Instead of sending away your cardboard scraps to landfills, consider turning them into nutrient-rich compost. Learn the advantages and disadvantages of cardboard in compost and explore other sustainable alternatives if a home compost isn’t possible.
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Can I Compost Bananas?
Learn how to compost bananas effectively and reap the benefits for your garden with this comprehensive guide. Discover the optimal conditions and methods for composting bananas, including hot composting, cold composting, vermicomposting, and Bokashi composting. Avoid potential issues such as pests and odors, and explore alternative disposal options and creative ways to upcycle banana peels.
Organic Choices
Inspiration Green Organic Choices, See which foods have the least and most pesticide residues. USDA data.
White House to Plant Organic Vegetable Garden
ABC news’ Brian Hartman has reported what many have been wishfully waiting to hear for months: the Obamas will soon plant an organic vegetable garden on the White House South grounds. Following a 60 Minutes interview with Chez Panisse chef, renowned slow foodist and activist for improved national eating habits in the US, Alice Waters,
Can I Compost Flour?
You can efficiently process flour into nutrient-rich compost, but doing so presents some composting challenges. Learn more about the best practices, potential issues, and alternative disposal options of flour waste.
Can I Compost Peanut Shells?
Learn how to optimally prepare peanut shells for composting, and explore the benefits they bring to a compost system. Find out the necessary details on how to process them, and the conditions needed to prevent potential composting issues.
Can I Compost Eggs?
Learn how to compost eggs effectively with this comprehensive guide. Discover the optimal conditions and explore composting methods for eggs while avoiding issues like odors and pests.
Can I Compost Grass Clippings?
Learn how to prepare grass clippings for composting with this comprehensive guide. Explore various composting methods, alternative uses for grass clippings, and important safety precautions to follow.
Can I Compost Flowers?
Fresh or dried, flowers are more than just their visible beauty. Some flower types can contribute to your compost pile under optimal conditions and correct preparation.
Can I Compost Rhubarb Leaves?
Rhubarb leaves are not only useful for cooking, but also for composting. Although tricky to process, rhubarb leaves provide nitrogen essential for producing the best compost quality.
Tips For Winter Emergency Preparedness
Winter blizzards can be life-threatening. Are you prepared to survive winterโs wrath? Millions of people in the United States live or recreate in isolated areas, away from the amenities of city services. If emergency services are not readily available, self-reliance is required. In an emergency scenario, your life and the life of loved ones may
5 Easy Ways To Embrace Collaborative Consumption
Collaborative consumption is disrupting outdated modes of business and reinventing not just what we consume but how we consume. If you’re ready to explore these sharing alternatives, here are five easy ways to get your feet wet.
How To Grow Bamboo
Bamboo is an amazing plant! It has so many benefits to offer on so many levels. Not only does bamboo produce oxygen, which helps to clean the area where you grow your plants, but many varieties are edible! And above all, gardening is just great for your health in general. Unfortunately, growing bamboo is often
Why You Should Start Using A Clothesline
When I think of using a clothesline, I think of a conversation I had when I still lived in the city. While hanging my laundry, my neighborโs little boy poked his head through the fence. โWhatchoo doing?โ โHanging up my laundry.โ โAinโt you got a dryer?โ โWe got rid of it. The sun and the
How To Get Rid Of Mildew Smell To Freshen Your Space
Mildew is a type of fungus that produces a distinct, foul odor. The growth is often confused with mold which has a different texture and is usually darker. Mildew has been linked to health issues like respiratory problems, skin irritation, and chronic fatigue. Often, the terms mold and mildew are used interchangeably. Mildew growth occurs
25 Effective Bedroom Storage Ideas To Make The Most Of Your Space
Your clothes are scattered in the corner. Clutter fills your nightstand because youโre not quite sure where to put your piles of books and knick-knacks. The top of your dresser is a mess of disorganized jewelry. And inside the drawers, itโs tough to locate anything in the mixed-up socks and accessories. Needless to say, you
๐ Animals
On the homestead, animals can serve all sorts of different purposes. Whether theyโre providing your family with eggs, milk, or meat, chickens, cows, ducks, goats, and pigs are more than just livestock, theyโre part of the family! Whether youโre keeping them as lifelong pets or selling their meat as a small family business, we have
