Seeds for Schools: Winner #3 - Allenbrook Elementary

Allenbrook Elementary School

Charlotte, NC

# of Students 422

Gardening Program: Brand New

Located in Charlotte, NC, about 10 minutes from the bustling downtown area, and boasting a student body of 422, Allenbrook Elementary school is our Seeds for Schools program's 3rd out 10 winner.

Their gardening program is new for 2012 and was initiated after Tina Cataldo (the school's recycling coordinator, and application submitter) decided it was time to expand the school's environmental program after they had already began teaching the students composting techniques with the help of Senior Environmental Specialist, Nadine Ford.

"We are hoping that the gardening project will extend from a learning experience to a useful community garden for the families who live within the Allenbrook Elementary school community," says Ms. Cataldo. "Our hope is to establish the garden and involve family members who will contribute efforts to maintain the garden over the summer months (as well as during the school year) and be able to reap the benefits of the garden for their families."

To accommodate their new gardening program for the students, Allenbrook is building four raised beds, which will be plenty of room to teach the students (and families) how to grow fresh, vegetables, fruits and herbs from the seeds they will receive.

Five Items you Can Recycle and Use in Your Vegetable Garden

Vegetable gardeners were going green long before “green” went main stream. We have been recycling food waste for decades, storing up rain water in barrels to use when the weather runs dry and so many other things.

But now that the world has finally caught on with the green movement, it is time to pass along a list of items that many might overlook and consider trash, but really are great to use in the vegetable garden.

Cardboard Egg Cartons
If you buy your eggs in Styrofoam cartons then you have to switch to the cardboard carton variety. Cardboard egg cartons, besides being able to be recycled with regular cardboard, can be shredded and mixed in your compost bin and also make great plant seed starters. Simply cut small drainage holes in the bottom of each of the twelve cups, fill with potting soil, add your seeds and water. Once they germinate and you see about two inches of growth, cut the carton so that you separate the cups from one another and then plant the entire cup.

One Gallon Plastic Milk Containers
I can give you two uses for each before you send them to the recycle center. First, rinse the containers out to make sure all the milk residue is gone. Then fill to about an inch from the top with water, put the cap back on and stick the entire container in the freezer. In about a day you will have a nice solid block of ice you can use at your next barbecue to cool down those drinks. When the ice is ready, run some luke warm water on the outside so the ice inside detaches from the plastic sides. Take a utility knife and cut the container in half, in other words separating the top of the container from the bottom. This will allow you to remove the ice. Now take bottom half and drill some holes in the bottom and you have an excellent pot for flowers and plants and the top makes for a great protector against the cold air at night.

Reuse that Old Hose
Before you toss that old hose into the trash, create for yourself your very own soaker hose. Poke plenty of holes in the sides of the hose so that when you turn the water on it drips through the holes you just created.

Pantyhose, Old Socks and T-Shirts
Don’t just toss them into the trash, you can use them to tie up your plants. Tomatoes have weak stems and instead of splurging on the Velcro ties you can cut up some old socks and t-shirts and use them instead.

Newspaper
Done reading the paper yet? Is your neighbor? Good! Newspaper makes a great weed barrier and also great mulch for the compost bin. To use as a weed barrier in your garden, lay the newspaper down, cover with grass clippings, and wet it down with your hose. To use in your compost bin, shred the newspaper and just throw it in there.

Trash is only trash if you can’t think of anything to do with it. As more people get involved with the green movement, especially those that plant vegetable gardens, we will start finding even more ways to keep our garbage out of landfills.

About the Author
Mike is the author of the book Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person. It is a practical easy to follow book that teaches gardeners everything from composting techniques, aeration and frost conditions, to choosing the right tools and picking the right seeds.

Make Sure you are growing your home vegetable garden correctly!

Going Green as a Gardener

By default gardeners are green, green thumbed that is. They take necessary steps to cultivate their land, regardless of the size, and do the things to make their gardens a success. But did you know you can also do some other things that not only will add to your green thumb but make you go green and be more environmentally friendly? Here are some things as a gardener you can start implementing today for a cleaner environment.

Recycle Water
Well you are not really recycling water but what you are doing to trapping rain water to be used at a later date so you do not pull more water from the municipal supply. You do this by using a rain barrel, which is just really a fancy word for a container that catches rain water from your down spouts. Just use a garbage can, rubber maid container or something similar and instead of your rain down spouts just going to the ground, redirect them into your containers. When they get full, use the water in your garden.

