In her recent piece in USA Today, Laura Vanderkam takes an environmental stand against the family yard:

“Mowing itself requires fuel, just like our cars, with a similar impact on the environment. And all these woes are before you even get to the issue of water. According to Kress, maintaining non-native plants requires 10,000 gallons of water per year per lawn, over and above rainwater. That water doesn’t just show up by itself; it requires energy to get to your hose. In California, for example, the energy required to treat and move water amounts to 19 percent of total electricity use in the state.”

Vanderkam got me thinking. In her article, she states that maintaining a lawn is one of the most difficult – and therefore potentially environmentally unfriendly – activities one can associate with home ownership.

She interviewed Florida resident Diane Faulkner, who spent some time in Kenya and participated in a daily ritual of waking up at dawn to walk miles along a dried-up river toward a water source, then returning with a few gallons for cooking and washing.

When she returned to America, she asked herself: “How many gallons of water do I waste on that stinking lawn?”

And once the grass has been watered, she wondered, what else goes into keeping it maintained that’s bad for the planet? (Subquestion: How many people own push-mowers anymore, instead of their more convenient relatives, motorized mowers?) While a field of emerald, tailored grass is ubiquitous with owning any sized plot of land, taking care of it is anything but natural.

So, unless you own a sheep, you’re actually doing harm to the environment every time you water and cut the green patches in the front, and backyard. There are 21 million acres of lawn across the country.

In addition to the water waste and exhaust emissions from gas-powered mowers (and don’t even get me started on riding mowers), homeowners use more than 78 million pounds of pesticides each year to keep their front yard “green,” according to Stephen Kress of the National Audubon Society. He also states that weed killers should be banished; simply mowing the lawn removes the tops of weeds and wildflowers, making their stalks virtually undistinguishable from their grassy hosts.

As familiar as the lawn may be when picturing a traditional American neighborhood, think for a moment: What went into putting it there in the first place? Laura Ingalls Wilder aside, the grass was installed on your property, similar to the way your man-made house was. According to Kress, maintaining non-native plants requires 10,000 gallons of water per year per lawn – in addition to rainwater. Then there’s the hose. The water doesn’t flow through it because it wants to – it requires energy to get from pipes to hose. In California, for example, the energy required to treat and move water amounts to 19 percent of total electricity use in the state.

Says the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey, the average father of school-aged kids spends 1.6 hours a week on lawn and garden care – more time than he spends on reading, talking, playing or doing educational activities with his kids combined.

Do you think that politicians should start regulating your lawn?

Some facts:

• Inspectors are deployed to count the square footage of grass vs. wild plants; states are cutting teachers and police officers
• By 2020, California will face a shortfall of fresh water as great as the amount that all of its cities and towns together are consuming today
• By 2025, 1.8 billion”¨ people will live in conditions of absolute “¨water scarcity, and 65 percent of the world’s population will be water stressed
• To grow a ton of wheat, it takes 1,000 tons of water; the U.S is the largest exporter of wheat to the world; when we export a ton of our wheat, we are effectively including 100 tons of water in the bargain
• In the U.S, 21 percent of irrigation is achieved by pumping groundwater at rates that exceed the water’s ability to recharge
• There are 66 golf courses in Palm Springs; on average, they each consume over a million gallons of water per day
• Lake Meade (the source of 95 percent of water for Las Vegas) will be dry in the next 4 to 10 years
• Xeriscaping is a form of landscaping that uses zero water
• You can also turn your yard into a vegetable garden; use dense plantings and heavy mulch to keep the weeds down, and put a drip irrigation on a timer for lower maintenance
• And for lawn jockeys, in Southern California verdolagas (a type of purslane) looks like lawn and will grow with zero or infrequent watering over most places

Then there’s Faulkner. She redid her lawn with rocks and hearty plants such as Confederate Jasmine, arranged to look like an English garden. “I don’t have to mow, I don’t have to water, I don’t have to trim,” she says. Her water bill has gone from $80-$90/month to $20. But then again, you could always just spray paint your lawn, too.

Is the grass always greener, eco-friends? Let us know in the comments.

