As you know, last year we won the SA Blog Awards for ‘Best Green Blog‘. A good time! So, we thought we’d give it another go this year. The category and rules have changed a bit. We are now entered in the ‘Best Environmental Blog’ category and the public voting phase only allows one vote per person. It lasts until next Wednesday, 9th November. I think (with your help and contributions) we do a pretty good job as an environmental blog, looking at issues like recycling, permaculture, indigenous plants, sustainable ways of living  and creating awareness about South African environmental matters (1 2 3 4)

Please click here (or the badge on the side) to vote for us!

Please spread the word! Thanks and mulch love!

Here are the details of the voting process:

When your readers click on the VOTE badge, they will be directed to the SA Blog Awards website. Their vote for your blog will automatically be entered. Voters will be sent a confirmation email, which they will have to respond to in order to confirm their vote. The process allows them to vote for only ONE blog per category. Should your voter decide to vote for another blog in the same category you will lose the original vote, as their new vote will override the initial vote.

For more detail, here is a  three part video:

Part 1: Re-membering. http://youtu.be/2zRQxSOUm2k

Simon Gear of 50|50 gets an update from SWC social worker John Clarke on the status of the Xolobeni Mining Rights and N2 Wild Coast Toll Road for SABC’s environmental program 50|50. Local residents speak their minds and hearts about development imposed from above.

This is a re-versioning of the report broadcast on 26 September 2011, with additional background footage showing 50|50′s outstanding role over the years in actualising not only environmental rights but civil rights as well.

Part 2: Re-visioning. http://youtu.be/Nyv4pnEn_3U

Sustaining the Wild Coast and South Coast residents collaborate again to open up the Wild Coast for the revival of eco-tourism now that the death grip of the pro-mining interests has been loosened. South African civil society shows it can light candles, not only curse the darkness, by re-visioning an eco-tourism future, including walking trails from the Wild Coast Sun resort, and the restoration of the Mtentu River Lodge situated on the “Jewel of the Wild Coast” the Mtentu estuary.

But the N2 Wild Coast ‘Troll’ Road offers little local benefit and Planet Saving Wild Lawyer Cormac Cullinan is instructed by AmaDiba residents to take their case against the road to court, believing it will be “Too Great a Toll”. The film launches the “Too Great a Toll,” 2012 Calendar to raise funds for court action, not simply to stop the road, but to promote their democratic right to decide their local destinies locally.

Part 3: Re-claiming. http://youtu.be/i8-t-eBpNNw

Showcases the “Too Great a Toll” calendar produced to raise funds for high court action by amaMpondo residents to stop the N2 Wild Coast ‘Troll’ road. WildAwake photographer Cheryl Alexander and her production team hike their way from Sigidi to Port St Johns. “The making of…” features a selection of Cheryl’s stunning pics interspersed with ‘candy-ham’ behind the scenes clips, put to a music soundtrack by Claire Johnston (Mango Groove) and Jeff Maluleke from their album Starehe – an African Day. Meaning ‘a state of peace, tranquillity, contentment’ in Swahili, Starehe was a creative collaboration by them “to support fundraising causes close to our heart”.

At the heart of the campaign is a documentary film following Tristan Dickerson of the Munyawana Leopard Project as he tries to create a high-quality and affordable synthetic fur to combat the demand for real leopard furs used for traditional garments.

For more information and to donate towards the making of this important film, visit:
www.toskinacat.org
Score by Chris Letcher.

Every Tuesday, we get a box full of homegrown delights with which to make soups, salads and anything else that takes our fancy. Here is a selection of the latest crop; proper spinach , some fennel bulbs, crunchy, sweet carrots and (not pictured) some tasty potatoes and mini-cauliflowers.

This past winter I have been busy researching quite a few different growing options.  One of which is a sub-irrigated planter. Given the heat that we normally experience here in summer, together with the fact that we hope to be on the farm for a couple of weeks in December, I thought I’d give them a try – that way hopefully my vegetables wont die when I’m not at our (town) house to give them regular water – we don’t have timed irrigation there like we do on the farm.

So, this is my tutorial on how I made a sub irrigated planter.

Firstly, what I gathered together:

A container (I’ve used a styrofoam box which RSon got from the restaurant where his girlfriend works).  A bucket would work as well.
Enough bases from (in my case) recycled milk bottles, to “line” the base of the container.
A recycled bottle for the water inlet / fill tube
Piping

Cut your oxygen reservoir bottles at the required height.

Make a hole in the top of one of the oxygen / water reservoirs and insert your fill tube container – in this instance it was a clean oil bottle, with it’s base removed and the neck of the bottle inserted in the hole.

The, drill holes into the individual oxygen reservoirs and place them cut side down in your planter container.  It is not necessary to link the individual oxygen containers as water will flow along the base of your planter and rise up in all those openings.

Make a corresponding hole in your SIP container for the the overflow pipe and thread it through

Carefully add your soil, tamping down between the reservoirs in order that it can act as a wicking system until the roots of your plants / seedlings have grown down towards the water in the reservoirs

Plant up your sub-irrigated container

And finally, add water through the fill tube until you see water coming out of the overflow pipe.

The water won’t evaporate as it would when one waters from the surface, as it is not exposed to the heat of the day, but is, instead at the base of the plants where they need it most.  That should be sufficient water for at least 7 – 10 days.  When the fill tube is visibly empty at it’s base, and thus more water is required, simply add it through the fill tube again, until it overflows through the outlet pipe.

What has this cost me?  Just half an hour of my time, and ZAR1.00 (US 0.14 / 10p) for some piping for the overflow pipe. I have recycled a fair amount, which should stand me in good stead for quite a few years to come, because, as the plastic is not exposed to sunlight, it shouldn’t perish.  Environmentally, I am very chuffed. And, finally, I have a self-watering, raised veggie patch which has utilized waste packaging.

This would also work for all those northern hemisphere residents as this container could easily be utilized for all those hot days you’ve just experienced this past summer, or it could be planted up with early seedlings and placed on a covered verandah where it would be sheltered from the last frost of winter?  Invariably, restaurants have food grade containers which they have to, hopefully, recycle.  Make their job easier by taking some of that recycling off their hands and putting it to good use growing your veggies / salads

The kindly folks at Consol have given us two vouchers to hand out worth R500 each, for their shops in Woodmead (Gauteng) and Stellenbosch in the Western Cape (sorry Durbanites and others, I’m sure you have friends and relatives in these parts?). So, now you can personally test-drive the apparent health benefits of glass…

I couldn’t decide on how to hand these out so at my sister’s suggestion, if you would like to win one of these vouchers, please comment below on what you think the best way to use a glass jar is. To store pasta or raisins, make gifts, to use as a pot plant… Winners will be selected using a random number generator and the competition will end next Tuesday, 4th October…

In addition, SWC advocates against culturally and ecologically inappropriate developments such as the proposed mining at Xolobeni and the recent decision on the N2 toll road extension, which they are presently opposing. See various articles here: 1, 2 and 3.

SWC are looking to spread the word about what they are doing and raise some funds for expected court battles. I think they have done a very admirable job with Xolobeni. Please like them on Facebook HERE and follow them on Twitter HERE, and encourage others to do the same…