Angelo Musco
Mimics nature’s structures with the human form…hundreds of models, multiplied millions of times. Angelo was born in Naples, Italy and moved to New York City in 1997. Ovum, 2011. The human body (2 million of them in this image) is the artistโs medium. “He melds bodies like hundreds of brush strokes, creating large compositions that
๐ Chickens
Ready To Start Your Chicken Flock? With their homegrown eggs and potential to become quite the loveable pet, chickens have been an important part of homestead living for decades. Whether they’re worked into a larger permaculture plan or reside in an urban backyard coop, chickens can be a great addition to your homestead! Whether youโre
9 Of The Best Decorative & Festive Christmas Plants
Have you started decorating your house for Christmas? Hung a holly wreath? Dangled some mistletoe over the entryway, decorated a Christmas tree, and bought your poinsettia? Or did you choose different Christmas plants? Are they all real? Or plastic? Personally, I prefer real. There’s nothing like the smell of pine from a real tree to
Getting Started With Raising Cattle
When we moved out to the country, we never planned on breeding and raising a herd of cattle. Mostly, the reason we bought cattle was to help keep the grass mowed on our property, and (hopefully) pay for some horses — the animal we thought we wanted. Fifteen years later, the four horses have come
Candling Eggs: How To Do It And When You Should
Owning chickens and other backyard poultry is an amazing experience. One of the best parts about raising backyard chickens is an abundant supply of fresh eggs. But if you find yourself with an overabundance of eggs, you might start considering ways you can use them up or get rid of them. A profitable way to get
Types of Eggplant
Belonging to the nightshade family, eggplants are versatile summer produce due to their meaty texture and subtle flavors. They are a staple ingredient in various dishes, especially in Indian and Middle Eastern cuisine. Technically speaking, an eggplant is not a vegetable, but a fruit that is botanically categorized as a berry. Eggplants are served as
Foraging For Wild Berries
If you are looking to find berry variety beyond what your local grocery store or farmer’s market offers, you can look to berry foraging to seek and find a delicious array of berry options in your backyard or further afield. When foraging for wild berries, you’ll learn about your environment, connect with nature, and diversify
Sustainability 101: Learn How To Fix Your Own Clothes
Losing a button here and there and having a few small rips on your clothes is a small natural disaster that happens to everyone. The trick is to know how to make the fix before it’s no longer fixable!
Foraging for Brambleberries
This is an open letter to the brambleberries of the world, particularly those blackberries growing along the edge of my ravine. Dearest Brambleberries: It is with great perplexity that I write to you. There is an understanding between berrykind and humankind that has endured for thousands of years. You produce delicious, sweet fruit. We eat
Raising Muscovy Ducks And Why You Probably Want Them
With their clawed feet, bizarre-looking caruncles, mohawk-like crest, and lack of quack, Muscovy ducks donโt quite fit the โbillโ (if you pardon the pun) for what you might consider a โnormal” duck. But on our homestead, these are the only ducks we want to keep because they have won our hearts with both their utility
Is RoundUp Killing the Soil?
There is still a great debate on whether or not Monsanto’s genetically modified crops and heavily used pesticides are safe. But has it already been proven that the company is severely damaging our soils? Monsanto is an $11.8 billion/year industrial agriculture behemoth. Aside from numerous environmental and health concerns regarding its pesticides, genetically modified seeds
Can I Compost Tea Bags?
Discover which types of tea bags are suitable for composting, how to prepare them properly, and the optimal composting conditions. If composting isn’t an option, explore alternative ways to make use of tea bags and minimize waste.
Can I Compost Coffee Grounds?
Coffee grounds are rich in nitrogen, making them ideal for composting. Discover the best preparation methods, optimal composting conditions, and alternative uses for coffee grounds in your garden and home.
Can I Compost Citrus?
Composting citrus fruits presents some challenges, especially on your pile’s pH. Learn the correct preparation and best practices when processing your citrus scraps into nutrient-rich compost.
Can I Compost Paper Towels?
Discover the types of paper towels suitable for composting, how to prepare them, and the optimal composting conditions. Find alternative disposal options and understand what paper towels should not be composted.
