Get Ready to Mow the Grass on the Roof

Is it time to get ready to mow the grass on the roof! Could it be that very soon when it's time to mow the lawn that we not only need to haul out the trusty lawnmower but drag out a step ladder to climb up on the roof to finish the job after the "lower" lawn has been trimmed? Will we be weed-eating around the edge of the gutters in the near future?



This is a trend that I've watched spreading from large American cities on up into Toronto, Canada. In fact, an article published by Crisp Green it was announced that our Canadian friends are introducing a bylaw that requires all industrial buildings over 2000 square meters in size to have green roofs covering anywhere from 20 to 60 percent of the roof area with the percentage depending on the size of roof. In years 2009 and 2010 the city had already introduced bylaws that included residential as well as commercial structures of that size and is now targeting industrial buildings.

Knowing that traditional roofing materials are not that eco-friendly and that green roofs are very well...GREEN, this seemed to me to be a move in the right direction. It makes an environmentalist's heart pound to think of replacing shingles with lush greenery that will reduce fuel consumption through lower heating and cooling bills via its insulating properties and grass is just prettier than gravel covered tar paper!

BUT...yeah, that's right; there's a big ol' but about to bust our bubble.

You see, I'm as big a fan of preserving freedom as I am of going green and they are MANDATING what kind of roof people put on their houses. I don't really like it when laws are made tending to the minute details of my life. Even if the mandates result in something really good; I wonder what directives they are going to come up with next and whether or not my budget could handle the cost of a greener, better roofing system.


You see, one of the biggest drawbacks (negatives) of having a green roof is the expensive cost of installation. Just like shingle roofs, a green roof will "keep you covered" for many years but they are pricey.

The recent laws set for by the city of Toronto apply to new construction which basically means that contractors will need to allow room in THEIR budget to cover a new, improved roof. I can imagine with downturn of the economy that this is a less than popular law. It would be wonderful if going green were more affordable but it's not so there's no reason for my DH to get ready to grow the grass on the roof just yet.

SAFE DRY CLEANING

With winter coming on and lots of wool jackets that need attention, finding safe dry cleaning methods for those sweaters and coats should be the goal of every green minded individual. Are home dry cleaning kits the answer? Or would it be just be better to buy clothing and fabrics that are washable using only biodegradable soap and water?

DOES DRY CLEANING CAUSE CANCER?

A few years back there seemed to be an epidemic of cancer among professional women in my town. Everyone pondered on what might have caused all of these ladies of a similar age to be suffering from this disease. While looking for connections and lifestyle or history, the one thing that popped out was that they all frequently wore business suits that of course had to make visits to the neighborhood dry cleaning service. How could they have known that by taking steps to keep their wardrobe looking good that they would be putting their health at risk? Of course, it never was and never will be proven that their cancers were caused by wearing clothes doused in dry cleaning solvents but I'm entitled to my opinion, right?

Shortly after this time, I can remember reading articles that warned people to let their clothes “air” all while before wearing them. The objective was to allow any remaining fumes from the dry cleaning solvent to dissipate to prevent overexposure. The solvent to which I am referring is called perchloroethylene (or perc for short) which has been linked to various health and environmental problems.

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS GREEN DRY CLEANING?

How can busy professional people keep their fine fabrics and woolens looking clean and fresh without poisoning the environment as well as their own bodies? The first step would be to buy clothing that would allow you to exclusively use wet cleaning methods that combines biodegradable soap and water or liquid CO2 which is a non-toxic reusable form of carbon dioxide since these are the only methods that are approved by the Environmental Protection Agency as environmentally friendly alternatives to perc.

DRY CLEANING MYTHS

My family lived within a stone's throw of a neighborhood dry cleaning service when I was growing up. Long before safe dry cleaning was an issue, I can remember watching people who I considered to be very lucky to be able to afford to have their clothing professionally dry cleaned leaving with their nicely pressed clothes covered in plastic bags stamped with the dry cleaners logo. I can also remember thinking that the biggest danger from dry cleaning was suffocating from accidentally finding yourself with one of those plastic bags over your head! In fact, the warning was actually printed on the plastic bags if I remember correctly. Strangely enough, I can’t recall there being any warning printed on the plastic bags that that the clothes had been drenched in toxic chemicals. Go figure.

IS HAVING KIDS SELFISH?

I'll be the first one to say that it's hard to be selfish with a houseful of kids. But..is having kids selfish when considering the "human impact" of climate change? There are those who think that each family should have no more than one child because having children is an environmental problem.

