GardeningNude

Show Your Children Nature – I Spy A Green Leaf Bug

 

Katydid’s can be heard all over the Eastern United States as well as the Midwest, but rarely do we see them because of their incredibly wonderful camouflage. Today my nine year old daughter and I got lucky and spotted one on the front window, which is located next to the front lawn vegetable garden.

It sparked a lot of conversation, and inspired me to remind my wonderful readers to take every opportunity to talk about nature. It expands kids’ minds and allows their natural curiosity to bloom.

Katydids, seen above, are nocturnal and arboreal; meaning they sing in the evening. The males have song-producing organs located on their front wings. When courting, the females respond with a chirp in counter-balance to the noisy song of the males, which sounds kind of like this "katy did, katy didn't," hence the name. The female Katydid lays eggs in the ground or in plant tissue; the eggs hatch in spring.

Make a difference in the life of your child; spend time in nature and talk about nature to expand a few brain cells as well as to help your kids get outside in the sunshine and be healthy.

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

The Field Museum Teaching How Soil Connects The World In A Sustainable Way

Healthy soil is more than just dirt we clean off our shoes after gardening; it is a living ecosystem in itself, full of an amazing variety of creatures necessary for healthy plant development. One teaspoon of healthy soil contains as many as 5 billion living organisms. These organisms are responsible for helping fuel enough plant life to oxygenate the air and feed the more than 6,700,000,000 people on earth.

On a recent trip to the The Field Museum of Chicago, I learned a lot about soil by visiting the museum’s Underground Adventure. This adventure shrinks visitors down to a tiny size, so viewing the soil up close and personal on the correct  scale is possible. This is a particularly wonderful exhibit for families to see together.

Proof of this is when I met Jeff O’Connor, Organic Farmer and Certified Crop Advisor, and his family (photos above and to the left). He was at the The Field Museum of Chicago as a soil expert on the day I came in to tour the Underground Adventure. As working organic farmers, Jeff and his wife, Gina, hope to live an experience that puts their children Kelsey, Evan, and Morgan in direct contact with the soil and the natural world around them. They answered dozens of questions for touring children and adults alike.

Jeff and I spoke about the amazing process of how microbes flock to root tips to eat dead cells and drink sugar and amino acids, thereby creating a uniquely powerful symbiotic relationship which enables plants to support the human race. Promoting positive soil habits like utilizing less insecticides and weed killers will allow homeowners to build microbes and have healthier soil, and therefore healthier plants on their property.

The Field Museum’s Top Ten list of things you can do to improve soil quality at home is below. More detail and further descriptions of each of the items on the list can be found at this link - http://www.fieldmuseum.org/undergroundadventure/index.shtml

1. Recycle.
2. Start a worm compost bin.
3. Start a regular compost pile.
4. Support farmers who grow crops organically.
5. Read and incorporate the principles of the International Earth Charter into your life - www.earthcharter.org/, environet.policy.net/.
6. Learn about your local area's special dumping, run-off, and hazardous waste disposal rules, as well as what toxic materials you may have in your home..
7. Grow things.
8. Have a No Trash Lunch Week.
9. Plant native species in your backyard or on your school campus.
10. Plan a volunteer workday to help clean up a vacant lot, river habitat, or other place in need of restoration.

The Soil Adventure Mobile offers community groups, schools, libraries, and  neighborhood groups all over the Midwestern region a perfect way to extend the Underground Adventure exhibition experience. Have your community explore soil with a hands-on educational program (see the cool Soil Adventure Mobile to the right) – invite the Soil Adventure Mobile out to a community event to promote healthier living.

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 A Difference In Your Community – Get Involved To Help Beautify It

There are many ways to enhance local community. Of course, you can be a one man show and help a neighbor on your own, but it is far more effective when you get together with a group of like minded individuals – working as a team you can accomplish something wonderful.

In my local area I work with the greater community accomplishing lots of fantastic conservation education and enhancement activities by teaming up through a program called “America In Bloom” (www.americainbloom.org). In the photo to the left you see a group of children working to enhance the local elementary school gardens.

Since 2001, the America in Bloom (AIB) organization has helped over 130 communities from across the United States improve the quality of life for residents and visitors. AIB is an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting nationwide beautification programs. Some of these programs are quite extensive, including conservation, sustainability, recycling and more. Most general programs require both personal and community involvement through the use of flowers, plants, trees and other environmental and lifestyle enhancements.

