Sparkles for Earth Day-Each Gem Part of a Whole

From In the Garden

Jan at Thanks for 2Day is asking bloggers to prepare a post on how they live sustainably in honor of Earth Day; which is April 22, 2010. In return not only will you share some tips and ideas for living in conjunction with Earth while keeping your carbon footprint small, you will be entered in a give a way with the chance to win some nice prizes.

Here are ways I live sustainably and try to reduce my carbon footprint:

You know the saying REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE? Well I had to add one more R to the saying and that word is REPURPOSE. I live by these four words to the point I am a bit of a packrat and maybe a bit zealous. No excuse for it but when I was growing up we held on to things 'just in case it might come in handy sometime'. And you know what? I've almost always been able to find a new purpose or use for something I have hanging around the house. The window frame above is one such thing. Many folks are replacing their old windows with new. You would not believe how many perfectly good wood sash windows are dumped in the bins at our dump. Windows can be used for decor, on coldframes, new greenhouses and a multitude of other uses. Hold on to them or give them away to someone else who can use them on Freecycle.

Speaking of Freecycle, this is another way I work to reduce my carbon footprint. Freecycle is a community of people who are geographically close enough to give others their cast offs in order to keep usable items out of the dump. Freecycle is not a place to dump trash but if you have something you think someone else may be able to use (old clothes, lawn furniture, plants, etc) then put it on Freecycle. Things like: plants, bricks, concrete, and a million other things are things I've picked up-all free. If you are not a member of Freecycle there is no time like the present to join.

Here in the Ramsey house we recycle. Recycling is naturally easy for all of us because after having in lived in Germany for over 10 years recycling became second nature. Germans and Europeans in general are more earth conscious and do a great job of recycling. Their resources are a bit more limited so they've had to be smart about the land and the natural resources they do have. Recycling is a big deal and is really easy. We have separate bins in our garage and sort them as we go. As a result we normally only have one bag of trash per week from our family of three that is actually dumped in the landfill.

Composting is a really good thing to do. I believe in giving back to my garden. As such just about anything that will rot goes into one of three 4'x4' wooden compost bins. All compost is used up quickly and my garden plants thank me for returning organic matter to the soil in the ways they grow and bloom and give back to me.

Conserving energy is another way in which we help to reduce our impact on earth. Our temperature is generally set at 68 degrees during the day in the winter, 65 degrees at night. I keep the thermostat set on 78 or 80 degrees in the summer. It sounds high but when it is 90 degrees outside 80 degrees feels pretty good. As a reward for watching our thermostat numbers our electric bills are lower. I believe the formula is that you can save 1-2% off your bill for each degree you lower your thermostat in the winter and raise it in the summer. Not bad for conserving a bit of energy-you conserve your green money too.

Another good and easy way to conserve electricity is to run your dishwasher only when it is full and run it when peak power loads are lower. Sometimes I wait until 9 or 10 at night to run my dishwasher, especially in the summer when air conditioners are running full time and really putting a drain on the power grid. Every little bit helps.

Water conservation is an important consideration for all gardeners.Rain barrels are a biggy here. I have the barrels and the hardware but have not put them together yet (a bit of procrastination maybe?). I really need to get going on putting them in place before summer. In my defense though I do not water my lawn in the summer and I only water my gardens when things looks pretty dire. I hope this summer is as good as last summer and I won't need to water. I also try to plant drought tolerant species as much as possible. These plants are in my most inhospitable areas of my garden and are able to stand on their own. The hydrangeas are close by so if I need to water I can do it efficiently. Watching water use is another way to live sustainably.

I do not litter-ever. I absolutely dislike litterers and I can tell you we have quite a few where I live. I'll save this rant for another day but let me just say the roads in Tennessee are in a deplorable condition and not even the inmates who quietly police up others' trash can make a dent in the amount we Tennesseans have on our roadways. I do my small part in fighting the litter battle by policing the litter in front of my home. I pick up everything from cigarette butts to beer cans and bottles almost on a weekly basis. I wish my neighbors would help out and police the road in front of their yards, even if it is only one day every six months it would help. When motorists see a trashy roadway they are more likely to toss out more trash. It is a vicious cycle. I think if we all just make an effort to police around our properties and to NOT litter then our communities would be a much better place to live and work and raise our children. Pride goes up and the atmosphere of a community changes in a positive way when we live in a clean and litter free community. All it takes is a conscious effort to dispose of trash properly and responsibly to honor our earth. Disposing of trash into a neighbor's yard is never the proper way to dispose of trash. Don't litter and clean up where you can and help out earth and your community and we all live better.

Lastly, I plant a garden and I plant trees. I have given serious consideration to how my house is oriented so I can ensure the trees around my home are in the best locations to provide me shade during the summer while letting in the sunlight in the winter time. It is estimated you can save 10% off you annual electric bill just by having some well placed trees around your property. My garden is a purely pleasure thing for me but I like to think it provides the earth and it's creatures with a sustainable living space. In fact, it is the mission of my garden.

Remember:

Earth Laughs in Flowers. Raph Waldo Emerson.

From In the Garden

I like to think the earth around me is laughing an awful lot when I walk out my front door because as you can see from the picture of my late summer Front Foundation Gardens, there are lots of flowers nearby. But even more important than the flowers and gardens, I like to think I am setting a good example for my children and for others around me. I hope that in some small way we can all work together to make our lives sustainable and work in conjunction with our earth.

Singly we are but a gem, but put together as a whole we can all shine....

in the garden....on Earth Day.

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,

In the Garden