John Guillebaud of the Optimum Population Trust based in London has indicated that he believes that parents that are having lots of kids are guilty of committing "eco-crimes" and is quoted as saying something to the effect that having one less child far exceeds any benefits gained from repeatedly turning off electric lights and other such energy saving efforts. Apparently each baby that is born is the equivalent of one airline flight after the other criss-crossing the planet. This made me wonder who did this reseach and came up with this rather vague comparison but I got the point.

Even Planned Parenthood appears to be on board and is plastering signs all over the place with the message, "The fewer the merrier."

As for me, I'm in the boat with Al Gore who also has three kids over the recommended number. He's taking a little bit of heat from the press who is accusing him of not practicing what he preaches and sending the message: Do as I say, not as I breed.
In his and Tipper's defense, they had their family long before global warming became an issue. But now that whopping, huge house they had....well, if I ever see him in person I will be asking him about that before I ask him whether or not it is selfish to have children. So, what do you think? Is having kids selfish? Does having more than one child make those of us who talk about living green hypocrites?

HOW TO MAKE COMPOST FOR LAZY GARDENERS

After I saw how great coffee grounds work on my gardenias, I decided to learn how to make compost in a last ditch effort to save the rest of the landscaping that the previous owner of our home so thoughtfully took care of before she moved. I've read all these tutorials on how to compost and what you should or shouldn't throw in the pile but you see, I'm a really lazy gardener so I have been waiting for a book called "HOW TO COMPOST THE QUICK AND EASY WAY" or "COMPOSTING FOR LAZY PEOPLE" or here's another title I would have snatched off the book shelf "COMPOSTING FOR SLACKERS". You get the idea; I want an instruction manual for bone lazy folks such as myself.

What appeals to me about making compost is that it is a completely natural way to fertilize your shrubs, vegetable garden and flowers. It doesn't cost a penny to make however there is some work involved and that's the part I've been avoiding it all cost preferring to focus on ways to make a green home for my family that took less effort. Having picked most of the easier tasks involved with going green off of my to do list I found myself unavoidably faced with having to tackle learning how to make compost.

Since nobody else had written a book on how lazy folks can compost, I'm going to do it. Here goes nothing!

1. Compost only in the summer because everything will decompose quicker. This is no problem at all where I live because hundred degree days are pretty common.
   
   
2. Pile 25 parts of brown carbon rich organic material like straw, dried leaves or sawdust to one part nitrogen rich green material like dead plants, grass clippings etc. stirring it all up together very carefully.
   
   
3. it's recommended to shred all the stuff to speed up the composting process which is no problem with the grass clippings as they are already shredded. The instructions that I read recommended that you cut up watermelon rinds and any other big stuff but that's the part I consider to be way too time consuming (read: too much work).
   
   My solution to this problem is to throw this stuff into a big black plastic garbage bag, put it in hot sunshine until it's cooked and then carefully walk over it crashing the contents before tossing it into the compost pile.
   
   
4. Water your compost pile until it's dampened
   
   
5. Stir the pile weekly
   
   

In a very short time you'll have boatloads of the gardener's version of black gold. In fact you may have so much that you will be tainted to share your bounty with your neighbors! But I say unless they came over to help me stir that compost pile they can fend for themselves!

Well, I might give them a bucket full or two, just enough to get them addicted and then maybe I can show them how to make compost and they can have their own compost pile.

PAPER OR PLASTIC

The next time you’re asked whether you would prefer paper or plastic, why not make an informed decision rather than just choosing paper because you think that might be more in keeping with going green. Do you ever wonder if banning plastic bags really has an impact on the building piles of plastic litter? Does choosing paper over plastic have it’s drawbacks as it leads to more deforestation?

THE PROBLEMS WITH PLASTIC BAGS

The very first run-in I ever had with plastic bags had little to do with green living. I was too young to remember my near death experience of suffocation by plastic but my mom gives the event credit for giving her a gray streak in her hair. The story goes that a small portion of a plastic cleaner bag blew across my face and stuck while I was riding in my baby car seat unbeknownst to my mother who was driving. She swears that she happened to glance in the rearview mirror and swerved to the roadside just in time to rescue me from becoming a plastic bag suffocation victim. The lesson learned is to not hang the dry cleaning anywhere near sleeping babies or kids of any age.

Beyond their tendency to suffocate kids, the plastic bag problem encompasses overflowing landfills, clogged sewers and ingestion of the stuff that refuses to biodegrade by animals, birds and marine life.

BANNING PLASTIC BAGS

There are a number of countries banning plastic bags outright and others are imposing taxes on their use. San Francisco, California is the first and only major city in America to pass a plastic bag ban.


