I am looking for suggestions. We do these. Have others?
Bar soap: cut in 1/2/dried... goes to kitchen sink... then goes to bathroom sink... then small pieces go into the shower pump with water.
TP cores: used as intended... then in firestarters (or plant pots).
Milk cartons; as intended...then hold "goopy garbage" (no garbage disposal or chickens/goats) stapled shut and taken to dump.
Sheets: as intended... to rags (I don't sew.)
We reuse wood, both in home projects and in the woodstove.
I could make a much longer list of things I use as intended and then do a single-reuse. I'm really looking for things like the bar soap where I use the product as new, use it almost to the end of that use and then found a way to keep using it to the bitter end.
I buy in bulk supplies we use all the time. Work at eliminating unnecessary purchases continually. But I'm stagnating and looking for inspiration.
Joshua Frank wrote:That's brilliant about the cloches. How does the overwinter germination work? Even with a mini-greenhouse like that, I would have thought that Oregon was too cold for seedlings to be outside.
Used to be a site that isn't active now about winter sowing. Here's a Univ. of Maryland doc about that.
r ranson wrote:A thing about my eyes happened a few years back so my reading is even slower than my dyslexia. I'm loving the book but wish I could find the long version in audio.
Well... the problem I'm having with this art is knowing what to paint. I don't want to give the plot away. I'm not yet good at painting people. But landscapes are traditional. And dragons.
I've got the first three books in one paperback, so it's a nice large space to paint on.
Any suggestions on what to paint? What's your favourite moment?
Why not paint the hatching ground and a gold (queen) egg? You could include whatever architecture you think suits, whatever dragons you'd want, the basic scene could be simple or complex, depending on how it's going or your taste or available materials or...?
Nancy Reading wrote:An interesting question Jennie - as one of the permaculture principles is stacking functions, it's a good one to think about.
I think most of my plant dual use are in the structure of the plant - for example I get straw from my grains, biomass from jerusalem artichokes, legumes are nitrogen fixing as well as providing peas and beans. My root crops attract predatory insects when going to seed. I did discover this year that fava bean tops are actually quite tasty, so I will definitely try harvesting bean tips again.
fava bean pods developing
I'm yet to try cooking the whole bean pod which I've heard are also edible young, as I'm still trying to save most of the beans for seed at the moment, so don't actually eat much of the crop as yet!
I'd never heard of using fava bean tips before -- thanks! I had heard of eating Brussel Sprout tops, but have never had a plants that would work. When I find them in the market with stems, the stems are dried out, so I've never tried cooking them. I have 3 plants which are about 8" tall, now after epic battles with cabbage butterfly caterpillars/mould; it's unlikely I'll actually get any sprouts this year except the tops, which look like small cabbages now.
I've never grown favas, as most of the info I've found about them has them fall planted in England and we're in New England and I have no idea how to adjust that schedule for here? That's another question I asked here a bit ago... I finally found a Royal Hort. Soc. book, illustrated, that shows what they mean when they say X or Y, like lifting and sorting potatoes. Some of it's obvious, some not so much. I always assumed that "pea brush" were just put inbetween/around the plants, it wasn't until I found that book I saw they make 2 rows of brush, both sides of the seed drill. That will probably work better than what I've done previously, although growing them up an old TV antenna did work fairly well...
I have several challenges: 1)I was raised in SoCal by someone who did not grow veggies, but roses and decorative, tropical plants. 2)We are on a downhill north face of a mountain with too much shade, and my top soil is 1" on top of a sand leach field, so the nutrients have to be replaced a lot. 3)I have a 30 day shorter season than any of my neighbors because of the last factor. The cherry tomatoes I planted from seed in May are just now fruiting, most of them will be frost bit before I get anything from them at a guess. And the fruit I've gotten is < a dozen, so far. It makes it interesting, I will say!
I deliberately grow things I can use more than one way: flat green beans we like when young, but also are shell/dry beans when mature. Luffa, which can be eaten when young/tender or dried and turned into fire starter or skin scrubbie, etc. I grow snow peas, because they're expensive here and frozen sweet peas are so cheap... ditto large heirlooms. I plant 2 types of potatoes: fingerlings to use early and others for storage.
What other veg/plants you grow that you do anything similar?
First one is in. The plan is to do a circle of them at the tree edge. Really, the point was to have some way to deal with the old, rotting logs from years gone by. Last year we had tree work done and have enough wood that we've been giving it away. The wood glut meant that the old logs which were set aside for splitting and hadn't been, which had become homes for insects, snakes, etc. needed to be dealt with. So does the end of the straw I covered the beds with last fall. ALSO wanted something which looks deliberate rather than simply messy.
So, atop fallen (brown) leaves from last year and beyond, rotting log sections, sprinkled with compost, covered with straw/leaves, and when I get the hostas, will be covered in more dirt and compost (maybe, if I have enough?) and planted.
I have the first section done, without the hostas. I have a LOT more to do!
I have used knitting needles I'm giving someone. Hadn't put them and the fabric also for that person in the mail... because except for using packing peanuts on the sharp tips, I hadn't come up with any way to mail them that wouldn't end up with a porcupine package... something I'm sure my friend and the post office would like to avoid.
I mentioned this to my friend, who suggested wrapping them in the fabric, burrito style. I'll do that, and I also have more packing peanuts too, now.
The only place I know of to recycle packing peanuts is a shipping store nearby, and it's 30 miles "nearby," not exactly handy.
The antique store where I sell stuff gladly takes all excess packing paper, cartons, bubble wrap, etc.
So, what novel ways do you have of reusing packaging others might not use?
When I had the bookstore next to a convenience store and I was doing mail order, I'd cut a soda flat in half and tape the two pieces together to form a small box, held 2-4 paperbacks, if I remember correctly. Uses a lot of tape tho.
I'm in New England, Zone 5b, to be exact. Is there anyway to adjust the DFV dates so that someone in the US could use them? I asked once on another forum and got told, "No."
I second the recommendation for Steve Solomon's books. Also, Carol Deppe's Resilient Gardener. But I read all of those and reread them for years, without being able to grow much of anything at all. Some tree work, some desperation at a sudden financial downturn, and changing how many of each type of plant I tried made a huge difference last year, when I finally managed to actually produce more than a few veggies here and there.
Which qualifies me to say almost nothing at all compared to all the master gardeners here except to keep trying!
Recently decided to cull both the garlic press and the garlic peeler as unnecessary. Put the peeler in the "dupe" drawer as when I'm processing a lot of garlic it will still be useful, but that's only 1-2 times a year.