Rather than winning the National Contest, the real on-going goal for the local community is to bring the community together and create a beautiful city for the residents. My local AIB team has recently created native plantings at all eight entry-to-the-city-signs with a feature on our city flower; the Rudbeckia or “Black-Eyed Susan”.

As a team, we have built many native gardens and are working with the city’s environmental advisory commission to educate more homeowners about the benefits of using drought tolerant plantings, rain barrels and rain gardens to educate on water conservation and other greening and environmental concerns. As you can see in the above photo, we are also working to beautify the city with gorgeous flower pots and flower gardens.

Dorothy Deer is the head of our local group and has dedicated her time with the community to making a difference – a truly beautiful accomplishment and so beneficial for the thousands of people who live here in my city. Dorothy has worked with the group of AIB members diligently over the years to host multiple garden walks, an art show, a native plant sale, local garden contests, built a hanging pot floral display for the city, built native plant gardens, and so much more. We all work together yearly to enhance and expand the eight categories of AIB evaluation criteria:

• Floral Displays
• Environmental Awareness
• Landscaped Areas
• Tidiness
• Urban Forestry
• Heritage Preservation
• Turf and Groundcovers
• Community Involvement

This photo shows a few of the local members for the Warrenville America In Bloom at one of the national America In Bloom Symposiums - including "yours truly." Meeting other like-minded communities is a great benefit of the AIB National Symposium!

Belonging to the America In Bloom organization can make a big difference for your community and offers you an opportunity to get involved and help many in your neighborhood with gardening – the America In Bloom effort truly brings communities together.

Make a difference today!

This blog is an adaptation of an original post from my gardening blog – http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com – I hope you’ll take a look at ways you can green your world and share it with the community! Happy Greening (and gardening)!

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

Chicago Botanic Garden Plant Conservation Science Center – Saving the Planet With Research and Conservation!

On the cover of the Chicago Botanic Garden’s (CBG) map and garden guide it says, “Plant Science Will Save The Planet.” After visiting The Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center, I agree that educating the public on this amazing process will be critical to the earth’s future.

Julie McCaffrey, Senior Media Relations Specialist, gave me a wonderful tour of the newly renovated Plant Science Center. She and I hopped on an electric cart and jetted over to the state-of-the-art building. First thing she pointed out was that the floors in the halls behind the scenes were made from recycled tires. All the floors are radiant heated to promote energy conservation

The Plant Science Center was designed as a gold rated certified building for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). CBG’s 38,0000-square-foot Plant Science Center provides teaching facilities and laboratories for more than 200 Ph.D. scientists, land managers, students, and interns whose conservation and plant research is very important to accomplishing the Garden’s efforts to save our planet by saving our plants. It also serves as home to a doctoral program in plant biology and conservation with Northwestern University. A viewing gallery of the scientists at work (see photo above) and the 16,000-square-foot Green Roof Garden are open to the public. Annually, nearly 800,000 visitors will get to view plant science firsthand.

Emily Shelton (see right) is a gardener for the green roof and helps maintain the plantings. Nearly 320 varieties of plants were planted at the Plant Science Center Green Roof Garden. Just recently installed, the green roof was quite impressive, and I am excited to come back and see progress over the years.

Most impressive was a very special rain garden which surrounds the Plant Science Center Building. It is a shallow, trough-like depression and is called the Rainwater Glen; it functions like a river’s floodplain. It is designed to hold back stormwater runoff, allowing deep-rooted native plants to facilitate absorption and help filter impurities to improve community water quality. Above you see a photo of a portion of the Rainwater Glen as bikers pass by riding through the incredible scenery at CBG.

Below is a video on the Plant Science Center Rainwater Glen which really speaks to it’s wonderful water conservation science.

Next chance you get, go to The Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center at the Chicago Botanic Garden – you will see conservation in action and an entire community built to make a difference for our earth.

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

Support Healthy Living – Have A Green Fair!

How do you live healthier? How do you learn more about living a green lifestyle and what that means? There’s so much information out there it can be quite confusing.

My suggestion is to educate your community by getting awesome experts from your community who can better define “green living” and the have a fun experience together. 

