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August 28, 2005
Lover of lawns
"I am not a lover of lawns. Rather would I see daisies in their thousands, ground ivy, hawkweed, and even the hated plantain with tall stems, and dandelions with splendid flowers and fairy down, than the too-well-tended lawn." W.H. Hudson, The Book of a Naturalist, 1919.
I am a lover of lawns, in moderation. There's nothing like the green sweep of a cricket ground, and to lie on my back watching the clouds swim gently across the sky was one of the great pleasures of childhood. And you're right: there's no reason I shouldn't still be doing this. But not today. It's raining gently and steadily in Great Barrington. The tomato and cauliflower plants are especially grateful.
And the lawn is grateful, too, I think, because it depends entirely on rain; we wouldn't dream of watering it, as my parents used to water the lawn in front of their California home. It's a mix of crabgrass and clover, with plenty of dandelions and plantain. I'm not sure if it really should count as lawn--it's just a mowed hillside--but it does look quite nice and does just as well as manicured turf for picnics and cloudgazing.
Here's a good book to turn to for advice: Natural Lawn Care, by Dick Raymond. Storey Communications, 1993.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)
August 25, 2005
Redux: 10 Simple, Practical Ways to Green Your Home
I thought I'd share an article from Bottomline Reports that gathered my ideas some 10 years ago about "10 Simple, Practical Ways to Green Your Home."
Everybody knows that there are changes we can make at home to help protect the earth, but many of them seem complicated or daunting. Busy people don’t have time to make non-toxic paint out of burnt baked potatoes. As a mother who runs her own publishing business, I have little patience with some of the silly suggestions I’ve heard from environmentalists, and I look for things I can do that take as little time and money as possible while having the most impact on environmental problems.
1) Regulate your heating. The best way to save money on home heating, and reduce your energy consumption, is to heat the rooms you use, when you use them. Separate thermostats for different zones, timers, and radiator values can control heating, keeping you comfortable without wasting energy.
2) Insulate, to keep your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Windows, floors, attics and doors can be made more energy-efficient. Insulation pays for itself faster than any other conservation measure.
3) Take advantage of solar energy. Leave curtains open throuout daylight hours but close them promptly when it gets dark. Plant trees that lose their leaves on the east and south sides of your home. Remember that dark colors absorb heat whilelight coloars reflectit. Throw a dark blanket over a white couch to increase absorption from the sun.
4) Choose non-electrical equipment and appliances. Sturdy handheld equipment lasts longer and is often easier to use and wash, and requires only human energy to work. Examples are a mouli to grate cheese, a handheld can opener, a carpet sweeper for quick cleaning.
5) Clean out your cleaning cupboard. Most homes are overrun with cleaning products that have been used only once or twice. Give away what you don’t need, or take it to a toxic waste deposit (many towns have annual pickups). Most cleaning can be done with a few basic, non-toxic products - excellent commercial ones are available at wholefood stores, and there’s always good old baking soda, white vinegar, and borax. Tea tree oil cleaners are terrific as disinfectants.
6) Eat the unusual. Encourage biodiversity by choosing the newly available heirloom varieties of potatoes, tomatoes and apples. Shop at farmers’ markets, and buy brown eggs if white are common (the colors of eggs is determined by species, not rearing method), small plantains instead of large bananas, blue corn instead of yellow.
7) Buy old things. Antique furniture and household items, tag sale furniture to be refinished, and high-quality clothing from consignment shops are all ‘recycled’ items and thus reduce waste and do not place extra demand on natural sources.
8) Establish a donations center in your home. Don’t throw away things you no longer need or want. Schools, nonprofit organizations, and charities can make use of everything from excess building materials and computers to clothing and yoghurt cups.
9) Get organized and drive less. By making one trip instead of many, you can save time, and reduce your contribution to traffic congestion and pollution. The majority of trips we make are short ones which can often be done on foot or by bicycle.
10) Pay for labor. In ecological terms itmakes sense to do certain jobs in a labor-intensive way - hand-weeding, for example, rather than using herbicides - so employ someone to do tasks which would otherwise require noisy, expensive and polluting equipment.
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This material comes from Karen Christensen’s Home Ecology (Fulcrum 1990), a guide to green living published in London as The Green Home (2nd edition 1995). Home Ecology has been endorsed by Anita Roddick of the Body Shop, who passes on its tips in her employees’ newsletter, and Alan Durning of the Worldwatch Institute says that Home Ecology is the pick of the environmental lifestyle titles.
"Turning the favorite green slogan 'act locally, think globally' into a practical reality is our number one challenge. This book explains how change on a simple, personal level can literally make a world of difference. A must for every home." - Sara Parkin, leading European green spokesperson
Posted by Karen Christensen at 1:50 PM | Comments (0)
August 12, 2005
Green remodeling
I came across a terrific new book the other day, at a lovely new bookshop called the Stocbridge Bookseller, which has a considerable selection of green titles. The book is called Green Remodeling, Chaging the World One Room at a Time. It's written by a Boulder-based professional green builder David Johnston. This means it's geared more to substantial remodeling projects, the kind you're likely to need a professional for, but there's plenty of advice that can be used by the DIY (Do It Yourself) home remodeler.
My husband David and I are so totally absorbed these days in our publishing business that we don't have big home projects on the immediate horizon, but with this fat guide to hand, even with the few small things we'll want to do this year--some extra insulating, for example--will be easier with this book to hand.
We also want to plant a couple of trees in the autumn, one important way to save energy and increase comfort. Here are some tips from the US Department of Energy.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 6:43 AM | Comments (0)