From the 'net - Hummer Nest '05

Hummer Nest '05

Full size pictures of a Hummingbird on her nest. Twenty-four days from birth to flight. Last pic shows size of nest compared to a penny and a toothpick. Beautiful.

Technorati Tags: hummingbird, nest, eggs, hatching, nature, photography, urbanwild

The Garden Claw really works - 28 May 2006

Yes. it does. I received a Garden Claw in a Freecycle[TM] request and I used it today.

The Car Barn site has been neglected. It is not on my way to work anymore, so I don't pass by it on a regular basis. Over the winter and early spring, a tough grass started to grow along with the usual horsetail, so it was time to clean it up. My cheapo hoe/rake combo with the telescoping handle wasn't strong enough, so I took my garden claw, a real hoe [picked up at a garage sale for two bucks!!] and a mini shovel down today.

It worked perfectly! I would stick the claw in the ground, twist and all the grass and weeds were uprooted immediately. All I had to do was shake the dirt off of them after picking them up and toss them in the bike box.

That took four hours, but I hardly noticed the time going by.

I thought of stopping half way through but I didn't feel sore or as tired as I had at other times. By the end, my back was stiff, so I'll have to be careful over the next few days.

As I moved my way down the bed, I planted a viola, six calendula and five nasturtiums that I bought from Planting Seeds Project. I spread crimson clover throughout the bed. I filled and emptied the bike box of grass and weeds twice. By the end, the whole look of the space was much better, with only the plants I wanted in the ground.

Felt great. But it won't last. Already big changes are happening in the area as the 2010 Olympic Village is being constructed.
-30-

Technorati Tags: carbarn,, garden+claw, viola, calendula, crimson+clover, hoe, urban+gardening, urban, gardening, urbanwild

Website keeps secrets about composting workshop - New Zealand

I found this article [see below] about an upcoming composting workshop in New Zealand. I like to go to the source of the news item whenever possible, so I took spin on the web.

When I found the Hawkes Bay Regional Council's website "composting" was not listed in the Waste section. Huh?! Composting not mentioned in waste? That's how they do it in Christchurch and where I live too. I hunted around a bit looking for clues. It was not going well.

Eventually, I had to search the site using the word "compost", which led me to the Home page - I thought that was an error - until I saw the third box from the top of the middle column that says: "Free Community Compost Workshops." No, I did not feel silly; I was frustrated. And this is why:

Take a look at the main menu bar along the top. I went to the Waste section first. The closest match I could find to a workshop was Waste Education which leads to a page called Environment Education. There is a link in the word "community". Guess where it goes: the Home page!! Until I noticed the announcement, I thought it was a programming error. Maybe it is.

Okay, so the link works. Great!! Now, I'm going to work backwards. The workshops are listed under Environment Education [look at the menu tree on the left side of the page - it is not part of the Waste section anymore] in an area called Community. If clicking the "community" link had brought me to that page, I would have felt a lot better. But, even on that page the composting workshop is not listed!!. Looking only at the left menu tree, I had to click one more time to finally get to the page I wanted.

Not a user friendly web design.

Hawkes Bay Today

Composting secrets uncovered

20.05.2006

JONATHAN DOW

The Beauty of Compost Heaps - isn't an avant-garde art competition entry, but Marion Thomson's view of a working, waste-reducing heap.

To Mrs Thomson, co-ordinator of the Environment Centre HB, putting anything organic into a compost heap rather than a landfill is "the supreme environmental act".

Wipe out Waste and the Sustaining Hawke's Bay Trust have organised workshops where people can learn about composting.

Many people did not know that 45 percent of the average household rubbish bag could be composted, she said.

"If everyone with the facilities had their own compost heap, worm farm or bokashi bucket system working, we could reduce landfill use tremendously and also avoid burying valuable nutrients and trace minerals so deep in the ground to be of any use at all."

Dominic Salmon, waste minimisation officer at the Hastings District Council, said 26 percent of the average rubbish bag was food waste, 19 percent was garden material, and 23 percent paper.

Some people think composting is old-fashioned, but Mr Salmon said "it doesn't have to be hard work".

