Rx for gardeners with cabin fever

Are you itching to get your spring vegetable garden started? Me too. So I've been collecting tips to make this year's garden better than ever...

Green tip for starting seeds: save your empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls to use instead of buying those little peat pots from the garden center. It's green and cheap!

Mapping out your garden but not sure what to plant where? Read about companion planting in Carrots Love Tomatoes, a book recommended by my gardening pal in Vermont.

Check out the latest Maryland Home & Garden newsletter and their new Grow it! Eat it! campaign. They also post a monthly calendar with recommended dates for planting and other timely garden tasks.

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Free mulch and compost in Baltimore County

Are you a Baltimore County resident? If so, then you're in luck: I received the following email about free stuff from the Baltimore County Department of Public Works. Check out their webpage and sign up for e-newsletters here.

Email as follows:

Looking to do some landscaping around your yard? We can help! Baltimore County residents can get free compost and mulch at the Eastern Sanitary Landfill and Solid Waste Management Facility (ESL) in White Marsh. Residents must bring and fill their own containers.

Mulch is mainly comprised of ground and shredded tree limbs. Residents and the Bureau of Highways bring the tree limbs to ESL, and then landfill employees use a tubgrinder to process the wood into mulch.

Compost is comprised mainly of grass, leaves, bush trims, plants and small branches that residents have set out, generally in plastic bags for collection in the County's yard materials recycling program or brought to ESL. These materials (contents and bags) are placed in "windrows" and processed. Finished materials are screened to remove unwanted and large pieces of material. However, small pieces of plastic may still be present in the compost.

The County makes no guarantees about the quality or composition of either product. The individual user assumes all risks and responsibilities associated with the use of these materials.

Compost and mulch are available on a "First Come First Served" basis. Please call our customer service line, 410-887-2000 (M-F, 7:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.) before going to ESL to check on the supply of these materials. The directions and hours of operation for ESL are available at http://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Agencies/publicworks/solid_waste/facilities.html
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A President who's green

The best line I've heard yet this year about the new Obama administration is this: "It's not that we have a President who's black; it's that for the first time we have a President who's green." - by Van Jones, quoted by green blogger Joel Makower.

I'm too young to remember much about the Carter administration, but from what I hear, Jimmy was fairly green... what with his cardigan sweaters and putting solar panels on the White House roof and all.

But if the proof is in the political actions, then Obama seems to be making some progress: already he has taken action with the EPA and Department of Transportation to limit greenhouse gases from cars and trucks. And actions like this are coming none too soon for the leaders of Europe, who have been calling for the USA to get serious about reducing emissions and join the Kyoto Protocol for some time now.

Let's hope he keeps moving in the right direction.

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Baltimore County green news

And now, a long-overdue post about what's been going on in Baltimore County green news!

I attended a community meeting on 2 Dec 2008 that was co-sponsored by Baltimore County Office of Sustainability and the Sierra Club. There were speakers from Maryland Dept of Environment, Baltimore County Commission on Environmental Quality, Baltimore chapter of the USGBC, in addition to the sponsor organizations.

We heard about the Regional GHG Initiative (RGGI), the Maryland Climate Change Commission that was founded in April 2007, the 2008 Climate Action Plan (1. Mitigation, 2. Adaptation, 3. Science), and Baltimore County's carbon footprint measurement progress.

Some other organizations and ideas I picked up at this meeting included:

* "pay as you drive" car insurance may be available from GEICO in the future. This would especially benefit Zipcar customers and telecommuter/public transit riders.

* carbon footprint note: buildings in the mid-Atlantic region require more heating and air conditioning than those in the north or south regions, because we have both cold winters and hot summers, whereas north or south regions have one or the other.

* Baltimore County encompasses 600 square miles and 315,000 households. Something like 80% of the population lives on 30% of the land here: there is a distinct line of demarcation between urban and rural areas. Its carbon footprint is mostly comprised of carbon from electricity generation, followed by transportation emissions. The area with the greatest potential for carbon reduction is waste management and recycling, which brings me to...

** SINGLE STREAM RECYCLING IS COMING!** We in the county have been jealous of Baltimore City's single stream recycling program with weekly pickup for months now, but not for much longer. The date has yet to be announced, but watch for an announcement in 2009. Here's an article I found online about it. And if somebody can tell me how to upload and link pdf documents to a Blogger account, I'll attach the Towson Times article I clipped on 12/24/08. Merry Christmas, County!

* For citizens disgruntled about the local bus routes that have been moved or cancelled... sorry. MTA public transit is funded by the state, not by the county.

