THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2023 - EARTH DAY IV

 THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2023 - EARTH DAY IV

Some ideas from Earth from the Old Farmer’s Almanac

HELP THE BIRDS AND THE BEES

Set up plants that are attractive to birds (hummingbirds), and bees.  And even plants that butterflies like.

Stop using nasty pesticides and herbicides in your yards.  Maybe allow for dandelions and other natural wildflowers.

Stop irrigating your grass, plant native grasses.  In Texas, it seems as if people want their yards to be manicured, with no weeds, no bugs, and no ant hills - but that can be hard on the environment.  Find drought-tolerant plants.

On my patio, I do have my planter garden.  I have my “eating plants” - Swiss Chard, and Kale (that will soon die back for the summer heat); then my warmer weather “eating plants” - bush green beans (I don’t have room for climbing beans), tomatoes (started by my friend GF), and carrots.  Then I have my flowering plants.  My bachelor buttons have already grown and started to drop their seeds (actually in the middle of my green bean planter). My zinnias, marigolds, and other flower seeds are up and growing.  (I’m looking forward to those because I forgot when plants I got from my friend MN).

My garden reuses pots and planters.  (Being frugal (aka - “cheap”), nothing is quite the same.  One planter is a plastic pail from Halloween.  I use milk jugs for water for my plants.  

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CLEAN UP YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

I am in an apartment.  My community (the city of Georgetown Texas) is big on recycling, but apartment complexes are excused from recycling.  When I first moved in, I separated my recyclables and took them separately to the recycling center.  I regret that I got tired of that and now throw all my trash into the big dumpsters.  With apartments, there are people moving in and out frequently and the dumpster gets filled with cardboard boxes and plastic bins - both of which are recyclable. 

There are bigger items - such as sofas and televisions - that get dumped.  There are companies that will pick up those bigger items and take them to the landfill.  I had a neighbor who moved out and she gave me a chair and a sofa.  For my small apartment, that was more than I needed.  I gave the sofa away (using the Good Neighbor app), and the chair I swapped with my friend MN (and I got her a smaller chair).  

As I walk around my neighborhood, I pick up trash and deposit it in a dumpster.  It is much better there than blowing around.

I don’t live in a dump and I don’t want my neighborhood to look like a dump.  

(Okay, true confessions:  I am a bit of a ‘dumpster diver’.  As I sit at my desk writing this, I see the nice two-drawer end table that I pulled out of the dumpster.  I see the picture of a New England town by the ocean that somebody didn’t want anymore.  I have a metal stand that I repurposed with a can of navy blue spray paint.  It sits by my chair and I put my coffee cup on the top level, and mail on the second level, and books on the lower level.  I brought in an old chest of drawers that didn’t have drawers.  I repurposed it to be a shelving unit for my t-shirts and jewelry.  It is in my bedroom and even if it isn’t necessarily pretty, it is functional.  I repurposed some boards from the dumpster that I used for the shelves.

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WATCH YOUR DIET

I’ve read that about 1/3rd of the food we purchase goes to waste.  And, I am guilty here too.  I have leftovers in my refrigerator that I need to use up before they go bad.  I need to be careful when I do grocery shopping.  Don’t buy things you aren’t going to eat.  

I do buy some things in bulk and use plastic baggies to freeze some items.  In particular, I like the boneless chicken breasts as they are easier for me to use (yes, I could also get the whole chicken).  I also have things in my freezer that I may never eat.  (My friend MN gives me things that she isn’t going to eat and voila - it now is in my freezer.  I rarely eat beef and I have a couple of frozen beef items.

And, of course, some things come in plastic containers that don’t get recycled.

I have very nice plastic bags for shopping.  One store I shop at doesn't provide bags, and you either need to provide your own bags or buy new ones.  (Aldi). I have a mound of shopping bags.

DON’T LITTER

When I walk and hike, the concept is - don’t leave anything except footprints and don’t take anything except pictures.

DON’T DRIVE TOO MUCH

I am close enough to the post office and if I mail things, I walk there (about ¾ of a mile) and back.  I can walk to my dentist, and grocery store (and I don’t buy perishable things like ice cream that might melt on the way home).  

If I am going to drive, I try to combine trips - like days I work, I can also stop at the grocery store afterward and not make two trips.

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WRAP-UP

We don’t have to go crazy to be environmentally savvy.  Be a good steward of Mother Earth.

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, APRIL 20, 2023