An article written by Linda Dums of the Post Crescent describes how employees of Network Health Plan are growing gardens to donate to the local St. Josephs food program located in Menasha. Volunteering for the organization has been beneficial for the corporate workers. The link below will take directly to the article.
Community grows, donates produce to help St. Joe’s
I was absolutely amazed when I saw the features of this eco-designed home! It is made from recycled materials, has a built in solar panel, and has a small ecological footprint. In addition, this unit closes up and can relocate from site to site. For those of you that are “on the go” travelers this may be just the perfect home for you. The link below will take you to the designers site and includes many more detailed photos of the Ecopod’s interior.
While I was volunteering for Sustainable Fox Valley this morning at Just Act Natural’s Green Market, a women asked me if I knew where to find a geodesic dome kit. I was unsure how to respond, I have heard of domes before. Like the bio-dome that is a controlled ecosystem or the comedy movie called, Bio-Dome. This was a question I did not have an answer for until now.
I researched the topic and discovered that there are kits sold from CO to design your own geodesic greenhouse. This is beneficial to do year round gardening in cold climates. The link below will take you directly to the site to learn more.
Greenhouse design
This Saturday, tomorrow, Just Act Natural will be hosting the Green Market as an addition to the Farmers Market. This will be going on from 8am-12:30pm.
There will be many environmental vendors available which include: information about composting, solar panels, organic lawn care and much more. Diane and J.c. from Just Act Natural will be there to help you get started with a green lifestyle.
I will be volunteering with Sustainable Fox Valley. Sustainable Fox Valley is a non-profit organization that encourages being able to satisfy present human needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. I will be helping the children from the Fox River Academy with the “Wonder of Worms” activity. This will be a fun and educational opportunity for the children and their families of the FRA. Decorated rain barrels made by the students of the Fox River Academy will also be on display.
This is a wonderful addition to the Appleton Farmers market and is filled with such great content to help our communities continue to grow. I hope you enjoy the article written by J.c. of Just Act Natural by following the direct link below.
Just Act Natural Green Market
Rock the Green Music Festival is a non-profit festival that encourages sustainable and healthy lifestyles for communities near and far.
Veolia Environmental Services is a large sponsor of the event. The company will provide on site composting and recycling. There will also be eco friendly programs, emerging green technologies, and tips to reduce your carbon footprint.
The festival will be powered by clean energy sources such as: biomass, solar, wind and bio-diesel powered generators. All disposable items will be replaced with their compostable equivalents, while a Green Team will manage waste recovery stations throughout the grounds. Finally, free water stations will replace the usual individually sold, plastic water bottles.
There will be locally grown food and beverage vendors, a bike tour before the concert, and 6 bands to fill the stage. Many interactive areas will focus around our 4 main elements: earth, water, fire, and air. These elements reflect the various sustainable and renewable technologies.
Most of the food my family and I eat has come from our garden or local farms. Yesterday, we stopped at a Community Garden in Appleton. I picked a leek and 2 heads of romaine lettuce. To give back to the garden I trimmed the flowers of the purple basil and pulled out weeds and dead leaves.
The Community Garden Partnership is a program of the Goodwill NCW. The partnership provides opportunities for diverse groups to share their gardening experiences. The link below will take you directly to the Community Garden Partnership site.
JC, owner of Just Act Natural located in downtown Appleton wrote an inspiring article that reflects the positive changes in our city. Clicking on the link below will take you directly to the article. I hope you may enjoy as much as I did. 🙂
You may have thought to yourself, “I should start composting,” but then you realize that you don’t know a thing about it, let alone where to start. Well here you go, this guide from treehugger.com will help you figure out why you should compost and what is the best method for you!
Now you know a bit more about composting, but you want to know more. If want to quench that thirst for knowledge, be sure to check out all the articles treehugger.com has on the subject. From DIY compost bins to tutorials, they have it all.
Photos taken by Zach Chisholm
This is our second year digging our hands through our soil outside our home. We have very little space to work with. Regardless, we are seeing positive results in the making!
We sowed our soil and planted our seeds (some that are organic) in the second to last week of May. We have received plentiful amounts of rainwater to naturally hydrate our seeds for much of the summer. The sun has done most of the work, leaving Zach and I with little care to give. Often we take some glimpses to watch our garden produce magic before our eyes. We then try to capture as many photos as we can during this amazing process.
We began with our herb garden, which included: oregano, basil, cilantro, lavender, and chamomile. Many of the herbs took off and are flowering beautifully! The picture above shows our oregano looking full and healthy. We are sure to trim the flowers on our basil to encourage growth.
Our garden has been producing quite a vast amount of organic eggplant. This is our first year growing eggplant and the vegetable has grown significantly over the past 2 months.
The jalapenos are close to its prime to be ready for picking. The tomatoes have been going through cycles of green to red. Our garden has been surprising us in many ways.
We had a few ear
wigs on our corn. They turned out to benefit our garden by being a natural “pest control.” The soil in our garden has been healthy without the use of chemical fertilizers.
Our bell peppers are beginning to transform from green to red and yellow. Our work in the soil is beginning to shine with results. This is an amazing process for our family to see. We can’t wait to bring our veggies and fruits into our kitchen!
