July 13, 2008

LIDSVILLE

If your toilet tank lid is cracked, chipped or broken, go to toilettanklid.com, where you can find used, obsolete, vintage or old porcelain lids for almost any brand of toilet. You can also sell your lid on the site and find uses for it other than the landfill.

HANGING FLOWERS

Communities are more than just streets and houses; it's pride in that community that creates neighbors and friends out of residents.

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The baskets, which were a joint project of the club and the Mission Hills Town Council Business Enhancement Committee, contain verbena, petunias and minipetunias among others, according to Fausto Palafox of Missions Hills Nursery, who designed them. Palafox will redesign and replenish the baskets quarterly.

“The funds came from our annual garden walk,” said Kathy Jones, spokeswoman for the club and a trustee on the town council. “The walks raise around $20,000 to $25,000 every year and we had some money that had built up over the last two or three years.”

The baskets can be seen at the commercial intersections near Washington and Goldfinch streets.

The baskets are just one of a number of community projects that the garden club has assisted. “We gave $10,000 for the playground at Pioneer Park, we had a beautiful floral mural painted on a big wall on Reynard Way, we fund $8,000 in scholarships and internships to colleges that have horticultural programs, and other projects,” Jones said.

“We hope the baskets will give the local business area a sense of unity and continuity and give the residents a sense of pride,” Jones added.

– CATHY LUBENSKI

'DON'T THROW IT, GROW IT!'

Here's yet another way to save money and be creative with plants: Read “Don't Throw It, Grow It!” a new book by Deborah Peterson and Millicent Selsam (Storey Publishing, $10.95), and follow their advice for growing 68 windowsill plants from seeds, pits and roots.

Peterson and Selsam go way beyond the avocados and potatoes we used to root in water glasses. Besides fruits and vegetables, they include nuts, herbs, spices, and more international foods like chayote and litchi.

And who knew chickpeas could make a charming plant for hanging baskets?

The water method – whether suspending in a glass using toothpicks or bamboo skewers or floating in a bowl – still works fine for pits, tubers, and roots such as daikon and water chestnuts. But other stuff, like carrots, do well in containers full of pebbles (available in garden centers) or potting soil.

Some plants mentioned in “Don't Throw It” – jicama and garlic, for example – grow quickly into perennials, which indulges the desire to be impatient and lazy “just this once.”

Ginger is easily grown, too. Just buy a hunk of ginger at the market. Fill a shallow, wide pot three-quarters full with moist potting soil. Lay the ginger on top and put the pot in a brightly lit, but not sunny, spot.

Simple!

– MCT INFORMATION SERVICES

OAK BARRELS RECYCLED FOR HOME

This is sustainable gardening with class.

TerraCycle Inc. is recycling Kendall-Jackson wine barrels into composters and rain barrels. The 55-gallon oak barrels were used to make chardonnay and are clean and safe for outdoor household use, the California winemaker says.

The rotary composter holds grass clippings, leaves and other yard waste while they decompose into nutrient-rich compost. A roller system makes it easy to load and rotate the barrel, speeding up the composting process.

The composter has a suggested retail price of $99 to $150 (brand new wine barrels cost between $300 and $800).

You can order the barrel composter by going to terracycle.net and sending an e-mail with your information to info@terracycle.net or by calling (609) 393-4252, ext. 233.

Visit the Web site for more information and a primer on composting that includes a how-to guide, a list of composting materials, a trouble-shooting chart, and lots of other information.

– MCT INFORMATION SERVICES

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