Vitamin Green

India has reached a point where it needs a REAL green revolution to preserve and replenish its rapidly diminishing ecological wealth, and Kenya has some inspiring lessons about how this can be achieved…

Learn about the inspiring story of Nobel Prize Peace winner Wangari Maathai.

Have some problems with your plants that you just can’t solve?

This 2 ½  hour workshop is intended to provide you with ideas and solutions for successfully growing ornamental plants, trees and fruits in your own garden, terrace or balconies.

Miguel Braganza, who has over 25 years of experience in agriculture and landscaping will be providing the answers to your questions on any aspect related to growing and caring for your ornamental and food plants. Special emphasis will be placed on how you can manage different types of pests organically.

The session will also feature a tour of Valmiki Faliero’s wonderful fruit garden, which is a great source of inspiration for those interested in growing different types of fruits in Goa.

PRE-REGISTRATION ON PHONE REQUIRED. Maximum of 50 participants in this session.
Call Karan Manral (Green Essentials – 245-1360 or 80870-00708) Or Eulalia D’mello (Vardaan – 95274-63684)

DETAILS ABOUT THE SESSION
Date: Sunday, 13th February 2011
Time: 10:30 am to 1.00 pm
Venue: Valmiki Faleiro’s Residence, Beside Holy Spirit Church, Behind Holy Spirit School, Margao.
Fee: Rs. 100/- per person
Conducted by: Miguel Braganza, Valmiki Faleiro and  Green Essentials

PARTICIPANTS WILL LEARN
•    How to cure pest problems they are facing with organic inputs and techniques
•    About what vegetables can be grown in the coming summer season (March to May)

Here is a very interesting alternative to the regular/cold composting methods that we are using ourselves and promoting to our Khamba customers.

This tutorial on the Berkely Method is amazingly descriptive and detailed. (Thanks for the tip Clea).

It seems like a wonderful solution for those with large gardens and lots of tree leaves.

Some highlights…

1. Just 18 days for composting
2. Kills weed seeds and pathogens
3. Breaks down material into very fine compost

We’ve had an overwhelming (literally) response to the Organic Kitchen Gardening Workshops that we held at the ICG over the last 2 weekends (Jan 16 and 23, 2011). We had almost 300 participants, and unfortunately had to dissappoint many more.

See the photos on our Flickr photostream.

Its really been a revelation to see so many people concerned enough over food to make the investment of time and energy require to grow their own food. Its also clear that Goa’s gardeners don’t see urban agriculture as a ‘for the poor and uneducated only activity’.

We’re hoping to see much more activity in growing organic food in the next few months.

Make tote bags from old tank tops?

Another gem of an idea from CraftyNest with a really great tutorial on how to do it the right way.

Note: Make sure you are using the right kind of top and decide the size based on your ‘strap strength’ (see the instructions).

We can’t wait to get started!

TetraPaks are very common in our home nowadays, and its good to see that someones recycling them for useful applications – notebooks, diaries, napkins, toilet rolls, pens and even roofing. This IS happening in India

Chemicals are an important part of technology that has added great convenience to our lives over the last half-century.

But we’re now finding out that many of the things we are using everyday, contain chemicals that have major long term health consequences…not a pretty picture

Read more here — Non-Stick and Stain-Free: The Soiled, Messy Truth

via Greenr

Megaprojects are the toast of this decade in India.

With financing becoming easier to obtain, and the government looking to push development (or is it industrialisation?) in a major way government and business are thinking big.

While conventional wisdom seems to suggest that economies of scale make this the only way to go, why do so many mega projects seem to fail (overruns in cost, time to completion or outright cancellation)?

Answer? The risks are often misrepresented or miscalculated…

MUST READ: Megaprojects and Risk (Book Excerpt)

Some interesting reading about these issues (and examples)…

25 power projects fail to materialise in Karnataka (via Rediff)

Consequences of Mega Projects (via JSTOR)

The real story of Dabhol (via Outlook)

Why mega-projects are falling apart (via Crainsnewyork)

Mega-projects: the changing politics of urban public investment (Book)

Bandra-Worli Sea Link: cost rose 6-fold to Rs1,600 crore new (via domain-b.com)

SEZs: Bumpy road to economic prosperity? (via The Hindu Business Line)

You can now get the complete digital collection of National Geographic (everything that they’ve ever published over 120 years), on one hard disk drive.

“…definitive collection of every issue of National Geographic magazine, digitally reproduced in stunning high resolution, brings you the world and all that is in it..”

Get it at National Geographic Online

Only available in the US, so get in touch with your friends

Here’s a blog that features some of the most interesting videos about our environment (both the lighter and more serious side), from all over the internet. Makes for lots of very engaging viewing and proves definitively that a video says more than a thousand words…

Check out Eco Entertainment