smarterplanet:

Living Christmas trees, delivered and replanted for free

Christmas trees are considered an integral part of the festive season for many, but most vendors sell trees that have already been cut down, meaning that by the time they reach peoples’ living rooms the decomposition process is well underway. Local authorities in Paris have already made an effort to make the industry more sustainable by crushing and replanting the trees as fertilizer in public locations, but our latest spotting is encouraging consumers in Austria to purchase a Living Christmas Tree that can be picked up and replanted after the season is over. READ MORE…

We encourage living trees too! That’s why we don’t sell cut trees anymore. 

wallacegardens:

Babylon Chandelier is an “ode to nature.” A transparent bubble houses living plants, creating a suspended garden lamp. Design by Alexis Tricoire.

 

nicolefaires:

The farm today.  Missing from the photo is greenhouse #3 which is in the corner.

nicolefaires:

Greenhouse #2 is almost done except the door. The raised beds are done, the paths mulched.

How do we use permaculture principles on a production farm? The raised beds will never be turned or tilled, we use natural mulches like leaves that come from our region only. We grow a diversity of crops, as many of them companion planted as possible. We build the soil, and conseve and reuse water. We grow year-round through the use of plastic in order to decrease our dependence on foreign production and petroleum, and we use no petroleum for producing the food, just delivering it. The real challenge is that as a SPIN farm, we have to travel to our farm plots. This is technically a Zone 3 area that we have to farm like a Zone 1 area in order to keep production high. To allleviate this we try to farm smart - using worms to help us compost faster and reduce turning, mulching, keeping on top of weeds before they seed, building the soil to make our plants more resistant, and putting in some timed irrigation. This is the future of food production.

For the curious, this greenhouse cost about $450 for 20 x 40. The basic materials are PVC, 2x4’s, and 6 mil plastic. It would not last well in a place that gets heavy snow, but it wouldn’t cost much more to invest in metal electrical conduit instead of PVC.

notquitehippie:

Woke up to an infographic this morning about COMPOST! Yay!! Compost!!! via Treehugger

experimentoverde:

Huerto+composta en un solo mueble / Garden+compost in a single piece of furniture

¿Qué pasaría si pudieran tener composta y un huerto juntos? Yo sería muy feliz si pudiera tener los dos en un solo lugar y este mueble que encontré es la solución. Vedge, de James Wood, integra un receptáculo para los desperdicios orgánicos de la casa y tiene unos compartimientos para crecer plantas con el fertilizante que se obtenga de la descomposición de los desperdicios. Este mueble crea un ciclo de fertilizantes y cosechas lo que lo hace sustentable y orgánico. Lo mejor de todo es que es un solo mueble y está pensado de forma vertical lo que ahorra espacio y se puede instalar en espacios pequeños :D

What if you could have a garden and compost together? I would be very happy if I could have both in one place and I found that this furniture is the solution. Vedge, from James Wood, includes a receptacle for organic waste from the house and has a few compartments for growing plants. With the fertilizer obtained from the decomposition of waste, plants can grow. This furniture creates a cycle of crop+fertilizers, making it sustainable and organic. What’s best of all, is that the design is vertical which saves space and can be installed in small spaces :D

darkearthchild:

A new movement of green thumbs, The Windowfarm Project, established in 2009. An open source community developing edible gardens in an urban environment, all year round. It’s R&D-I-Y, Research & Develop It Yourself. You don’t need space and a yard to to grow your own food. This is something we all can do!

• Website: our.windowfarms.org
• Video: Here

unconsumption:

In Berkeley, California, at a mixed-use urban-infill project designed by Leger Wanaselja Architecture, there’s a gate constructed out of Volvo station wagon doors. 

Other car parts and street signs are among the salvaged materials incorporated into the design of the project. See our earlier post about it here.

Also, if you didn’t catch the Unconsumption post about large-scale art (in the form of cow sculptures) made from old car parts, check it out here.

(Photo by Randi Berez, via Dwell.com.)

 

unconsumption:

An upside-down tomato cage + strings of holiday lights = a fun (and easy-to-make) alternative Christmas tree.

(Via Unconsumption’s “holiday things” board on Pinterest, thanks to @imelda!)