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The Pothole Gardener: Filling up Potholes One Small Garden World at a Time

The Pothole Gardener: Filling up Potholes One Small Garden World at a Time

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Steve Wheen started doing guerrilla gardening in potholes for a project while in college.  He began  creating small garden worlds in potholes in part as a reaction to the poor conditions of the roads in London.  The project has grown to be a blog and website, where photos and videos of his gardening activity are posted.

Working with soil, plants and props,  Wheen makes tiny worlds that bring attention to road conditions, and also create a unique small world within our world.  He puts the props in the gardens for the photo shoots only, and tries to make the gardens on quiet streets with footpaths and dead end lanes.  He has created a small cricket match scene, and a red telephone booth garden in a pothole in front of London Bridge.  Often his gardens get attention, and on the Pothole Gardener blog you can see videos and photos of people taking pictures, and bending down to get a better look.

A recent garden scene he made is comprised of soil, green moss, a miniature chair, a tiny Easter basket, and a blooming plant – all located in a pothole on the street.  Wheen describes his project as, “ Part art project, part labor of love, part experiment, part mission to highlight how sh** our roads are – the pictures and gardens are supposed to put smiles on peoples faces and alert them to potholes!”

His blog has links to other Guerrilla Gardeners, and he writes that he is part of a community of guerrilla gardening.  Tired of the pothole on your street?   Check out thepotholegardener.com and see pictures of videos of Wheen’s gardens and get inspired.  I’ve got my eye on a big pothole that is getting bigger and bigger and is just around the corner from my house.

Image Source:
thepotholegardener.com

Links:

thepotholegardener.com

www.guerrillagardening.org

 

Carbon Offsets for Travel: Where Does it Go?

Carbon Offsets for Travel: Where Does it Go?

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Yesterday I bought a plane ticket to North Carolina to visit my brother and his family.  When I was doing the final payment review, I saw the carbon offset option labeled “Leave the World a Better Place™ – Carbon Offsetting Option.” The amount of money that was estimated to offset my amount of CO2 from this itinerary ( for around 1,140 miles of air travel from OH to NC), was estimated at  $2.90, and I could opt in to pay this for my ticket, and the money would go to Sustainable Travel International (STI.)

I was surprised that the CO2 offset was so low, and I wondered where the money would go if I opted in. I checked out the website of STI, a non-profit organization that Continental, United, Enterprise and other businesses partner with.  When you make a contribution to Sustainable Travel International for the purpose of purchasing carbon offsets, you are directing STI to buy the amount of carbon offsets that you want on your behalf.

You don’t own the emissions offsets your pay for as your property, but they are used for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.  Current projects in the carbon offset program include one project in Madagascar, and six wind farm projects in the United States.

One project is protecting Madagascar’s Northeastern Forests, where carbon offset credits are used to help reduce deforestation rates.  The goal is to get the deforestation rates down to 0.07 percent, or the rate found in nearby national parks.

The wind farm projects are overseen by Bonneville Environmental Foundation who provide renewable energy carbon offsets in the United States.

BEF Wind Energy Projects Include:

Sherbino Wind Farm, Texas
Forest Creek Wind Farm, Texas
White Creek Wind, Washington
Wilton Wind Energy Center, North Dakota
Tatanka Wind Facility, North Dakota and South Dakota
I was surprised to see that the majority of projects for carbon offset was for windfarms.  I thought it would be about planing trees, or improving the natural environment in some way.

I did not purchase my carbon offset credits for my ticket.  I would rather take the $2.90 and plant a tree.

Images:

http://ecolibrary.org/
http://101mobility.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/jet.jpg

 

Links:

http://www.sustainabletravelinternational.org/

http://www.b-e-f.org/

Free Rice – A Game Where You Answer Questions and Help End Hunger

Free Rice – A Game Where You Answer Questions and Help End Hunger

Posted on by Kbaumlier

The World Food Programme is the largest humanitarian organization that is working to fight  hunger worldwide, and is supported by the United Nations  WTF works to prevent hunger, support emergency hunger situations, and work to reduce hunger and undernutrition.  .  In 2011, WFP aimed to bring food assistance to more than 90 million people in 73 countries through a variety of programs.

WTF has developed some online games where players can engage in online game activities and earn points that help create realworld change.  One of the games, FreeRice is an online trivia game where for each correct answer played, ten grains of rice are donated to WFP to feed hungry people around the world, paid for by sponsored banners on the site.

Players can choose from 45,000 questions in a variety of subjects, including flags of the world, chemistry and literature.  The game can be played in six languages.   There are currently over  one million registered players, who together have donated nearly 100 billion grains of rice to feed almost five million people since the game started in 2007.

