It’s Easy Being Green

Saturday was Arbor Day in case you missed it.  It is always seems like Arbor Day gets a bit overshadowed by Earth Day earlier in the month so I was even surprised when it popped up on my calendar just a day or two before the weekend.  In celebration of Arbor Day, The Arboretum at Flagstaff opened their doors for free on Saturday.  We trucked out there to see what was springing to life on the garden grounds.  It’s still been very cold at night but a lot of their penstemon plants are sprouting up along with various other native perennials right now.  Obviously nothing is in bloom but it was kind of fun to see the garden in that stage of awakening from spring.  Whenever I go out there I sit in awe of the amount of land they have and imagine what we could do if our garden could stretch that big.  Maybe one of these days, wherever we land, I will start an arboretum of my own to pass on to future generations just like Frances McAllister did here in Flagstaff.

On Sunday, our itch for green-thumb domination continued.  We headed to Home Depot and a local plant nursery to pick up lots of flowers, vegetables and seeds.  Some natives and cool weather perennials are okay to go outside in our cold nighttime temps.  But everything else will move in and out of the house for another month until the threat of a late frost has disappeared.  We expanded our herb collection to include chocolate mint, pineapple mint, apple mint, lemon balm and lavender.  All of them smell amazing when you prick a leaf.  We purchased a couple 1 gallon sized tomato plants to shuffle in and out while all of my tomato seedlings catch up to full-size in the window sill.  We picked up some bare root plants too like a concord grape, another hop rhizome for my home-brewing use, elephant garlic and a horseradish rhizome.

We bought some more seeds to plant too.  I have a large box of seeds, some of which are pretty old.  As I’ve been planting them in my starter trays, I’m keeping track of which ones don’t sprout or have a low germination rate.  Then I just toss them into the composter because they’re not going to grow.  So I picked up some pumpkin, sweet corn, rosemary, cilantro, bush bean and cantaloupe seeds.  It’s challenging in the high-mountains of Arizona because our growing season is so short.  It’s only 103 days long!  So, you have to pick varieties of veggies that are often smaller and mature more quickly.

We’re very ready for the gardening season to kick into full swing but we’re finding plenty to do while waiting.  How is your garden growing?  Let us know about what activity you have going with your green thumbs right now!

Everyone has probably had the big brown truck driven by your local UPS driver drop off a package at some time. But did you know the company has completely redesigned their delivery routes to save gas and carbon emissions? They have and it’s as simple as eliminating most left hand turns from the routes.

With the redesign, UPS chopped about 30 million miles from their deliveries over the course of 2007. That saved the company 3 million gallons of fuel and reduced emissions by 32,000 metric tons. That would be about the same amount after taking more than 5,000 cars off the road. The idea is simple. The more right hand turns you make, the less time you’re idling in traffic producing more carbon emissions and burning more fuel. It’s also a lot safer because you’re not taking traffic head-on like you do when you make a left hand turn.

I’ve often referred to Phoenix as a cultural vacuum. I was born and raised in that city and every time I go back I sometimes shudder. Now I’m not so worried about the lack of culture in Phoenix but the lack of compassion and care for our environment. Everything in Phoenix is all about waste. The soccer moms driving Hummers and SUV’s speeding down the highway burning oil like it’s going out of style. Lush green yards and sprawling golf courses in a desert that only gets a few inches of rain every year. It’s all waste and it’s hard to look at when you spend so much time trying to green up your own life more than one hundred miles away.

A couple weeks ago we stopped at the Desert Ridge Marketplace in the north Phoenix/Scottsdale area and were shocked about the waste that was put on display for everyone there. In the middle of the food court was a roaring gas fireplace. The thing must have been about five or six feet wide and probably 15 feet long. The sun was shining and the temperature was in the upper 80’s, maybe even close to 90. There was absolutely no need for a fire to be roaring that afternoon, burning natural gas as if it was coming from a limitless supply! The scary thing was, there were people from Scottsdale just parking themselves in front of the fireplace complaining about how cold it was. Give me a break! Go stand in the sun for a moment, it’s almost 90 degrees!

As if that wasn’t bad enough, just ten feet away people were dining on the patio of a restaurant that had an entire bank of a misting system running non-stop. I’m not sure about anyone else but 80 to 90 degrees, in the dry desert of Phoenix, is actually a very comfortable temperature. It’s not too hot, not too cold. People just don’t blink an eye in Phoenix at those types of situations. Places like Phoenix are going to be the first cities that run out of water and are going to be looking to everyone else for help and a bailout. We have to live smarter than that regardless of whether or not you have thousands of dollars to drop in a swanky shopping mall and silicone implants in your chest that are making you cold.

Just to prove how nonchalant the Phoenix metro populous can be, check out the latest cover of the Phoenix New Times. A giant green f-you is emblazoned across the cover with the title “Green Fatigue: Is anyone else tired of eco-chic?” While the article might discuss ways to live a greener life, who would even bother picking it up with a message like that? There’s another hundred thousand pounds of paper going to waste!

Have you seen wastefulness in your city or some place you were visiting? Tell us about it and share your thoughts on it!

Here are the last four easy green tips as we celebrate Earth Day:

17. If you’re replacing windows, use energy saving models.

18. Plant trees next to your home and paint your house a light color if you live in a warm climate. If you live in a cold climate, make sure the trees are deciduous, meaning they lose their leaves in the winter so the sun can shine on your home to warm up. Also make sure to paint your house a dark color, attracting more heat absorption.

19. Be an energy activist. Setup recycling programs at your school or office.

20. Stay informed about environmental issues. Write your local congressman or woman and keep track of their voting record. When you know they’ll be voting about an important issue regarding the environment, make sure you let them know how you feel.

13. Purchase a car that gets good gas mileage.

14. Buy minimally packaged goods and choose reusable products over disposable ones.

15. Be sure your car’s air conditioner coolant is recycled after servicing.

16. Insulate your walls or attic to help save about 25% of your home heating and cooling bill

Check in tomorrow as we celebrate Earth Day and reveal the last four tips, easy ways to go green!

Here’s four more tips as we count down to Earth Day:

9. Install low-flow shower heads to reduce the amount of water you use while taking a shower

10. Caulk and weatherstrip around doors and windows to cut down on air leaks and save on your energy bill to heat or cool your home.

11. Ask your utility company to do a home energy audit. A lot of utilities provide this service for free and can offer up some tips customized to your own home and energy use.

12. Walk, bike, carpool or use mass transit whenever possible to get to where you need to go.

Stay tuned for more tips tomorrow!

Here’s four more tips showing you it really can be easy going green:

5. Adjust your home’s thermostat to be lower in winter and higher in summer. Learn how to heat and cool your home simply by venting windows at certain times of the day and when it’s cold, bundle up and put on your sweat pants!

6. Clean and replace dirty air filters in your home’s heating and cooling system. A dirty air filter can use 5-percent more energy while your a/c unit is running.

7. Replace the standard incandescent light bulbs in your home with the new compact fluorescent bulbs.

8. Help your water heater to be even more efficient by wrapping it with an insulating blanket specifically designed to go around your water heater.

Check back tomorrow for four more easy green living tips!