[JerseyJen]

oh and i forgot my favorite.


"if its yellow let it mellow. if its brown flush it down"


Lots of water wasted by flushing the toilet every time you go number 1

and another classic:

"Save water, shower with a buddy!"...with an efficient showerhead of course!

ChopChaser, keep us posted how things go when you get your beehive.
My husband wanted to do one last year that like a lot of things got derailed with our baby.

[LoTekFish]

These are all really good ideas, I'm glad so many people are being conscientious.

About 4 years ago my wife and I started living "greener" by making a few small changes like refusing plastic bags, starting a composter, and being more diligent about recycling.  As those things became routine we continued to learn more and make more changes like conserving water, collecting rainwater, etc.  After 4 years we are still learning and making small changes and I think that's the key.  It's not about living a "perfect, no impact" life, or trying to make a drastic lifestyle change, it's about continuing to learn and making small changes.

That's my $.02 on the matter!

[SeaCliff]

These are all really good ideas, I'm glad so many people are being conscientious.

About 4 years ago my wife and I started living "greener" by making a few small changes like refusing plastic bags, starting a composter, and being more diligent about recycling.  As those things became routine we continued to learn more and make more changes like conserving water, collecting rainwater, etc.  After 4 years we are still learning and making small changes and I think that's the key.  It's not about living a "perfect, no impact" life, or trying to make a drastic lifestyle change, it's about continuing to learn and making small changes.

That's my $.02 on the matter!

Great thoughts and right on the money.

[Dorado]

 

[Looseness]

As a child spearfishing on the coral reefs of Miami and the Keys and observing the rapid reef decay, I have devoted my life and career to making cities cleaner after learning the cause is partially related to stormwater runoff.
Other than that wifey and I


1) Grow as much of my own food as possible, including free range organic cattle, maple syrup, and eggs from our farm in addition to fruits vegetables on our Brooklyn roof.
2) Installed a cistern to catch rainwater
3) Eat organic for the food we buy.
4) Sail or surf for leisure (minimize fossil fuel usage)
5) Avoid plastic at all costs
6) Try not to plant non natives unless they contribute ecologically, and encourage clients to minimze lawns and maximize habitat
7) Put up a bat house in my backyard for conservation, and to eat those effin mosquitoes!
  Soon (hopefully) will get an egloo and have two chickens for fresh eggs
9) Will get a beehive and solar panels for the roof.
10) Guerilla garden with natives in the streets of BK.
11) Even though a pick up truck is needed for work, got the most efficient mini truck possible and minimize driving.


Probably the best thing we do is live in NYC with exponentially less carbon footprint than the rest of the suburban hell out there.


I am still a pretty bad polluter but strive to improve.

One downside to City gardens is the possibility of toxicity. My friends have a garden in uptown manhattan {Harlem} and had their soil tested. They found pretty high levels of several heavy metals like lead so they can't eat their vegetables.   

[snaggletooth]

Jersey Jen - on the beehives, onefin's mom is really into it if you need some tips. the honey is awesome!
 
we grow our vegetables in organic soil that comes from long island. not sure if that's good or bad? we didn't want to buy the commercial soil, even if it's organic, since it comes from so far away.
 
on another note, our compost pile is huge and composting pretty quickly. i can't wait until we can have a bigger yard and get some chickens.
 
ChopChaser - how much space do you need for a bathouse?

[ChopChaser]

Loose good point about urban soil, people are crazy even taking a chance growing food out of in situ city soil. We grow our food in organic compost soil that is hermetically sealed from the ground. The only possible pollution would be acid rain or particulate drift.

[ChopChaser]

Snag,
You dont need much space for a bathouse, just mount it on the southside of your house under the eaves and paint it black so that it absorbs the suns warmth to keep em warm during cold winter nights. The opening should be at least 2-3" wide for our local mosquito eating mini-bats. Makes a great sunset event when they come to life for the night.

[snaggletooth]

that's so cool! i'll add that to my birthday list - onefin, take note. i want a bat house.

[snaggletooth]

CC - i think i've seen bats in long beach. do you think if we put up a house or two, we'd have any luck getting bats to roost?

[onefinookas]

definitely hit my mom up for the bee info, she is queen bee and in addition to having several of her own hives she helps local towns realize the benefits of beehives, most town do not allow it.  I believe they just passed a referendum in NYC allowing bee cultivation.  Do bats come with the bat house or is it like a bird house?  I try to be green but snaggle is constantly reminding me I am not green enough.  I always forget the canvas bags at home when I go food shopping cuz Im partially retarded.  That being said, compost check, rainwater gatherers for our organic garden check, obviously our local produce is in the front our side of the house so thats pretty local.  Picking up some ladybugs and mantis eggs in hope of going the most organic route for pest control, currently using a organic pesticide but i am not thrilled with the fact that it contains sulfur.  When Snaggle is not around I never flush the toilet but if you go this route and you have dogs make sure the lid is always down.  Outside of the drive to work on the weekends which I would prefer to bike to, but drunk drivers suck here in LB, from thursday to monday we rarely use anything but bicycle for transportation.  We recycle everything we can.  I only eat locally caught or harvested seafood.  I think if I can build some sort of ghetto greenhouse in the back of the house we could eat local produce year round.  Some sort of solar water heater would be great as well.
    Kyle where do you go to school for environmental sustainability and how long of a program is it?

