Gardening

Kitchen garbage disposals use a lot of water and the waste has little value to other life forms after sewage-treatment systems are done with it. If you want to return food-based nutrients to the Earth, opt for composting, the spoils of which can be added to your garden to jump start the health of your soil. Photo: Getty Images.

ear EarthTalk: I was surprised to learn recently that some cities, including New York, have outlawed kitchen-sink garbage disposals, at least in homes. I would have thought these machines were Earth-friendly. What's the deal?
--Maggie Mangan, St. Louis, MO

Kitchen sink garbage disposals are not necessarily Earth-friendly in and of themselves, but they do play a valuable role in grinding up food scraps into small enough bits for local sewer or on-site septic systems to handle. In the U.S. overall, about half of all homes have a garbage disposal in the kitchen. New York did outlaw the devices for many years, thinking a ban would alleviate the strain on the city's aging sewer system. But a study later conducted in the mid-1990s found benefits to lifting the ban, including a likely reduction in rat and cockroach problems and a reduced flow of solid waste to landfills already bursting at the seams. So in 1997 the Big Apple began allowing the devices again.

• Host a Memorial Day party complete with flags, red, white, and blue paperware. Invite families for a multi-generational gathering.
• With wasps out and building nests, double check your screens for holes. Hire a pest inspector to remove any new nests as well.
• Weathervanes are chic once again. Now homeowners may choose from a menagerie of roosters, cows, pigs, quails, horses in classic, antique reproduction and modern designs. Even solid copper weathervanes are relatively affordable.

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any people are making their own tinctures from dried and fresh herbs in an attempt to be more involved in their health. Tinctures of fresh herbs have proven to be more vitalizing and longer lasting than dried herbs. Dried herbs tend to get moldy or be eaten by insects; tinctures will not. Tinctures will keep for as long as two years and sustain their potency if stored properly. Creating your own tinctures will save you quite a bit of money.

:I want to be able to landscape my yard, but flowers and shrubs are so expensive. I've tried to plant some perenials so they'll continue to bloom every year, but our yard still needs lots of work. Any suggestions on finding inexpensive plants, shrubs, and or trees? I'm tempted to go to the woods and look for things to steal every spring! And we all know that's not right. Please help if you can.

--Catherine