* Check out the Baltimore Sustainability network's webpage at BaltimoreClimate.org

* All new county buildings are to meet LEED silver rating standards from now on. County and City schools will be retrofitted as feasible.

* I also heard of Builders for the Bay for the first time at this meeting.

That's all for my local green news catchup today. I have been and will be attending some good green lectures lately, so stay posted for more in this vein...

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Holey Ecofont!

If you like Swiss cheese, you'll love this: a font with holes! The Dutch creators claim that it uses up to 20% less ink than normal fonts. What will they think of next?

www.Ecofont.eu

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US Postal Service going green

I've been using www.usps.com to look up zip codes and miscellaneous postage info for years, and just today I noticed a green subsite! It has tips about eco-friendly mailing products, how to make greener choices regarding your mail service, and info about what the Postal Service is doing to reduce fuel and energy usage.

Check it out here.

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Chasing the wind

What did you do on your Christmas vacation? I went snowmobiling and saw a wind farm in upstate New York, at the Tug Hill plateau near Utica. Snowmobiles = not so green, I know, but this wind farm was tremendously green. If you've never been up close to a modern wind turbine before, let me tell you, they are huge! The base diameter is wide enough for a man door.


See more photos and read about the Maple Ridge wind farm here.


You might be able to see a piece of the farm on this live snowcam at the Flat Rock Inn, a fine snowmobiling establishment complete with sweet golden retrievers and marshmallow fluff in their hot cocoa. Yum!

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Office carbon calculator by EPA

When asked about my job, I usually introduce myself as "chief tree-hugger" for my company. What that really means is that I manage the carbon footprint, or greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory for over 100 offices worldwide. Know what *that* means? Hundreds of spreadsheets, with thousands of conversion factors, bits and bytes of data, and a bookkeeping nightmare.


Unless you care to use this nifty spreadsheet tool created by the EPA. It even converts solid waste materials into carbon emissions based on whether they get recycled or dumped, which is handy if you want to do a waste stream audit.

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Dishwasher cooking, anyone?

Unlike most of the stuff I blog about, I haven't tried this, nor am I sure that I even advocate it, but it's a pretty fascinating idea. Therefore, I cautiously submit: it might be possible to cook dinner in your dishwasher.


How to poach salmon in the dishwasher. Video and recipe included. In the comments, somebody mentioned a dishwasher lasagne recipe too.


Kids, don't try this at home.

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Merry Christmas and stuff

I love Christmas. It’s my favorite holiday, hands down. What’s not to like about a whole month of getting together with friends you haven’t seen in awhile, sharing good food, decorating your house to look all twinkly, singing happy songs you’ve known all your life, and giving and receiving gifts?

And oh, the gifts! When I was a kid, I’d write to Santa asking for everything from a pony to Legos to new clothes, and as I’ve gotten older, my wish list hasn’t gotten any shorter… but this year it has changed a bit. I’m looking around my house and thinking, do I really need more stuff? I barely have enough room to contain all the stuff I already have! And what about the environmental implications of acquiring more stuff?

So I sat down and watched this “Story of Stuff” video. It’s only 20 minutes long, and quite thought-provoking. I’ve never been much for conspiracy theory, but the notion that Americans didn’t have such a love affair with shopping for new possessions until every household contained a television set that ran enticing advertisements designed to make us want bigger/faster/new and improved/MORE! is pretty compelling.

This holiday season, I challenge you to think about your stuff, and the stuff you give to others. Need some ideas for stuff-conscious holiday shopping?

Give an experience, like concert or sporting event tickets from Ticketmaster.

Give food, like fair trade chocolate from Ten Thousand Villages or a fruit basket from Harry and David.

Give online memberships, gift cards, or services, like CooksIllustrated magazine's online portal, Flickr photo site, Amazon gift cards.

Donate to a charity like Heifer International, Sustainable Harvest, Engineers Without Borders.

For more ideas, google "green christmas ideas"... there are lots of good websites out there. Get creative!

While I’m on a feel-good bent… the holidays also happen to be a popular time to volunteer! Did you know that Thanksgiving is THE most requested day to work at soup kitchens? A friend of mine who works with one in downtown Baltimore gently reminds people that while venues may be all booked up for volunteers on Thanksgiving, there are still plenty of time slots to fill on the other 364 days of the year! I read several studies that proved such tangible health benefits associated with volunteering as improved physical fitness, decreased rates of depression, and increased longevity, for starters. Read more at www.nationalservice.gov