[tummee]

Looking forward to when I own a house with some property so I can start-up a proper garden. My father was a big gardener where I grew up... fruit trees, berry bushes, vegetables of all kinds, compost heap.

Until then, it's been by the numbers...

1. Reduce - always carry a shopping bag or refuse bags for small items, eBills where possible, bike to beach and store when possible, low watt light bulbs/"last out lights out", growing a small indoor herb garden, grilling instead of using cooking gas.
2. Reuse - my son wears much of his older cousins' clothing, I patch as much clothing of mine as I can before buying something new, I will take objects and books out of the garbage, and those books that are good get passed around among family and friends.
3. Recycle - as much as I can, including carting stuff with me to the Whole Foods in my son's neighborhood so it's not just about the drive.

As has been said before, it is all about making the effort. Above are just some of the things I can think of, but as much as there's always more I could be doing, I'm proud to say there's probably a bunch that don't immediately come to mind!

That said, it's good to be part of a community (be it online and off) that understands the importance of doing our best!

[JerseyJen]

I would say that some of the stuff people are doing go beyond the "little things"...good work tree huggers!

I will mention your Mom as a resource to my husband for sure. He's the would-bee bee keeper in the family. Between the baby & our diabetic elderly pug I have enough beings to care for! He's always been interested but after our trip to NZ (bee boxes everywhere there) he's looked into it more seriously but missed the time of year to start one year, then the whole baby thing took over. Maybe next year.

You guys might also look into coldframes rather than a full blown greenhouse since you're so handy with your planters. it might be an easy conversion.

We're also part of a hand-me-down chain of kids stuff both from our neighbors and then down to my future niece. Our cloth diapers will get used by another set of neighbors in another year or so, we hope!

We've landscaped our yard as one big garden, no lawn, minimal watering necessary, no chemicals to upkeep and just a few borders that need to be hit with the weedwacker. Lots of hardscaping in the back was provided by reusing the stone from the old flagstone sidewalks and curbs my town pulled up on my street a few years ago. (we heard the ones from the other side of town still had rings to tie your horses to...would have loved to have some of those). We planted an orchard of baby trees in our backyard the year we moved in with peaches, apples,pears,  plums, cherries, figs and bushes for blackberries, blueberries, gooseberries, currants and we have grapes, kiwis (yet to have fruit), hops and we moved in with two old mullberry trees. (also have a prospering erb garden) After +8 years here we're able to can enough jam that we don't have to buy any unless we want to and we get a really good harvest of plums & cherries. 


My main source of food trash are soy related, so I recently bought a soy-milk maker & tofu form so hopefully I only have to buy bulk soybeans from now on.

We started using a solar oven this year for slow-cooking things, roasting, and even baked goods. (I hate running the oven in the summer but love making zuchini bread, conflict resolved!)

...and with the bulk food, canning & sun oven I find myself shopping on websites aimed at survivalists...wheee!

also on the food front, I've also started meal planning in advance on Sundays. I make my food shopping list based on the week's menu, take leftovers for lunch and try to incorporate what is left into next week's meals or freeze it. We have very little waste at the end of the week. less waste is more green, yeah?

We spend more for stuff that lasts and make good use of our local library for books, music and movies. 

We purposly moved 2 blocks from the train station and walking distance to shops, resturants, etc. I'd like to think the latter is because I'm green, but really because I like having a couple of drinks and being able to walk home.  I used to take the train to work every day but my datacenter moved and now I have to drive 45min 2-3x a week. My rav4 is pretty good on gas but I'm looking forward to all the promises most of the car manufactures seem to be making for new fuel technology in 2010.

and on a complementary note, if anyone wants black-eyed susans, day lillies, blackberry vines or hops they are easily thinned and shared.

[snaggletooth]

wow - i've never seen a kiwi tree. it's hardy in our zones? neat! i can't wait until we also have land to plant trees. right now, almost every square inch of our place has something growing, so we've got all we can deal with now (except bats - i really want a bat house!!!)
 
i admire your ability to do the food planning. it's my biggest problem right now. i'm just not able/organized enough to do it. working 70 hours a week doesnt help, but that's nothing compared to working AND raising a little guy, so you're proof it can be done. i just haven't put in the effort to make it happen.

[skSURF]

I try to reduce our global Carbon footprint I'm a serial killer. Also I have my own mug for coffee and bottle for water at work.