Sustainability

Growing up next door to my grandparents, our family had two Christmas trees: one silver, with an old-fashioned color-wheel light that shone onto the tree’s metallic branches; the other a forever-green plastic tree with bendable branches. Looking back, I remember them both with a great deal of fondness. But I’ve learned since then that neither […]

What if there was a naturally occurring material that could easily replace plastics while remaining carbon negative? Even better, what if this material could feed an industry that provides a lucrative living to everyone involved in its production? There is. Cork. As a sustainable material for a wide variety of products from flooring to furniture,

We’re all familiar with the term “pollinators.” We know that pollinators of all types help plants reproduce by moving pollen from the male parts of the flower to the female parts, thereby completing the first step in the process that produces seeds and fruits. We also know that bees, especially, are important members of this

We touched on composting a few issues back in the article on “Living a Low-Waste Lifestyle.” (If you missed that article, you can find it here.) I’m going to go into composting in more detail here. I’m even hoping to learn as much as I can from writing this article, since I want to make

It might seem an odd choice to talk about burials when Spring, with its promise of new life and abundance, is just around the corner. But death is a part of the cycle of life in Nature. Fallen trees form both food and habitat for other organisms in the forest. Even in our gardens, nutrient-rich

I’ve mentioned in prior issues that I plan to begin shifting our grass-filled yard to native plantings over the next few years. Already, plans are on my mental drawing board, though I don’t know exactly which plants I’ll choose for those first two sites, yet. But perhaps we should review what, exactly, “going native” in