Planet Savers, Plant it Earth

Plant the whole world!

Isn't this just the cutest seed packet you've ever seen?

My step dad, Jim, gave this to me for Earth Day. It's handmade from recycled paper. Each little earth is embedded with seeds. Mine is forget-me-nots.

I'm going to plant the planet tomorrow. First you have to soak it in water. Then cover it with soil. As the seeds become flowers th fiber will break down in the soil.

I'm so excited by this cleaver recycle product from GP Green by design. That's why they're this weeks Planet Savers!

I love to see companies large and small making changes for a greener planet!

This weeks Sunday Planet Saver is.......

Green grass & no gas!

I'm tipping my hat to my sweetie, Ben for this weeks Planet Saver.

Here's why......

1.  The Grass is Greener: 
Ben loves to buy new tools, or toys as he lovingly refers to them.  This week he purchased this new toy, a push lawn mower.  Less maintenance for him, less pollutants for the planet.  Plus there's the added benefit of no gasoline to purchase so this one will pay for itself!

 

New soil with compost

2. Going and Growing Organic:
Since late winter this year Ben has been bringing home lovely 4 way soil with compost for our garden beds!  Now he's an organic gardener too!

3.  Fresh Air Fabulous:

He put his carpentry skills to work building and installing a beautiful screen door for our kitchen entrance.  Now we've got Eco air conditioning!

It's not Halloween, but still gotta wear a mask

4. Smart Soil:

Ben added vermiculite to the soil for our dahlias.  Yep, that's good for the planet because it conditions the soil and holds moisture.  That means less watering used for flowers.  And even though you need to wear a respirator when mixing it into the soil to keep from breathing the dust particles, it is actually a naturally occurring mineral.

5. Righteous Recycling:
Here you can see Ben working on a cedar round he's been hanging onto for several years.  And he is recycling it into a new bed to hold a dahlia planting.  

 

First a slice down the center with the chain saw.

Next he pulled out the axe and chops out the center pieces.  They won't go to waste though because Ben is chopping those for kindling for our woodstove.

Once the inner stump was removed, it formed a cute flower bed.  The lines of this bed mirror the lines of the rocky outcropping behind it. The big cedar rounds came from a neighbor who had to take the tree out when building his home due to the heart rot in the tree. And because it's only the good cedar used for the flower bed it's naturally rot resistant!

So there are my  top 5 reasons that this weeks Planet Saver is my wonderful partner and buddy.  Way to go Ben!

 

Sunday Simple Steps Planet Saver

Here's a cute cartoon I found on YouTube out of the UK to help us all make simple changes with big impact for reducing our carbon footprint





Some easy ways to make a difference.  Are you doing these things already?   What else are you doing to simply save the planet? 

When we all do our small part we can change the big picture!

My Blog is Carbon Neutral

Speaking of planting trees....  I was catching up on my reading over at  Going Green Crafters and Artists when I found this program for neutralizing the carbon footprint of their blog.  What a great idea!  I want to have a Carbon Neutral blog too! 

Easier said than done, right?  Well not really, Mach's brun (rough translation:  Make it Green) really is making it green by offering to make any blog carbon neutral!  This German program is planting trees in patnership with Arbor Day Foundation at Plumas National Forest in Northern California .  This is in an effort to reforest the area that was devistated by forest fires back in 2007.

So Yay!!!  By making my blog carbon neutral I'm helping make the world a little greener. This spring they will be planting  Douglas-fir, red and white firs, and incense cedars alongside ponderosa pine and sugar pine trees. These new trees will help prevent soot and soil runoff into Plumas’ precious water supplies. And one of those little trees is forever linked to my blog :0)

Here's my new badge to show off my neutral status!

Don't have a blog of your own but want to participate in reforresting?  Don't worry, Arbor Day Foundation has many other ways you can help too!

Sunday Simple Steps Planet Saver

Beautiful and majestic, trees are an important part of a healthy eco-system. Have you ever wondered how trees are helping with offsetting Carbon in our atmosphere?  Well here's an illustration from US Environmental Protection Agency that can help explain the process.

So this week for a Sunday Simple Step, how about planting a tree? 

