GardeningNude

How 14 Days In the Yucatan Made Me Realize the Value of Planet Earth – Part 1

 

Summer is here and most of us are looking forward to a respite from our life.  The summertime getaway. Might I suggest a green solution? Take an eco-trip. You will see beauty, have an adventure, and learn about our world.

My family and I took the eco-journey of a lifetime this year into the jungles, caves, and ocean of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Above you see me getting ready to zipline across a jungle – note the giant grin – it was a blast! I wrote and posted a blog every day for fourteen days about our journey using greening and eco-nature information as a tool to educate readers about environmental concerns in the world.

Understanding the fact that we impact all of the world, not just our little corner is so important. For example, areas of coral are dying out in the Yucatan from our fertilizer run-off. If the chemicals do not go down into our water aquifer, they are whooshed out through the storm water system. All those chemicals then react with ocean life – ultimately causing green blooms and death where ever the chemicals settle. This is disastrous for coral.

Who taught me that? An amazing man in Akumal, Mexico named Paul Sanchez- Navarro who is the Director of Centro Ecological Akumal (Photo to the right). He explained how nearly one quarter of all marine species are believed to depend on coral at some stage of their development. Many fish live their entire lives on reefs, while others use them as nurseries; if the coral dies out it is assumed the fish will too. The economic impact of losing coral is also significant – in the billions of dollars worldwide.

There were so many questions I wanted answered when I returned from the trip. What will happen if we are unable to provide fish for the world to eat? Will people starve? Without the coral and fish, millions of people will lose their jobs and be unable to support themselves. Without smaller fish which inhabit the coral reefs will all the larger fish die such as tuna and shark – the very same fish we use to feed our nation?

We went to jungles, beaches, caves, and protected eco-parks throughout the Yucatan Peninsula area and experienced some incredible things in nature, but one of the most powerful messages I saw everywhere we went is that you have an impact on planet earth. What we do here in the U.S. directly touches the rest of the world.

Make a difference for planet earth – start paying attention to the chemicals, fertilizers, and products you use at home that might be making a difference half-way around the world.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Get Yo’ Healthy On – Exercising in Nature Bootcamp – Learning About Stretching

Jeremy Glasgow of Underground Core Fitness is leading a group of dedicated exercisers (including me) into health via his all-outdoor-in-nature boot camp.

According to Jeremy, “People tend to think they need to spend hours working out, but you can achieve healthy benefits with a 20- to 30-minute workout three or four times a week.” One of the marvelous things I have discovered is he is right!

My weekly routine already consists of a lot of walking, so I am regularly active. Yet spending time outdoors in nature exercising has made it easier to exercise - during our outdoor workouts I feel so much more energized. We do challenging interval training for about 40 minutes. Working with a team of people helps because we all cheer each other on. Happily, I am getting stronger and have to say I am surprised to be able to finally make it through the classes.

Jeremy works to have us all stay limber and go home with no injury – this involves post-exercise stretching. One of the common stretches he has our class do at the end of our cardio workout is seen in the photo above - I am doing the “Downward Dog” – stretching out all those tight muscles.

Be sure, whether you are working out with a trainer or working out on your own to concentrate on the post-exercise stretching to help reduce muscle soreness and fatigue.

Get started exercising the “green” way – outdoors in nature. It is healthy and functions as a wonderful anti-depressant in your life.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Buy Local Handmade Soaps and Make a Green and Clean Difference

 

Why buy local?

Simple – it’s green. Studies on buying local show that locally-owned businesses generate a premium in economic impact to the community and our tax base. Locally owned business contributes less to urban sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution. generally speaking, local businesses tend to set up shop in town, farmers markets, or city centers as opposed to developing on the outer “mall” areas.

Most importantly, local businesses are owned by people who live in or near the community, are less likely to leave, and are more invested in the future of the community. In other words – they are promoting positive economic impact both because they want to practice honesty in business and because they are directly connected to the community economic growth.

One of my favorite local businesses is a soap maker who comes to my weekly community farmer’s market. Her name is Kassandra Hesek and she runs Black N’Tan Soaps. While she does not have significant online ordering capability yet, she does have a website – www.blackntansoaps.com. Her main way of selling her product is hands-on - by directly touching the community through farmers markets.

Kassandra’s handmade soaps are delightful. Above you’ll see several “flavors” of soaps she sells including Lavender, The Gritty Gardener, and Bugger Off. After trying her Bugger Off soaps and oils, I can say in the last week I have not had a single mosquito bother me. The Gritty Gardener sit on my kitchen sink and I use it every time I come in from gardening. All the soaps are heaven, plus I am reassured that her ingredients are natural, green, and good for my family.

