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Do you think Live Earth will make a difference?

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There’s an interesting conversation going on about the Live Earth concert at Go Smell the Flowers.

The blog author asks the question:

Live earth is kicking off around the world today with performance in all 7 continents with over 10,000 events promised globally. Will it really help? Are we too late or no need for concern?

There’s been quite a few replies to that post. Some people are being quite pessimistic stating that whatever we do now won’t make a difference and that the message of the concert won’t really get through to many people. Others are more optimistic stating the changes they’ve made in their own lives towards becoming more green and how every little bit will help.

What do you think?

Do you believe global warming exists?

Whether you believe in global warming or not, do you think that if we all made a few changes in our lives it might help the environment or that it might really be a better way to live?

Chris and I aren’t totally green, but we’ve made a lot of changes in our lives over the years toward living green.

Here’s just a few of the things that we do:

  1. Almost all of our lights are energy efficient, as are our appliances.
  2. We turn the heat down in the winter
  3. We live a few blocks from work so we walk to work
  4. Our car is a 4 cyl and because we live so close to work and many small shops we really only use our car once a week or so for short trips to get groceries etc.
  5. We have a few small trees in our yard
  6. Not all of our plants are drought resistant but many are so I don’t have to water a lot
  7. We grow many of our own veggies and fruit
  8. Our garden is organic
  9. What we do purchase in the grocery store is local whenever possible
  10. We don’t eat much meat
  11. We rarely eat processed foods,
  12. We recycle and use recycled products if they are available
  13. We dry many of our clothes on the line instead of using the dryer
  14. We bring our own reusable bags to the grocery store.
  15. We try to use eco-friendly products whenever possible ie no harsh cleaning chemicals etc.

Do you do any of these things? Perhaps you have some more ideas on how to live green for those who read this site?






Aphids and Whiteflies in the garden

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Each garden and therefore each gardener is faced with pests that plague their plants from time to time. It’s something that we have to learn how to deal with, and when possible learn to control those pesky pests.

Some plants such as honeysuckle, citrus trees and other flowering shrubs and vines are infested each year with aphids and whiteflies. How can you control some of these pests naturally?

Well, whiteflies can be a real challenge. Planting marigolds near or around plants that frequently get infestations of whiteflies might help. Marigolds secrete a substance around their roots that is absorbed by nearby plants and this helps to repel the insects. This might now work for large shrubs and trees though.

Whiteflies have several natural enemies. Get to know the bugs in your garden. Some of them are beneficial. Insects such as lacewings, big-eyed bugs, minute pirate bugs and a tiny wasp called Encarsia are natural predators of whiteflies. Avoid using pesticides in the area as that will kill off these beneficial bugs that otherwise would find and attack the whiteflies.

Aphids are a big problem in my garden each year. They love my honeysuckle – particularly my Harlequin Honeysuckle for some reason. They also thrive on the newly developing leaves and flower buds of my roses.

When an aphid infestation is really bad I get one of my spray bottles and add a couple of drops of dish washing liquid to the water in the bottle. I then go out and spray the affected areas of each plant with this mixture. By selectively spraying the affected areas of the plants I don’t bother the many other insects that are in my garden- many of which are beneficial. I find that for really bad infestations I have to spray the affected plants with this soapy mixture two or three times in one week. After that the aphids are usually gone.

Like the whitefly, aphids have many natural enemies as well. One of the most important enemies of the aphid are the various species of parasitic wasp that lay their eggs inside aphids. Other predators that feed on aphids are lady bugs or the lady beetle as it’s known in some parts, lacewing and syrphid fly.

There are a number of mail order companies, and some nurseries, that sell a huge variety of beneficial insects for the garden. You might think about purchasing some of these insects to help control your whitefly or aphid problems.

I’ve purchased ladybugs in the past. 2000 I believe! I tried to put them on the plants that I knew the aphids and other pests enjoyed bothering. The lady bugs stayed in my garden for the most part for a day or two but then dispersed throughout the neighborhood. I do think that at the time they stayed long enough to control my pest problem.

If anyone has any other suggestions for controlling whiteflies or aphids in the garden I’d love to hear your suggestions. Please leave a comment.

Use your gardening downtime wisely

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How are you keeping yourself busy this month? Have you been spending time thinking about your garden? Reading gardening magazines and books? If you’re like me you probably have a number of seed and plant related catalogues to read. I think mine started being delivered in the mail from late November onward.

It’s too cold to go outside and do anything in the garden – other than shovel the snow that is.

If you want to have a great garden this season, you’ll find that thinking and planning are the two best things that you can be doing during these cold months. Use your garden downtime well.

If you’re like me you probably took some photos of your garden as the plants grew and filled in last season. You might have even made some notes- move this plant over here – it’s not getting enough sun, or it’s getting too much sun. Divide this plant and replant a cluster of them over here and so on.

Try to remember which of your plants did well and which ones didn’t last year. Have any of them been struggling for a few years? Is it time to move them or replace them?

As you flip through the gardening magazines and catalogues make notes of which plants, flowers and bulbs you’d like to try in your garden. Even if you aren’t purchasing them now, or perhaps you’d rather try them by seed rather than as a seeding – keep track of what you like. Then as the time comes to purchase the plants or seeds you’ll have a nice list that you can go over and pick from as you buy your new plants.

I’ve been using this site to keep track of which plants did well last year. Oddly enough, anytime I wrote about a plant not doing well and threatened to remove it if it didn’t start performing soon, amazingly enough it did start shaping up! Why I have no idea – did I actually give it a bit more attention since I was trying to figure out what it’s problem was, or did my threats work? Either way, I’ll be giving some of my plants some verbal threats next year – just in case.

Here’s a few great gardening books to keep you busy over the winter months:

Perennials for Every Purpose: Choose the Right Plants for Your Conditions, Your Garden, and Your Taste (A Rodale Organic Gardening Book)

This is an excellent book. I’ve got a copy of it and it keeps me busy for hours!

The Big Book of Flower Gardening: A Guide to Growing Beautiful Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs, and Rose

Another excellent book that I own. There are some great gardening tips in this book.

Annuals for Every Purpose: Choose the Right Plants for Your Conditions, Your Garden, and Your Taste (A Rodale Organic Gardening Book)

I don’t have a copy of this book … yet, but it’s on my list!

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