This is weed. And this is whack with wouty gardens. We’re an organic gardening show focusing on all kinds of ways to help the environment do it yourself and save money in the garden. Right. And it’s winter time here and I for one am hoping for some snow. So we thought we’d talk about alternatives to sidewalk salt as a good environmental issue to take up. That’s right. We’re hoping here in the
DMV we finally get some snow. We haven’t had snow in three years. I think actually snow that stuck to the ground that we’ve had to shut. I don’t think I’ve had my cross country skis out in years. Years. That’s right. We both love to cross country ski or we did way back when. Right. So besides the fact that most of our city ordinances require us to keep our pathways clear particularly for the elderly. It’s just a good environmental thing.
to try to switch from that commercial salt which you know this face of it all goes into the bay and in our groundwater which is getting to be salty enough as it is. Yeah or it ends up going into your surrounding beds which is not good for your plants. So what are some alternatives that I like sand and bird seed. Right. Oh wait a minute. We forgot the first thing. Keep them clear. Oh yes. Absolutely. You want to keep your sidewalks completely clear all the way around your properties and so those of you that live on corners that means not only the front but the side as well. Yeah especially for the elderly and for the elderly dog walkers in the area. I knew you were going to bring up that yellow snow. Yeah. Watch out where those Huskies go. So keep those sidewalks clear and then once you clear them it’s a good idea to throw some sand down. Yeah and there’s plenty of other alternatives but sand is probably one of the better ones.
It’s going to stay there. The birds aren’t going to eat it. Right. And it will give you some traction. But I love your idea of using bird seed because that would attract the birds. Yeah it helps feed the birds through the winter and gives you some traction. It’s a good idea after you clean your walkways to throw something down that will have some traction because in this area we tend to find some ice that we don’t see right away and we slip on that. You know in a pinch a clean cat litter helps coffee grinds help if you don’t have sand to put on your sidewalk right after you’ve shoveled it. There are some alternatives out there. You can use brine. Oh that’s right. Liquid from your pickle jar after you’ve eaten those pickles you pour that on there. And we did read that beet juice of all things will melt ice. Yeah but I can’t imagine any of us are going to have that much of any of those things. And some of that organic beet juice
costs an arm and a leg. You might as well buy whiskey. Coffee grinds will work. Coffee grinds do work. I’ve used ashes from my wood stove that works just fine except where you shovel the snow ends up looking as if a coal truck just drove by because it’s all black. But it does work. So for all those of us that don’t have a whole bunch of ash on hand or in fact if you do have ash I recommend spreading it over your or putting it directly in your compost pile and then working it in with your compost or if you want spread it thinly enough you can spread it across your vegetable beds. And if you really are a wealthy person and can afford this you can actually sprinkle some of your own compost right on on it and of course that’s great for the surrounding
area to have compost. It’s a little muddy. It’s a little muddy but it’s better than having someone slip. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay hey you know we’ve forgotten about our sponsors recently. We’ve been delinquent. Yes. We would like to thank a couple of folks. In particular our sound engineer Willie Errett also
known as Eric Bond. Thank you so much Eric and your assistant Betty Will. Right. And let’s not forget our landscaping crew Moe and Ray Cleese. That’s right. We’d like to thank our our supporters. Yeah. And you know we’ll be back. That’s right. So what did we learn today? Well we learned that you got to keep your sidewalks clear so no one hurts themselves.
Right. And that using commercial products that have salt and stuff is probably not good for the environment and there are alternatives like we said sand cleaning up removing the snow and ice if you can and then putting down sand and possibly birdseed. Birdseed. All right folks so goodbye from Weed and Whack. Join us next week and we’ll be back.
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