This whole “no pesticides no herbicides” thing has been a big deal for my farmer-raised-in-Saskatchewan husband… but he is getting into it and having some real fun gardening these days.

We’ve found a few aphids on the cherry tree and one of the rose bushes (Jrock’s prized roses!!) and he has been diligently soap-straying them.  But yesterday we found out that a local garden store was carrying lady bugs! So we bought 250 of the little buggers (ha ha) and released them in the cherry tree, the rose bush, and my broccoli/cabbage patch last night.  (Last year the aphids overwhelmed the broccoli, kale and cabbages so we couldn’t even eat them. Whoops.)

You keep the barely-moving ladybugs in the fridge until you are ready for them, but when you set them out in the warm evening air – wow! they just wake up and go on an aphid hunt tout-suite! Today, there isn’t an aphid to be found on the cherry tree. And they are pretty cute, too.

If you want to get some yourself, here is the company our “voracious predators” came from: thebuglady.ca She has lots of other bugs and natural pest control stuff on her website… worth checking out!

The spring wine festival starts at the end of the month – it’s the biggest event in the year in the Okanagan – aside, of course, from the fall wine festival.  We have noticed that we have been drinking more wie since we moved here… not too much! but we did go through three barrels since the fall. Two were merlot – one was cab franc.  You know we had to mix the CF with the one barrel of merlot (we used the patented two straw approach.)  It’s definitely too harsh on it’s own. 

And what to do with all these leftover barrels?  Luckily, it’s easier to plant tomatoes in them than in a glass magnum. (Now if wine came in plastic bottles – well, I have heard that you can plant tomatoes in them. But not glass.)

So Jrock cracked open the power tools yesterday and cut the three barrels in half.  Didn’t he do a nice job?  Now all we have to do is fill the suckers with dirt and plant some tomatoes.  I haven’t decided what else should go in them. 

Any suggestions? They’re on the east side of the house, but they don’t have any shade until late afternoon, so they’ll get pretty hot. Gardeners?  Ideas?

Oh – and I have to be able to eat it.  No flowers. Ba humbug.

And PS: Happy Earth Day tomorrow!  These barrels, my learning to weed, our increasingly huge garden, the new berry plot, our freshly insulated basement and cellulose-filled ceiling, cooking more lentils and actually making them tasty, etc. are all some steps that we’ve taken to be more sustainable this past year – that I think also really enhance our quality of life. 

What are you going to do this year? 

I bought another apple tree. For the other side of the yard.

Don’t tell Jrock.

__

PS: No, we didn’t drink it all.  A barrel holds 27 CASES of wine, silly. That would be 486 bottles each.

From my David Suzuki Foundation newsletter…

There’s no better time than this financially challenged, politically confusing shopping season to check your list twice and consider: do you own your stuff or does your stuff own you? Think about it. One less gift can save about 200 kg of natural resources (the equivalent of two, queen-sized mattresses) and keep the same amount of material out of the waste stream.

Now is also a great time to pause and reflect, spend quality time with family and friends and, if you’re going to buy, buy less, buy used and buy local.

The Queen of Green, Lindsay Coulter, is here to help (as usual…) with these great green gifting ideas:

• Give paper new life. In this video, Lindsay and Katharine Byers, one of the Naturebag Moms, show you how to make seed paper. Recyclable papers (newspapers, magazines, envelopes, etc) can be made into cards, bookmarks, gift tags and small gift boxes and are embedded with seeds that grow herbs and flowers (indoors in pots or outdoors in the spring). A great family or kid activity! Here’s the recipe (PDF). 

• Donate to charity. Honour those on your gift list with a contribution in their names. (Try these lovely e-cards, for example. Watch the video). Choose a charity as a family gift to the world – it’s a great way to get kids out of ‘buy me’ mode and into a conversation about how we need to share the planet.

• Buy something used. Used (aka ‘recycled, vintage, pre-owned, antique’) stuff is already here – no new energy, materials, processes, packaging or transportation from far away needed. (The team at reyouzd.com have even started Canada’s first ever Buy Something Used Day (PDF) January 22 – but now is a good time to start.)

• Offer your skills. Whether it’s a year’s worth of once-a-week babysitting or a promise to rake leaves, we all have something we can do for someone on our gift list that’s worth more than just another inanimate object. And making homemade coupons is fun and crafty – make ‘em out of seed paper (PDF – see above)!

• Give experiences instead of stuff. Movie or theatre tickets, an art gallery membership, a sports event are great gifts, just remember to keep it local. Throw in bus tickets or passes for an extra shot of green.

• Consider a book. Whether new or used, there’s nothing like a good read. After you’ve finished sharing with family and friends, you can donate books libraries (the world’s oldest recycling centres!). Here are some of our favourite books.

• Beware of toxic toys. If they must have stuff, at least make sure it’s not going to hurt them (or the planet). Select locally-made goods from companies that consider the whole life of their products – what’s in it, how it’s made, and what happens to it when it doesn’t work any more.

