In many countries where agriculture is difficult due to regional climate and other factors, fish is often a main staple in the diet of that region. Here in the USA, although we typically eat around 20 kilograms of fish a year, that is still not a major component of our diet. Most of the fish consumed in the US either comes from the ocean or commercial fish farms. But we have a vast and relatively untapped resource of fish in our freshwater lakes and rivers that can help supplement our diets and make up some of the shortfall in food. But to tap this resource, we need to do it in a much more eco-friendly manner than we have with other resources in the past.

To fish in a more eco-friendly manner, I propose we take a five-step approach to eco-fishing.

1. Pack out everything you pack in, and more… trash that is. Trash, specifically plastic or Styrofoam trash is clogging our lakes. It doesn’t take long to find a Styrofoam cooler lid that flew off someone else’s cooler while they were motoring along… or bait can lid, or a wrapper of some kind. So the number one rule of eco-fishing is to take out at least one piece of trash that wasn’t yours. It’s not hard and you’ll leave the lake, or ocean a better place for it.

2. Only keep fish from invasive or overpopulated species. Many lakes in the USA are overpopulated by certain types of fish which causes the stunting of growth of all species of fish. Most commonly this will be Bluegill. Also invasive species of fish such as regular Carp, Drum, or that new Asian Silver Carp. These fish have no natural predators in the area and consume so much of the waterway’s food that native fish are often displaced.

3. Use every part of the fish you keep. This doesn’t mean you have to learn how to make sewing needles out of the bones, but if you’re not going to eat it, bury it in the garden. Decomposing fish give off vital nutrients that plants just love, so unless you have dogs in the area, don’t even worry about burying them more than a foot deep. You want them to be shallow enough for the plant roots of whatever is planted over them to reach the remains. Then you won’t have to worry about amending the soil they are buried under with nutrients for about 5 years.

4. If you use a boat make sure it’s properly maintained so that you’re not dumping any gas or oil overboard.

5. Use 100% lead-free tackle.

If we are all mindful enough to remember these five steps then we’ll leave our waterways healthier, we’ll have some delicious extra food, and we’ll have fun with the whole family.

The bikes are stored in massive racks next to the train station. It costs 30 euros a year to get access to the bikes. You receive a card that looks like a credit card called an RFID-card. You swipe the card in a certain area of the control for each rack and it will tell you which bike to take. Bicycles can be used for the first 30 minutes with no extra cost, with subsequent half hour blocks (up to 2 hours) costing 0.50 euros each. Use of a bicycle for more than 2 hours at a time is discouraged with a penalty rate of 3 euros per hour, but also with the possibility of having your membership cancelled after a certain number of uses in excess of 2 hours.

To return a bicycle one simply places the bike in a spare slot at a Bicing station.  The bike is recognised automatically and is locked into place (as indicated by the small light at the slot turning red), so one does not need to swipe the RFID-card to return the bike.  3000 bikes are used throughout the system and the system is paid for through parking tickets in the city. There are a reported 90,000 registered members in the couple of years that the system has operated. That is 90,000 people that reduced their carbon footprint in a big way.  And 90,000 green earth friends.

What? Farmland…what does that mean.? I don’t have any farmland! That is probably your reaction.  Well, not so fast.  What do developers want? Answer:  Flat, cleared land, close to a city with great transportation routes. Farmers and foresters are loosing.  Your suburban home is probably sitting on old farm land, an old orchard site or a once productive forest.

Recently Michael Pollan, the well know writer on food and environmental matters, said in an October 2008 New York Times Magazine article, “Farmer in Chief”, that here in the United States we are loosing nearly 3,000 acres a day and many times the land lost is some of the most fertile land we have for growing food.

Just think about that for a moment.  In just one week, we lost an area about the size of Manhattan forever, to development.  The land is lost to Walmarts, apartments, strip malls, new highways, and of course single family home suburban developments.  Making a comparison to Manhattan is interesting because just imagine if we lost our financial centers and our corporate headquarters located in Manhattan.  Our government, as we have seen recently, will spend untold amounts of money to protect those assets.  The same can not be said for lost farmland and forest land.

We really don’t have time for a pity party.  What is done is done.  You own your home with its beautiful green yard, ornamental trees and some pretty flowers.  Could you put your yard to better use?  Can you return at least a bit of your yard to agriculture via gardening?

Yes you can! You can grow just a bit of your own food or you can transform your yard from decoration for your home into a productive, decorative and attractive agricultural asset.