Two great organizations in my county in Illinois are doing just that - Cantigny and SCARCE are hosting their first-ever Green Fair on Saturday, September 26. The event, from 10 am to 4 pm, will be a great way to see new environmental technologies and ideas.

Focused on green lifestyle living, there will be cooking demonstrations, presentations, eco-activities and all sorts of educational opportunities for the community.

Most importantly, there will be a “Recycling Extravaganza” at the event. This is a special drop-off recycling event where people can drop off everything from books, to metals, to tennis shoes, to bikes, to electronic waste without ever getting out of the car. All donated products are reduced, reused, and/or recycled. It is a beautiful thing for the community as it keeps products out of the landfill.

Come to the Cantigny Green Fair on Saturday, September 26th from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. If you do not live in Illinois, go to the Cantigny and SCARCE websites and learn more about how you can really make a difference for your community by having a Green Fair. A great first step towards having more of your neighbors understand what living “green” really means.

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

Have An E-Waste Recycle Event At Your Home – Help Your Neighbors Learn About Saving Landfill Space

Electronic waste is currently the fastest growing category of municipal landfill waste. GreenerChoices.org says, “Nearly 3 million tons of consumer electronic waste was generated in 2003 alone, according to the most recent U.S. EPA estimates.”

Guess what? YOU can do something about this and it is simple and easy. Hold your own E-waste Recycling Extravaganza! This can be held in your driveway.

First, schedule a pick-up with a local E-waste recycling company. This time I used Vintage Tech Recyclers, which is an asset recovery and recycling company. Often, if you have large quantities of E-waste, you can get a pick-up scheduled for free.

Next, contact all your friends and neighbors, give them a date you are recycling E-waste, and have everyone deliver E-waste such as their old computer equipment, coffee pots, and electronic games to your driveway. That’s all there is to it – you are done. Now the company comes and takes away the products for recycling. Easy!

In the below video you can see my recycling extravaganza pick-up and details on how easy it is to accomplish!

It’s easy! It’s simple! It’s good for the earth! Make a difference today and recycle your electronic waste products.

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

Project Peace and Grace – Eric Vinsel’s Cross-Country Quest To Discover Spirituality and Kindness In Humanity – Part 1

 

Where do you go to find spirituality and kindness in humanity? Church? Synagogue? Mosque? Family? Nature? Many seek this answer and SHOULD – because for individuals around the world, connecting to nature and to community is the difference between truly living or just counting out hundreds of days in a life.

One of my neighbors here in Warrenville, Illinois, is a young man named Eric Vinsel. As a college student who dreams of eventually attending seminary school, Eric decided to take up what seemed like an impossible quest – to travel nationally and internationally for one year and find spiritual grace and peace in humanity. Eric’s quest, “Project Peace and Grace,” is a learning experience for he and everyone he touches. More importantly, he perceives it as a way to join spiritual people’s from every denomination and socioeconomic status and unite us all in a common idea. It also has become his personal search for his own spirituality.

He spent most of 2008 searching out various Christian and spiritual communities who might allow him to spend one night of his quest with a host family to discuss their lives and spirituality. Eric’s hope was to have these families answer just three questions:

1) How do you want to be remembered?
2) What does the world need to remember about God?
3) What is your community's greatest need?

What happened surprised him. Growing up in a closed and protected church community, he had always known generosity there and felt it would be easy to search out pastors and families to help him and encourage him on this experience. It was not easy. In fact, no one from the hundreds of churches he phoned would help him from any organization and he felt all hope was lost. In the spring of 2009, Eric became more driven than ever and felt deep in his heart that humanity’s compassion and innate need to connect would allow him to bring people together in a spiritually helpful way.

His constant companion on the first leg of his journey was a beaten up old Honda Motorcycle from the 1970’s named “Grace.” He started a “Project Grace and Peace” fan page on Facebook to let his friends and family know how it was going, then left on his journey in June of 2009. His faith was strong - with only a few telephone numbers of possible connections in his pocket – he hoped he would be able to finish his journey to as many states as possible and touch as many lives as he could.

What he learned on this leg of his journey was not at all what he expected. Eric wanted to spread peace, hope, and kindness to others, and found out that the most touching connection to spirituality was the kindness that was returned to him from complete strangers.

