Garden wherever I can

I have such a small yard that I have had to be creative with where I can plant vegetables. This raised bed by the front walkway used to be just roses, lavender and rosemary. I pulled out a lot of the ornamentals, trimmed back the rosemary, dumped in a truckload of horse manure and voila - I had a vegetable garden in my front yard.  We also moved a nectarine tree that our daughter had "planted" from seed without us knowing; it was struggling to survive right next to the sidewalk. It is now about 15 feet tall and produced hundreds of nectarines the second year after we moved it!

Planting my winter garden among my existing plants of strawberries, flowers, herbs and peppers.

These are brussel sprouts and I also will plant broccoli, snap peas, regular peas, and bok choy somewhere in this small space.

Purple mustard greens went around the edges of this lemon grass in a big pot in the back yard this morning.

I love the book, "Edible Front Yard" by Ivette Soler. It has beautiful pictures and is a great resource for people like me that don't have/want a lawn but do want a beautiful garden that includes fresh organic vegetables, fruits and herbs. Ivette Soler's blog

Go solar

We went solar with Sungevity and installed solar panels on our roof about 6 months ago. Things have changed so much in this industry; before we would have had to pay about $30k out of pocket, but now with the federal and state rebates we were able to lease the system with no money out of pocket, get a $1,000 rebate from the solar company, a donation to the Sierra Club in our name plus an iPad! This month they are having a similar offer with $1,000 rebate for those who sign up in September. Please use this referral code: 219245 at www.Sungevity.com
Watch this video about making your electric meter run backwards! http://vimeo.com/52177409

Trash talk

I put a lot of effort into recycling including composting (separating out the fruit and vegetable scraps for the compost bin) and separating out the trash from everything recyclable: yard waste, plastic, paper, metal, and glass. I even bought a special trash can that has two compartments: the big one we use for recyclables and the small one we use for trash. My friend made a magnet to label each side. Well, I went out the other day and saw the garbage man dumping all three cans (yard waste, recyclables and trash) into ONE compartment on ONE truck. That crushed me. Are they really dumping everything we've so carefully sorted into one icky gooey mess for trash company employees to dig through on a conveyor belt to sort out the recyclables? This is ludicrous! I guess I have to call to find out what is going on here.
...so I called and found out that because I live in a canyon only one small truck can come through. They do dump all of the trash my family has so carefully separated into one big pile. So now what? Any suggestions?

Why green

I am part of the modern world and I benefit greatly from modern conveniences, but because I'm part of the modern world my family and I use a lot of resources, much more than when I was growing up and even more than when my parents were growing up. I feel a responsibility to reduce the amount of resources that I use and reduce my carbon footprint and well as teach my kids how to reduce their carbon footprint.

Save water in your kitchen

We keep a metal pitcher by the sink for any leftover water or ice from cups, steaming vegetables, etc. and use that to water our plants.  The kids have been contributing to this since they were little, and telling their friends about it when they come over. I put leftover coffee and coffee grounds in the pitcher too, as the plants love this. Metal is great as it won't get broken and you can't see the floaters.