James Franze

Hi Ryan and others,

Just wanted to let you all know about the Hamilton Permaculture Guild list-serv that was started earlier this month as a venue for permie people to share and keep in touch in the Hamilton area.

You can subscribe here: https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/hamilton_permaculture_guild

Cheers,
James

Thanks for your replies, everybody.

It says on the bottle "98% naturally derived" which really could mean anything, and that last 2% could be extremely harmful. As I understand it there is no legal definition for 'natural' so 'naturally derived' could be argued to mean petroleum products. I mean, petroleum formed naturally so everything derived from it is natural, right?

I think for now I'll just use the water with bits of food in it for my garden beds until I find a better product or make my own.

Thanks again folks.

Hi all,

A couple months ago I sheet mulched a couple sections of my yard to make new garden beds which will eventually be planted with natives shrubs and herbs, possible berry bushes. Since then we haven't had much precipitation here and I can tell that it is getting pretty dry. So I want to water my beds without running the sprinkler unnecessarily. In addition to peeing on it, I'd like to start a basic gray water system which consists of keeping a dish pan in the sink and dumping it on the beds when it's full. The only thing that is making me hesitate is the dish soap we use. It looks harmless but I really don't trust the word 'green' on products like I used to.

I'm using Green Works Dishwashing Liquid from the makers of Clorox:
http://www.greenworkscleaners.com/products/dishwashing-liquid/

And here are the possibly suspicious ingredients:
sodium lauryl sulfate
alkyl polyglucoside
lauramine oxide
glycerin
magnesium sulfate
methyliothiazolinone
milliken liquitint blue hp, bright yellow

I know I could type all of these into google and find tons of information but I'm not really sure what to look for. What terms would I want to see, and which should I beware of? Biodegradable? Toxic? Non-toxic? Organic? Inorganic? I guess what it boils down to is: how can I be sure that these ingredients are safe for the plants and soil organisms, and for me if I eat the plants/fruits? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
James

Hi Angel and everybody else,

I'm new too but I didn't want to start a whole new thread just for little ol' me. I'm honoured to be among fellow dandelion lovers. Bitter, yes, free and nutritious, big yes. You know what else is kind of great, in spite of its invasive ways? Garlic mustard. This plant hogs the shady spots around here around here and it took me months to identify it. Now that I know it, I'll be using it in pretty much all of my cooking.

I look forward to learning and sharing with the lot of ya.

Sincerely,
James