• Make gifts yourself. Check out Lindsay’s lists of recipes for ideas. Whip up an assortment of green cleaners or non-toxic cosmetics, arrange them in a cute (reusable) container, and tie on a homemade seed card (see above). Or assemble a green travel kit in an attractive (reusable) cloth bag: stainless steel commuter mug and/or water bottle, reusable food container, cloth napkin, and ‘spork’ (a spoon and fork in one).

• Cut the wrap. If only two out of three households used one arm’s length less of ribbon, the amount saved could tie a bow around the earth. Great gift decorating alternatives: dried flowers, recyclable paper bows or a reusable scarf.

• Reap the rewards. Go outside (PDF). Breathe the air that you’re helping to clean up, look at the sky, and admire the natural abundance. Go for a walk in the woods, skate on a frozen pond. Think about how we are all connected to the planet that sustains us. It’s free and off-the-grid! And you deserve it. We all do. (Cue music…)

Peace on earth!

So what do we do? 

• I “wrap” our gifts in fabric bags - they are just pretty fabric sacks with a wide fabric ribbon tied around the top (and sewn to the side) so that people get the experience of “unwrapping”… I always ask for the bags back
• We also reuse paper gift bags we have recieved, for situations when I may not get the bags back.
• We DO recycle gifts!!! but we always tell people that we are doing it and usually they are appreciative, such as with books.  In fact, a friend who is getting married next week we bought used books and wrapped them in a tea towel! (With a pretty ribbon.)
• I have in the past also made quite a few gifts… herb teas from my garden, etc. 

Enjoy the season!

My poor husband – I drag him all over the place volunteering…

This past weekend we planted trees (oh yes, one of the hardest jobs out there!) on a rocky rocky hill.  In the middle of Kelowna is a hill called Knox Mountain, and the city just bought some semi-bulldozed land with a ecologically special akaline lake… from the developer that managed to plow down a bunch of the trees before selling it back to the city. 

Our Rotary club members and their families planted a good 1500+ trees in a couple of hours.

The work was hard but the view was spectacular! Enjoy the short video pan of the city on a lovely autumn day.

I got these photos via email… it’s interesting on so many (cultural, health, economic, political, etc.) levels…

(if anyone knows where this came from originally, please let me know.)

Germany : The Melander family of Bargteheide

Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07

United States : The Revis family of North Carolina

Food expenditure for one week $341.98

Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09  

Poland : The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna

Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27  

Egypt : The Ahmed family of Cairo

Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53  

Ecuador : The Ayme family of Tingo

Food expenditure for one week: $31.55

Bhutan : The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village

Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03

Chad : The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp

Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23  

It’s amazing some of the lines of hooey that politicians feed you when they want something to happen.  For example, “hydro-electric energy is green energy.”

Hooey!  Water coursing through a dam is renewable energy… but what about the devastating effects from flooding a watershed?  Animals and their habitat drowned.  Farmers and landowners displaced.  First Nations cultural places and artifacts lost forever.

This is the mighty Peace River a few kilometres from where I grew up.  I remember my parents fighting the Site C dam when I was growing up in northeastern BC.  The community beat back the proposal then, but now with an energy crunch, the BC province is once again trying to flood the Peace River and Halfway River valleys. The local farmers, First Nations, landowners, environmentalists and generally concerned citizens are waging a peaceful war of protest, but their efforts aren’t being heard in Victoria, where decisions are made.

1. learn more by visiting the Peace Valley Environmental Asoc., or Hooey explaining the government’s side of things, or Peace River Heritage River status description.
2. write the Premier of BC (and your local MLA if you live in BC) tell him that the Site C dam proposal has to stop. Contact information here.

I haven’t convinced you yet to lend your support to our northern neighbors?  Download and take a look at this google earth simulation of the effects of Site C.  It’s huge. (Get google earth first if you don’t already have it.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns3BMxwYEgM]

When’s the last time your wrote your MP (or federal government respresentative) and had your voice heard?

Jrock and I write a letter about twice a month, as we become aware of an issue (animal rights) or it’s decision-making time (ie, the budget.)  It’s actually so easy to do… just fire it off to your MP or the relevant minister.. and don’t forget to CC a copy off to the PM. You would be surprised at the answers you get back…

How to’s:

• Find your MP here.
• Get some help letter writing
  • Environmental issues
  • Human rights / poverty issues (sign up for updates – they’ll write the letter for you)
• Print 3 copies of your letter. 
  • Mail one to your MP at their local office (need to put a stamp on it) or drop it off
  • Mail one to them in Ottawa (postage free):
    Person’s Name, MP
    House of Commons
    Parliament Buildings
    Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6
  • Mail one to the PM:
    Prime Minister Stephen Harper
    Office of the Prime Minister
    80 Wellington Street
    Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A2

Of course, you can always email pm@pm.gc.ca but I think the emails don’t get as much attention as paper.  (But if you would never write a letter, for sure, send an email.)