ALTERNATIVES TO PAPER OR PLASTIC

Environmentalists are in favor of our using bags made of a biodegradable cornstarch-based plastic to customers who don’t have their own reusable canvas grocery bags. These bags have the same biodegradable characteristics and convenience of paper bags without contributing to deforestation.

ARE PAPER BAGS BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

If plastic is banned will that just lead to more problems? It’s a fact that this could lead to increased deforestation but the good news is that most paper bags are now made from recycled materials not virgin wood. Plus, there is the additional benefit of paper’s biodegradability.

The truth is that there are issues surrounding the use of paper or plastic bags. For now, perhaps the best answer is to break out the old sewing machine and make some fabric shopping bags to use while the argument of paper vs. plastic rages on. And while you’re at it, make some for your friends who are devoted to green living. Mother Earth and future generations will be eternally grateful.

A TALE OF SELF SUFFICIENT LIVING

The story I'm about to share proves that most peoples' idea of self sufficient living, just like recycling and going green, are much more grandiose than they have to be. Not that there is anything wrong with self-sufficiency or recycling on a large scale, it's just not that practical for most people without large farms with plenty of acreage.

My earliest example of a self-sufficient life came through the example set by a man who probably had no property at all much less enough farmland with pastures filled with homegrown livestock and land where he could grow his own vegetables. Bill’s way of life was simple and while it would probably not be appealing to everybody; it was effective.

Bill didn’t own a vehicle, and what money he raised he did by doing yard work. He didn’t own a vehicle and oddly enough didn’t even own a lawn mower (much less his own farm). When he cut your yard he did it with your family’s lawnmower.

He walked to work and spent his day going from house to house in our subdivision asking if anything needed done, setting a price and then taking care of business. This part of the process was just part of the equation in Bill’s style of self sufficient living.

Most afternoons, on his way out of the neighborhood, he would be carrying a sack filled with food and stuff that other people were letting go to waste (his words). While he was tending peoples’ yards, he would also gather poke salad for supper, plums, apples and in the fall he would stay after work to pick up pecans in what we called the "old hospital yard". The nuts that fell off those trees were no bigger than your thumbnail and everybody else considered shelling them to be way too much work for what little meat you got for your trouble.

In my opinion, this is a super example of how simple a self sufficient lifestyle can be. Self sufficiency doesn't have to be fancy, just making the best use of what is around us and not letting anything go to waste by recycling and a little bit of scavenging. The things we recycle help the environment and the items we find and make use of soothe our souls and lift our spirits.

And, yes, Bill was happy with his special brand of self sufficient living. In fact, he was probably more satisfied with his life than CEOs of major corporations who make millions of dollars a year will ever be.

GREEN WEED KILLERS

It’s time to break out the green weed killers because the cracks in our driveway are filling up with weeds! Am I heading out to the lawn and garden supply store for a buggy full of poisonous chemicals? Well, heck no because I have one of the best earth friendly weed killers right in my kitchen cabinet at home and vinegar is the cheapest thing going when it comes to killing weeds!


Chemical weed killers are not cheap but I wouldn’t use them even if they were giving them away for free! You may have already guessed my secret weed killing weapon; yes, I’m going to use plain, old garden variety vinegar to kill those weeds right in their tracks. It’s slower acting than the most common poison, Roundup, and you have to dump it on the plant a couple of times before you kill the roots, but using natural products over chemicals is worth a little extra time to me.


I would rather use green weed killers than chemicals that will first soak into the earth and then leach into our water supply, evaporate into the air we breathe and on and on. Everything we dump into the ground will eventually land on our doorstep so think about that the next time you take the quick and easy chemical method of weed killing when you could have killed those pesky weeds with something much less harmful to the planet. PLUS, I have a real problem with my kids playing on a lawn that has been doused with chemicals!


The only dangerous thing about using this green weed killer is that you have to protect the surrounding plants that you don’t want to kill. Pour to your heart’s contest on sidewalks and around fence lines but be careful around your flowers and any shrubs you want to keep because this green method of weed killing really works.
I have always used household vinegar that I buy in gallon containers but I have been told that there is such a thing as agricultural vinegar that is 20-30% acetic acid where the vinegar that I’ve been using (and it works just fine) is only 5%. Even though it’s much more acidic word is that it still is environmentally friendly. All you do is spray it on the pesky weeds and they shrivel up and die. However, I have not tried it myself and I understand it’s not EPA approved for use as an herbicide and can be difficult to find.

The weaker stuff is working just fine for me which is such an affirmation for my efforts in going green but if you have a resource for agricultural vinegar, would you please leave a comment telling us where to find it, how much it costs and how it worked for you?