Rising utility costs, paired with competitively priced sustainable tools to supplement municipal electricity and water use, mean that sectional title schemes are becoming a more viable marketplace for the green building sector. While each scheme has unique characteristics, their expenses are often centred around meeting similar needs, namely: electricity and water use, … [Read more...]
A friend in need: learning about companion planting
If you imagine "companion planting" to be a pleasant potter around the garden with a friend, you may be on to something. But it is also a system of buddying up the various plants in your garden to help control pests, maximise planting space, assist with pollination, encourage growth and improve yield. It can even enhance the flavour of your produce. I went along to a … [Read more...]
Can human urine replace chemical fertilizers?
The Rich Earth Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont, is likely the only organization measuring success in gallons of urine. In 2012, Kim Nace, Rich Earth’s administrative director and partner Abe Noe-Hays collected 600 gallons of urine from friends and neighbors. The next year, the organization brought in about 3,000 gallons from 170 human volunteers. Rebecca Rueter, a board … [Read more...]
Say ‘no’ to food waste this festive season
The festive season, with all its glorious food is with us! The Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa (IWMSA) calls on all residents to be mindful of their food spend this time of year and gives some tips on composting organic waste. 9.04 million tonnes of food waste per year South Africa generates a staggering amount of approximately 9.04 million tonnes of food … [Read more...]
Heavy rain to flash flooding ahead
An intense cut-off low pressure system is expected over the southern and eastern parts of the Eastern Cape. The public are advised that heavy rain and localised flooding can be expected Friday evening into Saturday. Heavy rain leading to flash flooding is expected in places over the Western Cape Friday evening and Saturday. People are advised to: avoid cutting grass in … [Read more...]
Are we about to hit peak fertilizer?
The advent of artificial fertilizers and pest controls altered the face of agriculture around the world during the Green Revolution more than half a century ago. And while few people are fully ignorant of the damage done to the environment through the use of these synthetic pesticides (and fertilizers), not many people have given much any thought to what will happen when we … [Read more...]
Free energy from your own waste – biodigesters make sense
In the pursuit of a greener, healthier lifestyle we are constantly on the lookout for new ways to turn our wasteful lives into a more logical nature-simulating exercise, as Nature is always our best teacher. In nature there is no waste – everything is re-used to benefit some other organism, often as food. Of all the eco devices that we can now implement to lead lives that … [Read more...]
Nifty new bokashi bin
A really cool product I discovered for organic waste is the Bokashi Kitchen Waste Microbial Bin, which I am now using in my kitchen. At last a nifty container, which nukes all possible smells and gets the breakdown process starting right in my kitchen. As far as I know it's the first container of its kind; something I've been waiting for. This is basically a bucket with … [Read more...]
Time to start a compost heap
Nature sets the perfect example: she recycles all her waste. Every atom from dead plants or animals is recycled into nutrients, which feed new living things. It makes no sense to recycle your domestic waste and still send the most nutritious part, your organic waste, to landfill. Especially not if you understand that this is the stuff that creates the toxic leachate juices, … [Read more...]
Waste into cooking energy
Energy can never be destroyed - it can only be changed from one form to another. Why then do we believe that waste is the end of the line? "How people have disposed of their excrement over the ages makes a fascinating story. Today what characterises a first-world culture is flush toilets. They remove germs, and with that much of the burden of disease and poverty." So says … [Read more...]
Kids plant veggies for Mandela
The one thing more heart-warming than food being planted for a crèche in Kayamandi, is seeing the teenagers from Kayamandi High School pitching in with absolute joy. On 19 July they contributed their 67 minutes for Mandela by planting spinach, onions, lettuce, beetroot and spices next to the Siyavuya crèche, a project by the Vuya Endaweni Community Conservation … [Read more...]
Nourishment for the coming season
It was almost time for the Global Working Day for Earth, when the largest number of people across the planet ever in living memory would be doing something for the earth. My lucky number 7 had arrived just before the auspicious 10-10-10 date and this day I was a year older. And a year more grateful to still be granted my share of this planet's precious resources. I … [Read more...]