Maybe there's a spot in your back yard where you need a little shade, or at your summer cabin.  Are you a renter?  Don't worry there are ways you can plant trees too.  Check with your county extension office for programs that are planting in parks, along rivers and streams and even in urban areas.  Or if you're too busy, or unable, maybe you can support a local group that is working to plant trees in your area.

Why not take the whole family and spend a day enjoying the outdoors and helping your eco-system.  I did!  About 10 years back I stumbled on a group that was working to restore a creek bed in a  private cemetery here in Whatcom County.  This area had been clear cut many years before, right up the the banks of the stream that meandered through the property. 

It was a fun day working with a group of about 15 volunteers we replanted all along the stream with native shrubs and trees.  It didn't take long when we shared the work load and afterwards we enjoyed a potluck luncheon with story sharing and good times. 

The trees we planted were quite small at the time, seedlings really.  The group was able to obtain the seedlings from the county extension office for little or no charge as part of a salmon spawning beds rehabilitation program. 

Now, years later, those little seedlings are developing into a beautiful array of native trees and shrubs that are doing a multitude of duties like helping restore habitat for salmon and other fishes, wildlife, beautification of the area, and as the trees mature they are capturing CO2 from the atmosphere and giving back life giving oxygen.

So get out and be a tree hugger or just a tree planter.  Just like Johnny Appleseed, your contribution will be a legacy of love even long after your gone.

Sunday Planet Saver

It's easy to get overwhelmed when greening up our lives.  I mean there's so many habits to change and so much to learn about that at times it can seem like a lot of effort.  That's why I'm all about simple steps.  Just like any journey in life, it doesn't happen all at once it starts with a single step.  So for today's planet saver suggestion I'm appealing to your eco-sensibility to BYOM (bring your own mug)

My favorite Coffee Mug!

I don't know about you, but I don't even try to start my day without a fresh cup of coffee.  When I worked in the "real world" I often had 4 or 5 cups of coffee throughout the day just to stay productive. You know how much we love our coffee in the Pacific Northwest, home of Starbucks, Tully's, Seattle's Best and my favorite Fidalgo Bay Coffees!  Up here you can't throw a stone in the city without hitting an espresso stand! Even if you are just drinking 1 or 2 cups a day, or taking tea on your break, those disposable cups, lids and stir stix add up quickly in our landfills and most of those disposables are not recycle-able!

Think about it in these terms:  There are 365 days in each year with 260 weekdays, so if you work 5 days a week, each year you may be sending 260 plastic, paper or foam cups to the landfill along with plastic stir stix and lids.  That is a lot of unnecessary waste!  

Instead, why not bring your own mug (and spoon) to the office.  You can reuse it all day long without worry of the bottom giving out and at the end of the day just a quick rinse and it's ready for use again tomorrow.  Plus, with your own mug, you can express yourself!  I love that!  When I worked in corporate America I always tried to find a fun happy and colorful mug to express myself in the gray cubicle rat-maze where I spent 260 windowless days every year!  It was a little something that I could do to brighten my workspace up.

So tonight when you are getting your backpack, briefcase or purse ready for the week to come, take a second and add your favorite mug from your cupboard. It's a simple step with a huge impact!  It's easy being green when you take it a step at a time!

When we all do our small part, we really can change the big picture!

Tic Tock It's Time To Start Your Seeds

This blog is dedicated to all you gardeners who are still looking at snow on the ground and wondering when you'll get the chance to dig in to your own garden and get a little dirt under your nails.

Have you started any seeds indoors yet?  It's time! 

Reusing those nursery pots is a great way to go green in the garden!

After transplanting my new starts in the veggie plot, I had a few of those nursery pots left.  In my area, we can recycle them by taking them into Bellingham Tranfer Station at 1001 Roeder Avenue (Corner of F & Roeder Streets) M-F 8-5.  I'm sure I'll need to make a trip in there at some point this season, but why not first REUSE them.  These little 4" pots are exactly what they use at the nursery to plant seeds for starts.

I gathered my 7 little square pots along with some round ones I had left over from last year and grabbed some of my own saved seeds from last year too!  Then I grabbed my favorite potting soil and  got to work.

13 pots ready for seeds

First I filled the pots with organic potting soil and placed them in a plastic nursery tray that I had stored last year in the garden shed.

I was gifted some yummy squashes last year.

