After reading this post, don’t forget to enter our contest – you could win a new dishwasher. Plus, do you have your own story to tell? Send it to greenchallenge@canadianliving.com (no more than 300 words, please), and you could win one of 30 daily prizes.
Today’s winner is Jennifer Wilson.
Although I live in an apartment, I compost my kitchen scraps and put them in my small outdoor composter. Come springtime, I have enough good new earth to do all of my patio container plantings. I water my pesticide-free containers with “grey” water left over from my dishwashing water, coffee, tea, and liquid left from cooking vegetables. I do not consider myself someone with a green thumb, but the results have been amazing! I have provided most of my green bean, spring onion, lettuce, tomato, carrot and herbs needs for two people over an entire summer without buying soil, fertilizers or using fresh water out of the tap. At the end of the summer, I have learned to harvest seeds from the beans and tomatoes and now no longer buy seeds for those veggies/fruits. I am pretty proud of myself that I have taken waste materials and made a full cycle of my tiny garden from scraps, to soil, to plants to seeds and around again.
Thanks to Jennifer for sending in her story – and don’t forget, if you still haven’t entered, there’s still time to send your own story to greenchallenge@canadianliving.com.
Jennifer wins a set of five fab books from Random House, including the following:
The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen
Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life by Ed Begley, Jr.
Ecoholic by Adria Vasil
The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon
True Green at Work: 100 Ways You Can Make the Environment Your Business by Kim Mckay, Jenny Bonnin and Tim Wallace
Today’s code word: garden
Read more:
• How to start seeds indoors
• How to start your own compost pile
• 5 healthy herbs and how to grow them
What is your compost bin like? Does it go on the ground or on your balcony? Did you buy it or make it? I would like to do the same thing; please tell me how, or where I can find more helpful information.
Cheers and congratulations,
Solange Courteau
Comment by Solange Courteau — May 7, 2008 @ 4:14 pm
I purchased a “rolling composter” from Lee Valley. I checked their website and they still offer it. The advantage is that it turns on a base of rollers, which means that I don’t need to try to turn the contents with a pitchfork; I just close the hatch and turn it 3 or 4 times once a week or so. The other advantage is that if I move from the apartment, I can just empty it, and move the base and the rolling bin without leaving behind any kind of mess as no soil sits directly on the patio slab. Super easy and no mess!!
Comment by Jennifer — May 8, 2008 @ 11:28 am