Look into your local businesses like Black N’Tan Soaps and help make a green difference for the world and a financial difference for your community. Buy local today!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Get Yo’ Green On Tuesday – Compost 101 – How To Compost

Food scraps and yard clippings make up one quarter of the United States’ solid waste piling up in landfills. The book, True Green, says, “When this organic matter ends up in landfills and decomposes without air, it produces methane, a greenhouse gas twenty times more potent than carbon dioxide.”

Composting is the way to cleanly convert kitchen and garden waste into productive soil matter without producing toxicity and it is one of nature’s best mulches and soil amendments. You can make it without spending a cent, which helps save you money. Which type of composter should you use? Above is a video which discusses two really fantastic composters – both different styles – sold by Clean Air Gardening.

When adding material to the composter, keep in mind the pile needs a proper ratio of carbon-rich materials, or “browns,” and nitrogen-rich materials, or “greens,” and moisture. Below is a list of browns and greens you might use in your compost pile.

Examples of browns:

• Newspaper, black-and-white print preferred.
• Brown paper bags from the grocery store.
• Shredded cardboard or cotton and paper-based tissues and towels.
• Floor sweepings.
• Straw.
• Aged grass clippings.
• Dead leaves. Do not use dead leaves from diseased plants.

Examples of greens:

• New grass clippings.
• Plant prunings. Do not add prunings from diseased plants.
• Spent flowers and pulled weeds.
• Coffee grounds.
• Tea bags with metal staple removed.
• Kitchen scraps. Avoid items that will root, such as potato skins and onions, unless ground completely. Do not add meat or bones or it will stink to high heaven!
• Barnyard animal manures such as cow, horse, chicken, goat, sheep, and rabbit. Do not use dog, cat, or human manure/feces as they may contain pathogens or diseases that could be harmful.

Managed composting involves active participation, including turning the pile occasionally. On average, it takes between three and four weeks to create compost. The speed is determined by the products you add, if they are chopped up, and how often you turn the pile. A good balance of carbon and nitrogen encourages quicker composting.

The temperature of the managed pile is important—it indicates the activity of the decomposition process. It should be warm or hot to the touch. If it is not, then the microbial activity has slowed down and you need to add more green materials. This heat can be encouraged if you place your compost pile in full sun.

Keeping the pile moist is also important as organic waste needs water to decompose. Gray water, in other words, old dish water or clothes washer water from your home can be drained into a compost pile regularly. The rule of thumb is to keep the pile as moist as a wrung-out sponge. If you actively manage the composting, within a few weeks you will have a rich additive for your garden.

To order the awesome composters used in the video, please go to www.cleanairgardening.com.

Today’s post is a “Two For Tuesday” – this blog is on both my greening blog – www.gardeningnude.com AND my gardening blog – http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com – ENJOY!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com.

“Plant A Row For the Hungry” and Feed America Healthy Food – You Can Make A Difference!

This year I wanted to truly make a difference for my community with the garden and encourage people to grow their own vegetables. Locally grown food is the freshest, plus growing your veggies organically ensures your family has a    healthier meal on the table. Happily, I have taken it a step farther and joined the “Plant A Row For the Hungry” movement. 

The Garden Writers Association has built the wonderful food program called “Plant A Row For the Hungry.” Launched in 1995, Plant A Row is a fantastic organization which encourages gardeners to give surplus garden produce to local food banks, soup kitchens, and service organizations to help feed America's hungry.

Since its inception, Plant A Row and the Garden Writers Foundation has helped to organize concerned citizens across the United States. Amazingly, according to the Plant A Row website, “over 14 million pounds of produce providing over 50 million meals have been donated by American gardeners” through the Plant A Row organization. It has truly made a difference for thousands of families.

My extra row is intermingled in a 200’ perennial bed I have built as a community garden out behind my back fence. Above you can see I posted signs to reduce veggie robbery and let the community know I am donating the produce to help feed the hungry. Every day this garden inspires me to smile in my heart. It makes me feel fantastic to know that I am trying to make a difference.

You can make a difference for your community too – if you have produce you are not going to use, please donate it to a local food bank and help your community.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Get Your Children Out In Nature – Study Cabbage Caterpillars In The Garden

We discovered cabbage worms in our broccoli. Ick. Gross. Blech. Nasty. Then my eight year old and I discovered that the Cabbage Worm Butterfly (known as the “Cabbage White”) is what the Cabbage Worm Caterpillar develops into. What a fantastic way to get your children out in the garden to learn about nature! You can see our discovery in the video above. 

