Would you like to grow healthy and beautiful lavender plants in your garden? This guide to the best companion plants for lavender will help you to do just that.
12.09.2023 - 13:17 / modernfarmer.com
Kombucha is widely consumed as a fermented, effervescent tea. But some people in the world of textiles look at kombucha and see something else. Asiah Brazil-Geyshick, an Ojibwe student studying apparel, textiles and design at the University of Idaho, saw a pair of moccasins, a medicine bag and a wallet, all of which she hand-stitched from dried kombucha SCOBY, a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast.
Alternative textiles aren’t new, but the use of sustainable materials in the industry, while still a small percentage overall, is growing. In an attempt to combat the unsustainable consumption of clothing and other materials made from synthetic fibers, scientists and entrepreneurs have considered other more environmentally friendly alternatives, such as algae and mycelium.
Kombucha tea is made from tea, sugar and a SCOBY. The SCOBY takes the shape of a gelatinous mat, and when it’s dried out and shaped, it can resemble leather or fabric.
SCOBY has its advantages as a material since it’s environmentally sustainable to produce and also biodegradable at the end of its life. But it also has drawbacks. For example, it sponges up water in a way you don’t want clothing to do. Still, with a little bit of experimentation, Brazil-Geyshick made several items out of this material. In the future of sustainable textiles, can kombucha become a prominent player?
Chelsey Byrd Lewallen teaches an introduction to textiles class at the University of Idaho. In the class, she covers non-traditional textiles, such as coconut, orange peel and more.
Byrd Lewallen brought up the prospect of kombucha leather in her class, along with the idea of partnering with a local company, Love’s Kombucha, to try and make a usable leather alternative
Would you like to grow healthy and beautiful lavender plants in your garden? This guide to the best companion plants for lavender will help you to do just that.
WHEN YOU SHOP for food—whether produce or meat or eggs—and see a label that says “organic,” what do you think that means? At its most fundamental level, I guess I always thought it meant vegetables grown on the fields of an organic farm—like, in the soil, or animals raised in its pastures.
It’s a tentative start. We crack open wet soil, slot the roots of a small birch tree into the gap and firm it in. The blessings of Mother Earth on you, little tree. The birch is a bare slip of a thing barely anchored in the ground. One down, 23,999 to go.
The Home Edit seems to be able to make any space look good. A box of cords, reno tools, the pet supplies—it's clean, organized, and often color coded in the shades of the rainbow.
Discovering a frog in your garden or home isn’t just a sign of a healthy ecosystem; it’s often steeped in symbolism and cultural beliefs that span across various traditions. Whether you consider the frog’s appearance as a simple quirk of nature or a message from the universe, the event certainly piques curiosity. So, What Does it Mean When a Frog Visits You? Read on and find out!
As September comes to an end, it is important to recognize that this month is Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. In the past 30 years, obesity rates have tripled among youth in the United States. There are many factors that contribute to obesity in children, including genetics, physical inactivity, unhealthy eating habits, and other lifestyle factors. Being obese at a young age increases the risk of developing chronic diseases in adulthood. Some of those diseases include high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. Fortunately, simple lifestyle changes can go a long way in helping your child maintain a healthy weight now and throughout their life.
Alison Van Eenennaam, a professor at the University of California, Davis, has a few very pregnant patients to look after this fall and into the new year. These patients require some extra care, as they’re carrying experimental fetuses.
In 1752, Britain changed its calendar from the old “Julian” style to the Gregorian version that most of Europe was already using. People rioted, demanding back the 11 days of their lives that had gone “missing” in the switchover, but there would be far-reaching effects too. Any festivals set by the phases of the moon continued as ever, but set dates, such as Midsummer and Christmas, now fell on the “wrong” days. Plants didn’t know this, of course, but it muddled folklore, making some customs even stranger to modern eyes.
In Utah, kids moving through the school cafeteria line at lunchtime can come across the Elliott apple, a yellow-gold fruit with a light blush of red. Discovered in-state and hard to get elsewhere, it’s a uniquely Utah product.
We have all heard the saying “Fall is for Planting,” but this adage does not hold true for all plants. Autumn is an excellent time to establish many trees, shrubs, and perennials, thanks to cooler temperatures and more frequent rains. These conditions put less stress on plants as they establish their root systems. Yet despite these advantages, not all plants benefit from fall planting. As the autumn weather draws you back into the garden it’s important to consider which plants you should never plant in fall.
IT IS NOT TIME quite yet here for what I call the mad stash, storing those non-hardy plants for the winter that we wish to keep alive for another year of service. But it is time to make some plans to do just that.
Traditionally, greenhouses can be quite energy and water intensive, running on fossil fuels which are detrimental to the environment. This is why more and more UK homeowners and gardening enthusiasts are designing their greenhouses with sustainability in mind. In this article, we’ll talk you through the different areas where you can consider improving the sustainability of your greenhouse and how these could benefit you – so that you can garden with a green conscience as well as a green thumb.