November 12th, 2009
For the initial Planting Containers, we decided just to use Household trash to begin with…….Every week there are at least two Gallon Milk containers, 1 18 Egg Pack, 6 or more Cans, Styrofoam meat and poultry trays, and other miscellaneous plastic and paper containers. Basically, lots of containers for lots of seedlings. We get a bit lazy about planting for a few weeks and then madly try to get caught up with the supply of Reuse Containers. Here is a link to the Product Page on RecycledPlants.com showing some sample containers.
The process of converting the containers into Planting Containers is straight forward. The Household waste is sorted into four basic groups:
1) Plastic
2) Paper
3) Cans
4) Egg Cartons and Meat trays
1) For plastic containers with narrow tops, we use a box cutter to cut off the top sufficient to have a opening which makes it easy to add plants. Then I use a hobby soldering iron which I use to melt two or three holes in the bottom of the containers for drainage.
2) We do the Paper Containers the same way as the Plastic Containers. Cut off the tops if required and burn drainage holes.
3) The Cans just need Drainage holes, and for this we use a small Phillips Screw driver as a punch and a small tack hammer and punch two or three holes in the bottoms for Drainage.
4) Our Egg Cartoons are paper which makes them great for small seeds, but we found out they fall apart very easily so we started using the meat trays under the Egg Cartoons so I could move them around. Then we noticed the trays didn’t drain (obviously as they were plastic), so we burned drainage holes in them with the soldering iron and this combination made for nice seed trays.
Here is a link to our video on how to convert your household trash into Reuse Planting Containers.
We keep our eye out for nursery containers being thrown out and salvage a few every month or so. We reuse 5 gallon containers usually paint, and a local restaurant helps us out in several ways: they save the 5 Gallon Oil containers which we reuse, and they save CRV containers which we turn in to help with our 15 Gallon Container purchase fund.
Posted in Recycle, Reuse | No Comments »
October 30th, 2009
Last year I ordered some fruit trees (2 -Asian Pears, an Almond, and another Nectarine) from Bay Laurel Nursery:
www.baylaurelnursery.com
the products were superior to anything I have ever ordered and I order at least a few things every year for at least 30 years. I noticed on their packing slip, they have a USDA license and California Nursery Stock Certificate, etc. I was amazed at how many people seemed to be involved in the shipping of my order. I thought I was just going to sell my seedlings but I discovered “opps” there might be a few hoops to jump through first….
I did a little research up on the Internet and found there was a License with an exemption for small time home growers. Then, I found out that you do need to fill out an Application for License to Sell Nursery Stock. I missed this on the first time through but a very helpful person at the Riverside County Building got us back on the right track. Currently the form is NIPM Item #2.1. NIPM means Nursery Inspection Procedures Manual. I couldn’t find my original Internet version but found one posted by Orange County: NIPM Item #2.1
Then you need a Fee Exempt License to Sell Nursery Stock NIPM Item 2.4
Here is one from Sonoma Country: NIPM Item 2.4 which exempts small growers from the application fee.
There are numerous restrictions but the biggest is that you cannot ship your plants and they can only be sold in the county in which they are grown. There are some others but those are the key restrictions.
I am lucky in that I already have a number of small businesses so I have the business licenses, Resale Licenses, Sales Tax, etc. so I did not have deal with those issues.
Basically, you need a business license, a sales certificate, and an agricultural license, as well as all the business “stuff”. I am not going to tell how to do it, but I can tell you my style never really changes when dealing with these issues. I go direct. So, I walked into the City Hall and asked for who handles Business Licenses (a very helpful lady decades ago got me through that one painlessly), and then walked down the street to the California State Building and asked where you get your sales license went to the 10th floor and they walked me through the application (a little more complex but got the job done), and then I sent one of my grown sons down to the County Agricultural Office to understand and submit the applications for License to Sell Nursery Stock and the Fee Exempt License. We had it wrong, and a very helpful man helped us with the forms.
