Wordless Wednesday: Chives for a Greener Garden

There are plenty of reasons to grow chives in the garden, and the pretty flowers are just one of them. Chives:

1. Taste great—stems and blossoms are edible, and are a great addition to eggs, fish, and salad dressings.
2. The blossoms attract beneficial insects that will feed on insect pests and help pollinate your vegetable garden.
3. Chives prevent scale when planted near fruit trees.
4. Chives add calcium to the soil, which makes them perfect for planting near tomatoes. Additional calcium in the soil means a reduction in the chances that your crop will suffer from blossom-end rot.
5. Chives deter aphids.

All of this from one little plant! Great taste, protection against pests and diseases without chemicals, and beauty, too!

And, yes, I know this wasn’t “wordless” at all—but I can’t help it. Chives rock!

Visit the Wordless Wednesday site for more great photos.

Using Newspaper Around the House

To recycle is good; to reuse, divine. It’s great to recycle your newspaper, but if you can find a way to use it around your house, even better. Here are a few ideas for putting old newspapers to use:

1. Use them to wash windows. Make a spray of a 1/4 cup of vinegar and a quart or so of water, spray onto your windows or mirrors, and wipe with a sheet of crumpled newspaper. You’ll get a perfect, lint-free shine.

2. Packing material. If you are planning a move, or sending gifts through the mail, shred up some newspaper and use it as packing material in your boxes.

3. Add it to your compost pile. Newspaper counts as a “brown” in your compost pile. It adds carbon, and does a great job of drying out a compost pile that’s gotten a little too wet. Just rip it into strips and bury it in your pile. It will break down in no time.

4. Kill grass to make new garden beds. Simply lay three to four layers of newspaper over the grass, wet it down, and cover it with leaves, grass clippings, straw, compost or any other organic materials you have lying around. It will break down, kill the grass, and give you a perfect spot to plant. If you do this in the fall, you’ll have a bed ready for spring planting.

5. Use them to protect your tables when the kids work on craft projects. They’re free, absorbent, and plentiful—perfect if you have little crafters.

6. When hanging photos or artwork, make a template out of newspaper and tape it to the wall to get your placement right. This way, you won’t end up with a bunch of nail holes in your wall if you have to adjust the placement.

7. Use them as dropcloths when painting a room.

8. Wrap presents with them. If the recipient is into politics, or sports, or books, try using those particular pages of the newspaper to really personalize the wrapping.

9. Ball them up, and use them as filler in the bottom of large container plantings. It will save soil, make the container lighter and easier to move, and break down over time. Since it will settle, this is a better solution for containers that will be done in a season or so rather than a permanent planting.

10. Have a new puppy? ‘Nuff said.

There you have them: ten ideas for using old newspapers around the house!

Yes, Really, Unplug Your Electronics

I’ve written several articles now about saving energy (Save energy, Save the Earth—-sorry, I’ve been watching Heroes reruns lately…) and one of the simplest things we can do to save energy is to avoid the so-called “vampire” energy loss that occurs when our electronics and appliances pull power, even when powered off. According to some estimates, including the EPA, vampire loss can account for up to 15% of our total home electricity usage.

So, what is it? It’s the “standby” power that items like dvd players, computers, and televisions use when they’re shut off. It’s the power used to light up all of those little digital clocks on VCRs, microwaves, and coffee makers. It’s the energy that your cell phone charger pulls, even after you’ve unplugged the phone from the charger. And it’s all wasted, resulting in unnecessary greenhouse gases entering our atmosphere.

The simplest solution to the problem? Unplug any electronic or appliance that isn’t currently being used. If you have a bunch of stuff in one area, plug it all into a  power strip so you can just switch it “off” when you’re not using it. It takes a few extra seconds out of your  day, but it’s minimal when you consider what a positive impact it would have if everyone  started  doing it.

Back to those articles. A couple of  them have been submitted to Digg and Reddit, and it never fails to surprise me how much resistance this one simple step gets. I’ve seen comments ranging from “but then I have to  reset my VCR all over again” to “who has the time to do this  every day?”