In Colorado, a new friend allowed Eric to stay and experience nature in the mountains where he met and practiced spirituality with The Adventure Rabbi. He continued on to stay and work for his dinner and meet new people at several places including a beer brewery run by monks, a working Mormon cattle ranch in Utah, and a free-thinking hippie commune. Sleeping along the road side, Eric’s struggles in the journey often centered on the desperate needs of an old and dilapidated motorcycle getting him to his next destination. These contacts were usually given to him by a friend of a friend and could be found on a crumbled piece of old paper in his pocket.

“Grace” broke down in nearly every city he ventured through which left him fearful for his safety and financially unable to feed himself. Yet, the kindness of strangers always prevailed. While traveling through corn fields, mountains, across rivers, and all over this amazing country, someone would help him when he thought he would not be able to go on. Eric helped others too – giving rides to anyone who needed it and sharing his food with whoever he came across who needed it.

Unexpectedly, it was not the religious sect who helped him as he forged onward. Instead, other motor bikers, kind old ladies, and farmers with tractors – all strangers – would help him when his bike broke down in middle of no where. In San Francisco he lived and worked with a motorcycle tow truck driver for nearly two weeks who was kind enough to take him in while “Grace” suffered some difficult repairs. Most shocking of all was when Arthur, a 26 year old, homeless, US veteran suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) helped he and a traveling companion Eric picked up along the road see what Eric believes grace really means to him. It was a moment of self-discovery.

Eric says about Arthur, “He was asking for 75 cents to buy a subway sandwich when we saw him. We told him that we wouldn't give any money, but we would be honored to have dinner with him if he wanted to join us. He quickly agreed. When we got to the restaurant, we went through the line and ordered our sandwiches. Suddenly, Arthur had one of his [PTSD] fits. He scrunched into a ball and started to shake. When he snapped out of it, he stood up and only remembered that we were his friends. He thanked us profusely for coming with him to eat and then insisted on paying for our sandwiches. We refused and said no, we are going to pay. He then pulled out money from his pocket which confused us and said, ‘no, I want to pay. I am so grateful for our friendship that I want to buy this meal for you.’”

“Something clicked that was bigger than this impossibly bazaar moment. I realized that in that very spot, in a Subway sandwich shop, I was standing in the foundation of a church. It was right there were the Church should exist and faith begin [with every day people suffering a very human every day existence].”

“The truth is that I have a similar story in one way or another for every home that I have stayed in thus far. I guess the ‘churches’ may not have given me a place to stay, but I have been staying in churches every night without even knowing it. And though the ‘churches’ may not have fed me when I was hungry, I have been given a meal by the church every day without even knowing it. It has been God that has been feeding me and fixing my tires. It is our acts of love that form the church where God dwells and does His work.”

Eric’s adventures continued north through the state of Washington, where he faced the worst disaster yet - “Grace” was crashed into by another car in a grocery store parking lot and was barely driveable. He made it to Fairbanks and left “Grace” in a trucking depot. Once again, he got help from a surprise source – he hitched a ride with Ryan who is one of the drivers on "Ice Road Truckers" from the Discovery Channel.

Over two months from the day he started out, “Grace” and Eric finally made it back home for a very temporary respite. His journey to find peace and grace was not what he expected at all. But then again, making a difference for our community rarely is what we expect – it is what humanity dictates which fires our hearts in need.

Eric began the second part of his “Project Peace and Grace” journey on August 28, 2009 – floating down 2,100 miles of Mississippi River in a canoe… part 2 will detail his next adventures…

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

Children Can Make A Difference and Help Their Community – Case In Point – The Llama Mama Saga

Jennifer Lund is one determined woman. For twelve years she has dreamed of having llamas on her property in Warrenville, Illinois. Jennifer is a skilled knit and fiber artist with no pets at home. Having llamas seemed an imaginative and creative way to combine her passions of obtaining their special wool for use in her hobby, and of course, loving and caring for a unique pet.

When she was finally able to prepare her property and go for the impossible dream of owning these pets, she came up against a lot of restrictions from the City of Warrenville. Livestock was limited in the city to horses. Llamas are not horses. Both the planning commission and city council had to get involved in determining how to rezone property within the city. It took over an entire year and countless meetings to finally bring the llamas to Warrenville.

