6.10

I know that I am way behind on an Earth Day post, but when the aha moment hits, you gotta go with it.

In keeping with my running theme of numbers as blog post titles this month, today's is 6.10.

6.10 represents my family's ecological footprint. I took this quiz, and discovered that while I feel like we do a lot for the environment, we still suck. 6.10 means that if everyone on the planet lived like we do, we would need 6.10 earths.

I recycle everything that I can, but I know that I could be reducing the amount of things that come into my house need to be recycled. While I am proud of the fact that my big blue bin (for paper recycling) is full every week, It really shouldn't be. I have tried to cut down on the amount of paper and packaging that comes into house, but it is an ongoing, never achievable task.

After spending years thinking about it, I have finally decided to get a compost bin. I am amazed at how much kitchen scraps I throw away or run down the disposal. It is time I do something about it!

With spring here and my garden ready for planting, I have decided that this will be the year I get a little bit greener. Here are the two bins I've been thinking about:

The Earthmaker composter has a 3 compartment system where I think it will be easier and faster to compost my waste.

The Deluxe Pyramid composter is one big open bin that I think will take forever to fill enough for it to start breaking the waste down for compost. However it is cheaper, but requires more turning of the compost. Decisions, Decisions.

After deliberation with Pat this morning, I think I've decided on the 3 chamber Earthmaker. Now I just have to order it and figure out where to put it in the yard. I have a small back yard with limited flat space, so I am not sure where it will go.

***I haven't ordered it yet, so if anyone has any advice for me, I'd LOVE to hear it!***

It's a jungle out there

Literally!

I love to garden. It is a love that I inherited from my mother. Ever since I can remember she has toiled in her garden, planting tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, zucchini, herbs and I'm sure plenty of other things I'm forgetting. As a child she often let us plant our own beds to tend throughout the summer.

Well, in my adulthood, I have managed to continue the gardening bug. At each house we have owned, Pat and I have built a raised garden bed to make it easier to garden (our soil is so full of clay, it makes it hard to grow anything but weeds sometimes).

I don't know what happens to my garden every year. I start out with my plants so carefully spaced and end up with a raging jungle. I weed and tend, but the plants get out of control. Here you see them growing up and over the railing of the staircase to the basement door. This year, I planted even less seedlings than I normally do and I still have a mess. Part of the problem is that my cherry tomatoes keep re-seeding themselves and I can't bring myself to pull the volunteer plants out. We even have some tomato plants growing in the grass and at the bottom of the stairs to the basement!

Here are a few pictures of my garden about a week ago. One of the cherry tomato plants is starting to die and the zucchini is on it's last legs(Pat actually pulled out the zucchini plants about 2 days after I took the picture).

It might be messy, but it produces such yummy fruit

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