Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Backyard Gardens

I think eventually, backyard gardens will be the new "yards".  With people's attention (hopefully) focusing more concern on eating locally grown, pesticide free fruit and vegetables, I believe we will be seeing more and more backyard gardens.  I wonder what our relatively non imposing neighbors would say if we overturned our front grassy yard with the full sun into a farming working garden.  That would mean however, that I (and my husband for that matter) would need to actually LEARN how to farm.  I'm not like this teenager in Michigan I read about today that grew up in 4H and learning about farming as a child.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/magazine/18food-t.html 

But I am very inspired and wowed by what she has created.  I love her entrepreneurial spirit too.  Maybe soon, I'll be posting about the lettuce I'm growing.  We are loving the super awesome tomatoes that my husband is growing.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Lettuce

I'm thinking about growing lettuce.  I really have no idea what it will entail...need to do some research.  I just read a quick paragraph and got compeletly enthralled with it.  It seems totally possible, but I've been a bit nervous about it.  How cool would it be though to have a ready supply of lettuce to eat?  Fresh salad, that seems such a luxury, but really, when you think about it, what is the luxury is spending the money to buy it at the market and then have it go bad time after time in the refrigerator because you didn't eat it fast enough.

Hunter, my 3 year old, would love it too.  He loves eating salads to begin with, but the thought of him getting to pick the lettuce would be very exciting to him I think.  Supposedly you can grow lettuce in just a weeks time.  Again, I have to do some research for growing it here in hot Atlanta, but I know it's do able.

Yay!  I'm excited!!  Here's the ideal picture of what I want it to look like.  I stole this picture from Gwenyth Paltrow's blog called GOOP which is by the way, an awesome blog...check it out...  http://goop.com/

Have a great day!  I'm going to go discover what it takes to grow lettuce!!!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Cutting down on plastic baggies

I am trying to eliminate the use of plastic baggies in our family's daily activities.  I have gotten a $3 sandwich holder.  Boy, is it worth the $3!!!  I use it everyday for my son's sandwiches.  I figure at the daily rate, I will save AT LEAST 365 baggies a year.  Forget about the dollar savings, I'm loving the fact that I will not need to THROW AWAY and put in the trash, those baggies.  I can't tell you how it pains me to throw away those bags.  Maybe it's having been raised in Oregon and watching my mother save baggies throughout my upbringing (they have a drawer dedicated to used baggies), that has me pained to throw them away, but even still, regardless of the reason, I am thrilled to not be doing it.  Imagine if everyone used those sandwich holders everyday.  Imagine, the amount of oil (yes, oil) we wouldn't be using to make all of those plastic bags.  I'm just saying, that $3 is worth a lot more than $3, really.

Now, where else can I cut down on my family's carbon footprint??