The Dherbs social media team attended an Earth Day event in Los Angeles this past Thursday, April 19th, 2018. Grand Park was replete with children on school field trips and the booths were never empty. Adults and children alike came to learn how we impact the environment and what sustainable steps we can take to be more eco-friendly.
People around the world could be more conscious about their impact on the environment. These Earth Day events help to shine a light on how careless people are, when it comes to giving back to a planet that has given us so much life. We thoroughly enjoyed the plethora of booths, but a couple ideas stood out to us, which we have detailed below.
Vermiculture
If you are familiar with the idea of composting, you will probably recognize this word. Vermiculture is the practice of using worms to decompose organic food waste, thereby turning it into nutrient-rich material that benefits the growth of plants. Think of vermiculture as nature’s way of recycling. Instead of sending food scraps down the garbage disposal, where it will end up in a landfill, bury them in the earth to create healthier soil structure.
To start off, get an airtight container to store your kitchen scraps. If you are burying these in the ground, you can add apple cores, banana peels, broccoli stems, wilted leaves, carrot tops, crushed eggshells, citrus peels, melon rinds, or celery butts, among many other fruit/vegetables scraps. Once your container fills up, dig a little hole in the dirt and bury the scraps. Make sure you cover the scraps with dirt and pack it down. Worms will come and work their magic!
WARNING: Do not compost meat, dairy products, or processed foods.
If you don’t have a yard or an area where you can compost your scraps, you can make a very simple worm farm, which you can keep in your house or apartment. You should get red worms and try to avoid adding citrus peels to the containers; otherwise you will attract fruit flies. You’ll collect liquid in the bottom and it is probably the most beneficial liquid, with which you can nurture your plants. See the video below to learn how to make your own worm farm.
Harvesting Rainwater
We don’t know about people in other states, but California needs all the water it can get. We came across a rainwater-harvesting booth, which we absolutely fell in love with. Rain is not only free, but it also a salt-free water source containing beneficial microorganisms for plants.
Harvesting rainwater can be done easily. Rather than letting the water run from your gutter into the street, you can funnel the gutter into a large bucket for collection. You can water your plants at will with this water. If you don’t want to do this option, you can create a channel system that leads to your plants or yard. When you do this, it helps to replenish ground water. Remember that gravity is your friend when you are creating this channel system.
When rain falls it seeps underground to become ground water, whereby it feeds rivers or lakes. The construction of cities has stopped this natural cycle, meaning the ground can no longer store water as it should. The groundwater works to improve the earth, so there’s no reason not to harvest rainwater!
We hope that you take some steps to be more eco-friendly or employ one of these simple ideas in your daily lives. If these seem too drastic or out of reach, try carrying a reusable straw with you at all times and abstain from using plastic straws. You can also stop buying plastic water bottles and start using a Berkey filter, which is a great product to naturally filter out heavy metals and other toxins from tap water. Happy Earth Day! Let’s treat the planet like we want it to be around for a while!
