their munchies. Think about how deer see the world: they’re looking for a sheltered place without any predators and many easy escape routes. Put yourself in their hooves - imagine how your yard looks through their beady little eyes, how your bushes smell through their cute/evil little noses, and how your neighborhood sounds to their super-sensitive ears. Then think about ways to make your yard scary to all those senses.
A deer’s sense of smell is particularly strong - if you can make your plants smell scary, that will protect them from getting eaten. One way to do this is to use predator markers that deer are afraid of. When deer get even the faintest whiff of blood, they run away in fear. That’s why blood meal does a good job of repelling deer. Bloodmeal is often found in organic fertilizers - it’s earth friendly and will help your plants grow (in addition to keeping them from getting eaten). The smell of treated blood meal is very mild and few people will notice it. The smell of dead deer can be even more effective. Dead deer are often found in the lairs or big, hungry predators, and even dumb deer avoid those places.
Putting any of these scents in your yard is like hanging up a sign that says “Come here and I’ll eat you.” They’re even more effective than a sign, since the average deer can’t read. You can send the same message by chaining up a guard dog in your yard, or setting up an electronic alarm. Some alarms use loud noises and flashing lights to scare away deer. Other alarms use ultrasonic sound to repel deer. Ultrasonic alarms seem to be silent to humans - we can’t hear the noise they make, but garden pests can. There are even some systems that use motion detectors to fire paintballs or spray water at deer. Those systems can also tag small children and door-to-door salesmen, which is generally a good thing, but they are illegal in many areas.