All in all, it would take me a half a day to do it now with what I know, but if I were young and starting over and knew nothing, I would figure a day spread out over several days with some of the items taking more than one visit. Not nearly as difficult as many of government processes and similar in pain to renewing a driver’s license or registering a new car title or getting a smog check, etc.
Tags: license
Posted in Income, Produce, Recycled Plants, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
October 26th, 2009
In the 23 years we have been here, I never recall seeing seedlings from the Moreton Bay Fig tree. Even though, it always seems like it dumps hundreds of bushels of figs every fall (the kids use to call them peanuts, and they seem to rain endlessly in the fall and can hurt just a bit if the catch you square in the head).
I assumed we didn’t the have the correct wasp type to pollenize the fruit correctly. But, then to my surprise this year, first in a batch of Hibiscus we were rooting and then in a number of other containers, these waxy leafed “weeds” kept appearing. I pulled a bunch of them as weeds and then left a group of dead Hibiscus slips in the beds to see if there were any late rootings. This group was allowed to sprout weeds and suddenly there were these very fast growing waxy leafed weeds. Then I realized they were Moreton Bay Fig seedlings.
Very interesting. Someone who really knows propagation which I do not…might be able to explain why. In the past, even though, the figs were allowed to fall into beds with mulch, they never produced seedlings.
This year because I use mulch from the Moreton Bay Fig as the primary potting soil we are obviously hitting a correct combination. I am guessing more shade and more water. Could be wrong.
Just the oppose is true for the Passion Fruit seeds, they don’t seem to sprout in the shade with moisture, but as soon as you move the flat into the sun with water, off they sprout even after months in the containers.
Posted in Recycled Plants | No Comments »
October 25th, 2009
A little long for a blog post, but one of the objectives of Recycled Plants was to also to produce vegetables, fruits and nuts to reduce our food bill as well as to produce vegetables and fruits for sales to contribute to our revenue fund to produce renewable energy.
As part of the Recycled Plants Challenge was to increase our production without increasing water usage. This is being accomplished through a conversion to drip irrigation, mulching, and next will be rain water capture and reuse.
The list below is our shopping list of the vegetables, fruits, and nuts which we use regularly and which we thought we could produce in sufficient quantities to serve our needs.
Probably, the biggest lesson one relearns in this process is that we eat what is in season, or preserve the surplus. Ann loves to dry the excess Apples, Bananas and Plums which she puts in plastic sandwich bags in the refrigerator and gets the dry fruit as snacks over the months until the next fruit comes into season.
And, switching to similar items, so for example, we changed from frozen Orange Juice to fresh Grapefruit juice in the morning. Generic Brand Orange Juice for us is $1.88 per can and we used to buy 4 cans a week. Just shifting to home grown on this item saves us about $7.52 a week or $391.04 per year.
The reason why we don’t squeeze our Oranges is that are they are superior Seedless Navels which ripen at Christmas. Though we have 5 Seedless Navels and 1 lesser Juice Oranges, they seem to always get eaten and disappear so there is nothing left to juice.
We have to fight with the Raccoons, Opossums, and Foxes for the Avocados and Grapes.
Right now we only get excess Grapefruit and Avocados.
