Yesterday, Earth Matters blogger Shea posted an item about an LCD clock powered by dead bugs. Well, where there are bugs there's often dirt so I thought it would be only fitting to feature the Soil Clock by Dutch designer Marieke Staps … it was featured at the Design Boom-curated Kitchen Ecology exhibition at last month’s Dwell on Design (check out my post on the DonD-featured GROW solar ivy, too). 

 

Here’s how this mud-powered, ahem, tymepiece works: the natural metabolism in the soil of two ordinary plants combined with cooper and zinc electrode “chargers” creates enough juice to keep the clock a-tickin’. No electricity is required, just H2O to keep the soil healthy. When the plants eventually die, hopefully you’ll have a backup clock to keep you on task as Soil Clock will come grinding to a halt.

The neat thing about Soil Clock is that unlike many of the leftfield eco-products I sometimes feature, this creation isn’t just a conceptual design. You can actually buy it for €35,00 (Staps has created an LED lamp that’s also dirt-powered but hasn’t yet hit consumer-land). I realize it's a bit pricey when you covert to dollars and tack on shipping charges from the Netherlands but, hey, you'll be saving on electricity or battery costs making this home accessory a solid investment — if you aren't in the habit of accidentally killing plants, that is. 

 

Via [Design Boom]