In hopes of seeing the butterflies in our own front yard, we are now rescuing wayward cabbage worms and placing them on all our broccoli. The idea is to save the cabbage, kale, cauliflower, but to use the brocooli as a breeding ground for the little green caterpillars.

We are already finding chrysalis’s around the garden filled with the sleeping babies and cannot wait to see the butterflies emerge.

Get your children out in nature – it is a very green and healthy thing to do and they will love the time you spend together learning. Happily, the front yard veggie garden has turned into a wonderful experiment for our family.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Get Yo’ Green On Tuesday – Use a Rain Barrel to Save Money and Water Plus Help Our Stormwater Systems!

One of the most fantastic ways to practice conservation, save money, AND water is to use a rain barrel! Clean Air Gardening sells some of the best and easiest to install. Above you see an instructional video showing the basics for one of the rain barrels I have from Clean Air Gardening (and how it works with a rain diverter).

During the summer months, residential water use increases approximately 40% – most of it centered around outdoor water use. A rain barrel collects and stores rainwater from rooftops, preventing less strain on our stormwater systems. This water is non-potable, which means not-drinkable. It is stored and can be used later for watering your lawn or garden, washing your car, cleaning tools, and any other purpose you can come up with.

Typically, water from your roof flows through roof gutter downspouts and becomes stormwater runoff, ultimately moving onto paved surfaces and eventually into a storm drain. Many of our stormwater systems are over taxed. All the water from stormwater systems eventually ends up in the ocean. Stormwater runoff is the leading type of residential non-point source pollution and is a large concern for those monitoring our earth’s oceans and water systems.

Water conservation with rain barrels is important. Although it is a small percentage of water saved, every little bit counts. Instead of sending water to the ocean, we should be trying to replace the water in the water aquifer, thereby keeping our water in a more natural state of replenishment while simultaneously reducing stormwater system usage.  

Here are some easy steps for installation of a rain barrel:

1. Find an area under a downspout on your home that is flat and level.

2. Place cement blocks or a stand of some sort on the level ground where your rain barrel will sit. Keep in mind, most rain barrels weigh 400 + pounds when full. By raising up the rain barrel, it will allow a watering can to fit below the spigot and will also have more “gravity” pressure.

3. Place your empty barrel on the blocks and measure where you need to cut your downspout to allow for an elbow or a diverter to drain water into the top of the rain barrel.

4. Place the barrel aside and cut the downspout with a hack saw where you drew your line.

5. Slide an elbow or diverter over the downspout that will allow the water to drain into your barrel.

6. Remove the old downspout and save it for winter. You will need to replace it during winter since you cannot use the rain barrel during harsh winter temperatures.

7. Attach a short hose to the top overflow spigot and direct the hose away from your foundation. A hose can be attached to the bottom spigot too, however, I leave this as an option since I like to fill watering cans by using the bottom spigot.

8. Slide your barrel under the newly reconfigured downspout and you are done.

To order the rain barrel and diverter used in the video, please go to www.cleanairgardening.com. Below you can see the rain barrel and down spout system as it rests today. I love my rain barrel - it has been an awesome tool to help water the front yard vegetable garden I am growing this season.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Taste of Chicago - Why Are People Pigs? Stop Being Inconsiderate and Make a Difference For Your Community!

Above you see a photo of my oldest daughter at the Taste of Chicago ‘09. An event which draws millions of attendees and presents Chicago with an opportunity for a lot of positive financial revenue – a desperately needed commodity right now in our difficult economy.

Note the look on my girls’ face. It is not happy. Behind her is row after row of trash and recyclables lined up in some twisted scene – an art display gone desperately wrong.

After researching the Taste of Chicago’s newest and most exciting announcements, I have learned that more than 450 tons of garbage is expected to be produced at this year's Taste of Chicago alone. Staggering.

That’s a LOT of garbage. To encourage recycling, Taste of Chicago organizers will have 65 dual recycle and trash bins available across the Grant Park grounds. Yet from what I see in the photo above, that is simply NOT enough. My daughter said she saw very few recycling areas for the 3.5 million attending the Taste this year.

According to Allied Waste, the new bins have one 30-gallon opening for trash and another 30-gallon opening for recyclables. Yet if they are not conveniently located, what is the use of providing them?

This mess is the fault of the consumers who should be holding their cups, plastic, and cans until they can find a recycling bin to dispose of their trash and recycling properly. However, if 3.5 million people are expected to attend this event, is it truly realistic to expect only 65 recycling bins to do the trick?

