Color Me Green!

It started slowly. When Jim and I got married, we lived within the city limits and we were only allowed two bags of trash, but we were provided with a recycle bin and free recycling. We started recycling and noticed that our trash fit in one bag. So I started looking for other ways to cut back. I started using old rags to clean with instead of paper towels. Then I replaced our paper napkins with cloth napkins. I am really cheap and appreciate a good bargain. And the fact that I was helping mother nature was simply another plus. I was saving money and saving the planet, a win-win for all! Then I discovered craigslist and freecycle. Both are great places to pass along items to a new home. I have found a few items and I have re-homed a ton more. Then, when the twinners came along, we decided to give cloth diapering a try. We don't do it 100% of the time (more like 60-75% depending on the week) but it has helped cut down on the amount of diapers we use, which in turn saves us money.

In the past few weeks, I have decided to take my Green outside. We have planted a garden. It's small and has flaws, but I am excited none the less! We took dirt from an oddly placed flowerbed to fill it with and used scrap board from my dad. Emily helped me plant the seeds and get them started, then we moved them to the raised bed.

Garden

We also have cilantro. The other half of this window bucket is supposed to be oregano, but we haven't seen any yet.

With Stacey's help, I sawed down my gutter and put up a rain barrel to water the garden. Fancy, isn't it? My in laws gave us this.

We have also added a composter for all those garden scraps. Although, it smells mainly of coffee since it is about 50% full of coffee grounds. What can I say? I like my coffee!

This stuff (minus the pink flowers) is all weeds, but don't they look nice? =) 

Cherry Tomato Plants

It's not much but every little bit helps. Plus, Emily enjoys helping me take our banana peels and coffee grounds out to the composter, and she LOVES to help me fill our water cans from the rain barrel and water all the plants.

Cherry Tomatoes

We are also growing basil. The basil has some prime real estate alongside some awesome weeds!

And today we sowed the first fruits of our labor, 1 cherry tomato. Dinner is served!

And this is my 5th post this month. Which is the same number of posts I had all last year.