Even the smallest yard can provide food for the family.  Square foot gardening is a great way to start. Utilizing the techniques popularized by Mel Bartholomew in his series of books and television shows on Square Foot Gardening, you would be surprised at the amount of food which can be produced by a tiny 4 foot by 4 foot square foot garden.  Mel says you’ll need a minimum of 8 of these blocks to provide fresh vegetables for a family of 4. Folks that is 128 square feet! Do you have 128 square feet, 10 feet by 13 feet, that you could use for a vegetable garden?

Square foot gardening is just one opportunity for the suburbanite to return a bit of farmland back to producing something more than grass and flowers. As we discussed last week here at Green Earth Friend, a suburban hedge garden is an option for screening the view from nosy neighbors, providing a windbreak for your garden or utilizing that awkward narrow side yard. Just imagine elderberries, hazelnuts, blackberries or apples growing in living hedge. Your hedge garden will be ever changing with flowers in the spring, fruit in the summer and shelter for the wildlife in the winter…right outside your window.

The really ambitious suburbanite might want to try fish farming. Water features are all the rage. Why not make a water feature a productive part of your suburban food complex.  By combining hydroponics techniques with your water feature you can begin aquaponics which utilizes the waste from your fish to fertilize vegetables. The vegetables in turn help clean the water for the fish. While Koi are cool, fresh organic tilapia is well…delicious.

Do you compost?  Composting is very simple.   A person can fret over it and turn it and aerate it or just pile it up in a corner, behind the hedge garden, and one year later nice fresh compost will be ready for the garden. A more aggressive means of returning vegetable waste to the garden is a worm bin. Buy or make one of these. Once the red wiggler worms get going you will have a steady supply of worm castings which you can put right in your garden to enrich the soil.

Do you want cute and cuddly instead of wormy? Get a bunny or two.  No not for eating but for fertilizer.  Most HOAs will not be concerned about these quiet “pets”.  No need for them to know that you are using the cute and cuddly creatures to convert vegetable waste into the stuff which comes out of bunnies.  Unlike other manures you can apply rabbit manure directly in the garden without composting.  Rabbit manure is superb fertilizer.

So, my fellow suburbanite, are you ready to start tapping into the productivity of your fallow farmland? I hope so because while you read this little article a few more acres disappeared under asphalt….forever. Resurrect your farmland. Wouldn’t a fresh salad from your own organic garden be a nice change for the better?

For more information on gardening on your suburban lot, please visit the backyard food production complex section of our forum.

Here are some internet websites which you may find useful in your upcoming gardening adventure:

Square foot gardening:

squarefootgardening.com

forums.gardenweb.com/forums/sqfoot

Urban Aquaculture:

webofcreation.org/BuildingGr … Chap1.html

How to make a worm bin:

whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm

A rather humorous article on manure:

plantea.com/manure.htm

Since most of us do not have a forest or an estate in the country, a Suburban Hedge Garden provides many of us with an environmentally sustainable option, to maximize the capabilities of our suburban property, to provide food and shelter for wildlife, food for the table and even sequester a bit of carbon from the atmosphere for centuries (some hedges in the UK and Europe are thought to be centuries old).  A Suburban Hedge Garden is a term I recently coined which is based on some of the ideas in Harvey Ussery’s recent article in Mother News titled “Plant an Edible Forest Garden” and Anna Pavord’s popular book titled “The New Kitchen Garden.”
A hedge formed using a single species of shrub or tree can be beneficial but a hedge like the one Anna Pavord describes in the section of her book titled, “A Rustic Mixed Hedge”, is much more vibrant and inviting to both animals and humans. Just imagine a hedge providing elderberries, paw paws, blackberries, hazelnuts, and blueberries for your table and all sorts of different seeds for wildlife.

Unlike its cousin, the English Rustic Mixed Hedge, the Suburban Hedge Garden is planted for the wide variety of conditions found here in the US and around the world. My Suburban Hedge Garden is currently planted with wax myrtle, bald cypress, red bay, apple, eastern red cedar, and thornless black berries. Over the next year or so I will be incorporating blueberries, Chinese chestnuts, and Japanese sour oranges, paw paw, quince and dogwood into the hedge. Quite a departure from a hedge which might be found in Europe or bordering a formal garden. That is the beauty of the Suburban Hedge Garden, it can be tailored to your climate and soil conditions. For example, someone living in Miami Florida might plant guava, oranges, limes and maybe bananas in their hedge while someone in Minnesota might plant black berries, blueberries, raspberries and cherries in theirs.

On the sunny spots at the base of the hedge I plan to plant strawberries. I plan to use the native evergreen red bay tree and wax myrtle shrub to produce a continuously shaded micro climate suitable for edible mushrooms. Yes, mushrooms. The shade provided by the hedge will encourage mushroom growth both in the ground and on inoculated logs.

