Day 56 of our Green Year: Bottle Composting

You may be thinking we are talking about composting bottles, but the truth is we are talking about making a portable composting machine that you can take with you. Whether you are on vacation, or even at work, why should you forget about going green when you are not home? This is where the portable bottle compost method comes into play.

You can easily make this portable compost device and take it with you wherever you go. Now you don't have to throw things out that could be composted when you can simply put them in the bottle and compost it from your car, hotel room or office.

These are really easy to make. To make them, you need these items:

• A Two-Liter Plastic Soft Drink Bottle
• Two Cups of Fruits and Veggies Scraps, all chopped up.
• One cup of grass clippings or leaves
• Two cups of garden soil.
• Blood and bone fertilizer if you have it.
• One newspaper torn into squares.
• Spray bottle with water.
• Spoons for the soil.
• Tape and a marker

To make the compost bottle, follow these steps:

1. Remove the label from the bottle, leave the lid on and cut about three-quarters of the way up the bottom to form a flip top.
2. Put the soil into the bottom and then moisten it with the spray bottle. Put a layer of fruit scraps in, then cover with soil about one cm thick.
3. Put some fertilizer in it.
4. Add leaves and then cover with another one cm of soil.
5. Put some fertilizer on that.
6. Place newspaper in the bottle and put another one cm of soil.
7. Put another layer of fruit and vegetable scraps in, cover with one cm of soil and sprinkle with more fertilizer.
8. Tape the top up and put it in a sunny spot on the window sill.

Afterwards, every so often, check to see if it is too moist (open lid) or too dry (add water). After a few weeks of adding composting to it, then take it out to the garden and put it in the soil.
This really makes a great portable compost bin for when you are on vacation or in the office.

If you have photos of you making this compost bottle, send them to crwbaird@gmail.com and we will put them up.
Here are a few photos of me using our manual lawn mower, which does a great job of the lawn.

Day 38 of our Green Year: Going Green With Newspapers

I am a big fan of reading the newspaper. I love to learn the news of the day, find out about upcoming events and more. Not a week goes by that I don't pick the paper up a few times. Now, each time I do this I am creating paper waste, because I use the paper for only a few minutes to an hour, it seems like a big waste.
Naturally, you can take your paper to be recycled, which is a great thing, but why not reuse the paper to reduce your purchase and use of other items. There is no better way to be green than by taking items you already have and using them to prevent you from buying more items.

So, Layla and I have decided that not only will we recycle our papers, but we will also use them in other ways to go green.

1. We have already talked about how you can use newspaper in compost, as long as it is not color pages. However, why not use the newspapers as a great way to block weeds? There have been several people who have laid down newspaper in their backyard, after digging out a bit of space, then putting dirt and compost over top of the papers. This helped prevent weeds from growing, and allowed beautiful flowers that were planted on top of the newspapers to bloom nicely.
2. If you have kids, nothing works better for them to scribble on than paper.
3. You can line cabinet bottoms with newspaper instead of buying cabinet paper.
4. We have already shown how you can clean windows with newspaper, but did you know that using newspaper to clean windows prevents streaks on the window?
5. You can also use newspaper in a seed starter pot? It is truly amazing how this can be put together and it eliminates the need for you to buy pots for the seeds. Here is a great tutorial: http://www.geocities.com/newspaperpots/
6. It can be used as wrapping paper, instead of wrapping paper from the stores.

The great thing is that after you use it for scribbling, cleaning or whatever, you can still go and recycle it, so you have reused it for something else, and then recycled it. Win-Win!
Do you have any ideas for what you could use newspaper for? Let us know!

Remember, if you have pictures of yourself or your family doing green things we have mentioned in our blog, be sure to let us know by sending us a picture. We will put it up in the blog to show the world the steps you are taking in your own green year. E-mail pictures to crwbaird@gmail.com

Day 27 of our Green Year: Drinking Coffee The Green Way

With coffee, I am an addict. I will drink one to two pots per day and I simply love everything about coffee. However, despite this I am going green with it, as Layla is with her tea. How do you go green with coffee? Well, it is actually quite easy.

First of all, you want to buy local brews. These are brews that are roasted and made in your area. Talk to your local coffee shop to find out if they brew it locally and roast it locally. If they don't, try and find one that does.
Second, instead of going into Starbucks, with their oddly named cup sizes, to get a coffee, why don't you go in with a reusable mug. When you think about the waste that is generated by those mugs, it is quite amazing. You have the lid, container and safety wrap (keeps your hands from burning), which all contribute to waste.
Third, try and get organically grown and fair-trade grown coffee. We have decided to do that here by buying coffee from Kicking Horse Coffee Company, which is located in B.C., so we can kill three birds with one stone on that one.
Lastly, you want to compost your coffee grounds, as well as get a reusable coffee filter. There is no need to constantly buy coffee filters when you do not need to, and coffee grounds make a great compost material for the garden.

Also, in terms of coffee grounds, here are some great uses for it:

1. You can use it as plant food for rosebushes, azaleas, rhododendrons, evergreens and camellias that like acidic soil.
   
2. If you are having a problem with ants in the yard or house, then sprinkle some of the grounds in the areas you do not want them and they will not go anywhere near the grounds.
3. If you would like to make your own paper (an upcoming blog ;) ), then you can use coffee grounds as brown dye for paper, as well as fabric and Easter eggs.
4. Cats hate coffee grounds, so mix it with some orange peels and put it around your plants.
5. Mix some of the coffee grounds with some shampoo when you are giving your dog a bath, it will not only get rid of fleas, but it will make the dog's hair feel softer.

I would also like to give a shout out to a new affiliate of our blog, Eco-Libris. The people here are an environmental leader in that they will plant a tree for every book that you buy through them. As a book lover and a writer, this provides a wonderful solution to me as the books I buy end up costing a tree its life. Check out their website at: http://www.ecolibris.net/

Here is a list of coffee companies that practice the principles of fair trade and organically grown, courtesy of Treehugger.com:

Birds and Beans
Blue Smoke Coffee
Bodum
Cafe Bis
Cameron's Coffee
Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
The Groovy Mind
Grounds For Change
Kicking Horse Coffee
Merchants of Green Coffee
Newman's Own Organics
Simple Coffee
Solar Roast Coffee
Sweetwater Organic Coffee Roasters
Today Was Fun
Oso Negro