My eight year old daughter, who had never been exposed to government procedure before, wanted to help. She believed in Jennifer’s dream of having llamas because my daughter knows the joy of having pets and wanted Jennifer to have that happiness too. She also wanted to see the llamas and care for the llamas with Jennifer and was curious if the city would really pass the rules to let her have them.

Although she was unable to attend EVERY city council meeting – there were many over this issue – my eight year old went to several of them. Not because I told her to go, but because she wanted to and felt it was the right thing to do.

She did research on llamas to understand more about them, she made signs (see above photo), she showed up to city council meetings after her bedtime when there were all adults and no children to support the llamas. In the process, my little girl was able to understand how the government works better. That running to the forefront of a cause and demanding change without due process is not fair to the rest of the community. When you want something improved in your neighborhood, you need to go the proper route to do it. This applies to so many things in life that I felt it was an important life lesson for her to understand.

Most importantly, she learned to give emotional support to a wonderful member of our community who truly wanted and deserved something special. She barely knew Jennifer Lund when this all started, but now she knows someone else in our suburban community who is caring and supportive – she made a new friend.

Happily my girl was there on September 8, 2009 at 8:30 PM (past her bedtime), to congratulate Jennifer as the City Council passed the motion to allow llamas in the City of Warrenville. She was the only child in the room, but she sat quietly while all the other motions were agreed upon first so she could be there at Jennifer’s special moment. Above you see the photo from that evening of former Mayor Vivian Lund, my daughter, Jennifer Lund (future llama mama), and current Mayor David Brummel smiling over Jennifer’s victory. Congratulations Jennifer!

We should all be teaching our children that supporting our friends in the community and helping each other is important. We are in difficult times when having our community around us means more than ever.

It is true that society is more isolated in many ways than it ever was. Therefore, now is the time to encourage your children get out and make a difference in the community because they need to be less isolated and more connected with the world to be emotionally healthy.

Make a difference!

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

A Salute To Fermilab Garden Club – Businesses CAN Make A Difference For Food Pantry’s and the Feeding of America’s Hungry

 

Family. Love. Friendship. These things define us, connecting us to the surrounding world and making our lives both enriched and worth living. When I met the Fermilab Garden Club this season, I imagined I would simply see gardens. Instead, I saw lifelong friends living, breathing, and building community.

Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory, a Department of Energy facility in Batavia, Illinois, is a 6,800- acre site of incredible natural beauty as well as a business which houses over 1,000 employees. Almost 90 gardeners lease 200 plots, each 20’ X 40’ on a quiet stretch of Fermilab property. All the plots are individually plowed, fenced, planted, watered, and maintained by the gardeners; employees of Fermilab.

This delightful garden is an energetic conglomeration of people from across the world and has become a unique and special expression of community giving. Encouraged by management at Fermilab, these physicists and employees of all ages come from countries around the globe such as Taiwan, New Zealand, Russia, and India to spend time together in the healthy presence of nature. They all give advice, share friendship, and most importantly -  keep themselves emotionally and physically healthy by being a part of this unique experience.

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Some of the gardeners have been tending these plots for 35 years. Many have special and heartwarming stories about the love they have for nature and the passion they all have for touching the earth and growing food. Flowers are abundant as well, and are grown simply for their beauty. There’s even an orchard which was started over a dozen years ago which produces apples, pears, and plums.

Each gardener harvests nearly enough fresh produce to feed their entire extended families – from children to great-grandchildren. They preserve, freeze, and dry what foods they are able, however, most also give-away hundreds of pounds of food every year to neighbors and local food pantry’s who desperately need the support.

 

Simply put, the Fermilab Garden Club is truly an inspiration filled with love and caring. It is an example of what a small number of people can do when they come together to make a difference for their community.

Across the United States, more and more businesses and neighbors are doing their part to build community during our difficult economic time. Organizations like AmpleHarvest.org, for instance, discovered that American gardeners were struggling to find food pantry’s that would take fresh vegetables and formed a not-for-profit organization to help connect the hungry with local gardens.

According to AmpleHarvest.org,”an estimated 100 billion pounds of food, enough to totally eliminate hunger, is thrown away annually in the United States.” AmpleHarvest.org enables neighbors in need to obtain garden fresh produce that might be left standing unharvested due to over production in home and community gardens. Please send food pantry’s that are unregistered to this website to help make a difference.