-30-

Technorati Tags: new+zealand, hawke's+bay, poor, web+design, composting, workshop, bokashi, greatday, urbanwild

From Gristmill: Weed 'em and reap

Practical advice for the novice composter:

Weed 'em and reap

"What you can put in to your compost pile depends a little on your method. An active composting fanatic who builds the perfectly mixed carbon/nitrogen ratio pile and turns it every three days for three weeks, ensuring temperatures above 120 degrees at the middle of the pile, can be adventurous with ingredients. However, if you are a laissez-faire composter, your pile is simply a mound of weeds left to its own devices, and you intend to put it back on the garden, then you should follow fairly strict guidelines."

"The broad rule is, don't compost any plant bit that you don't want to see again."

Simple.

If you used the bokashi method, pickling/fermenting the organic matter will render weeds ungrowable after they have been processed. This is an experiment which needs to be done. There is lots of field bindweedaka "morning glory" [usefull rating: 1{lowest} out of 5] in my backyard.

Technorati Tags: gristmill, composting, weeds, advice, urbanwild

Montreal - The Rooftop Gardening Project

"The Rooftop Gardening Project is an innovative partnership between Alternatives, an international cooperation network, and Santropol Roulant, a community organisation in Montreal. Together we are making widespread rooftop gardening a reality in Montreal and around the world."

Good links section too.

Technorati Tags: urban, agriculture, montreal, rooftop, garden, community

Recent links added in delicious

del.icio.us

Pickling
from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fermentation
from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fermented fruits and vegetables. A global perspective.
from the FAO - Fermentation is one of the oldest forms of food preservation technology in the world.

White Clover versus Fescue: A Cultural Examination of the Green Stuff

Biosa Bokashi in the news - 14 May 2006

I track news stories about composting and other items of interest for the business that I am working on. A few weeks ago, I saw a story about a proposed compost facility near Sunol, CA which residents were opposed to. I wrote an email to the citizen group and told them about the advantage of Biosa Bokashi for reducing odors in solid waste management situations.

About ten days later the reporter from the paper called me and we had a conversation about why I sent the email and what Biosa could do for the facility.

Apparently I wasn't the only one and the result was a news story that appeared today:

Sunol compost plan gets noticed
Controversy swirls, even outside California

Al Pasternak of Vancouver, Wash.,[sic] works for Biosa Bokashi Composting, a company that advocates composting through "friendly microorganisms," such as bacteria and fungi.

"It looks like the community doesn't want it at all and the county is saying, 'Too bad, we're building it,'" he said. "In my reading of news reports, it's an issue for every compost facility out there. There is always the issue of smell downwind."

I'm in Vancouver, BC of course and the article doesn't mention that Biosa can be used for odor control.

Technorati Tags: biosa, bokashi, composting, odor, control, sunol, california, urbanwild, greatday

Budget: $100 per child - "Who benefits most? Surprise!"

Was searching Flickr for images tagged chart and found this one from onshi

Yes, that's right: the only families that will see anything close to the $1,200-per child Harper promised at election time will be
one-earner (read: stay-at-home-mom'd) households earning $200k.

Nice...

.

Read more

Technorati Tags: canada, conservative, budget, 2006, urbanwild, onshi,

36 month average retail gas price chart and crude oil - Vancouver, BC

I was going to write about the laws of unintended consequences regarding the use of bio-fuels as a replacement for fossil fuels after reading this article Feeding Cars, Not People and within a few minutes found this:


36 month average retail gas price chart and crude oil - Vancouver, BC









You have to click on this image, then click on "All Sizes" to see the original image.


From http://www.vancouvergasprices.com/



Even if you don't drive - I don't - the cost of goods and services will go up as the price of fuel increases. As people spend more money on putting gas in their cars, they will spend less on eating out, shopping, entertainment which may cause those industries/businesses to earn less, lay off workers, close.



Unintended consequences indeed.
-30-


P.S. See "x Peak Oil affects everyone" links in left column near the bottom



Technorati Tags: vancouver, bc, gasoline, prices, crudeoil, peakoil, peak_oil

technorati tags: flock

Lecture: Saving Seeds as if our Lives depended on it

Necessary Voices Society

Vancouver Public Library

5/10/06
Dan Jason
Saving Seeds as if our Lives depended on it

Dan Jason is the director of Canada’s Heritage Seed Program and the co-author of The Really Whole Food Cookbook and Living Lightly on the Land. He and his partner own and operate Salt Spring Seeds, an organic seed company on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. He recently pioneered The Seed Sanctuary.

