Guest Post by Joanne

Now that we are all more aware of climate change and its effects many of us have made a conscious decision to live a more eco-friendly life. We all look at our homes to see where we can make some small changes. But one area that is often overlooked is our garden. It is the only green space many of us own and because of this most would naturally assume that it is an eco-friendly environment, but there are still some small changes that we can all make to turn to our garden into a more eco-friendly environment. And all the little changes we can make will add up!

Every gardener wants to have a range of vibrant colors and exotic plants in their garden and garden centers have catered for that need by importing exotic plant species from all over the world. Planting non-native species in your garden may help to bring your garden to life but it will have a number of environmental impacts. Firstly is the added air miles that are clocked up in getting the plants to your local garden center. You may also lose biodiversity in your garden because the exotic plants may not attract native species of birds and insects.  The best advice is to plant species that are native to your environment. (more…)

Sometimes it’s best not to ask why, just to accept something just happened.  340 bicycles were used to create a 10,000 pound obelisk dubbed “Cyclisk”.

All 340 bikes were previously unusable and reclaimed.  Santa Rosa, California requires large businesses funding new construction projects to fund public art.

This piece was created by Mark Grieve and Ilana Spector.  Nissan was the lucky funder of this project required in order to build their new $3.7 million auto dealership.

As cool as this project is, it is kind of ironic that Santa Rosa is pushing itself as a bike-friendly city with a piece of art funded by an auto maker.

As Grist quips: “is this giant community art member just, ahem, compensating for something?”

From Grist

All a mom wants for Mother’s day is some peace, love and time with her kids.  The typical gifts of flowers, dinner out, chocolates, bath products, cleaning coupons or a day at the spa sure are nice though!  There are some extremely easy ways to “green up” these easy gift ideas to make every hippie mama feel like a spoiled queen on her big day.

Instead of a bouquet of flowers from a florist, why not a handpicked arrangement of wildflowers?  Even small kids can get in on the action and feel included in mommy’s special gift from the heart.  If you’re still stuck in a blanket of snow like me, try planted herbs that can grow on her windowsill.  She’ll surely remember your thoughtfulness everytime she uses the herbs in her cooking!  Potted flowers, bedding plants, potted tomato plants and even trees also make great alternatives to a store bought bouquet.  Another great idea for kids is to make paper flowers out of scrap paper around the house.  Have them write a mushy thought about their mom on each flower.

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By Paula Mitchell Bentley

St. Patrick’s day is all about green. Green clothes, silly green hats, green clover and green beer. So, how can you make your green beer even greener??

Go organic! Organic beer uses no pesticides or fertilizers in it’s production. This means there are no pesticides or fertilizers in the beer that you’re about to drink — yummm, tasty chemical beer. Even better, it means that no pesticides and fertilizers were absorbed into the ground used to grow the hops. Chemicals absorbed into the dirt eventually leach down into water sources. Water is one of those natural resources that is totally disregarded until it’s no longer available.

How to make your organic beer green in an eco-conscious way? Check out Sante Essentials or Seelect’s lines of vegan friendly, gluten free, organic food colorings. For the more adventurous, try making your own food coloring! There are several recipes for this online including using blanched spinach or even red onion peels and lemon juice. Definitely not for the faint of heart!

There are also entire lines of organic nachos and salsas, organic pretzels, organic popcorn and organic chips that you can munch on while drinking your green beer. Or, even better, you could make an entire plate of green vegetables and green fruits to go along with the beer. How about celery, broccoli, kiwi, green apple, cucumber, pickle, asparagus, kale, honey dew melon and green peppers? They’d stick with the green theme and be packed with important vitamins and nutrients.

So go out there and get your green on in honor of St. Patrick’s Day and our planet!

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Paula Mitchell Bentley is the author of Through Green Colored Glasses, a blog focused on ways to help insure a healthy environment for her two children, and their children.