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This spring inspired me to take on a small gardening project—I planted a few tomato and physalis seeds that I want to keep in a pot on the patio all summer long. To the potting mix, I added my own vermicompost—made by my California worms in a vermicomposter—to the store-bought soil. Composting is a common practice in our household, and all organic waste—from vegetable scraps and peels to eggshells and overripe fruit—goes straight into the composter.
I got the vermicomposter because organic waste makes up as much as a third of our household waste, and I don’t have access to a garden where I could set up an outdoor compost pile, nor do I have a brown bin for organic waste at our apartment complex.
Why is food waste in mixed trash a problem, you may ask? Organic waste doesn’t decompose properly in a landfill; instead, it’s preserved and releases methane. And methane contributes to the greenhouse effect many times more than the often-cited CO₂.
So if you don’t have a garden with a compost bin or a bio-waste bin, I highly recommend the home vermicomposter from Plastia, which even won a design award years ago.
And how are the tomatoes and physalis doing now, a few months after they were planted? The worm castings are clearly working—both plants have become denser and grown taller, so I expect the first fruits within a few weeks. It’s actually a perfect cycle: the vegetables we grow leave behind trimmings or peels, which the worms turn into plant food-fertilizer; the plants use that to grow new produce, which I then happily enjoy :).
One of the best things about summer? Local produce at its absolute peak. This time of year makes it so much easier to eat more sustainably. Farmers’ markets are full of fresh fruit and vegetables, and choosing produce directly from Czech farms feels like the simplest way to support local growers while reducing food miles and packaging. Urban gardening is also at its peak right now. In my case, it’s very modest - but still rewarding: raspberries (now in their third year and producing abundantly), a few strawberries, and few herbs. Even a small harvest brings a lot of joy.
We’ve also had a small shift at home - a new vegetarian in the family 😊 So cooking has become a bit more creative, especially when it comes to protein. I’ve been using more chickpeas, beans, lentils, and dairy-based options, while meat appears less often, but in better quality. And honestly, this is probably the easiest time of year to make that shift. When everything is fresh, local, and full of flavour, meals naturally start to revolve around plants. This is exactly why I love summer: simple food, seasonal abundance, and small habits that feel both natural and meaningful.
Do you also find it easier to eat more locally and plant-based in the summer?
Not just during the summer months, we love planning micro-adventures - short trips that don't require travelling far and can be planned at short notice, depending on the weather and our mood. We've already discovered many fascinating places nearby that I knew little about before, even though they were practically on our doorstep.
Whenever we travel somewhere farther away, I automatically look up interesting places to visit and things to see. Recently, I started doing the same for the nearby places, and it's amazing how much inspiration for day trips you can find this way. Travelling close to home has many advantages.
Besides the flexibility it offers, these micro-adventures are often a more sustainable way to travel, it supports local businesses and communities, and spending time outdoors on a regular basis is great for mental well-being.
We often make these trips by train or bus. I've found plenty of inspiration on the website "Trips By Train", while the book "Kilometres with Kids" has given me lots of practical ideas for car-free family outings.
Living in a Prague flat, I assumed composting meant having a garden. Turns out the city has already built the infrastructure — you just have to know it's there. Prague now has over 47,000 brown biowaste bins on its streets, and since 2022 getting one for your building costs nothing. You need at least three neighbours on board; one of you asks the building's owner or SVJ to order it, and the city (via Pražské služby) takes care of the rest. The only catch: if the bin sits somewhere locked and collectors need a key, there's a small monthly fee — around 46 CZK for biweekly pickup, 93 CZK for weekly. Only clean plant material goes in: peels, cores, garden trimmings, nothing cooked or meat-based. No bin at your building yet? Kokoza runs community composters around Prague 3 and 6, so you can drop scraps at a shared spot instead — same idea as my own vermicomposter, just sized for a street rather than a balcony.
Eco-friendly cleaning has quietly become part of the mainstream. Today, you can find "green" cleaning products in almost every supermarket and drugstore. Yet for a long time, I remained skeptical. Conventional cleaning products seemed more effective and practical, while many eco-friendly alternatives were surprisingly expensive despite containing only a handful of simple ingredients.
Of course, there are situations where stronger chemicals are necessary. Some stains really do require powerful products. But for everyday cleaning, I have discovered that much simpler solutions are often more than enough. The person who completely changed my perspective was Nancy Birtwhistle. Her enthusiasm for sustainability is infectious, and she has a remarkable ability to explain everything in a way that feels simple, practical, and achievable.
The first recipe I tried was her homemade bathroom cleaner made from citric acid, water, soap, and a few drops of essential oil. It worked exactly as promised. Since then, I have come to appreciate the idea of keeping just a few inexpensive, everyday ingredients at home that can be mixed into cleaners for almost any purpose instead of buying a cupboard full of specialised products. Nancy shares many of these ideas in Clean & Green and her other books, but even her videos are packed with practical inspiration and are well worth watching.
