This being Earth Day, I wanted to challenge you to do one thing–make one change–to be more environmentally friendly. Maybe you’re going to commit to not use any pesticides this year, or grow some Asclepias (milkweed) to support your local butterfly population. Sunset Magazine has a whole bunch of Earth-friendly ideas. If you do make an Earth Day resolution, tell me about it in the comments. Maybe we can help keep each other on track.
You Might Also Like:
Previous post: Succulent Container Idea
Next post: Check Out “Dig This” Bookazine!
These are books that I really enjoyed reading (and refer back to regularly). They'll be a great help to you on your container gardening adventures:
Garden Up! by Susan Morrison and Rebecca Sweet
Succulent Container Gardens by Debra Lee Baldwin
Sugar Snaps & Strawberries by Andrea Bellamy
Bountiful Container by McGee & Stuckey
Small Budget Gardener by Maureen Gilmer
Southern California Organic Gardening by Pat Welsh
Container Gardening for California
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
My resolution is to keep a vermicompost. I have been surrounded by friends with worm composts for years now, but never took the plunge myself. As a side effect, I will be producing my own compost (shamefully have been using chemicals to date), and lowering my household waste. We’ve signed up for a CSA basket again this year so there should be a lot more veggie scraps going in there.
I’ve already set up a container so now I just need the worms themselves!!
I’m also homing to do some guerilla gardening but so far I haven’t found much in terms of potential locations.
my goal is to get a covert compost going (mom thinks all composting is stinky and will attract pests – no amount of printed proof can convince her otherwise)…
and to make a bee nesting block like the one in Sunset http://www.sunset.com/garden/earth-friendly/give-bees-chance-00400000029081/page2.html
-M
I’ve decided to increase the amount of trees I have here on my almost 4 acre lot in order to cut back on the amount of mowing I have to do. I began last year by planting a couple of smallish ones, I’ll be looking at some larger ones this weekend.
Although I buy 7th Generation unbleached paper towels, I am going to stop using them and only use cloths/rags for any type of clean up and cloth napkins rather than paper. I am also committed to using less water around the house and catching as much rainfall and I can until I get a rainbarrel. Needless to say I do not use plastic water bottles and am happy to report that my trash out put has been cut by 3/4 over the years.
I’m going to do more reducing the amount of waste I send to landfills and find more ways to reuse things in the garden.
Our family has decided to do our own “Earth Hour” every week. We’ll turn it ALL off and go out for a walk in nice weather. In crappy weather, we’ll light a few candles and play a board or card game.
Although — in theory — I’m a committed pedestrian/transit user, I too often find myself hopping into a taxi, because I’m running super late for something important. I pledge to be more organized/disciplined, so I can keep the cab rides to a minimum. (It’ll not only be good for my carbon footprint; it’ll also save me a ton of money.) Likewise, I plan to be ready to leave the house on time to shut off my computer and double-check all the lights before I go out, rather than dashing off with everything still powered up.