The Urban Permaculture Farm Magazine
For 
The Garden Girl
March is finally here. This month, for gardeners in warmer climates, it's time to get outside and start planting! Gardeners in colder climates, like me, are starting seeds indoors and longing for the last day of frost to get outside and start planting. This month's video releases are all about starting seeds. Watch my latest videos How to start seeds using a Hot House, How to Make Seed Balls, How to Make Seed Tape, and Starting Seeds in Toilet Paper Rolls. These seed starting projects are great to do with your kids too.
In this issue of Urban Sustainable Living Magazine:
- Shawna Coronado shows us How to Make a Floating Patio. It's important to have a seating area in your garden so that you can enjoy it! Shawna makes it look so easy.
- With gas prices going up and other necessities of life rising in cost, learn about Designing a Water Wise Landscape.
- Don't miss the article Green Building Myths: Fact and Fiction that will help you navigate all of the green marketing hype.
- People are starting to talk about zero waste as a reality with zero waste communities popping up. What can businesses like restaurants do to control their waste? We breakdown 3 sustainable solutions.
Thanks to All that entered the Square Foot Gardening DVD Giveaway. 4 Lucky subscribers will be receiving their DVD shortly.
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I will be holding workshops all over the country this year. Please check out the March schedule and come on out when I'm in your town.
Enjoy this month's issue...Happy Spring!
From the Sustainable Home Front,
Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl
MEET PATTI MORENO Workshop Events for March
City/State: St. Louis, MO
Date: Sat. March 19 at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Workshop: Urban Gardening and Sustainability
Location: Bowood Farms www.bowoodfarms.com
Address: 4605 Olive Street in the Central West End
City/State: Boston, MA
Date: Sat. March 26th at 11am-12pm and 1pm-4pm
Event: BNAN 36th Annual Gardeners Gathering www.bostonnatural.org
Workshop: Kids Seed Starting
Location: Curry Student Center, Northeastern University
Address:
City/State: Brookline, MA
Date: Sun. March 27th at 10am-12pm
Event: Bountiful Brookline's Spring into Gardening www.bountifulbrookline.org
Workshop: Intensive Workshop on Seed Starting
Location: Pierce School
Address: 50 School Street
Designing a Water Wise Landscape
When it comes to watering your lawn and paying water bills, sound gardening practices can cut down homeowner investments of effort, time and money, reports the American Association of Nurserymen. And, you don't have to turn your lovely colorful landscape into a rock garden featuring a sprinkling of cactus plants.
The keys to "naturescaping" involve how, when, and what you water in taking care of your property. Low-volume irrigation systems such as drip-watering devices reduce water use by 50 percent. Early-morning watering cuts down on evaporation.
Starting Amaranth Seeds Indoors with a Hot House
Here in New England and across the Northern states, we tend to give up on our gardens as soon as the snow begins to fall. The ground is frozen, the days are shorter, and the weather is fierce!
But as you’ll see, you don’t have to force your inner gardener to hibernate. Especially in colder areas where our growing season is so short, it really pays to start plants from seed indoors.
Green Building Myths: Fact and Fiction By John Montgomery
The Big Green Home Myth and The Real Green Revolution; How to Separate Fact from Fiction: A lot of marketing hype (Fiction) and a lot of good stuff (Facts) have come to light due to the general public’s recent interest in Green Homes. Ten years ago when we talked about how energy efficient and maintenance free our homes were people kind of tuned us out.
First of All Don't Believe Everything That You Read or See on TV.
Zero Waste - 3 Sustainable Steps Restaurants Should Take By Ganga Patel
A cooperative I am involved with has helped 100s of restaurants and cafes over the past few years shift toward zero waste -- a philosophy that supports the reconstruction of production life cycles such that all waste is reused or recycled.
Food service businesses shooting for zero waste focus on reducing their waste as much as possible and then rerouting any remaining waste toward recycling & composting facilities. To achieve zero waste, I've found these businesses combine 3 major strategies:
Creative Solution for Tree Root Problems – A Reclaimed “Floating” Patio By Shawna Lee Coronado
It’s a battle in my garden – the maple tree roots versus me. They are powerful and I am often stymied as I cannot dig in the soil due to the deep and twisted mess that lies right below the surface. When installing my gate arbor, the workers ended up cutting the cable television (on game day no less) for the entire neighborhood because they had to use a power saw to get through the danged roots.
Gardeners often fight a lengthy battle with tree roots like I have, but perhaps there’s an interesting – and green – solution - - float a patio on top of the roots.
Around The Web
Xeriscaping Basics
110 Year Old Net Energy Home
Zero Waste Village
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An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.
Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the capacity to endure. In ecology, the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term maintenance of wellbeing, which in turn depends on the wellbeing of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources.