So you’ve decided to flex your green thumb during the pandemic and are trying to regrow veggies from kitchen scraps but you aren’t having any success. Here are seven reasons why your vegetable scraps won’t regrow: 1. The vegetable has been sitting in cold storage for too long When you buy seed packets, they often...
There is a growing community of plant lovers on Instagram which has seen the plant swapping movement grow. There are plant parents, plant enthusiasts and many a plant geek and hoarder sharing houseplants, cuttings, seeds and best practices. Intrigued with this concept, I attended my first plant swap last week at Warehouse Eight in Makati...
When I was younger, I was part of the Wild Flower Society. Watch out: #nerdalert. They sent me seeds and emails every month, and my (wonderful) parents gave me a whole section of the garden to go crazy with. Dad and I were forever found in the family veggie garden, and I often created moss...
Washington DC, United States: If I start another business, I’d grow and sell organic edible flowers and microgreens. It sounds painfully yuppie-ish, I know, but microgreens are blowing up because they’re easy to grow in urban spaces, are colorful additions to salads, sandwiches, and cocktails alike, and are packed with nutrients. For better or worse,...
Abuja, Nigeria: Recently I wrote about the need to make agriculture and farming cool again; enough for young people to desire to get involved. One of the biggest barriers to the involvement of young people in agriculture is urbanization. Farming as we know it is usually done in rural areas. The reason for this is simple, farming...
Abuja, Nigeria: According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), mankind is at the peak of food production. We produce enough food to feed the whole world. Even though 840 million people are food insecure and considered to be undernourished, the FAO is optimistic that mankind is on course to end hunger. They believe this can be...
A productive organic garden begins with soil health and a crucial step in building and protecting soil fertility is mulching. Mulch is any material laid over the surface of the soil. In sustainable gardening, the only type of mulch that should be used is one that biodegrades and breaks back down into the soil. The most common...
Through the use of greenwashing, marketers are successful in making people feel as though they can buy sustainability, as though it is a commodity that can be purchased for a price. However, I’ve often said that sustainability is an everyday practice; it’s a lifestyle, a decision-making process, a way of thinking and behaving. It’s the string...
“The greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone. Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words...
Philadelphia, Unites States: The Philadelphia Flower Show is a yearly showcase of world-renowned competitions in horticulture and floral arrangement, massive garden displays, and gardening presentations. According to its website, the Flower Show “introduces the newest plant varieties, garden and design concepts, and organic and sustainable practices.” I’ve been going to the flower show every year...
When back-to-basics meets modern agricultural science, it checks off more boxes than you’d ever imagine. Vertical gardens — or living walls — created as decorative statement pieces are increasingly found in high-end hotels, cutting-edge business and resort lobbies. Vertical gardens offer a powerful visual draw even as they improve air content and acoustic quality. Living...
Editor’s note: I’ve been requested by several Instagram followers to share more eco-friendly gardening tips so expect to see many more gardening posts from me this year! This week I thought I’d share with you my personal gardening toolkit to give you an idea of the equipment I use when I’m tending my organic kitchen garden....