His latest book, "Saving Seeds as if our Lives depended on it" describes in four parts the critical importance of this new social movement and how can you start to save your own seed. (This event was produced by The Vancouver Public Library and Necessary Voices Society.)
http://www.necessaryvoices.org/nvs_lecture_night.php?lecture=d_jason.html

See also: http://www.seedsanctuary.com/

I plan to attend....

Clearing out stuff

I'm working on decluttering my suite.

Every day I am going to leave with some paper products that will be put in a community recycle bin near my work.

Seeding lawn with clover - 30 April 06

For the second week in a row, I cut my lawn. Well, I did the front lawn this time. And when I was done, I seeded a small section with three types of clover Red Clover, Crimson Clover, and White Clover. I'm already thinking about the fall reseeding.

See Establishing White Clover in Lawns which I forgot about until I remembered that one of my old posts was linked to by Caffinara/Melanie Watts: Roll me over in the Clover.
[The post can now be found here: White Clover growing in the city [pics] - Friday, June 3, 2005]

Other acts of madness include:

- throwing down Hollyhock seed on the ground along the west side of the house.

- throwing down Cilantro seed along a small section of the fence between the bathtub holding the Day Lilies and the Oregon Grape

Planting Creeping Thyme as a ground cover.

Also bought an Alaska Nasturtium and Alpine Starwberry for the pots at work

Technorati Tags: clover, cilantro, hollyhock, thyme, gardening, vancouver

WP - Probiotic info from Holland

http://urbanwild.wordpress.com/2006/04/30/probiotic-info-from-holland/

From Holland we have:

Gut Flora: independent, reliable information on probiotics

Their goals: “The foundation ‘Gut flora in health and disease’ strives to be the European knowledge centre in the area of gut flora and probiotics.

Has a some links to articles on the ‘net

WP - Guardian - Tory pisses off....

onto compost.
http://urbanwild.wordpress.com/2006/04/30/guardian-tory-pisses-off/

Oh how I love British wit: We need more brave men like him to speak out...

Go green with urine, says leading Tory
Gaby Hinsliff
Sunday April 30, 2006

Observer
The Conservative Party chairman is urging the nation to pee on its compost heaps to help the environment.

Francis Maude, who admitted he and his family were slightly 'psycho' about recycling, delivered the unorthodox gardening advice after being asked what his personal contribution was to the green cause on Radio 4's Any Questions?

Maude also said that he planned to buy a greener car when the time came to replace the family vehicle. He said: 'If I share a tip with the audience it is that if you pee on your compost, it has a double environmental whammy - it speeds up its decomposition so you can get it on the garden more quickly, and it also saves water.'

Bob Flowerdew, of the Gardeners' Question Time panel, argues that urine contains potash and nitrogen which is a rich fertiliser. The urea in urine is said to speed chemical reactions involved in breaking down organic material.
-30-

And in my own area:

On an average day in the GVRD, approximately
580 litres of water is used by each person at home and at work (including all residential, industrial, commercial, institutional, and agricultural sectors). Average daily water consumption for the GVRD is about one billion litres.
The one-day record for water use was two billion litres - enough to fill BC Place Stadium.

http://www.sfu.ca/~ssbc/research/SSBC%20Water%20and%20Sewage.pdf

WP - Probiotic bacteria aids digestion

04.30.06

Probiotic bacteria aids digestion

http://urbanwild.wordpress.com/2006/04/30/probiotic-bacteria-aids-digestion/

Posted in Media, Probiotic at 12:56 am by urbanwild

I'm tracking stories about probiotics. Friendly microorganisms can be a benefit to both people and the planet.

A health dividend without side-effects

By Jane Clarke, The Times nutritionist

THE development of a flatulence-free bean should be a comfort to the

tens of thousands of Britons who suffer from digestive problems, but
could also bring health benefits to a wider public.

The Venezuelan research is part of continuing studies into the use

of what are known as probiotic bacteria to aid digestion. The
scientists fermented one such bacterium, Lactobacillus casei, with the
beans to decrease the proportion of soluble fibre, a cause of
flatulence.