They were so great I saved some seeds for my garden!

Next I grabbed my saved seeds.  Each pot got 1 seed planted in the center.

That's alot of squashes for a small garden.  If they all germinate,

I'll pass them out amongst my gardening squash loving friends.

Then I lightly covered the seed with soil and moved the tray into a sunny window where I can watch as my new plants sprout to life. 

Doesn't look like much yet, but in time these will grow into great starts!

Now when these little seeds grow to be a few inches tall, I'll set them out to harden off and then transplant them into the garden.  By starting these seeds indoors, I'll have a headstart on my future harvest and because I've planted seeds I've saved in recycled containers, it's nearly free!  Can you imagine, free organic produce!  What a deal.  The only cost I incurred was for the potting soil and I buy that anyways. 

So if you're feeling blue, burried in snow or other harsh weather and have been feeling jealous of my early spring garden adventures, go ahead.  Start some plants indoors!  You'll feel better and your garden will be getting a head start on spring. 

Bee Green Greenwashing

So yesterday in my post Welcome to 2010 an Earth Odyssey I talked about simple ways to green up your life and our future.  One of those suggestions was to be aware of packaging when making purchases and that brings me to todays topic, Greenwashing.   Greenwashing is a term used to describe companies and products who are jumping on the ecomovement by trying to claim to be green, but on closer inspection are simply trying to fool us all.

This Christmas I received this wonderful and thoughtful gift from my mother.  She chose this for me because she knows how much I love houseplants and being green.  I love it, however it is a great example of a green wash.

I love to Bee Green!

So this company is selling an idea of being green, but check out the next photo and you'll see that they aren't actually green at all.  My cute little plant pot came wrapped in 1 layer of cardboard (not so bad, I'll reuse the box for sorting colored bag strips and when it's worn out I can recycle it) and 2 layers of *gasp* styrofoam.  Yuck!  Styrofoam has NO place in a green product.  I can't recycle it, I can't burn it, it doesn't compost.  It's NOT GREEN! 

 

But this company obviously doesn't really believe in being green

If this company was actually green they would have used cardboard made from recyled content for their packaging.  For a comparable price to styrofoam they could have used EcoCradle natural and compostable packaging material or another natural material.

I hope that by sharing this example, you too will become more aware of the packaging used in your purchases, and be aware that there are many unscrupulous companies out there who are trying to take advantage of environmentally minded people and Greenwash their products and services.  Another example of the age old adage "buyer beware!"

Welcome 2010 an Earth odyssey

Here we are starting a new year and a new decade, and there's no better time to go green.  Here's a 7 simple steps you can take to make the coming 10 years and beyond better

1.  Change from high energy incandesent bulbs to compact florescent lighting.  An ENERGY STAR compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) will save about $30 over its lifetime and pay for itself in about 6 months. It uses 75 percent less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than an incandescent bulb.  It's estimated by the EPA that each CFL bulb can keep 400 Lbs of greenhouse gasses from being released.  Just be sure you know how to dispose of them properly!  Here's what to do if you break a CFL

2.  Turn down your thermostat just a couple of degrees can save a significant amount of power.  Earth911.com estimates a 5% savings on your power bill for each degree you turn down the thermostat. 

3.  Be aware of packaging when making purchases.  So your standing in the grocery store trying to decide between 1 brand and another, do you consider packaging in your decision? Will you choose glass or aluminum over plastic?  Will you choose a refill?  Will you purchase in bulk to save on packaging?  It's a small thing that can make a big difference.  Here's an inovative and very friendly solution by the creative folks at  Ecovative Design

4.  Start a compost bin!  Your garden will grow greener and healthier and you'll save a lot of waste from hitting the landfills.  There are many designs for composters, here's how I made my "Easiest Compost Ever"

5.  Buy local and organic foods whenever possible.  You'll save jobs, help your local community, get fresher and healthier food and help to reduce the emissions that come from shipping over long distances.  Have you heard of the 100 mile diet?  They have a great getting started guide for eating local

6.  Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!  Simple yes, and makes a big impact.

7.  Plant a tree or have them planted by Arbor Day Foundation Just 6 pine trees at Twenty-Five year old absorb up to 1 ton of CO2.

