What we are using

This product is from Method (image from drugstore.com). This is the eco friendly daily shower cleaner we are using. It smells like ylang ylang and cuts down on soap scum.

Been a while

I've been trying to figure out what to do with this blog. Is it just about living green? Should I start a new blog about gardening? Can I keep up with this? Well, i've decided to make it a truly green blog..that means gardening also. So, I will discuss living a green life and gardening. Same format...more varied content. So..more to come.

Household odds and ends.

An easy way to go green, learn a simple single crochet stitch and make your dish rags out of organic cotton yarn! Takes a little practice but you will find within a few days you can have color coordinated, enviro-friendly dish cloths that cost less than buying them. AND you can brag to all your friends about how hippie-savy you are. Creating instead of paying...how very green of you!

Here is my fav Utube video for crocheting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqhaQQajt0U

A while

Ok, its been a while since I've posted but sometimes summer happens. My newest tip for you pet owners...add a little distilled white vinegar to your pets drinking water, this will help to deter fleas. Also, when you bath your pets, add the juice of half a lemon to their coat during the rinse cycle. Fleas dislike this.

Composting

Ok, I promised more on composting. We started our first compost very simply. We hardly knew what went into the pile, other than veggie food stuffs. We bought a roll of chicken wire and four metal stakes. We took a rake to an area in the back yard that gets a decent amount of sun. We cleared the area of grass and roots. We got down to the good, dark brown soil. If you don't have good dark brown soil that's ok, just expose the soil you do have. Our compost butts up against a wooden fence. This isn't the best of ideas because the compost will rot the fence over time. We put the stakes in four corners forming a square, then we wrapped the wire meshing around the stakes. It took a little manipulating to get the wire the way we wanted it.

After the bin was formed we had to fill it. We didn't start out with any special compost starters. We simply added a bag of manure to the ground we had turned up. Then, we added raked leaves, we had plenty of them. The key is to alternate browns and greens. Browns= coffee grinds, card board, leaves, I think of them as the more fibrous material. Greens= kitchen veggie scraps, egg shells. The key is no grease and no meat by products. But the list of things you can compost is insane. Here is a list of the things that go in our compost pile weekly:

Veggie and fruit scraps (no citrus)
Egg shells
cardboard
dryer lint
leaves
garden trimmings
Qtips
paper towels
coffee grinds and filters
left over coffee

The key is to make sure the pile is moist and you turn it once or twice a week. This mix of yummy goodness will practically call out to the worms. If you compost it, they will come. We now I have neighbors raiding our bin because they've never had success before until they used our compost. So beware with whom you share : )

I will post pictures of the first bin later, when I explain the second bin :)
Happy composting.
Oh..and a list of 163 things you can compost http://www.plantea.com/compost-materials.htm

If you live in the Northeast Florida area, you need to know about Maggies. Maggie's Herb Farm is located in St. Augustine Florida. It's acres of yummy, planty goodness. Prices are very fair, and the employee's are wonderfully knowledgeable and incredibly nice. Check them out.
http://www.maggiesherbfarm.com/

Our Garden

Here is a mostly complete list of what we are growing in our garden that is edible:
Tomato
Basil
Cilantro
Rosemary
CHives
Echinacea
Arugula
Nasturium
Bell Pepper
Cuccumber
Mug Wart
Lemon Verbena
Oregano
Marjoram
Aloe
Letuce
Malabar lettuce
Anyse Hyssop
Bay
St. John's Wort
Bee Balm
Borage