Save Petroleum: Plant Perennials!

Annual plants are pretty but use loads of petroleum and petrol products in the heating of greenhouses and production of plastic pots. I often wonder how much plastic is generated by us as well-meaning Mother's Day celebrants, so on the 2nd Sunday of this month, when thinking of honoring your mother, please consider this list of hardy, sustainable perennial plants, ready to yield much joy and a gentler touch on our Mother Earth.

Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia Goldsturm)
They look glorious amassed with a tall grass backdrop and bloom from mid-July into October.
Sedum “Autumn Joy
Taller than most sedum, these florets change color from green to pink to orange to dark red in the fall and, most amazing, chocolate for winter to contrast with the snow! Perhaps you'll find another variety you like. There are several hearty beauties.
Cone Flower (Echinacea)
Various varieties and colors
Asters
Fall-blooming, many varieties
Peonies: Want a spectacular flower? See Peter Waltz at FUUSE!
GROUND COVERS:
Geranium “Spessart” (hardy, lemon-scented fragrant), “New Hampshire” variety Epimedium for full shade — various varieties
- Grasses: Calamagrostis, feather reed grass, various vartieties, earliest to grow; Miscanthus, tallest, various varieties, most of them later blooming; Pennisetum, plume grass, denser, great blooms.)

These are just a few of the hardy plants and grasses that are all best planted in masses (except peonies), although any of the grasses may also be used as single accents as well. Once established, these plants require very little care, are pretty much drought resistant and offer much pleasure and low maintenance.

Previous Green Tidbits

Green Lawn Care

Lawn care in the U.S. has come at a high cost to the environment. According to the U.S. National Wildlife Federation:

30% of water used on the East Coast goes to watering lawns; 60% on the West Coast.
18% of municipal solid waste is composed of yard waste.
The average suburban lawn receives 10 times as much chemical pesticide per acre as farmland.
Per hour of operation, a gas lawn mower emits 10–12 time as much hydrocarbon as a typical auto. A weed eater emits 21 times more, and a leaf blower 34 times more.

Where pesticides are used, 60–90% of earthworms are killed. Earthworms are important for soil health. Here are some things you can do:

Reduce the size of your lawn. Choose the least functional and/or hardest to mow areas first, and replace with native trees, shrubs, ground covers, or native grasses and wildflowers that are well-adapted to the region. They will require less fertilizer, fewer or no pesticides, less watering and less maintenance overall.
Invest in an electric, solar, or human–powered push mower.
“Grasscycle” your lawn clippings by allowing them to fall to the ground when you mow. This is healthier for the lawn, and reduces waste.
Compost leaves and other yard waste and use it as mulch around shrubs and flower beds. This will help to retain moisture and require less watering.
Capture rainwater in a rain barrel for reuse.

Community Organic Garden

Look for our Community Organic Garden in the side yard. Almost $450 was raised toward this effort at the RE-hosted pancake breakfast held on March 8th. Thanks to all who participated and contributed. We now have the raised beds, constructed by Paul Robinson, in place and we’ve received the organic soil we ordered. Seedlings for early, cool weather crops of lettuce, peas, and broccoli are “incubating” in the RE Area. What an exciting — and green — project this Garden is. It will be planted by our children, inspired by Gardens not Lawns!

Green Sanctuary

We’ve all heard the mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle,” but too often recycling has overshadowed the first critical step of waste prevention. Here are a few things you can do to promote a greater awareness of the importance of the “reduce” step.

Buy in Bulk: Avoid purchases that are packaged for single use (i.e. drinks, school lunches, candy, cat and dog food, salad mixings, etc.) Instead, buy in bulk and transfer the products to your own reusable containers.
Avoid Creating Trash: When ordering food, avoid receiving any unnecessary plastic utensils, straws, etc. Don’t accept “free” promotional products, buy products with the least amount of packaging. Every little bit of trash avoided does make a difference!
Shopping Bags: While shopping, if you only buy a few products, skip the shopping bag. For larger purchases, bring your own.
Reduce your junk mail by opting out of pre-approved credit offer mailing lists, and removing your name from DMA Member prospect lists. More information can be found at https:// www.dmachoice.org/MPS/mps_consumer_description.php.
Tree-Free Home: As much as possible, create a tree-free home:
- ~ Use cloth napkins and towels.
- ~ Purchase bleach-free paper products made from the highest post-consumer waste content you can find.
- ~ Print or write on both sides of the paper.
- ~ Have a reusable message board in your home for messages and appointments.
Reduce Purchases: In general, think before you buy any product — do you really need it? How did the production of this product impact the environment and what further impacts will there be with the disposal of the product and its associated packaging materials? When making purchases, impose a waiting period to eliminate impulse buying; this will help your wallet as well as the environment.

Bottled water is bad for the environment, expensive, and despite what many people believe, it’s not superior to tap water.

The bottled water industry uses vast amounts of carbon dioxide–generating fossil fuels to bottle and transport its bottled cargo. Further, it takes 1.5 million barrels of crude oil to provide the plastic for just one year’s worth of water bottles. It takes the equivalent of 37,800 18-wheel trucks to distribute a year’s supply of the stuff. Every step of this distribution process means the release of greenhouse gases.

Bottled water is incredibly expensive. A single 20-ounce bottle of water costing $1.50 would pay for about 1000 gallons of municipal water. If your tap water cost the same as the cheapest bottled water, your average monthly water bill would be about $9,000!

A lot of people think bottled water is better than tap water, but it isn’t. As a matter of fact, 25 to 40% of bottled water is tap water, nothing more. Because FDA standards for bottled water are looser than EPA standards for public tap water, sometimes bottled water contains more impurities and contaminants than public tap water. Perhaps you might consider kicking the habit. In doing so you will be saving money, helping the environment and even doing your bit to slow global warming.

Source: Raymond T. Jones, article for the Brentwood newsletter

Composting

Home composting is much easier than what you might have heard. You cannot fail, because compost knows what to do. There is a wealth of information about composting and not one, absolute “right way” to do it. Balancing ingredients greens vs. browns, hot vs. cold, small vs. large, and aeration are all factors that may affect the rate of decomposition — but you will still end up with compost in the end. Yard waste, vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds and filters are just a few items that can be composted. Avoid meat and dairy products, pet or human waste, and fireplace ashes. For a more complete list of what can and can’t be composted, refer to: www.compostthis.co.uk.

Composting offers the obvious benefits of resource efficiency and creating a useful product from organic waste that would otherwise have been landfilled. It also cuts down on greenhouse gases by reducing the amount of waste that needs to be transported.