Recycling magazines into Christmas gift bows

Easy recyled bows and they're festive and pretty too!

I've been wanting to try this project that I found on How About Orange to craft your own gift bows using magazine pages.  I made several using her method of staple and glue, but they came out a bit bulky due to the staple in each layer.  With a little experimentation I found a method that worked for me.

Here's what you'll need for this recycle craft project:
     * Paper cutter or sharp scissors
     * Hole punch
     * Brass plated fastners - You can find these at the office supply store, or even some grocery stores.  I found mine in the school supply section at Albertsons
     * Colorful magazine pages

This is a fastner.  The point is 2 pieces that open up to secure your paper

So the first thing you'll do is choose a colorful page from your magazine.  Garden magazines are good for full pages of color photos, or I found that the ads in other magazines were good sources for color I wanted to use.  For this bow I'll show you with a beer ad.  Don't worry, when the bow is done you'll be suprised it came from this:

Now, trim off the torn edge and set aside for recycling.  Then align your page with the edge of the cutter and cut off a strip.  Repeat until you have 4 strips cut.

Next, rotate your paper so that you are cutting from the short side.  Cut one strip.  This short strip will be the center of your bow.

Now, rotate your paper back to the long side and cut off 4 additional strips.

You should now have 4 long strips, 4 slightly shorter strips and 1 very short strip.  Starting with the shortest strip, form it into a tube where the 2 ends overlap by about 1/2".  Punch a hole in the center where the overlap is like so:

Push the fastner through from the inside of your tube and then pull the 2 ends of the fastner apart just enough to keep the tube from falling off.  Don't tighten it all the way yet because you'll  still be working with it.

Now grab your first shorter strip and fold it in 1/2 to mark the center.

Open your strip back up and you'll see the fold line marking the center.  Now take 1 end and fold it over twisting it to form this:

Make sure your ends overlap here by about 1/2" and punch a hole in the center like this:

Now place the fastner (still attached to your tube) through the hole.

Repeat with all 4 shorter strips rotating each section as you add it to the fastner.

Then do the same with the 4 longer strips and add them to your bow.  When you've added your last strip adjust the fastner to secure.

You can't really see the beer ad anymore, all you have is a beautiful

recycled bow to finish off your holiday packages!

That's all there is to it!  When you're ready to add this to your Christmas gifts, simply add 2 sided tape and attach.  I thought these came out so great I made a whole stack of them to use on my gifts

Pretty in Pink, Purple, Yellow and Green

They're festive in Blue and Turquoise.

But of course my favorite are the GREEN!

Have fun with this project and try experimenting with other papers too.  I think some of my junk mail could make pretty bows, but I already shredded it up and put it in my worm bin.  Next time, I'll be saving some out for this project.  Another good one for Christmas would be those Netflix red envelopes.  No limits, let your imagination run wild!

Recycled Christmas Cards to Gift Tags

I save everything.  Every little bow, ribbon or scrap of rafia that comes my way via gifts and packaging.  I have a bag in the laundry area where these things get accumulated throughout the year.  It's great because when it is time for me to wrap gifts I have a lot of recycled items to choose from to make the perfect presentation! 

I've also been saving Christmas cards that we've received.  Someone posted a great idea about making gift tags from recycled Christmas cards on the Facebook Fan page back when we were running our Green for the Holidays Giveaway.

I decided to combine my stash of bows and ribbons with that idea and create some gift tags for our canned food & goodie baskets we're giving out to our friends this year.

Gather your supplies. 

This is a pretty, easy, and earth friendly project you can do in a short time.  All you need are some scissors, a hole punch, a stack of last years cards, some ribbon and a pen.

Choose an overall pattern to cut out for your tag.

Be sure there's no writing on the backside of the picture.

Each card is different, so you'll just have to take a look and decide on a pleasing pattern for the shape of your gift tag.  This one I simply cut out following the over all shape of the main design on the card.  Once you decide on your pattern, cut it out using the scissors, then find a good spot in the design to punch your hole. 

Here's a few in process.  You can see I just cut them out

following the overall pattern of the picture.

Now add a cute bow made from your recycled ribbons

Add your message to the back

So spread your holiday cheer and feel good because you are recycling and giving a gift to the earth too!

Here's the tags I made!