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Kitchen Scrap Gardening Offers Hands-On Learning

While almost all food scraps make great compost, certain scraps can make something even more wonderful – more food! Families can engage in hands-on experiential learning by collecting bits of these special foods and creating their own mini-gardens. Young gardeners can learn about how plants grow, and can enjoy delicious homegrown foods with ease!

Category: Hilltown Families, Learning Lens, Learning Lens Food Tags: Composting, gardening, Kitchen Gardening, Kitchen Scraps, Sustainability

5 Easy Composting Tips for Your Family Garden

Environmentally sound garden practices for the family garden One of the major keys to a successful garden is the incorporation of organic matter into the soil every year. I remember taking a soil class at UMass 15 or so years back and hearing my professor say, “the answer to almost any question I ask this semester will likely be to add organic matter to the soil. If the problem is nutrition, drainage,… Read More

Category: Food, Jim McSweeney Tags: Composting, Food, gardening, Gardening Tips, growing fruit, Hilltown Tree and Garden, Landscape, Western Massachuestts

Green Tip: Composting

Green Tip: January 2012 Did You Know? Food waste, including uneaten food and food preparation scraps from residences, restaurants, and grocery stores, makes up a large portion (up to 40 percent) of the municipal solid waste stream. As a result, diverting organic wastes from final disposal is an important waste reduction strategy that can help extend the useful life of our region’s landfills. Green Tip: If you work in the food industry,… Read More

Category: Sustainability Tags: Composting, food waste, Green Tip, Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, Sustainability, waste reduction strategy

A Day at the Trash Museum

I Love Trash! Late autumn here in New England and the light is leaving us. The sun is down almost as soon as we have eaten our after school snack. Everyone in my house becomes slightly grumpy as the light fades and we spend less time outdoors. The boys know their screen time allowance goes up and I fight my own lack of energy to keep us out, about and moving. We… Read More

Category: Contributing Writer, Karen Bayne Tags: Composting, Connecticut, Connecticut Valley, Curriculum, Hartford, Homeschool, New England, Trash, Trash Museum, western massachusetts

Green Mama: Kelly’s Top 10 Reason to Live a Greener Lifestyle

Let’s Hear It For The Bear Apparently no one told the neighborhood bear that the McIlquham’s were making an attempt to live greener and had enough forces working against them in their attempts to do so, so we most definitely did not need his/her help in thwarting our efforts. Really, every time we feel like we are making great strides forward, something gets in the way. The spring sports season rules our… Read More