The funny thing is that my mother-in-law, along with several of my aunts and uncles, do this anyway, and always have. It has nothing to do with being “green,” per se. It had, and still has, everything to do with saving money on the electric bill. My MIL’s been doing it her whole life, and it’s second nature. I’ve never once heard her complain about all the time and effort she wastes unplugging. It’s such a silly argument. The problem is, really, that it’s a different way of doing things, and we humans are, if nothing else, resistant to change.

So, today’s tip: Unplug your unused electronics! Give it a chance. It’s not nearly as onerous or time-consuming as some people make it out to be. And you can feel good knowing you’re preventing all of those greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere. If nothing else, saving money on the electric bill never hurt anyone.

Blog Action Day: The Power of Simple Actions

The most depressing thing I can hear someone say is “why bother?” Why bother changing lightbulbs, turning down the thermostat, using “green” cleaning products, and buying local when our government has failed to take the vast, far-reaching actions needed to spur global environmental change? The ice caps are melting, and we are losing species at an alarming rate. What does it matter how one person lives their life in the face of all of the work ahead of us?

My response to this is that it matters more than you can imagine. One person’s simple actions, when compounded and repeated by millions of people across the country and the world beyond, have the power to change the world. One person recycling and refusing to dump chemicals on their lawn and garden becomes an example, and even an inspiration, for others to do the same. And, in our own lives, one simple change leads to another, and that leads to another, and small changes can lead to bigger changes along the line.

That’s the whole point of green:easy—we have to start somewhere, and the only person we have control over is the one wearing our clothes, living our life. There is no such thing as a “small action.” Change a lightbulb, reuse a jar, wash your clothes in cold water instead of warm. Simple actions, surely, but these simple actions can change the world.

This was my contribution to Blog Action Day—I am one of over 15,000 bloggers uniting today under one cause, the environment. To participate, visit the Blog Action Day website to get started, or to find out which other blogs are involved.

Make the Most of Every Piece of Paper

Friday is green:work day here at green:easy, where we give you simple, inexpensive tips to make your work life a little more eco-friendly,  whether you work from a home office or a corporate cubicle.

Despite all of the predictions that we’d soon be a paperless society, we are all still buried under mountains of faxes, memos, handouts, brocures, and paper-based handbooks. The good news is that,  even before we recycle that  memo, we can put the paper to further use. After all, “reuse” comes before “recycle” for a reason!

Tips for Getting Plenty of Use From One Sheet of Paper:

1. Keep a clipboard on hand. Any one-sided documents that you’re done using can be put, blank side up, on the clipboard to jot notes and messages down throughout the day.

2. Cut one-sided documents into quarters, and use the small pieces of paper in place of message pads, scratch  paper, or sticky notes.

3. Keep paper that is blank on  one side to print out drafts of documents.

4. When possible, print or copy on both sides of the paper.

5. Use strips of used paper as bookmarks, placeholders in documents, or to separate piles of  copies for sorting later.

6. Bring used paper  home for  your kids to draw on  the blank side.

7. Bring used paper home for your kids to make winter decorations, such  as paper chains and snow flakes.

8. Shred used paper and use it as packing material.

9. Shred used paper and put  it into your  compost bin, where it will provide carbon to the pile.

10. Don’t throw out old handbooks or manuals when your company updates them. Since they’re already bound, they make perfect notebooks!

Easy Ways to Preserve the Harvest

Thursday is green:eats day, when we give you tips on how to green your diet.

If you’re a gardener, whether you have a huge garden on several acres or a small balcony garden, chances are that once the end of the gardening season nears, you still have some produce that you haven’t gotten around to eating. We’ve all heard of canning and pickling, but those are activities that take a little more time and some specialized equipment. They can be a lot of fun, but we’ll cover them another time. All you need to preserve some of our favorite crops are ice cube trays, freezer bags, and an oven or stovetop.

To Preserve Garden Herbs:

You can try drying them, either out in the open or in the microwave, but you get a fresher taste from your preserved herbs if you freeze them. Simply chop your herbs (any herb will work) fairly small, and drop about a tablespoon into each section of an ice cube tray. Add water to fill the tray, and pop it into the freezer. Let it freeze overnight, and then pop the herb cubes out and put them in a labeled freezer bag. You’ll have the taste of fresh basil and parsley in the middle of winter!

