by Ingrid Justick:

Vol. 28, No. 1

Consider this New Year’s resolution: easing month by month into a greener world!

Living in tune with nature is an invitation to live creatively. This calendar of twelve simple but healthy baby steps will help you into a greener way of life.

JANUARY Green Step: Replace your conventional personal-care products (deodorants, shampoos, body lotions, etc.) with non-toxic organic choices. For green options check www.BurtBees.com, www.AubreyOrganics.com or www.Aveda.com

FEBRUARY Green Step: Bring commercial pesticides to your local hazardous waste center. Almost half of the most widely used pesticides are classified as carcinogens by the Environmental Protection Agency. Visit www.PlanetNatural.com for non-toxic alternatives.

MARCH Green Step: Check labels on cleaning products for toxic ingredients (chlorine or ammonia) or warnings (hazardous or poisonous.) Replace them with green cleaners, available at health food stores and select grocery stores.

APRIL Green Step: Take off your shoes when you enter your home or every chemical and pesticide from the street and lawn comes inside with you.

MAY Green Step: Shift to organic coffee and milk. Coffee crops are among the most heavily sprayed with pesticides and cows providing most milk are treated with hormones and antibiotics.

JUNE Green Step: Park your car and walk whenever possible. Formaldehyde, benzene and carbon monoxide are six to ten times higher in cars than outside.

JULY Green Step: Replace polyester or permanent press bedding with untreated organic cotton. Conventional cotton fields are doused with pesticides.

AUGUST Green Step: Reconsider dry cleaning. Most dry cleaners use a very toxic solvent, called perchloroethylene. Find a “Wet Cleaner” who uses no toxic chemicals. And note that many garments labeled “Dry Clean Only” can be washed by hand.

SEPTEMBER Green Step: Add one meatless meal per week. It takes seven or more pounds of grain and 840 gallons of fresh water to produce one pound of beef.

OCTOBER Green Step: Buy at least one organic fruit and vegetable each week, to replace those that may have been grown and sprayed with pesticides.

NOVEMBER Green Step: Replace your plastic shower curtains for those made with organic cotton or hemp. The plastic variety contains toxic chemicals, called phthalates, which you inhale.

DECEMBER Green Step: Open your windows for at least 15 minutes every day. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, indoor air is up to 90% more polluted than outdoors!

Change does not happen with a single action but step by step 
with a series of small gestures.

by Ingrid Justick:

Vol. 27, No. 5

Make a difference this Holiday Season with presents that bring joy to friends and family and our planet. Sharing gifts with others is a wonderful way to celebrate the abundance and joy of the season. It is also a great way to support the causes you care about and earth-friendly companies you respect.

Give green gifts, such as organic cotton sweaters and locally produced food baskets. Handmade gifts are the most cherished. As an alternative, gifts of service, like car washing, dog walking or babysitting have no negative environmental impacts, and are of personal significance. Rather then asking friends or family members what they want, ask what they like to do. Give tickets to concerts, shows, or sporting events. Planting a tree in someone’s name is very special. When shopping for gifts, lighten your impact on the environment, and create more cheer by carpooling with friends. If you take the time to select eco-friendly gifts, please do not use generic wrapping paper. When using recycled paper you reduce forestry, water, energy, and global warming impacts.

Entertain with real plates, cups, silverware and napkins instead of disposable goods. Plan a holiday party with an eco-friendly theme. Make homemade gifts from recycled items, such as fabrics or old photos. Or, host a “good use” party at which you collect old winter clothing for your local homeless shelter.

Decorating: Buy holiday lights made with LED’s (Light Emitting Diodes) available from hardware stores. The bulbs are 90% more efficient than traditional lights, use only 5% of the energy, and last up to 100 times longer. Rather then filling the house with store purchased ornaments, which are easily broken and are destined for landfills, make your own decorations. Create wreaths and centerpieces from biodegradable pine cones, pomegranates, cinnamon sticks, or dried fruit. For your front door, purchase a biodegradable wreath from birdseed, and string popcorn and cranberries into garland for your tree instead of tinsel, which takes years to decompose.

Recycle fresh Christmas trees. While you need not feel guilty about purchasing a cut tree (almost all are grown on tree farms and have no impact on forests), used Christmas trees create significant landfill waste. To find out where your tree can become mulch for local gardens or parks, log on to www.earth911.org and enter your zip code.

And most important, is the gift of togetherness:

Take a night off from the season’s obligations, gather your friends or family and become aware of all the blessings in your lives.

by Ingrid Justick:

Vol. 27, No. 4

Finding ways to maximize your wintertime energy savings is the most effective way to reduce your home’s global warming footprint. Many winterizing fixes are simple strategies that require minimal cost, with a high return on savings.

Plug Air Leaks: If one fourth of U.S. households sealed leaks around their doors and windows, it would save enough energy in heating and cooling costs to prevent eight million tons of CO2 from being emitted, according to the EPA. One technique to identify leaks is by walking with a lit candle near potential draft-causers, such as windows, doorways, vents and electrical outlets. When the candle flame starts to flutter, you found a leak. Also look for dirty or frosty spots in insulation, which indicate leaks. Use caulk to fill small gaps, and use weather stripping for larger gaps. Conventional caulk often contains formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, as a preservative. Find nontoxic caulk at your local hardware store, or at Green Building Supply (800-405-0222).

