Dear friends,

We received our latest copy of Shared Earth Magazine yesterday, and what an inspiring and utterly practical second edition it is!  The magazine embodies its vision of Practical ideas for self-sufficiency and sustainable living through its many no-fuss do-it-yourself features. Of course we are also very proud of Project 90 by 2030’s inside cover page editorial!

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We’ve considered constructing a vegetable garden at our office for a few months now – without much action – and this latest issue has a great plan and a solution to get us started. We have no garden space at our office, so we have to do the garden on a paved backyard. We’ll post some images of our “veggie garden on concrete” project right here.

Those of you who grows tomatoes might have experienced that its very hard to keep tomatoe plants upright and supported as it grows bigger and bears fruit. Fear not, beacause there’s another way – upside down tomatoes!. James Thornton shares in Shared Earth that “we also grow tomatoes in our veggie patch, but the ones growing up-side down have better yields and are virtually disease and pest-free. I attribute this to the face that the branches have less stress while growing, and have better air circulation.”

There’s much more to read about in the magazine, from cooking compost, urban homesteading, and frugal parenting to building with adobe bricks, fresh foods markets (by Cape Town’s very own Pia Taylor – creator of the Mother City Living blog), food preservation,  heirlooom vegetables, and rain gardens & living roofs.

Issue no.2 is also the launchpad for the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry’s (DWAF) new mascot TONTSI BLU. TONTSI BLU is the mouthpiece of DWAF’s Water for Growth and Development Framework Strategy. Their new campaign is aimed at instilling a sense of appreciation of the value of water among all South Africans.

So grab your copy at your favourite bookstore, or susbscribe at Shared Earth. New subscribers will receive a few packets of heirloom vegetable seeds with their first copy! Thank you and well done Steve Venter (Shared Earth) and David Parry-Davies (The Enviropaedia)!

Cut Carbon. Dare to Change!