WTF reports that, “1 in 7 people worldwide goes to bed hungry every night. And now, with nearly 7 billion people in the world, this means that almost 1 billion people are not getting the food they need today.”

Hunger seems like a far away problem for most of us.  Earlier this month, WTF had a week with contests and promotions where it promoted the six degrees of separation idea in relation to hunger– in that we are all connected to people who are hungry through 6 levels of connections.

Today I spent some time creating my FreeRice account, and tried out two areas of trivia.  I first tried the art area, and was able to identify most of the paintings ( I killed it!) I switched subjects and tried identifying flags of countries around the world, where I still won a few, but I did not do quite as well.  All in all, in a couple of minutes I earned 140 grains of rice.

On the site, FreeRice  states that it has two goals.   One is to provide education to everyone for free.  Second is to help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

Want to try FreeRice? You can join on the site, or on Facebook.  Like most online games, you are able to ask friends to play, participate in contests, and read updates on the blog and site.  I’m going to see if I can run the game on my phone, so that I can work to help end hunger when I am waiting or in a meeting, instead of just playing

Image Source:
freerice.com

Links:

freerice.com

wfp.org

Oranges and Figs in Ohio? – Plant Hardiness Zones Have Changed

Oranges and Figs in Ohio? – Plant Hardiness Zones Have Changed

Posted on by Kbaumlier

A hardiness zone defines what kinds of plants can grow in a specific geographic area.  The classification is defined by climatic conditions, especially the low temperatures that a plant can withstand. A plant might be labeled as “hardy to zone 10,” which means that the plant can withstand a minimum temperature of -1°C. Another type of plant labeled “hardy to zone 9” can handle a minimum temperature of -7°C.

The USDA recently released a new plant hardiness zone map.  The updated map is based on the past twenty years of temperatures and conditions from 1976 to 2005. The temperatures in the U.S. are in general two-thirds of a degree higher than before.

The new updated map has rezoned many areas, generally one half-zone warmer than the last map in many areas of the United States. States such as Ohio, Texas, and Nebraska are now in a warmer zones.

Overall, the temperatures in Winter are not as cold as they used to be.  The growing season is longer, and gardeners can grow and harvest plants for a longer period of time than 20 years ago.

Is this an indicator of climate change?  Is the earth warming up and influencing our environment? There is no official report about this in relation to the updated map.

In Ohio,  most of the state moved from zone 5 to zone 6 under the Department of Agriculture’s revised map.

I just looked at some gardening sites online, to see what can grow in Zone 6. Big news, there is one type of orange tree (Flying Dragon) and a few varieties of figs (Celeste, Chicago Hardy, LSU Gold, LSU Purple, and Magnolia) that can grow in Zone 6, which means that oranges and figs can now grow in Ohio.

Image Source:
Hidden Springs Nursury

Links:

2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Map

2012 Interactive Plant Zone Hardiness Map

Go Green Forever Stamps : Step by Step

Go Green Forever Stamps : Step by Step

Posted on by Kbaumlier

I recently went to the Post Office for stamps, and purchased the USPS Go Green Forever stamps that were released last year for Earth Day. The stamps feature simple things that anyone can  that can have a positive impact on the environment.  Each of the fifteen stamps features a way to reduce our environmental footprint.  Buy local produce, reuse bags, fix water leaks, share rides, recycle more ride a bike, plant trees, and other everyday actions are featured on the stamps.  Since the stamps are forever stamps, each stamp has the word forever on it.  “Reuse bags… forever,”  “Buy local produce…forever,”  is how the stamps read.

The stamps are made from materials that re biodegradable and recyclable and is part of the Post Office’s Go Green sustainability initiative.  The stamps are intended to help promote the idea that doing daily things can make a difference.  Examples are that recycling one aluminum can save enough energy to run a computer by three hours, or inflating your car tires properly will improve gas mileage by three percent.

The U.S. post office has been working to reduce its impact on the environment for some time.  For over 100 years, the post office has owned electric vehicles.   The USPS was the first federal agency to publicly report greenhouse gas emissions, and has eco-friendly mailing materials that meet the Cradle to Cradle Certification, which is earned by conserving natural resources.

I haven’t used any of my stamps yet.   It’s hard to say what using the stamps will do to promote these ideas, but I can’t wait to use the “Ride a bike… forever” stamp on a letter.

 

Links:

Animation of GoGreen Stamps

USPS sustainability initiatives and the Go Green Forever stamps