Anyone who has ever charted their carbon footprint knows that traveling can add enormous weight to your impact on the planet. Plane travel uses a frighteningly large amount of gasoline, and the airline industry and its associated services use lots of energy and create a serious amount of waste. So how does one embark on…
If you’ve ever smelled a combustion-engine lawnmower in action, you can understand my concerns about owning one. They are smelly and unregulated and require you to carry a can of flammable liquid in your car. When I moved into Casa Verde, I knew I would need a means by which to control the grass on…
Earlier this summer, I began to notice small round holes in my lawn. I thought maybe a snake or spider had made them, so I poked a stick down a few of them hoping the resident of the hole would scurry out so I could see who he/she was. No one came out, and the…
I know many of you would love to have a big, outdoor garden like mine. I feel so lucky to have the space for it. But what if you simply don’t have that kind of real estate or are currently renting an apartment? No one should be without the satisfaction of picking a fresh cherry…
I must be the luckiest girl alive because my sweetheart LOVES to help me with home improvement projects. I can’t explain it and do not dare question it. I just revel in it night and day. I think one reason he enjoys it is because my projects are Earth-friendly, small and fairly straightforward. My latest…
Although I try to minimize the amount of paper used in my business, I still sometimes scribble notes on scrap paper or inadvertently print out an incorrect invoice. Previously, when I had pieces of paper with “private” data on them (including personal bank statements and the like), I always shredded them. We hear all the…
I’ve always thought the coolest thing you could do was teach your cat how to use the toilet. I get green with envy when I think about people who have done this. As you can imagine, cats aren’t easy to teach, so I’m not even going to attempt this daunting feat on my adult cat. …
Some people choose to eat less meat because they love animals. They can’t imagine killing them and cooking them up for dinner. To be fair, I always had an aversion to veal, lamb and rabbit. It was my thought that small, furry animals should be spared. To this end, I definitely think no animal deserves…
I was very proud of Michelle Obama when she decided to plant an urban garden at the White House. In fact, ever since we went to war in Iraq, I have wished, nay longed, for our President to ask us to pitch in. My heart ached for him to say “Do something!” Like in the…
I recently received the latest issue of Good magazine, and it happened to be entirely about water – the state of our water supply, how to use less water, how much water goes into producing the food you eat, etc. One article, called “This is a turn off” states that the average American uses more…
I wanted to see just how low I can make my electric bill. So, I started thinking about the things in my house that use the most electricity. Air conditioner – that’s pretty obvious. Refrigerator. Hair dryer. Really, those are the only big culprits. I use minimal lighting, and it is all compact fluorescent. My…
I live in a green home. It’s painted green, and I’m making it environmentally green as well. When I moved into Casa Verde (my name for my home), I knew the roof needed some repair. After a few nervous rain storms, I decided that I would sleep better if I just replaced the whole roof……