BlogHers ACT Canada

Composting for Beginners

Each morning you throw out a coffee filter and a handful of used coffee grinds.

Your weekend breakfast feast of bacon and eggs leaves behind a pile of broken eggshells.

The kids have an apple for a snack, but leave the core for you to pick up.

I’ve got news for you:  those coffee grinds, egg shells and apple cores are packed full of nutrients that will make awesome food for your garden if you change your habits.  Rather than throwing your kitchen scraps into the garbage, start a compost pile!

This month our focus is on greener gardening, and composting is arguably the simplest way to green up your gardening habits.

Introducing May's Challenge: Greener Gardening!

Do you have a garden or grow plants?  Do you use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides in your garden?  Do you buy lots of plants every season that are sold in plastic pots?  Do you grow food?

These are the kinds of questions we’ll be looking at this month here at BlogHers ACT Canada.  I have to admit, I’m kind of pumped!  This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. There are entire weblogs that focus on these topics entirely, and there are some I visit quite frequently, and will recommend to you.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Winners!

A few more entries arrived for the Official BlogHers ACT Canada Earth Day Kids Gardening Photo Contest since last week.  I'm pleased to announce the winners!  But first, let's all take a moment to have a look at how some more kids are learning about gardening and growing food.  (The first round of entrants were posted here.)

David Suzuki's Nature Challenge for Kids

If you’ve ever taken a moment to look carefully at the sidebar here at BlogHers ACT Canada, you’ll notice we’ve prominently placed a button in the upper right-hand corner.  The button features David Suzuki, environmental scientist, activist and one of Canada’s top ten favourite Canadians.

Photo Credit: Matthew Gore, taken during David's visit to Concordia University's rooftop garden.

Earth Day Photo Contest: Extended!

We've received some great photos of kids and gardens. Because they're so terrific, we've decided to extend the Official BlogHers ACT Canada Earth Day Kids Gardening Photo Contest until April 30th! A few samples appear after the jump.

The Official BlogHers ACT Canada Earth Day Kids Gardening Photo Contest!

Happy Earth Day!

As a tie in to yesterday’s post about teaching kids to grow food, and as promised, BlogHers ACT Canada is excited to provide you with the details of our Earth Day contest.

It’s the Official BlogHers ACT Canada Earth Day Kids Gardening Photo Contest!

Ontario Pesticide Ban for '09

Happy Earth Day!

Last summer I was disappointed to find that our next-door neighbour had hired a non-organic company to take care of their lawn. Graham and I would sit out back, drinking our coffee in the morning, and then suddenly the powerful, sickening smell of the pesticide/herbicide cocktail would waft into our yard. Annoyed, disgusted, we'd head back indoors to finish our coffee.

I put a little sign in our garden in the hopes it would start a dialogue between us and our neighbour, but it didn't seem to phase them at all, which I just can't understand because he grows FOOD in their yard.

Teaching Kids about Growing Food

At the beginning of this month, as I started to plan the posts for April’s challenge, I was probably mostly excited about the third week’s post...because it’s a topic that is near and dear to my heart!

Teaching kids about gardening and growing food is something that I’m involved in on a regular basis.  I jump at literally every opportunity to show children my garden and to talk about plants and growing food with them, on an age-appropriate level.

I recently saw an episode of the television show Recreating Eden about a children’s garden, created by gardener and plant enthusiast Cassie Scott, at a school in North Richmond, California.  The garden is completely integrated into the school’s curriculum, and children take great pleasure in getting their hands dirty while learning to grow food throughout the school year.

Support Bill C-517 and the Effort to Label Genetically Engineered Food

A private member’s bill supporting mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food in Canada was selected randomly for debate in our House of Commons this month.

Bill C-517 went to second reading on April 3, and a second hour of parliamentary debate could take place in as early as two weeks, as per the House of Commons calendar.  After a second debate, the House will be called upon to vote on the bill.  If you are concerned about feeding your children genetically engineered foods, it’s important to make sure that a majority of Members of Parliament vote in favour of Bill C-517.  If the Bill passes second reading, it will be returned for a third and final reading, followed by a vote by all of Canada’s 301 Members of Parliament.

Clothesline Ban, uh...BANNED!

Yesterday was the first day this year that I’ve hauled wet laundry out to the back of my yard to hang the clothes out on the clothesline.  There’s something so wonderful about using it…I feel like I’m channeling all kinds of womanly power while I hang the clothes out.  I get all kinds of productive thinking done while I’m hanging the clothes out to dry, and I’m sure that if you came into my yard to watch me while I’m hanging the clothes, you’d see all kinds of strange expressions on my face while I’m thinking things out.

While I was out there yesterday, I thought about what a great device the clothesline is...and how we are saving on our hydro bill by avoiding use of the dryer while reducing our carbon emissions.  However, I also imagined some of our cranky neighbours complaining about having to look at our clothes all summer long.