Lactobacillus casei’s benefits have been known for some time and it is
a key ingredient in probiotic yoghurt drinks, but the new technique
should deliver the bacterium in exactly the right quantities. Its
presence should counteract all the negative social effects of the beans
while retaining their health benefits.Bean enthusiasts will probably
not be helped much by thisdevelopment as their systems have
become used to eating beans. Butthose who avoid beans because
of worries about flatulence shouldbenefit greatly.Beans are a
cheap source of protein and contain no saturated fat.

The modified beans will also have higher levels of insoluble fibre,
which has been linked to reduced cholesterol and hence could improve
the health of your heart.

If this work is successful then there is no reason why similar
methods cannot be applied to other notoriously windy foods, such as
cabbage and Brussels sprouts.

Cell phone couplehood

In a local branch of a major coffee haus:

Guy talking on a cell phone, being cuddled from behind by his girlfriend.
Seeking attention?
As I move by the couple I notice that she is talking on cell phone too.
To each other?

Computer on all the time? Help create better cancer treatments. 08 January 2006

I've been doing this since September of 2001.

GRID.ORG ™ - Grid Computing Projects

Computer on all the time? Put it to good use while you are not using it. There is no cost to participate and no impact on your computer use. The project software allows your computer to screen molecules that may be developed into drugs to fight cancer.

Overall stats:

1.3 million members
3.5 million computers
450 thousand YEARS of CPU time
352 million results returned

My stats:

Members (Rank) (# 25,048)

Total CPU Time (y:d:h:m:s) (Rank)
2:265:01:46:29 (# 8,814)

Points Generated (Rank) 127,097 (# 15,159)
Results Returned (Rank) 360 (# 20,007)

Join my **GreatDay** Team and share the pleasure of helping to build better cancer treatments.

The Grid MP Global @ grid.org is a virtual supercomputer that can be harnessed to power computational research and analysis projects on a massive scale. By combining millions of online CPUs worldwide to work on extremely large computational projects, problems can be solved more quickly and less expensively than by conventional methods. Now any networked computer can help fuel research and projects that previously may have required a bank of supercomputers or a hundred years to complete.

To become a member of grid.org and participate in these important grid computing projects, simply download a free, non-invasive software program that works as a screensaver. It runs when your computer has idle processing time. Your computer never leaves your desk and the project never interrupts your normal PC use.

Grid.org lets you make a real difference without donating money or time, with the system that you are using to view this site right now-your home or office PC.

Q & As from the Comments section:

I want to join your team but need more details. What if I shut down the computer sometimes? What do I do once I join the team?
evenewra | Homepage | 01.10.06 - 5:20 pm

Hi,

As long as the program is installed on your computer, it can run all the time or only when the screen saver is working.

Ligandfit will resume its work when you turn the computer back on.

In order to be part of GRID you have to download the UD program. The "Team" link will help you get them [it was broken, now it is fixed]. Once the progam is installed and you have a user ID you can login to GRID and join my team.



Technorati Tags: grid.org, distributed, computing, cancer, reasearch, software, urbanwild, greatday

Backyard fun - 24 Dec 05

Backyard fun - 24 Dec 05

Picked up about 12 of these bags full of leaves


Leaves 1stTrip - 23Nov05









and got them ready to chop under the blades of a lawnmower.


Before Leaf Mulching - 16dec05





Half way through I added some bokashi compost to the pile.


Bokashi - 18dec05





I was able to shred an entire bag in about 10 minutes. I even shredded the bags and added them to the pile.


Leaf pile finished - 18dec05




Now about those worms....


Worms - 23dec05





How did they get there? The container has been sitting on the bucket for almost a week. Did they hatch from eggs and just grow there? Any suggestions welcome.



One final mix of ingredients:


Bokashi Buckets - 23dec05





Coffee Buckets - 23dec05





First on with the Bokashi


Bokashi Pile - 23dec05





Then a layer of coffee grounds


Coffee Pile - 23dec05





and a final dressing of hay


Hay Pile - 23dec05





Technorati Tags: urban, gardening, compost, leaves, leaf, mulch, hay, bokashi, urbanwild, vancouver, bc

The end is near - September 27, 2005

For the Car Barn Garden

I knew this day might come. The white post of death, courtesy of the City of
Vancouver Engineering Department, has finally
shown itself in one of my guerrilla gardens.