Battery Power to the Rescue
Whether it’s mowing your lawn or tilling the dirt, there are battery powered alternatives to gasoline that can do just as good a job. Today’s lithium batteries are far superior to the ones built just a couple of years ago. They have become lighter, stronger and they last longer meaning longer use in between chargers. Grab yourself a solar powered battery charger (or make one if you are handy) and your power tools will never need gas or the grid.

Reuse Old Wood
Do you build things for your gardens such as benches, tables and so on? Instead of going to your local home center and buying new, find someone who is giving away old wooden pallets. A simple search in your area on Craigslist or your local newspaper will yield you plenty of results. Then take that wood and your building.

Cardboard Egg Cartons
From now on buy the eggs that come in the cardboard style egg cartons as opposed to the Styrofoam version. Styrofoam takes hundreds of years to decompose, where as you can use the cardboard cartons as planters for your seedlings, and get his, you can plant the cardboard because it is biodegradable. Now how’s that for going green!

Plant the right Plants
You are already a gardener so that makes you an expert at planting right? Did you know by planting trees and shrubs to block out the sun from your house will cool it down in the summertime? Better yet they can block the wind in the wintertime and that will keep your house warmer. Trees take years to grow so it would be best to get started right away.

Compost
Last but not least, but last for a reason, all good gardeners do the ultimate environmentally friendly technique of composting. This is where you take organic material, such as food waste, leaves, grass, twigs, etc., and let it rot. This is done either by burying it so the ecosystem underneath your soil can do it for you, or in a container called a compost bin. The United States creates over a trillion pounds of organic waste per year that ends up in a landfill. We can reduce 100% of the space if composted our organic material.

As you can see none of these ideas will cost you an arm or a leg nor will they cause you to make life altering changes. But what they will do is get you closer to being greener by helping the environment.

About the Author
Mike is the co-author of the book Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person. It is a practical easy to follow book that teaches gardeners everything from composting techniques, aeration and frost conditions, to choosing the right tools and picking the right seeds.

Help the Environment and yourself, Recycle your Food Waste

Billions upon billions of pounds of food waste every year are thrown away with the regular garbage pick up. This puts a tremendous strain on not only our environment but our wallets to pay people to come pick it up and hail it off to a local landfill.

All is not lost though. You can do your part and solve this problem by recycling your food waste. By recycling your food waste you are create what is called compost. Compost is the end result of organic matter that decomposes.

Your food waste doesn’t simply sit in your kitchen and rot away, which wouldn’t be too pleasant, you actually do something with it and that is you bury it. I will get to more on that in a moment.

The first step is to get yourself a giant Tupperware bowl that, from now on, you can put your food scraps into. Everytime you have leftovers that would normally go into the garbage you redirect that food waste to your Tupperware bowl.

When the Tupperware bowl gets full you will bury it in your backyard. Dig a hole about one to two feet deep and empty the contents of the Tupperware bowl into the hole. Now cover the hole with the dirt. That is it you are now done. You have just recycled food waste.

Now comes the exciting part that you don’t actually see, but trust me it is happening. There is an entire ecosystem that lives underneath that top layer of soil. When you bury food they work hard decomposing that food and give back to you compost.

Compost is filled with nutrients and minerals that plants, trees, flowers, shrubs and any other type of plant require in order to grow and be healthy. By you burying your food waste you are reintroducing these nutrients back into your soil and at the same time recycling waste that would go to a landfill somewhere.

Just keep in mind not to bury food in the same spot sooner than 60 days. It will take about that time for the underlying ecosystem to decompose the waste thoroughly. Just pick a new spot and repeat. If space is limited you can dig a 3 foot hole, dump the waste in, then put a 2 to 3 inch layer of dirt on top, then when the Tupperware bowl is full again, you dump it on top of that, and then more dirt and so on until the hole is full. This helps use the same space more than once.

If you want to get even fancier when your space is limited, you can build what is called a compost bin or a worm box, put your food waste in there with some red worms and they will take care of the rest. When they are done eating the food you remove the compost that remains, mix it in with your soil around your flowers, trees and shrubs and keep doing it.

Someone once said garbage is just another product. It’s just that no one has found a use for garbage just yet. Well in this case you have. Pull double duty helping the environment by burying your food waste.

About the Author
Mike is the author of the book Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person. It is a practical easy to follow book that teaches gardeners everything from composting techniques, aeration and frost conditions, to choosing the right tools and picking the right seeds.