Super Eco

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March 8th is International Women's Day  a day on which hundreds of events that celebrate women occur all around the world.

For so many women green is the color of choice, the color of hope. Green initiatives offer a way out of poverty and oppression for women and cast a new light upon their role within the nuclear and Global family.

2010 being declared the International Year of Biodiversity, makes this year's celebration of women more poignant since biodiversity is key to the survival and livelihood of so many women worldwide.

The green movement has so many incredible women achievers to celebrate. Here are just a few interesting sites that celebrate women and the environment:

1. Going Green: Women and the Environment at Women Make Movies films by and about women.
2. The Green Women listing at Best Green Blogs
3. The Green Belt Movement whose mission it is: "to mobilize community consciousness for self-determination, equity, improved livelihoods and security, and environmental conservation."
4. The Eco Mom Alliance "a global organization of mothers working collectively to reduce global warming and propel an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable future.
5. Audubon Women In Conservation Program "was created for girls and women to discover the world of conservation and connect with the best and brightest women leaders in the environmental movement."

Happy International Women's Day 2010!

green shopping because / good planets are hard to find / reduce and reuse... http://bit.ly/JnJ00

Saving energy / 26 ingenious ways / around the kitchen... http://bit.ly/10Aw7I

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In 1894 John Muir wrote: "When California was wild, it was one sweet bee-garden throughout its entire length, north and south, and all the way across from the snowy Sierra to the ocean."

He continues by describing the immense biodiversity before him: "The great yellow days circled by uncounted, while I drifted toward the north, observing the countless forms of life thronging about me, lying down almost anywhere on the approach of night. And what glorious botanical beds I had! Often-times on awaking I would find several new species leaning over me and looking me full in the face, so that my studies would begin before rising."

This sounds like a beautiful dream, a beautiful impossible dream. But biodiversity because of its very nature is still within our reach. Favoring  biodiversity over monoculture, that is the crucial task at hand.

Here are some simple ways we can all foster green biodiversity:

1. Become informed about the historical biodiversity of where we live. Find out about local organizations that aid in the preservation of local endangered species, habitats and watershed. Learn what efforts are being attempted to restore these habitats and how we can help. Get the whole family involved.
2. Support worldwide conservation efforts whenever we can.
3. Research threatened and endangered plants species and provide some space in our landscape for them whenever possible.
4. Remove invasive species that may be choking out biodiversity on our small or large acre. Buy our seeds and plants from ethical organic sources. Plant heirloom varieties. Kick the pesticide/herbicide habit!
5. Support our local birds, they are great sowers of seed and plant a  butterfly/bee garden. Compost everything that you can.
6. Dedicate a "wilderness" area on our property where beneficial insects, birds and small wildlife may shelter and thrive. Plant a hedgerow habitat.
7. Buying our meats and produce from local ethical and organic farmers and markets whenever possible is so important.
8. Dialing back our fast food consumption sends an important message to companies that thrive on the devastating practices of monoculture.
9. Buy less stuff: use it up, wear it out, donate it, gift it. Reduce, reuse, recycle, upcycle, repeat!
10. If you are going to buy things, buy handmade things that support local economies, cottage industries and craftsmanship.
11. Whether we live in an urban or rural setting learning what we love about where we live is so important. Taking a walk in nearby nature, noticing that life is happening all around us, becoming connected, breathing...

Have a beautiful green day!

Being green and thrifty / is oh so very nifty / and always in style... http://bit.ly/X64UH

Photo credit: ms.lume on flickr

If a small plot is your plight, fear not for, it's pocket gardening to the rescue!

Taking a lesson from good old mother nature, who can send up a shoot of something green through the cracks in almost any parking lot, some clever folks have come up ingenious green ideas for small gardens.

This new spin on window box gardening has people growing their own green vegetable bounty in the most unlikely places and containers. Pick a pocket, plant a packet and watch your garden grow.

Here are a few really great ideas for pocket and container gardens:

1. Handmade in the USA from recycled plastic bottles Woolly Pocket soft-sided garden containers are suitable for indoor or outdoor usage. Their breathable sides release excess moisture to aerate the soil and their waterproof lining helps keep walls and floors dry.
2. Upcycling an old colander or salad spinner for indoor lettuce and herb growing is a great idea.
3. Create your own attractive DIY hanging pocket garden by upcycling any number of beautifully designed and sturdy coffee or juice bags. Macrame some jute or twine to hang them on.
4. Stylish recycled tire planters are attractive, relatively lightweight and much easier to move around than heavy flower pots. The large handles are really convenient.
5. Eco-friendly and really quite attractive biodegradable rice hull pots and planters are great for green windowsill gardening.
6. Repurpose an old wheelbarrow by drilling drainage holes in the bottom and filling it with soil. This makes a great portable outdoor garden that can be repositioned easily to optimize sunny or shady spots around the garden.
7. Old teapots hung by their handles so that the spout is pointing downwards make great outdoor hanging planters. They usually have a strainer built into the spout to trap tea leaves but if their is no strainer a small piece of screen works just as well. Fill with enough soil so that it does not spill out and plant a hanging thyme, rosemary or other creeping herb and drape it out through the top of the pot.
8. A festive and colorful tin can garden can be made by upcycling large restaurant sized cans. Drill a few holes in the bottom and add some small stones or gravel to provide suitable drainage. Be sure to set these on a tray of some sort as tin cans tend to rust.
9. Always use a good quality organic planting medium to ensure good growth. Well begun is half done.

