Upcycled Tin Can!

What can you do with a tin can?  Well, in Hartney, MB Edna and Alvin are making little birdhouses!  The body is the tin can, with a little wooden roof, front and back wall, and perch.  I was fortunate to be gifted one when I spoke to the Hartney Hort Club last year.  This year, I have tenants!  An adorable pair of wrens has been building a little nest inside; it's been hard to get a picture because they come and go so fast!  I am all for recycling and upcycling, and if it involves critters or birds, then I'm a huge fan!  Don't know where Edna and Alvin will be selling them this year, but if you're interested in one, email me and I'll put you in touch with them!  They have some great oriole feeders and other houses and feeders as well!  

Good Friday and Earth Day! Celebrate!

Hope you're celebrating today:  so many things to celebrate!  Saw an excellent Tweet this morning from @AndrewJParker:  'In a perfect world, every day would be Earth Day and every Friday would be Good!'  Too true!  Also loved the Tweet from @jerryjamesstone: 'Happy #Earth Day: Reduce, Reuse and Retweet!'  Earth Day is about putting aside the time to really think about what you're doing to improve Life on this Planet!  If you only do one thing - it will help, really!  Every little thing each person does adds up to some Big things!

How to get started?  Well, this Earth Day I'm recommending that everyone start reading a little green/environmental news every week - to start to keep up with what's happening on this Planet and to start to get informed.  Follow a blog, get RSS feeds, drop into a website once a week, follow them on Twitter for fast, snappy updates.  Here's a few of the favorites from Aagaard Farms:  Grist, Mother Jones, Rodale, Treehugger, Mother Nature Network.  If you've got a tiny bit of spare cash and want to make a difference check out Kiva, Philanthrope and Heifer International.

What are we doing for Earth Day?  Farmer Man is potting up seedlings and planting some melons.  He's being very Earth-friendly and using homemade pots from recycled newspapers (which may count as 'upcycling').  We love the PotMaker, a handy little gadget that lets you form plantable pots from strips of newspaper.  It's especially perfect for seedlings that tend to be brittle and hard to handle because you plant the seedling out in the garden in the pot, which will just break down!  We've had our PotMaker for years, I think we got it from Lee Valley Tools.  It's become a bit more widely available the last few years and can be found at garden centres and through many seed catalogues!  A most worthwhile investment if you start much of anything from seed.