Heidi's Zero Waste Project- Plantings

 My wonderful cousin Heidi will be adding to this blog in hopes of givng a larger variety of ideas and thoughts. She is a wealth of knowledge and good ideas and we are very excited to do this together. Her family of four lives in southern California. Through there very busy schedule of both working full time and raising two beautiful little girls they have made the zero waste lifestyle a priority for their family.   

 

Heidi:

I live in suburbia, the classic San Diego suburban area where my neighbor’s garages are overflowing with “stuff” that they could never use nor find.  On garbage day, their bins are overflowing.  We have gone down to two small garbage bags per week with the use of glass jars and mesh bags only shopping in the bulk isle (foregoing packaged foods).  Certainly not perfect, we are working toward less every week.  A compost bin is located next to the garbage can, as an alternative to “trash” and the recycling bin is the second alternative.  We use the compost bin to fertilize the very poor soil in our area, which has increased the greenhouse’s productivity, as well as the succulents.  Here is a photo of beans growing out of pots in the backyard… 

 

 

I try and pick one zero waste project per weekend, given my busy work schedule, it can be a challenge to come up with fun kid projects with no waste-that fit our zero waste goal. Here is the latest project in the garden.

Here is a project for repopulating succulents in areas where the soil is too rocky for regular plants.  The secret is…creating new plants out of old plants without waste or a trip to Home Depot or other gardening centers and using egg cartons to start new plants.

Once the succulents start to grow roots, we will replant them around the house in areas where we can reduce the use of water.