Cash for Grass - if you still have some

L.A. County is offering a very cool program - replace your grass with drought tolerant landscaping for $1 per square foot! This is sooo cool - I have no planted grass but I am passing this on to you. Let me know if you take them up on it! See the link for details: Cash for Grass - Los Angeles County

Even better for those living in the City of Los Angeles, up to $2 per square foot. See the link for details: City of Los Angeles - Replace Your Lawn

Nostalgia

"They just don't make 'em like they used to." I heard my parents say that and now I'm saying that. I need to get a dresser for my daughter and it would be so easy to go and get an inexpensive pressed board assemble-yourself piece from that big Swedish company that is so easy to buy from, but I would so much rather buy an old dresser that might be a little dinged up that I could sand and paint and clean up. It would probably last a lot longer and the only greenhouse gases we'll be putting into the atmosphere will be for driving around to garage sales and for the paint. Craig's list here I come!

Less Is More, usually

Trying to be "green" can mean so many things. There are so many ways, big and small, that we can contribute. One thing I have tried to do is to buy things that will last. This generally takes a bit more planning and budgeting though as the more durable, long-lasting items are usually more expensive.  Patio furniture for example - we can buy a new set of patio furniture every five years if we buy the cheap stuff, or we can invest a little (or a lot) more money and get patio furniture that will last our lifetime, or at least for the next twenty years.

Water Water Everywhere

And by that I mean it's going down the drain. Water is a necessity and overuse of water is a luxury we can no longer afford. There is no less water than there was years ago, and in fact some of it is more available now as the icebergs have been melting. However, there are more people on this earth than ever before and most of those people are using more water than ever before. So we need more fresh water for all, and that is why it is so important for us to be frugal with the fresh supply we have. One way we've done that is with drought tolerant landscaping. This does not have to be cactus and it does not have to be dry and ugly. The concept of drought tolerant landscaping includes grouping plants/trees with like water needs together. So, in the front of our house where the sun shines brightest, we have the pomegranate trees with white lantana mixed in between. The pomegranate trees are Mediterranean and don't require much water once they get started. In fact, we learned the hard way the first year that over-watering them causes them to drop their flowers, which meant very little fruit that year. Like I said before, I'm not a purist.  I love tropical plants - they remind me of Hawaii and Brazil where my two sets of grandparents lived when I was little. So I have one small partial-shade section of my yard that has all tropical: gardenia, giant bird of paradise, ferns and begonias. The rest of the yard has drought tolerant plantings. That works for me and keeps our water use down.

Delicious!

When life gives you root vegetables...

...make roasted veggies! I had a stockpile of root vegetables from  Muir Ranch including white and purple carrots, red and yellow beets, turnips and leeks. I put them all in a pressure cooker along with a tablespoon of olive oil, some salt and pepper and about six cloves of garlic for a quick healthy meal. It's going to be delicious as long as I don't burn them!

Talk This Way, Walk This Way

So often we jump in our cars to go somewhere without giving it a thought. But what do we miss when we whiz by at lightning speeds? On our trip to Seattle to visit family we stayed downtown and decided not to rent a car. I'm so glad we didn't because we saw so much of the city we had never seen before.  We also saved money on both the rental and expensive downtown parking.   I probably walked at least three miles each day and was able to see, smell and hear Seattle.  I got to take pictures of some amazing sculpture and architecture that I probably would have missed otherwise.  There were grapefruit sized brass plaques of Native American icons on one building, intricate man-hole cover art, and tulips popping up out of just about every pot. Also I explored much more than I would have by car, went into little shops and even toured the public library.  Next time you go out of town try using public transportation and walking - you might be amazed.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Smartphone