People, please stop being pigs and dispose of your trash properly. Not only does it make the city – your community – look like an embarrassing mess, it also presents a health hazard. STOP IT! Take responsibility and do the right thing – take care of your trash and recycling the right way.

Make a difference NOW! Make a difference TODAY! It is YOU who are responsible!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Why Butter Bell Bowls Are A Cool Idea – Try It - Plus a green BOOK GIVEAWAY!

 

Allergies are torture for me. I am allergic to everything from dogs to dust to trees to soy beans. No kidding. If allowed, my allergies will keep me in a perpetual state of stuffiness, sinus infections, and bronchitis.

Learning to control my mold and soy allergies have been particularly difficult. No bread, no wine, no cheese, no beer, no mushrooms, no chinese food. Sometimes I have no choice but to eat an allergen food as there is nothing else available. Mostly, I sacrifice.

Because of the lack of spreadability issue, I have rarely used real butter – I always use margarine. Recently I discovered that most margarine’s are made of soy beans. There is also a lot of controversy over margarine versus butter due to the trans fat content levels.

Therefore, I have decided to try a technique for storing real butter which leaves it soft and useable inspired by Vanessa Farquharson, author of Sleeping Naked is Green. This was a really interesting green read. Vanessa decides to make one serious green change to her life every day for a year. She learns how to turn off her refrigerator, lower the temp on her water heater, stop wasteful practices, and so much more. Part of her change of using no refrigerator was to utilize butter from a butter bell bowl.

While I am green, I am not green to the extreme. Like everyone else, I prefer taking easy, simple, baby-steps. However, this butter bowl idea holds weight because it could allow me to break my margarine addiction and possibly take my allergies down a notch. Anything to get our family healthier and feeling awesome. Besides – my mouth starts watering every time I remember the fresh taste of butter on a hot tortilla right off the griddle!

After careful research, I decided to purchase my butter bowl at Williams-Sonoma. It is surprisingly easy to use. If you look at the top photo on this page you will see butter inside the “lid” of the butter bowl.

All you have to do is turn the lid over and spoon the butter in.

Put a small amount of water in the bottom of the bowl – it acts as a seal for the butter so it will not go bad while sitting out without refrigeration. Be sure to change the water every couple of days or so.

Then turn the lid upside down and place it on the bowl with the water just covering the lid’s opening. Easy!

Without a doubt, this butter bowl has been an awesome kitchen gadget which I will now keep FOREVER. Fresh butter which is easy to spread and helps my allergies. Love it!

Three copies of Sleeping Naked is Green is sitting on my office desk right now and I will give away all three copies randomly chosen from whoever leaves a comment listing a good idea for going green in the kitchen.

Please leave a comment below before next Friday – July 3, 2009. Then follow me on Twitter (@shawnacoronado) to qualify and good luck!

THE CONTEST WINNERS HAVE BEEN RANDOMLY SELECTED FROM THE AWESOME IDEAS IN THE COMMENT AREA BELOW. AND THE WINNERS ARE – MARIANNE, KRISTA, AND GAYLA - - - CONGRATULATIONS AND THANKS FOR THE AWESOME IDEAS!! 

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

 

Make At Home Iced Latte Coffee Treat – Cheap and Green

Ninety degrees in the shade, with a heat index of 105 and your family is melting hot!  Everyone hops in the car, turns the air-conditioning on high, then you drive three miles over to the local coffee shop where you spend over $20 of your hard earned money on iced latte’s for a family of four.

Say what?

Hold on people, let’s not get hasty – it seems to me you could save those carbon emissions and gallons of gas for something more important, right?

While a homemade iced latte still takes energy to make, it is a whole lot greener and a whole lot cheaper than driving several miles to your local coffee shop.

My favorite treat is an iced latte and I make it at home with my very inexpensive latte machine I bought at Target for $30 several years ago.

Here’s the recipe just for you --

HOMEMADE ICED LATTE

STEP ONE -   

Brew one serving of espresso and add any sweeteners you like to the bottom of your glass. Hum a few bars of “Summertime” or another appropriate summery musical tune.

STEP TWO -

Pour espresso serving into the bottom of your glass and stir by swirling the glass a couple times. Continue humming.

STEP THREE -

Add ice until it reaches the top of the glass. Shake your booty while humming – it helps the mood.

STEP FOUR -

Add your favorite milk. Finish your tune with a grand finale that

includes sucking down the latte in an amazingly cool and restful sip.

 

Welcome to nirvana! And guess what? It cost your family pennies instead of $20. That makes it even tastier, right?

 

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com