If you have extra garden bounty like the Fermilab Garden Club has – or if you have food products in your pantry that are going to be thrown out - please stop and think about your neighbor in need.

Have a food drive at your place of business – fresh veggies included – and make a difference for your community. Better yet, build a garden filled with love like these wonderful gardeners have. You might be building a lifetime of health and wellness.

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

The Morton Arboretum On The Cutting Edge; Beer Bottle Glass Sustainable Paving

Once again The Morton Arboretum is on the cutting edge with sustainability; utilizing recycled glass as a path product.

“Building paths from recycled beer bottles is another wonderful example of our progress towards a more sustainable experience for the public,” said Kris Bachtell, Director of Collections and Facilities. The Morton Arboretum is an internationally recognized 1,700 acre outdoor museum with 4,117 kinds of trees, shrubs, and other plants from around the world located in Lisle, Illinois.

FilterPave^TM paving is crushed glass and beer bottles held together by a special mixture of polyurethane and comes in several different colors. It’s benefits include a highly permeable surface which allows water to sink through and return to the water aquifer instead of traveling into our sewer systems. This is excellent for the environment because the glass mixture is rescued from landfills.

According to Bill Handlos, Director of Presto Products Geosystems Division (seen left), the company that manufactures and the product for the 1,000 square foot walkway, “another benefit of the FilterPave^TM porous pavement is it helps reduce the “heat island” effect by trapping and mitigating heat, rather than reflecting it, as a blacktop surface does.”

Emerald Site Services, LLC, a leading environmental service company in Illinois, donated the installation. John Donahue, from Emerald Site Services (seen right), says “All ingredients for the product are mixed and then laid like cement on the path. It forms a “rice krispy” like consistency which allows more maximum porosity.”

Surprisingly, the finished product only costs about $10 to $12 per square foot installed, which is similar to the price for brick paving. However, utilizing recycled eco-friendly material in a permeable paver form makes it a much better choice than traditional paving for both residential, government, and businesses across the United States.

FilterPave^TM beer bottle paving is long lasting – currently lasting over 16 years in trial tests – and has an attractive crystalline glitter when finished. The Morton Arboretum chose “Amber” as it’s color for the path – a great choice on a grass path surrounded by planting beds lined with brown mulch. It looked beautiful when finished.

Winter plow blades can damage the surface of the paving, however, by plowing the surface a tad high to prevent damage, the permeability of the product allows snow to melt exceptionally quickly, thereby maintaining an ice free surface quite easily. Long term maintenance includes making sure large leaves and debris are swept off in the fall and winter. Outside of that it is maintenance free!

Way to go Morton Arboretum, Presto Products, and Emerald Site Services! Showing the world how cutting edge “green” can really make a difference for your local 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

“Mom, what does a cricket eat?” Is Your Child Suffering From Nature Deficit Disorder?

Is your child touching nature regularly? It might just be detrimental to their health if they are not able to experience the greater natural world.

When my daughter asked me “Mom, what does a cricket eat?” I immediately jumped online and found out. Why? Because I want her to understand more about the connection between nature and her body. Turns out crickets are omnivores. That means they eat everything – including each other.

She kept the little buggers in a jar overnight and learned that although they do like vegetable material, a tomato needs to be more fully rotted for them to really eat it. Therefore, she let the crickets free in the morning and learned a science lesson about nature.

Richard Louv, the author of Last Child In The Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder (Algonquin Books, 2008) is the person who originally coined the phrase, “Nature Deficit Disorder.” His strong belief is that children who have not been exposed to nature can suffer all sorts of medical malady’s, both physical and mental. My daughter spends a significant amount of time outside and it has truly educated her on more than just play – she’s learning how nature really works.

Next on my daughters scientific learning journey with crickets, she wants to capture them and try feeding them varying foods like bugs, and see which they prefer.

Please give us suggestions on other experiments we can try to help my daughter learn more about nature and I will share them with my readers!

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

Recycle your CDs and DVDs – Keep Your Technotrash Out Of Landfills

Shockingly, 30 billion Compact Disc’s (CDs) and Digital Video Disc’s (DVDs) are created every year; many of them only to end up as landfill. The CD Recycling Center of America says it is time we recycled them instead!

