Planting log 01.04.09

Planting so far:
Trees planted on 15th Mar 09
Almond
Lemon
Plum
Pomegranate
The Pomegranate is reasonably big , can expect fruit next year.
Cost of trees 300 shekels
Herbs
Mint
Sage
Zatar
Zuta
Cost of herbs 20 shekels
Seeds
My first set of seeds were dug up by the cats , the nicely dug soil to hard to resist I guess .SO another planting session on 31.03.04
Cucumber
Capsicum
Chillies
Lettuce
Rokat
Melon
Watermelon
Zucchini
Parsley
Cost of seeds 40 shekels

Now I have to think of a nasty contraption to keep the cats out of my seedlings , something that gives them a vicious poke that scares the living daylight muha-ha-ha-ha..........

Soap nut

My plans to reuse as much water as possible for secondary uses has always had an achilles heel when it came for water from the laundry and from the dishes . We have been using "Ecover" products for cleaning but somehow I never felt safe enough till yesterday . We did our first batch of laundry with the Soapnut or Reetha as it is known back home in India. The shell nut of the Sapindus Mukorossi has a natural surfactant which like in synthetic soap breaks down the grease that hold the dirt and cleans the laundry . My mother used Reetha as a natural shampoo . Now I learnt that it is an effective natural substitute for detergent leaving no harmful residue , just pop in a couple in a cloth bag with the laundry . I am told a kilogram of the stuff gives upto 400 washes and locally it costs about 120-140 shekels a kg . That is not too bad even economically , much cheaper than the Ecover detergent that costs nearly a shekel and half per wash . The laundry came out the way it should ; clean , soft with a very gentle clean smell , nothing like the olfactory attack that comes from a normal detergent . Friends of ours have been using it for cloth diapers for their kids and are happy with the results . Apparently one can brew soap out of it that can be used for all cleaning purposes .
Here are other things you can do with it .

To shower or have a bath

Today I figured that my two sons having a bath together used about 90 litres of water . A quick search on the internet put the average shower consumption for a gravity shower at 35 litres . It of course assumes an efficient shower head with water discharge of about 7l/min for a five minute shower. I was under the impression that baths take a lot more water but if two people take a bath together it is almost equal to a shower . The best part is that if you are using organic soaps you can even reuse the water . For collecting shower water you either need to have a separate system for your waste water or you have to stand in a bucket to have a shower . Now if all of us were to use the same water ..........

Waste 2

Composting organic waste has a number of advantages

• The amount of garbage is thrown out reduces considerably . On an average my garbage sack is half to one-thirds of wht it used to be .
• Lesser garbage means that the garbage trucks carry lesser garbage halfway across the country to a garbage dump . It could eventually reduce the number of pickups which can be a considerable saving in energy transporting and managing .
• Most organic garbage does not fully decompose in a garbage dump as there is too much of it competing for too little fresh air . Garbage in plastic bags is known to remain in its original state packed in nylon bags in a high methane surrounding for years on end. Even after the organic stuff breaks down there is no way of putting it to useful use as it is full of inorganic stuff of unknown antecedants . So organic matter in the garbage is effectively lost .
• Even if garbage is separated and taken to a composting facility it involves a lot of energy expended in separating and moving it .
• Organic matter goes back to where it belongs , into the soil to rise again like a phoenix as organic matter again .

Waste 1

Many years ago in my Urban Design days in SPA Delhi , I heard one of the most fascinating lectures on waste management . I don't remember the name of the person but he sure did kindle something deep down about urban waste . It has been on a low backburner all of this time till some time back , nothing drastic bjt a more concerted effort to deal with the waste we create .
The easiest part of it all is the organic waste from the kitchen and garden . All little scraps and pieces and waste go to my compost pile in the no man's land between the houses . Initially I was worried about the neighbors getting worried but one year down the line it doesn't seem to bother anyone and I have a constant supply of organic compost . Even gave some to our neighbor who showed some interest but then it was too much of a bother for him to separate the organic waste and walk 10 m up to the pile. So I continue with my solo crusade . To dispel some misconceptions

1. Compost does not smell if you take proper care to turn it once in a while and strike a good balance between greens and browns.
2. It does not attract rodents and the likes if one takes care to separate non-veg and dairy waste.

Besides

1. we have cut down our waste to a third .
2. we get nice black compost to grow our vegetables in .
3. the garbage collectors say a silent thank you every time they cross our house ( they should if they don't )