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In the last post we looked at getting a jump on your organic gardening with organic seeds. Here are some more helpful tools…

Organic Seedstarting Mix: 100% Organic Germinating Mix with sphagnum peat and perlite for a fine texture, and the addition of compost, protein meal and trace minerals for healthy growth.

Garden Starter System: Reusable vs. plastic seed starter bins. Other ways to start seeds include recycled egg cartons, yogurt cups (cut a hole in the bottom), or real planters that later will hold flowers.

Sun-Mar Continuous-Use Auto Flow 200 Composter: If you don’t have a composter yet, it’s time to get going with that. You still have time to start recycling your food scraps into healthy soil for the summer gardening season.

Grab a great organic gardening book: Read the rest of this entry »

With New Year’s almost here, it’s likely you’re starting to think about your goals. Do you have some green household goals that you’d like to work on in the upcoming year? If you’re looking for ideas, here are some good ones:

Go green in 2009 by…

Ditching toxic household cleaners and chemical based home air fresheners.

Improving the air quality in your home.

Green your kitchen java for the entire year! Coffee is a great place to start if you’re looking to go green your lifestyle.

Drinking tap water, or at the very least buying a water filter over bottled water.

Starting a compost routine.

Only buying sustainable home furniture and decor.

Giving your baby a fresh green start in life.

Pledging to reduce, reuse, and recycle more at home.

Planting some trees around your house or in your neighborhood.

Taking shorter showers.

Conserving electricity around the house.

Do you have another green home goal? One I didn’t mention? Leave a comment about your green goals for 2009.

Oh, by the way, my green goals are as follows:

1) Recycle all the toilet paper tubes – this was actually my goal last year. I’m great at recycling everything but the tubes still sometimes end up in the bathroom trash vs. the recycling. I’ve improved since last year, but this is an ongoing goal.

2) Cook more. This last year was nuts (seriously) I bought more packaged foods than maybe ever in my entire life. That’s not great eco cooking. It’s much better to buy less packaging, and cook closer to the earth meals.

If you’d like to have an organic garden at your house, the first thing you need to do is get your soil in tip-top organic shape.

girl with worm

Earthworms are key – there are other organic soil issues of course, but earthworms cost little and it takes almost no time to implement a good earthworm plan into your garden. Earthworms scurry about (ok crawl) and loosen up plus condition soil. They also leave earthworm droppings all over the place (yuck), but the droppings have some characteristics of fertilizer, so it’s a good thing.

If you already have earthworms in your soil (look around after a rain), then you’re in good shape. The presence of earthworms means one, you don’t have to purchase any, and two that your soil is likely in good shape. If you have no worms you can pick some up at a garden center. Add them to your soil and keep watch. Earthworms that don’t survive means your soil is probably lacking a vital component (i.e. organic soil amendments).

Stay tuned for more organic home gardening tips.