Here’s the problem – it takes oil to produce plastics. CDs and DVDs are not recyclable because all products such as compact discs, videotapes, and computer discs are made from mixed materials which cannot be recycled unless first disassembled.

Retail companies across the United States are sending their products to special recyclers like CD Recycling Center of America. Another recycler to consider is GreenDisk, a group which record companies send their unsold product to. GreenDisk is focused on rewriting and reusing previously used disks before complete recycling is necessary.

This creative approach definitely helps to reduce the billions of CDs and DVDs which end up wasted. Imagine 30 billion CDs/DVDs stacked on top of each other and how much space that must take up if the discs were in a landfill.

What’s happening to the CDs and DVDs from the 1980’s which are no longer "current”? What happens to all that packaging – from the CD jacket to the cardboard and ink fillers? My guess is they are tossed out. If we continue to produce the number of CDs and DVDs we have in the past, there is a potential for trillions of these products to end up clogging our landfills.

Before you throw out a CD or DVD see if your local library or a community organization will take it first. Contact the above recycling centers. Better yet, find a creative craft you can do like the above CD fish made out of an old disc.

Think before you throw things in the landfill – make a difference 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

Green and Simple Tip – Reuse or Recycle Your Paper Napkins From the Car

In a perfect world we would be utilizing paper napkins that are made from 100% post consumer waste (PCW) and are processed chlorine-free (PCF) (which means no bleach will get into our water systems after the product is thrown out or recycled again). We do not live in a perfect world and the pile of napkins below is proof of that.

Above you see my husband (a.k.a. Mr. Serious in this photo), getting ready to back out of the driveway – his car is usually full of napkins. He runs his business out of his vehicle and spends a lot of time on the road working long hours. This means LOTS of fast food stops. Most of the time he has an extra napkin or two left after he eats. Instead of putting it back in the bag and throwing it out or recycling it, he saves the napkins for reuse to prevent waste. Once he gets a large pile, he brings it in for the family to use and helps keep our landfills just a little bit cleaner.

Seems like a small thing to do for our planet, doesn’t it? It is not when you imagine that Americans use an average of 2,200 paper napkins per person per year – here is the U.S. population count as of this blog post – 307,340,699 – you do the math! Thousands of trees could be used for other purposes if we were more careful about which napkins we choose to use and how we choose to use them. For instance, how are we going to use the napkins which are automatically handed to us through the fast food window?

Follow my husbands great tip and prevent waste – save and reuse the extra napkins you pick up along in your journey through life. Also, when buying new napkins focus on purchasing PCW and PCF products. This goes a long way towards protecting the environment.

You can make a difference!

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 - Do Not Burn Your Leaves - Kick It New School - Dispose of Leaves the Green Way!

Fall is upon us and it is almost time to clean up some serious leafage. This is the time millions of Americans burn their leaves – the old school way as they have been doing it for generations. According to the EPA, instead of kicking it old school – you should be kicking it new school and disposing of your leaves in a way which does not cause harm to the environment.

Tragically, leaf burning leads to more than just fire hazards and air pollution – it leads to severe allergy and health problems. When you open burn leaves, it produces particulate matter and hydrocarbons. Leaf smoke contains carbon monoxide as well as  toxic, irritant, and carcinogenic (cancer-causing) compounds. These chemicals are particularly damaging to small children and the elderly in your community.

For me personally, simply driving by someone who is burning leaves is enough to throw me into a severe asthma attack and I can be ill for days afterwards. Why would you burn leaves and cause your community this kind of misery? 

Because of the hazard of open burning, many communities have made it illegal to burn leaves. According to the EPA’s website, “the total health, financial, and environmental costs of leaf burning can be quite high. These costs include: (1) higher incidences of health problems and increased health care costs; (2) higher incidences of home and forest fires and associated property loss and need for increased fire protection; and (3) the clean-up costs associated with soiling of personal property.”

Leaf mold is one of the best compost materials ever. Composting is a fantastic way to create some “garden gold” for your property as well as preventing smoke from burning leaves from entering the atmosphere. Build your own compost bin, or put the leaves in a community composting program – it’s time to change those old habits and try something new which will make a difference for your community.

For more information on Composting 101, please click through and view this link.

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.