Green Living
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Re: Poll: What is your newest project/goal that is GL related?
Its supposed to be changing over my front yard to all garden space, but I feel like I'm running out of time and not prepared enough. I am not sure if I'm just going to scrap the plan, or maybe just do the top half of my lawn... decisions decisions!
We spent Sunday building some square foot gardening boxes and are ready to plant some seeds soon. I also have some pots for tomatoes and peppers, and am planning on using broccoli alternated with marigolds in a flower bed in the front yard.
I'm working on sticking to a mostly raw foods lifestyle- so far breakfast, lunch, snacks and desserts have been easy and tasty to do- dinners haven't been as successful.
I also just planted my cold frame so I should have beets, radishes, arugula, carrots and spinach by early April- which is unheard of in cold New England springs!!
I've been reusing/recycling old shirts and sweaters for sewing projects. This past weekend I made a soft bunny out of an old grey sweater and a soft baby block made out of old tshirts. For both projects I stuffed the items with the fabric scraps and an old pillow I'm using up the stuffing from.
Can you tell I'm nesting for this baby on the way? haha. I have a huge stock pile of fabric scraps and old clothing that are set aside for sewing projects!
We finally, after a year of owning our home, started composting last week. I feel like this was a giant hippy failure, and I'm glad I don't have to feel guilty about it anymore.
We also bought a pair of super easy and cheap rain barrels that are filling up as we speak!
We have 3 4x8 garden beds in and ready, and potatoes, turnips, radishes, carrots, spinach, and two varieties of lettuce starting from seed.
I didn't know you could freeze them! I have been avoiding dried beans for the soley because i didn't have the patience to cook them every time I needed beans. Thanks!
I have a lot of plans and very little action. We moved in Dec., so I want to do all these things at the new house but don't have the time to do them all...I'm having a hard time being patient and deciding what to do first.
I want to SFG this year (but I'm a rookie so I'm nervous). I also want to start composting. I need to get a rain barrel going but it's been so darn cold I keep putting it off. I guess I'm just a little offput because I have so many big projects I want to tackle and with a toddler constantly attached to my side, it's hard to be productive at all ;s
NGLR but DH did get started on our shelving that will go around the perimiter of the living room... I guess it's kind of GL since we have a house so tiny there is no room for a bookshelf
Learning to start all over again... Blog
We're planning some native landscaping and a water garden for our yard for this summer. The fall will bring a bathroom remodel - we're looking for stuff on Craigslist, the reuse store and Habitat ReStore and the local green remodeling store.
I reupholstered a 1960's chair recently and actually enjoyed it. I'm keeping my eyes open on Craiglist and vintage shops for a couple chairs and possibly a couch for our living room to reupholster instead of buying new.
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
Recently got a bunch of bar towels to use instead of paper towels. I do still use paper towels for a few things, but soooo much less than I used to.
Getting rid of our canned food. We've never had much to begin with (just beans and tomatoes usually), but now I'm cooking/freezing beans instead of buying canned, and I'm going to only buy the BPA-free Eden brand tomatoes (it hurts the budget a little, since I used to get Muir Glen for about $0.50 each with coupons, but oh well, I'll be saving on the beans now at least).
I really want to start a worm bin, we have plenty of plastic storage bins we can use, it's just a matter of buying the worms and setting it up!
I really want to start composting, since the majority of my waste is fruit cores or peels. I'm also slowly switching to organic. Regular apples are terribly bad for you, but I can't justify spending $1.30 more per pound with my budget.
I'm a bad green person right now. I have all these plans to do stuff, and it never gets done. When the weather gets warmer I'm going to start walking to work.
i am starting to make my own dishwasher detergent.
i want to start composting, but since i do not have an outside area for it i have to keep it in the house. i refuse to have worms in the house. i found a composter that does not require bugs, but it costs $300. so i just have to get to the point where i want to spend that much money on that. but it will be sometime this year.
Me too! We built a 4x8 bed and a 4x4 bed. I planted carrots, spinach and beets this weekend outside (they're cold/frost hardy) and started seeds inside. I've got lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower sprouting from seed already. I just stared my tomatoes, peppers and herbs this weekend so they should start sprouting too. I'm so excited. It's my first garden
I also started a compost bin about a month ago and have it almost 1/2 full.
I've spent hours working on getting my son's clothes/toys ready for a big seasonal consignment sale. I'll sell his stuff and use it to pay for buying him gently used stuff at the sale. IMO, we're reusing, recycling AND saving
We just got our cloth diapers back (we had sent them in for repair) so we can stop using disposables. I HATED using them the last three weeks while we were waiting on our diapers to be exchanged.
I've also move away from canned beans. I've been buying the organic ones in bulk from whole foods and making lentil soup for ds and freezing it. Dh and I don't eat beans but ds is loving it and eating it almost every day for lunch.
I talked to the farmer I get my eggs from and he's going to sell me some whole chickens in a few more weeks. I'm SO excited. I even got to meet the chickens.
I'm gathering veggie recipes - I'd like to start eating meat free on Mondays (in a gradual attempt to reduce my total meat consumption) - haven't started yet.
What do you mean sent your diapers in for repair? What kind of diapers and what was wrong with them?
I ask b/c I'm having trouble with mine and I didn't realize they could potentially be fixed!
Me too! People around where I live think everything is a one of a kind piece of art that has to be worth a lot. :-/
I have BG 3.0 AIOs. The velcro was horrible, curling and wouldn't stay attached to the laundry tabs and sometimes wouldn't even hold the diaper closed. I bought them from Kelly's Closet but Cotton Babies is the distributor for the US so I got an RMA from them and send them back since they were still under warranty (had owned them less than one year). They replaced them with brand new diapers. I have heard of them also sending repair kits for other types/brands of diapers.
If you are having issues, I would totally contact where you purchased them from and ask them how you should correct the issue. Unless they are BG's that you've owned less than a year...in that case I'd just send them back to Cotton Babies.
Page me if you need more info.
It is still too early here to be planning a garden, but I am collecting the free manure that is put out down the street from us so that i will have enough come May.
I just started making my own yougurt and mozerella cheese out of hormone free milk, much cheaper than buying it.
Rebatching some soap I made last fall for Mother's Day presents.
Heck yeah! We have a FoodSaver so we put 2 cups at a time in the small bags, suck the air out and seal, then freeze. We've frozen them in Pyrex containers too. If you freeze in Pyrex/another containter though, pour in enough of the bean cooking water to cover the beans, otherwise they dry out and the consistency gets messed up.
I don't know why I didn't mention our SFG! We have one raised bed in the ground from last fall, and another bed waiting to be put in once the ground thaws. We also have 2 potato grow bags. This year we're doing tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, eggplant, carrots, cucumbers, spinach, sugar snap and english peas, onions, and potatoes. Plus tons of herbs that I'll probably buy transplants for, including thyme, oregano, cilantro, rosemary, and dill, plus chamomile.