Don't be shy, if you plant it it will grow! Happy planning, happy planting and please feel free to share your favorite small space garden ideas with us.

Starting plants from seed / we begin to contemplate / the joy of sprouting... http://bit.ly/12yoZ

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I daresay that climate change naysayers will be forced to sit up and take notice when the price of their beloved java rises through the ceiling, roof and beyond. Eventually we all may be dialing back our coffee consumption in the face of skyrocketing prices.

Global warming is having a devastating impact on coffee growers as they scramble to claim land at higher altitudes upon which to plant their crops.

According to Nestor Osorio, head of the International Coffee Organization "There is already evidence of important changes" he states that "In the last 25 years the temperature has risen half a degree in coffee producing countries, five times more than in the 25 years before."

Climate change has shifted the delicately balanced patterns of rainfall and aridity needed for coffee to flourish and prosper. From Brazil to Indonesia coffee is a mainstay export and one of the most important trade commodities in the world.

Fair trade coffee may be the coveted gift you want to give for any occasion as it becomes more and more precious.

Pero anyone?

Photo credit: ms.lume on flickr

The frog was not talking about his garden when he sang "it's not easy being green" he was talking about his soul. Cultivating a green soul is not always easy but it is more worth the doing than just about anything I know.

When it becomes our goal to nurture nature we begin to cultivate a relationship that supports our entire ecosystem.

Remember, if it is poisoning the frogs, birds and insects, then it is probably poisoning us and our kids. So this year take a vow to ditch the pesticides and herbicides and grow a lawn and garden that the frog would be happy to sing his heart out in. Here are some helpful tips:

1. Let's begin by considering our home, garden and environs as part of our immediate family and treat them with the love and respect that they deserve.
2. Keep it simple, let some of the marginal areas of our small or large acre go native or wild. This makes less work for us and helps restore depleted habitats for pollinators and small wildlife. There is no shame in, as Jane Austen puts it, "a prettyish kind of little wilderness on one side of your lawn." You gotta love the style of those nature loving Victorians.
3. Growing grasses, flowers and vegetables that are suitable for our zone helps to maximize gratification from our landscape. Having our soil tested then amending it properly and organically is key.
4. Always choosing to go green with our dollar by sticking to organic and green gardening sites, seeds and supplies for our landscape, is easier now than ever.
5. Making Green Hour activities part of our family's daily routine helps us to build a healthy relationship with our environment. Remembering to dream green by visualizing our lives, our gardens and our planet greenly helps to reinforce their health via "ye olde power of positive thinking."

Happy green planning and I'll see you over the fence this spring with lots of green gardening tips!

Photo credit: OiMax on flickr

“Water is the one substance from which the earth can conceal nothing; it sucks out its innermost secrets and brings them to our very lips.”
Jean Giraudoux (1882-1944)

Although the United States has one of the safest, most bountiful supplies of potable drinking water, there is no guarantee that the water coming out of our tap is completely safe.

The EPA offers some very helpful water safety guidelines and testing protocols. Once our water has been tested, we can choose from the many water purification options available.

Here are some easy, green measures that we can all take:

1. Waste-not, want-not, even though we may have plenty of water, it is important to remember that the most of the world does not. Conserving our fresh water resources is the most fundamentally green first step. Checking all of our faucets for leaks and keeping those valuable drips and drops from being wasted, is a good common sense measure.
2. Recycling gray water from our home and using rain barrels to collect runoff from roof downspouts to water our gardens and houseplants saves a ton of valuable drinking water yearly.
3. Whether or not we have your own well, it is so very important not to use pesticides or chemical fertilizers on our lawn or in your gardens, what we spread around on the ground winds up in the nation's water supply. Properly dispose of unused prescriptions and medications, do not flush them down the toilet! Clean green, being cautious about what products we use to clean up around our homes helps to safeguard the water supply.
4. Using an in-home water purifier is always a great idea. While reverse osmosis water purification can be effective for commercial applications, it wastes much more water than it purifies and can be very expensive to properly maintain. Pressure from consumers and environmental activists has caused Britta to team up with Preserve to begin recycling their filters here in the United States (they already recycle them in Europe). Writing to companies like PUR will hopefully inspire them to follow suit.
5. Ditch the plastic water bottle habit for a reusable green one that you fill at home from your own purified water source.