Consider planting a Suburban Hedge Garden. Not only will you provide your yard with privacy but you will also experience the continual changes of the plants with the seasons, visits by grateful wildlife, food for your table and maybe centuries from now someone will still be enjoying a hedge you planted with your own two hands.

For more information on gardening on your suburban lot,  please visit the backyard food production complex section of our forum.

There are people who live off the grid using solar and wind power, hydrogen generators and many more devices that save a lot of money.  We have gathered  four videos that show how individuals and families are living off the grid and saving.  They also share what you can do to get off the grid and go totally green.

If you installed 3 or 4 skylights in your home you would notice a huge difference in your utility bill.  Skylights provide year round free light for your home and add value to your home.

View this video to see for yourself the benefits of skylights.

Growing A Bamboo Fence.

Today there are many options for fencing including wood, vinyl, iron, and aluminum.  However, if you want to save money and help save the environment while installing your new fence, you should look at planting your very own bamboo fence.  Controlling how tall your bamboo fence will be is dependant on pruning techniques.  After planting bamboo, it should be watered once a day for a few minutes or twice a day depending on how hot it is where you live.

Also available is pre-assembled bamboo fencing made out of bamboo poles.  Using this type of fencing is still helping the planet and our environment.  Because of the growth rate of this plant, it is seen as a sustainable and renewable material.  A typical bamboo shoot can grow one foot a day.  The plant as a whole growing to its full mass in 6 months.  To re-grow the trees it took to build your fence with wood, would take anywhere from 10 to 20 years.  Bamboo can also be harvested without damaging the plant.  Harvesting every 3 years can actually help the plant to grow stronger.  Some believe that if bamboo was planted in mass globally, it would reduce global warming substantially within 6 years.

If we can eliminate some of the fuel costs of having our food brought to us from all over the country and the world, we can bring jobs back to the United States. Our farmers will be happier and we will feel better for doing our part. The only reason grocery stores are full of imported items is because of the demand for them. Let’s show them that we do not need them and they will change the way that they buy.

2. Install a water aerator.

Water aerators can save 3 to 4 gallons of water per minute, which if done globally would make a lot of difference in the energy consumption of getting the water to you.

3. Change your light bulbs to CFL bulbs.

They use 1/4 the power conventional light bulbs do and last several years longer.

4. Change your laundry habits.

Use warm water instead of hot. Do a few large loads instead of several small loads. Hang your laundry outside instead of using your dryer. Your laundry will be just as clean and smell nice and fresh.

5. Carpooling, Walking, Riding your bike.

These are things you can do to dramatically reduce your carbon footprint and save money. It will also help you get healthier.

6. Pay your bills online.

If everyone paid their bills online we would eliminate 1.6 billion tons a year of waste and reduce carbon emissions by 2.1 million tons a year.

7. Open some windows in your house.

Set your A/C up a couple of degrees in the summer and your heat down a couple of degrees in the winter. Weather strip all your doors and windows. Insulate your attic, walls and ceilings. Turn down the thermostat on your water heater. At the end of the year you will be amazed with how much money you have saved and the feeling of good that comes with making an effort to help the planet.

8. Become a vegan.

There are 1.5 billion cattle in this world, most of which are here to feed us. Becoming vegan will reduce your carbon footprint by 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide a year. Believe it or not, most of the greenhouse gases emitted are methane coming from you know where. The cows natural digestive system. Methane is 23 times more harmful than carbon dioxide.

9. Bring your own bags to the grocery store.

Plastic bags you get from the grocery store have a life span of 1,000 years. There are 5 billion bags given out yearly at stores around the world. That’s a lot of bags. Nice time capsule to deliver to future generations.

10. Put all your electrical components that have standby on timers or unplug them.

Cable boxes, TVs, DVD players or anything that has a standby system uses up power unless the power is completely disconnected. Shut your computer down. Just because it has a screen saver doesn’t mean that it’s not using power.  Shutting down these power zappers will save you a lot of money and make the planet a happier, nicer, greener place to live.

More Tips On Green Living Video.

A group of people in Devon, England have gone back to nature and are using a few solar panels. The people are practicing permaculture which maximizes soil use and reduces ecological damage. Permaculture is where you basically blend in with nature and you are linked in with perennial agriculture. They are living as close to nature as the animals in that area.

They are growing plants that are mutually beneficial to the other plants they are growing. It takes about ten people to make the system work and a lot of water. There is no electricity other than solar panels and windmills. They claim that they have reduced there footprint to 33% of the national average and are shooting for 20%.

Their neighbors however are up in arms over the makeshift eco shacks. They built them without planning permission. They have been in court fighting to continue their plight and the court has given them 3 years to prove themselves or get out. They were hoping for 5 years.