This is something that’s been rattling around in my head for a while, and I thought it might be worth spilling it all here and seeing what you guys think. I write in a lot of places about how to be green, and I get a lot of pitches from companies [...]]]>

This is something that’s been rattling around in my head for a while, and I thought it might be worth spilling it all here and seeing what you guys think. I write in a lot of places about how to be green, and I get a lot of pitches from companies who want me to review their newest green product. But what does green really mean?

Over at Feelgood Style, we talk about green beauty and fashion, and every time I get a pitch from a cosmetics company, I find myself wondering if they’re green enough. One company makes cosmetics that come in fully compostable packaging, but they use artificial “fragrance,” which can mean any number of toxic, artificial chemicals. Are they green? What about a company who’s recipe is totally free from mystery ingredients, but their packaging is plastic?

I’m even running across this as I start my fall garden! I avoided products from Scotts (even “organic” ones), because they’re a major distributor for Monsanto’s RoundUp. Not familiar with RoundUp? It’s a pesticide, and it’s terrible for the environment. You can read a bit about some of the problems with RoundUp here.

Right, so! In my effort to avoid Scotts, I picked up organic seed starter from Burpee, only to learn that 3-5% of their seeds are from Monsanto. Is 3-5% a small enough number? Am I being green by supporting Burpee’s organic line, when I’m also supporting a company that sells genetically modified seeds?

How to be Green

Some companies are making a genuine effort, while others are just greenwashing. So many companies co-opt the word “green” as a marketing gimmick, that it’s hard to suss out who’s really making an impact and who’s just trying to break into this growing niche of green consumers. It’s up to us to read the labels, do the research, and see beyond the marketing.

But I think if we really want to get at the heart of how to be green, it’s about more than what we buy. It’s what we choose not to buy and what we choose to make ourselves. I think the key to really being a green consumer is to…consume less! That can mean just opting out of the newest and shiniest thing. It can also mean using your crafty skills to reuse what we have and turn it into something new.

My friend Kelly Rand has said many times that she thinks handmade can save the world, and I think she’s really got it right. I also think that handmade can mean different things for different folks. Maybe that means planting and nurturing a food garden, instead of buying produce from halfway around the world. Maybe it’s cooking a meal, rather than ordering wasteful takeout. Or turning an old t-shirt into a reusable shopping bag.

We all have the power to make these small changes, and I think the real way to be green is to do our best to reduce our impacts however we can.

Does that make sense? I sort of feel like I’m tossing out a half-baked idea here, and I’d love to flesh it out with you guys. What does green mean to you?

Related Posts:

• IF: Summer Crafts!
• How To: Build a Spiral Container Garden
• Unusual Planters Made From Everyday Items

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Post tags: be green, DIY, environment, garden, green, handmade, Hippie, how to be green, recycle, recycling, repurposed, reuse, upcycling

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Summer is HERE, ya’ll! It’s time to fire up the grill, tend to the garden, and of course it’s time to get your summery DIY on! Here are some crafty projects for your cookout and for your garden. Have you been working on any summer crafts? I’d love to hear about them in [...]]]>

Summer is HERE, ya’ll! It’s time to fire up the grill, tend to the garden, and of course it’s time to get your summery DIY on! Here are some crafty projects for your cookout and for your garden. Have you been working on any summer crafts? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

1. How cute are The Creative Place’s upcycled cocktail umbrellas?
2. I’ve been admiring this recycled six pack cookout caddy from Design*Sponge for years. It’s so simple and sweet!
3. I am in love with these firefly candles from Urban Sherp. Wouldn’t they be lovely for some summer evening porch-sitting?
4. Spruce up your summer garden with a simple set of clothespin plant markers!
5. You’d be the queen of Saturday if you showed up at a cookout with a batch of TINY PIES from Explore the Cabin!

So spill it, crafty peeps! What have you been making during this scorcher of a summer?

Related Posts:

• What does green mean?
• IF: Summer Indie Craft Experience
• Friday Roundup: Summer Shade

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Post tags: crafty garden, Crafty Pals, DIY, Friday Roundup, garden, handmade, inspiration board, Inspiration Friday, reuse, Roundups, summer, summer crafts, summer DIY, upcycling

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The plants out front have been doing so well that we’ve expanded our food-growing adventures to the back! Here’s how you can build your [...]]]> Remember that herb spiral from last week’s IF post? Well, Dave and I made one, and it was so much fun that we made a second one!

The plants out front have been doing so well that we’ve expanded our food-growing adventures to the back! Here’s how you can build your very own spiral herb garden.

I’ve confessed already about my tragic history killing plants, but an iCal reminder to water my containers three times a week and my husband’s kindness in sharing his organic plant food have made a big difference. The containers out front are doing really well, and I decided to push myself with some food plants out back, too!

When my friend Brian showed us this spiral herb garden, my husband and I were smitten. Our yard has been chock full of bricks since we moved in for whatever reason. Really, you can’t dig out there without finding at least a few bricks, and we’d been stockpiling them in an area that we dubbed “the garden center.” This was a perfect project to use up some of the bricks, and we loved the results so much that I headed back to the store for more straw after we finished so that we could build a second one!