Upgrade Your Insulation: Installing more insulation will help you reach your efficiency goals. Your local home supply store can tell you the recommended “R” value of insulation you need, based on where you live. (R-values are measurements of how well insulation keeps heat from passing through.) Insulating your attic properly is most important. Use natural fiber insulation that contains no chemical irritants. To add to your energy efficiency, seal and insulate your ducts with duct sealant or metal-backed tape focusing on ducts that move through attics, basements and garages. Homes with central air can lose up to 60 percent of heated air if ducts are not properly insulated. In many cases, air leaks can be hidden away in places hard to find. Hiring an energy efficiency auditor associated with the EPA’s Home Performance program can help you identify energy inefficiencies. Local utility companies sometimes provide energy audits for free.

Check Your Windows: If your windows feel drafty, there are several inexpensive ways to seal them. Add storm windows to provide additional draft protection. Close your curtains or shades at nighttime; it can reduce heat loss by 30 percent. Install a programmable thermostat. Energy Star recommends a temperature of 70 degrees or less when you are at home. Set the temperature back by eight degrees at night when you are sleeping. To save more energy, install zone heating. You heat highly used zones in your house instead of the whole house.

Clean Your Filters: Check your air filters monthly. Dirty filters prevent efficient airflow; therefore you are using more energy for less heat because the system has to work harder.

Humidify: Humid air feels warmer than dry air at the same temperature. So when you use a humidifier, the heat index of a room increases, allowing you to set your thermostat at a lower temperature.

Some of the simplest measures can also be the most satisfying way to warm our homes and hearts, when we know we are taking steps toward a more sustainable future.

by Ingrid Justick:

Vol. 27, No. 3

Making a few changes in your autumn garden cleanup routine benefits the soil and ultimately the health of your plants. Keeping fallen leaves and trimmings in the garden adds essential organic matter to the soil. This in turn provides food for worms and a host of other beneficial soil-dwelling creatures that break down the material, improving soil structure and delivering valuable nutrients to plants.

Instead of sending valuable organic matter to our local landfills, please recycle it into nutrient-rich compost, used for mulch, or place it in piles to provide a winter habitat for wildlife.

At summer’s end, insects take refuge in garden debris and in dry stems for over-winter protection, otherwise their blood freezes. Insects are a necessary component to plant pollination; beneficial insects help keep pests under control. Insects also serve as an essential food source for many birds and other animals. It is a natural cycle that makes a healthy ecosystem.

Removing spent flowers during the growing season will help plants to bloom longer, but once fall arrives and plants are near the end of their flowering cycle, they can be left to mature, to produce seeds, which serve as an important food source for seed-eating birds. By leaving some garden trimmings in planting beds, you are creating a natural habitat for ladybeetles, pollinating bees, praying mantis and other beneficial insects.

One of the most labor-saving, cost efficient and environmentally friendly things you can do is to leave your grass clippings on the lawn. Since grass clippings are mostly water, they decompose rapidly, so there is no thatch buildup. “Grass-cycling” also adds organic matter, stimulates the activity of earthworms (which act as a nature’s soil aerators) and turn a natural source of nitrogen back into the soil.

Unless your garden is very large, consider raking your leaves rather than using a blower or vacuum. Raking does not produce the noise or the pollution of machinery and is a healthy form of exercise.

While doing your fall cleanup, please remember that less is more of benefit to our environment, our resources and our day-to-day lives, as well as the ecosystem of our gardens.

Let us be friends with our earth, with gentleness, respect, love
and hope for a beautiful tomorrow.

by Ingrid Justick:

Vol. 27, No. 2

This is an excellent time to step back and take a look at how your organic garden did grow this season. Did your plants look as healthy as you expected them to be? Take photographs of your plants each year. This winter, when you are planning next year’s garden, reach for the photos and you will be quite surprised on how much you accomplished.

Most trees, lawns and spring-blooming shrubs grow better if you plant them in the fall in well-prepared organic soil. Top growth is less active, ground water more plentiful and tiny roots become strong, storing energy for the spring show of flowers and foliage.

Now is an excellent time to plant fall-flowering perennials: graceful Japanese anemones, sweet autumn clematis, along with other cool weather plants such as asters, kale and pansies. Fragrant witch hazel will bloom even when snow is on the ground. Do not forget to plant your bulbs into the ground. They will announce spring’s arrival.

Autumn is the perfect time to prepare your organic spring vegetable garden. Clean your vegetable beds, turn the soil adding plenty of compost. Scatter spinach seeds that will mature and flourish in cool weather. These hardy greens grow throughout the fall, lie dormant under the snow and then start growing again in spring. Plant some Egyptian onions, they are perennial and you can harvest the green tips all winter.

Herbs are among fall’s most rewarding plants. Cut them back and freeze or dry the clippings for winter enjoyment. Place organic leaf mulch around your perennial herbs, to protect form frost damage.

Before moving your potted plants indoors, wash them well with an all-purpose natural spray that will eliminate most pests: mix two teaspoons of liquid dishwashing detergent with one cup of vegetable oil. Shake vigorously to emulsify then add one quart of water. Be certain to spray the undersides of leaves, too. Mealybugs and scales grow a tough coat of arms, so use a cotton swab and dab each bug mass with rubbing alcohol. Then once a month scrub leaves gently with soapy water to remove dust particles from the breathing holes.

It is time to relax from our summer labors while we are anxiously awaiting the end of winter and the first sign of spring to start our organic gardens — all over again.

You must heal any wounds you give the Earth
and you must feed her to replace what you take from her.
Only if you repay your debts will she continue to provide.

For environmentally friendly information call: 732-757-5790