To Preserve Tomatoes:

There are two easy ways to preserve tomatoes: freezing and drying. You can freeze tomatoes whole to use later in sauces and soups; simply wash them well, pop them in a freezer bag, and use them as needed throughout the winter. Here are instructions for how to oven-dry tomatoes.

To Preserve Dark, Leafy Greens:

For crops like kale, spinach, beet greens, and the like, the easiest way to preserve them is to blanch them for a few seconds in boiling water, then shock them in an ice water bath to halt the cooking process. Place blanched, cooled greens in a freezer bag or plastic container. Don’t worry about drying them–the water will help prevent freezer burn.

To Preserve Green Beans:

Harvest beans when they are thin and tender. Wash, and trim off the stem end. Then, pop them into a freezer bag, and store until you need them.

Who needs overpriced, well-traveled produce? With these tips, you can go to the freezer and relive a bit of summer all winter long.

Empty Cereal Box as Organizing Tool

Saturday is green:organizing day, when we give you eco-friendly tips for how to take command of all your stuff.

This is a fantastic idea from Martha Stewart Kids. Empty cereal boxes seem to multiply, especially if you have kids in the house. You could recycle them, but why do that when you could reuse them as attractive, free, organizing tools?

The gist of the project is to cut a cereal box into a variety of shapes and sizes, depending on your needs. You can make magazine holder-style organizers or file boxes out of standard size cereal boxes, and index card files or pencil cups out of small, single serving size boxes. The article recommends using contact paper or decorative papers to make the boxes more attractive—you could make this really green by reusing wrapping paper or wrapping the boxes in newspaper pages.

Check out marthastewart.com for the full instructions.

Power Down When the Workday’s Done

Friday is green:work day, when we give you tips for greening up your work life, whether you work from a cubicle or your own home office.

Millions of office workers leave their computers on, even after they’ve gone home for the day. According to Kiplinger’s, a mid-size company spends about $165,000 per year in electricity costs for computers and peripherals that have been left on overnight. Besides the obvious economic cost, the environmental cost is equally grim: across the nation, approximately 15 million tons of CO2 are released into the atmosphere. Not good, to put it mildly.

So why don’t the computers get turned off? Excuses ranged from “so software updates can be installed overnight” to “it takes too long to start up in the morning.” Really, people. Are we in that much of a hurry to start working that we can’t wait a few minutes for a computer to boot up? Have a cup of coffee or something.

Maybe the most depressing stat from the polling done by Kiplinger’s is this: 53% of those polled didn’t care what their company’s carbon footprint was. This level of apathy is the biggest hurdle in making positive change for the environment.

So, what’s today’s tip? Turn off the computer when you’re done working, man! And while you’re at it, shut off the printer, copier, and monitor, too!

Make Your Own Organic, Chemical-Free Microwave Popcorn

Thursday is green:eats day, when we give you tips for healthier, more eco-friendly eating.

The past few days have seen leading microwave popcorn producers, such as Reddenbacher, Pop Weaver, and Act II, changing their popcorn recipes to remove the chemical additive diacetyl, which is what gives most microwave popcorn that buttery flavor and aroma. Diacetyl has long been suspected of causing lung disease in factory workers, but the story that a man who ate microwave popcorn every day and developed “popcorn lung” as a result finally spurred the industry to act.

So diacetyl will be gone, but there are still plenty other chemicals in microwave popcorn. Why risk it? Make your own organic, chemical-free popcorn, and it’ll taste better and be healthier for you. You can find organic popping corn at many health food and Whole Foods-type stores. Follow these instructions from Instructables  to make a batch of your own microwave popcorn. You’ll be enjoying your movie in buttery, salty, chemical-free goodness in no time!

Cold Water=Clean Laundry + Less Pollution

Wednesday is green:home day, when we offer simple tips to green up your home life.

Most Americans wash their clothing in warm water. The energy it takes to heat all of that water results in around 500 pounds of greenhouse gases per household being released into the atmosphere every year. And, it costs you money to heat all of that water! A better, and more Earth-friendly, option is to wash your clothing in cold water. Cold water will get your clothing perfectly clean, even without the addition of any special “cold water” detergents. Only items that are very dirty or grease-stained will need to be washed in warm water. For the vast majority of us, our daily lives don’t result in incredibly dirty laundry.

Another green point here is to only do laundry when you have a full load. This way you save water in addition to energy!