25+ Sustainable Stocking Stuffers To Give This Holiday Season
It’s not always possible to buy that new greenhouse or build a rain garden as a holiday gift. At Insteading, we understand that garden gifts can easily run on the large and expensive side. We wouldn’t want to substitute our love of natural and sustainable products for a plastic and battery-operated gadget, though, so we’ve
Biodynamic Farming: What It Is and Why Do It
I once had the pleasure of working with biodynamic agriculturalists. Being new to biodynamic farming (and agriculture at large), I asked โSo, whatโs the difference between biodynamics and regular agriculture anyway?โ — a fair question to which I received an equally fair response. โBiodynamic agriculture aims to improve the earth we farm to a condition
Can I Compost Weeds?
Learn the best methods for composting both weeds, the optimal composting conditions, and alternative options if composting isn’t feasible.
Can I Compost Pine Needles?
Pine trees commonly produces heaps of pine needles, ready for compost use. However, you need to learn some precautionary measures and other useful tips to effectively transform them into beneficial compost.
How To Buy Meat Direct From A Farm
So you eat meat, and you want to get it from a farm you know and trust. Donโt we all! If you are considering buying meat direct from a local farmer for the first time, you may have some questions and uncertainties. When I was growing up, my parents bought meat from Safeway and other
Compost vs Landfill: Does it Really Make a Difference?
Editor’s note: Many thanks to Dr. John at Floppingย Aces for bringing this 6-year-old-post back into our “Popular Right Now” column for a few minutes. I hope he’s given himself a good pat on the back for his snarky observation; I hope you’ll read just a bit more than he obviously did…. it’s a short post,
Can I Compost Wax Paper?
Learn which wax paper type are compostable using this comprehensive guide! Discover tips on preparing wax paper for composting and maintaining optimal compost conditions. Choose the right composting method that best suits your resources and lifestyle.
Can I Compost Wine Corks?
Some types of wine corks are fine to compost, but other types should never go to your compost. Aside from a nutrient-rich compost, wine enthusiasts can transform natural corks into beautiful art or useful garden mulch.
Soil Testing
The gardenerโs greatest asset is healthy soil. No matter where you are or what you are trying to grow, taking care of your soil will help your crops. Learning soil science can be overwhelming. It involves lots of chemistry, and you can easily get lost in technical details. We are here to help, with this
Can I Compost Seeds?
Whether seeds are suitable for composting is a hot debate! Learn the advantages and disadvantages of including them to your pile, and other useful tricks to prevent unintentional seedling growth and spread.
Can I Compost Potatoes?
Discover how to compost potatoes correctly and the benefits they can bring to your compost pile in this comprehensive guide. Learn how to prepare potatoes for composting, how they affect the compost process, and how to tackle potential issues such as regrowth and blight spread.
Can I Compost Corn?
Maximize benefits from your corn scraps, benefitting for your soil and plants. Learn how corn effectively improves compost quality, the best methods for composting corn, addressing potential issues like attracting pests and odors, and much more.
Can I Compost Hair?
Hair have slow decomposition rate, gradually releasing nitrogen into compost. Small amounts of hair will benefit the overall composting process, but an excess of it has its caveats.
Vegan Gift Guide: 25+ Items For Every Vegan On Your List
More and more people are turning to veganism as a compassionate and health-conscious lifestyle, so that means you probably have at least a few veg-heads in your life. And at some point, you’re going to have an occasion to give a gift to those vegan friends, family, or office mates. And to remove any anxiety
Sand Magnified
Sand grains magnified 110-250 times reveal each grain is unique. The tip of a spiral shell has broken off and become a grain of sand. After being repeatedly tumbled by action of the surf this spiral sand grain has become opalescent in character. It is surrounded by bits of coral, a pink shell fragment, a
Can I Compost Rice?
Discover the correct preparation and optimal composting conditions for both cooked and uncooked rice, as well as the benefits and challenges associated with composting rice. Find the best approach for rice using this comprehensive method.
Can I Compost Egg Cartons?
We discuss how to compost egg cartons, the optimal conditions, and other composting alternatives to sustainably handle egg carton wastes. If you’ve been wondering whether you can compost your egg cartons, this richly detailed guide provides the answers.
Can I Compost Garlic?
Inclusion of garlic in compost pile is a double-edged sword. Although it boosts the nourishment of your compost, large quantities of garlic scraps can significantly impact your pile, especially its microbial action.