"
New Width of 1stAve #5 - 25Sep05


Not sure when the contruction will start. Probably within the next year

It is the new width of 1st Avenue in advance of the Olympic Village



There is some good news: The Transit Museum Society's Downtown Historic Railway
Car Barn will move to Chinatown which means they get an expanded route
and Vancouver gets some more sustainable transportation.





Other stories about the OlympicVillage

Vancouver Blows Its Olympic Village Opportunity

Olympic Village Neighbourhood Green Enough?

WOODSTALK Used in
2010 Olympic Village Condo Prototype

Google search: "vancouver olympic
village"

Technorati Tags: carbarn, urbanwild, archive, 2005

White Clover growing in the city [pics] - Friday, June 3, 2005

White Clover growing in the city [pics] - Friday, June 3, 2005
Al on Observations and Cover Crops

Update May 14, 2006 - Google cache links replaced with active.

Update June 16, 2005 - 3 pics added

Update June 15, 2005 - 4 pics added

Update June 9, 2005: Link to Melanie Watts' blog refering to this entry.


Two Canadian based websites - and probably many more around the world - promote the use of White Clover in lawns:

Consider Clover Campaign

Their brochure: http://www.pesticidefree.ca/Clover.PDF

Establishing White Clover in Lawns

White Clover: Weed or the Most Valuable Species?

White clover is an important species in temperate and subtropical pastures worldwide.[V39] In the turf industry, however, it is viewed as a weed. An 805 page volume on turfgrass science published in 1992, mentions white clover only twice, and only as a weed.[L24] It was not always so. Dr. R. Milton Carleton , who introduced the herbicide 2,4-D to the turfgrass industry, made the following comments in 1957: The thought of White Dutch Clover as a lawn weed will come as a distinct shock to old-time gardeners. I can remember the day when lawn mixtures were judged for quality by the percentage of clover seed they contained. The higher this figure, the better the mixture...I can remember the loving care which old-time gardeners gave their clover lawns. The smug look on the face of the proud homeowner whose stand was the best in the neighborhood was really something to behold. (In New Way to Kill Weeds by R. Milton Carleton, 1957. Arco Publishing Co., N.Y.)

Regardless of its low status in turfgrass science, naturally seeded white clover still shares the stage with grasses in mowed parklands and in institutional and residential settings where herbicides have not been used regularly.

These great expanses of turf receive little watering and little or no fertilizer yet hold their greenness and withstand the trampling of many feet. The robustness of these systems is in large part due to the presence of both grass and clover and the synergistic interactions between them.

Plants For A Future says you can eat it!

Edible Uses Condiment; Flowers; Leaves; Root; Tea.

Leaves - raw or cooked as a potherb[13, 94, 183]. The young leaves are harvested before the plant comes into flower and are used in salads, soups etc[9]. They can also be used as a vegetable, cooked like spinach[9]. The leaves are best cooked[172].

Flowers and seed pods are dried, ground into powder and used as a flour or sprinkled on cooked foods such as boiled rice[183]. Very wholesome and nutritious[115]. The young flowers can also be used in salads[144, 172, 183].

Root - cooked[172, 177].

The dried leaves impart a vanilla flavour to cakes etc[172].

Dried flowering heads are a tea substitute.

My images to date:

16 June 2005 - at 20th and Cambie



15 June 2005 - at 10th and Ontario



15 June 2005 - a long view at 10th and Ontario



10 June 2005 - On the south side of a mini-mall driveway entrance near 6th and Willow.



16 June 2005 - After cutting



10 June 2005 - On the north side near 6th and Willow.



16 June 2005 - After cutting:




01 June 2005 - A clover patch near on BC Women's Hospital



01 June 2005 - A clover lawn near on 10th Ave near Oak St



22 May 2005 - A clover field in the heart of the city. The site of a church burned down at 10th and Quebec.



A closeup view



A view from the opposite side





Technorati Tags: vancouver, urban, gardening, cover+crop, clover, edible, lawn+alternative