Nontoxic Garden Ideas

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The following is an article that was published in the 05AUG00 issue of the Green Bay Press-Gazzette. This article is presented in its entirety under the fair use doctrine for discussion purposes only.

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NONTOXIC GARDENING IDEAS

Knight Ridder Newspapers

Are you looking for some nontoxic gardening ideas? Here are just a few of them from Ellen Sandbeck's book,"Slug Bread and Beheading Thistles: Amusing and Useful Techniques for Nontoxic Housekeeping and Gardening."

Mmm, raw dough: Make slug bread by mixing 3 = cups warm water, 1 package (1 tablespoon) baking yeast, 1/4 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons salt and 4 cups of flour in a bowl. Let sit as you find and prepare empty plastic milk jugs. Cut quarter sized holes about halfway up sides of jugs. Pour an inch of slug bread into jugs, put on jugs' lids and bury them so holes are just above ground level. Slugs, attracted to the fermenting dough, fall in and cant get out. Pour out when it gets nasty and add fresh dough.

Horsetail vs. fungi: A spray made of horsetail "tea" kills powdery mildew and other fungi without disturbing soil life. Boil a potful of fresh horsetail, or Equisetum, for 15 to 20 minutes and let cool. Strain and spray on affected plants. (By the way, Equisetum in a garden suggests the area is poorly drained. To get rid of horsetail, improve drainage and add compost.)

Sawdust mulch: A sawdust mulch around strawberry plants will help prevent slug damage. Use sawdust only from untreated wood.

Peppered Larvae: Mix 2 tablespoons powdered cayenne pepper and six drops liquid dish soap in one gallon of water. Thoroughly mix solution and spray weekly to fight a number of pests, including cabbage loopers, diamondback moth larvae and imported cabbage worms.

Aphid trap: Trap aphids and small flies with the color yellow, which they love. Put a yellow can or container in a clear plastic bag, then coat the bag with Tanglefoot or petroleum jelly. Put can on a stake in the garden. A yellow-container filled with water will drown aphids.

-- William in WI (thetoebes@webtv.net), August 15, 2000

Answers

William, Thanks for sharing this. Also could you explain the fair use doctrine in more detail.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), August 15, 2000.

Im not a lawyer and dont have the complete text of all the laws this would include but, the gist of it is that if you properly quote a source and include the information from the source without modification and do not use that information for profit but rather for personal discussion reference or personal educational purposes, then copyright laws dont apply. Obviously, it is somewhat more complicated. I thought I should add that statement in because another site that I visit frequently is involved in some pretty heavy lawsuits because sources on copyrighted materials were not being properly referenced in the plaintiffs opinion. Well, that was their excuse to bring the suit, it is actually being politically driven and that was a convenient excuse. I posted it as a safty net I guess, I would hate to have Steve and everyone up at Countryside HQ get in hot water because of something I posted here.

-- William in WI (thetoebes@webtv.net), August 15, 2000.

Thanks for the update on that, sorry didn't get to respond back quicker, so many threads and I have found myself "wandering in web purgatory the last few days ---- access denied.....denied...timed out"

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), August 21, 2000.

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