How to Build an Herb Spiral

We basically followed the directions from the Nature Learning Center, but we decided to use some rocks from another yard stockpile at the bottom of our spiral to give it better drainage and help us use a little bit less hay. Here’s how it went down:

1. Level out the ground where you’re placing the spiral, spread out some compost, and cover the area with cardboard.

2. Build the spiral. Lay out the bricks in the spiral shape, then add layers of bricks until it’s the height you want. We started each new layer of bricks 3 in from the end of the spiral’s “tail.” The weight of the bricks will hold things in place for the most part, but if you have any that are wobbly, you can use straw or mulch to help even them out. I noticed that things got wobblier as we got closer to the top, but it feels quite sturdy now that it’s done.

3. Add the rocks. Fill the spiral about 1/3 full with rocks for drainage, preferably ones you’ve got on hand. It also means buying less straw, which is nice.

4. Add the straw. It takes 2-4 bales of straw to fill up your herb spirals, depending on how big they are. If you’re going really big, it could take even more. You’ll want to fill your herb spiral with straw almost all the way to the top.

5. Top with compost. Our bin is still not broken down, thanks to chilly temperatures, so we picked up a bag of mushroom compost to use.

6. Place plants. We found that the best way to add the plants was to place them on top of the compost, then fill in with potting soil.

7. Mulch. I was too pooped to take pictures at this point, but I promise that we used cedar mulch around the outside perimeter of each spiral to hide the cardboard and help it break down.

It looks so great!! A very kind woman at the garden store helped us pick plants. Here’s what’s in there:

• cayenne pepper
• purslane
• rosemary
• pineapple sage
• oregano
• cilantro
• parsley
• onion chives

Growing your own food? I’d love to hear about it! You can comment here, drop a line through the Eat Drink Better contact page, or email me directly at becky@importantmedia.org.

This was a cross-post from Eat Drink Better, a site that I edit that looks at the environmental, social, and health impacts of our food system.

Related Posts:

• What does green mean?
• IF: Summer Crafts!
• Spotted: Chalkboard Paint Drawers

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Post tags: build a spiral garden, build and herb garden, Crafty Pals, DIY, garden, growing food, herb garden, repurposed, reuse

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Spring is so close I can smell it, y’all. I am so ready to hang out back with a glass of wine, play some Scrabble, and enjoy our beautiful garden! How awesome would these lovelies look around the yard?
(. . .)Click here to read on!

© Becky for [...]]]>

Spring is so close I can smell it, y’all. I am so ready to hang out back with a glass of wine, play some Scrabble, and enjoy our beautiful garden! How awesome would these lovelies look around the yard?
(. . .)
Click here to read on!

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments
Post tags: Friday Roundup, garden, Inspiration Friday, Roundups, Spring

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I want to go small, [...]]]> Spring is so close that I can almost smell it in the air! It’s got me thinking about what to plant when the weather gets warm! I did a little searching and came upon this great video from a Georgia organic farmer’s garden with a bunch of great ideas:

I want to go small, at least at first, so my list isn’t quite as extensive as this fellow’s extensive garden patch. Here’s what I want to grow over the next few months:
(. . .)
Click here to read on!

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments
Post tags: Food, Friday Roundup, garden, Inspiration Friday, Roundups, Spring, video

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It’s apparently just in a little corner of Alamo Square Park, and [...]]]> So yesterday I ran across those lovely fence hearts from Outdoor Knit. Writing about that reminded me that my friend Rob posted some pics to Flickr of the Alamo Square Shoe Garden in San Francisco that had me totally intrigued!

It’s apparently just in a little corner of Alamo Square Park, and city gardener David Clifton put it together. During rounds of trash pickup, he kept finding discarded shoes. Rather than send these to the dumpster, he started using them in the garden’s beds.

After a while, folks began leaving shoes for him just for the shoe garden! I think the whole thing is sort of magical. If you want to check out the whole story of the Shoe Garden, check out this great piece from SFGate!

You can also check Rob’s pictures of the garden on his Flickr photostream, starting here.

Image Credits: (in order of appearance)
Creative Commons photo by torroid
Creative Commons photo by nullboy

Related Posts:

• Tutorial Dance Party
• What does green mean?
• IF: Summer Crafts!

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments
Post tags: Alamo Square, beautification, garden, reuse, San Francisco, shoe garden, shoes, trashion, upcycle

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This Wine Bottle Herb Bed from Hyperlocavore is rocking my socks! It may be time to start [...]]]> Is it crazy that I’m already thinking about Fall a little? When the weather turns, Dave and I want to make some changes out back. I spent a little time online looking for gardening inspiration!

This Wine Bottle Herb Bed from Hyperlocavore is rocking my socks! It may be time to start saving those bottles!

(. . .)
Click here to read on!

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments
Post tags: DIY, garden, inspiration, recycle, reuse

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It [...]]]> I posted this picture over on Flickr last week and can’t believe I forgot to brag on my very first, very small harvest! This here represents the entire yield from my three bean plants, but there are some more little fellas that will be ready to pick by the end of the week.

It may not have been many beans, but it was satisfying to munch on them while Dave, Ally, and I watched Alias. If you think I’m proud now, wait until the squash and cucumber plants start producing!

Related Posts:

• Friday Roundup: My Spring Garden Wish List
• Been Picklin’
• Awesome Raw Pad Thai

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Post tags: Food, garden, green beans

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It’s Earth Day, and my little container garden is chugging along. Go, little herbs and veggies, go! Here are even more pictures:
(. . .)Click here to read on!

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments Post tags: container [...]]]>

It’s Earth Day, and my little container garden is chugging along. Go, little herbs and veggies, go! Here are even more pictures:
(. . .)
Click here to read on!

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments
Post tags: container garden, Earth Day, garden

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