Here is the Shopping List:
| Vegetable |
Weekly Usage |
Yearly Demand |
In Production |
Sufficient |
Excess for Sales |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Artichokes |
0.25 |
13 |
no |
no |
|
| Asparagus |
5 |
260 |
yes |
no |
|
| Bell Peppers |
5 |
260 |
yes |
yes |
|
| Broccoli |
2 |
104 |
yes |
no |
|
| Cantaloupe |
1 |
52 |
yes |
no |
|
| Carrots |
2 |
104 |
yes |
no |
|
| Cucumber |
2 |
104 |
yes |
no |
|
| Lettuce Head |
1 |
52 |
no |
no |
|
| Lettuce Leaf |
1 |
52 |
yes |
no |
|
| Onions |
1 |
52 |
yes |
no |
|
| Potatoes |
5 |
260 |
yes |
no |
|
| Squash Summer |
2 |
104 |
yes |
yes |
|
| Squash Winter |
1 |
52 |
yes |
yes |
|
| String Beans |
10 |
520 |
yes |
no |
|
| Sweet Potatoes |
0.5 |
26 |
yes |
yes |
|
| Tomatoes |
5 |
260 |
yes |
no |
|
| Zucchini |
2 |
104 |
yes |
yes |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Fruits |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Apples |
7 |
364 |
yes |
yes |
|
| Avocados |
7 |
364 |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| Bananas |
7 |
364 |
yes |
no |
|
| Grapefruit |
14 |
728 |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| Grapes |
1 |
52 |
yes |
yes |
|
| Lemons |
1 |
52 |
yes |
yes |
|
| Limes |
1 |
52 |
yes |
no |
|
| Nectarines |
7 |
364 |
yes |
no |
|
| Oranges |
7 |
364 |
yes |
yes |
|
| Peaches |
7 |
364 |
yes |
no |
|
| Pears Asian |
7 |
364 |
yes |
no |
|
| Plums |
7 |
364 |
yes |
no |
|
| Pomegranate |
1 |
52 |
yes |
no |
|
| Tangerines |
1 |
52 |
yes |
yes |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Nuts |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Almonds |
7 |
364 |
yes |
no |
|
| Macedamian |
7 |
364 |
no |
no |
|
| Pecan |
7 |
364 |
yes |
no |
|
| Pistachio |
7 |
364 |
no |
no |
|
| Walnut |
7 |
364 |
yes |
no |
|
Posted in Produce | No Comments »
October 24th, 2009
We sold a lug or case of Avocados, very large and superior Fuertes, for $20 to a great local restaurant. Cases are usually 25lbs, but we added an extra five pounds to make sure they were happy. Also, they offered to help us with the project by saving the CRV containers for us and saving the 5 Gallon Oil containers so we could recycle them as planting containers. This is going to be a great relationship. The restaurant is also going to save the Avocado pits so we can plant them for resale in a few years. (See, www.recycledplants.com for how they look as starter seedlings)
We then took this money and went to Costco in San Bernardino (http://www.priceviewer.com/costco_locations/478-California.html) which a great promotion on with Southern California Edison for an instant rebate program on Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs. (http://www.sce.com/residential/rebates-savings/lighting/)
Basically, the deal was to buy the lights bulbs and get an instant 75% to 83% discount at check out. So, we bought two packs of 4 120W outdoor flood lights from FEIT Electric (http://www.feitelectric.com/compact_fluorescent/feit_compactfluorescent.html) They are significantly brighter than the old 100 Watt bulbs and the claim is they used 75% less energy or 23 Watts and last 5 times longer and save me $465 per year per pack? Not bad. Even better was that these CFL’s would have cost $17.29 and with Costco and Southern California Edison’s teamwork on the instant rebate the cost to us was: $17.29 – $13.00 = $4.29 plus tax per pack.
We also purchased a 16 pack or indoor 100 Watt CFL from Lights of America (http://www.lightsofamerica.com/en/Product%20Categories/CFL.aspx) and again the claim was they only used 23 watts per bulb and this would save me $77 per bulb per year? or life time? It is unclear what they are claiming….but somewhere, sometime, we are supposed to get 16 X $77 = $1232 in savings. Again, even better was that these CFL’s would have cost $30.59 and with Costco and Southern California Edison’s teamwork on the instant rebate the cost to us was: $30.59 – $25.60 = $4.99 plus tax.
The total purchase was only $13.57 after rebate, and with the claims of $2162 in savings (unsure of time frames) would still be in the 15932% return on investment (not concerned about), let alone the astounding claims of beneficial impact to the environment like “green house gases saved by using the bulbs in this pack are the equivalent to planting 165 trees” (do care about).
Tags: cfl
Posted in Purchase, Reuse | No Comments »