Image: Matt McGee

The post Who Ever Liked Mowing the Lawn Anyway? appeared first on EcoSalon.

Stuff – we all have it. But sometimes, all of the miscellany of life can add up until it feels like a physical weight. After eight moves in eight years, I managed to accumulate a basement full of storage bins that I unquestioningly brought with me to every new home. I found myself buying more and more bins to fill with more and more stuff.

But eventually, all of this stuff became a burden. I began to see myself as a turtle with an obscenely oversized shell that threatened to topple over at any moment. An extra coffee maker, art supplies that I might use “someday”, an unused ironing board, a stereo gathering dust. It’s all too easy to fill a house with things that we use once in a blue moon, if ever – but it’s not so easy to get rid of it.

I didn’t have much choice – I’m downsizing my life dramatically, and all this stuff had to go. Today, half of my belongings are gone and let me tell you, it feels amazing. Here’s how I did it.

1. Make a list of the items you actually use at least once a month. These things are your core possessions, the things you need to live a comfortable and happy life.
2. As you assess each of the items you have left (and there will be many), ask yourself, “Does this contribute to my life in a meaningful way?” Do you love it or need it? Does it have real sentimental value or a legitimate function in your life, or is it just taking up space?
3. Create a “maybe” box and a “no” box. At first, your “maybe” box will be overflowing, but that’s okay. Later on, you’ll get a bit more brutal about deciding what stays and what goes.
4. Let go of your fears about the expectations of others. So Great Aunt Edna gave you a set of tacky gold angel figurines for your birthday five years go, and you think she’s going to be hurt if she doesn’t see it displayed in your home. You know what? Accepting a gift does not mean agreeing to hang on to it for a lifetime.
5. Don’t use stuff as an investment – it’s only worth what other people will pay for it, and you’re paying to store it. A neighbor of mine once had an entire room in his home devoted to Beanie Babies, which were hot sellers in the late ’90s. You know what they’re worth now? Nothing. Only keep stuff like this if it’s in pristine condition and you’re positive that it has collectible value, and in that case, get it appraised and insured. Otherwise, invest your cash and save precious storage space.
6. Analyze your wardrobe. Anything you haven’t worn in at least a year is a goner. If a color or print sticks out like a sore thumb, don’t keep on searching for something that will match. It’s much simpler to stick to a smaller wardrobe of high-quality essentials that can be mixed and matched.
7. Consider whether you will need to use each item at least once a year. Some things, like seasonal décor, make sense to keep – but others can be rented or borrowed on those rare occasions when they’re actually called into action. If you’re on the fence about an item that you feel might be useful at some mythical future date, think about giving it to someone who would get more use out of it.
8. On the other hand, don’t get rid of so much stuff that you’re forced to re-buy most of it within months. It’s easy for some people to get caught up in the spirit of de-cluttering, but you don’t want to merely re-enter the cycle of consumption and cost yourself more money in the long run.
9. Now, divide your cast-offs into four piles: sell, donate, recycle and toss. Your trash box should only contain things that have truly outlived their usefulness and can’t be recycled. Sell items that could fetch any cash on eBay, Craigslist or at a yard sale. Drop off whatever is left at your local charity drive, or find new homes for it at Freecycle.org.
10. Learn from this experience. After witnessing the pitiful pennies that many of my like-new possessions brought in at my yard sale, I now think twice about every new purchase. If you don’t truly need it, it’s a waste of money.

Image: MelvinSchlubman

The post Lighten Up Your Life: 10 Steps to Less Stuff appeared first on EcoSalon.

Can you imagine swapping your cute shoe collection for a few pairs of work boots, giving up weekly nights out with the girls to shovel manure and mend fences, or foregoing frequent trips to your favorite take-out restaurant in favor of making all of your own meals? Trading Sex in the City for Little House on the Prairie might seem extreme and even frightening, but “˜ruralpolitans’ tend to think the benefits outweigh the sacrifices.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported the increasing ranks of city and town dwellers that are moving their families to the countryside. Sure, they’re giving up a long list of perks that come with city living – like public transportation, walkability, nightlife, shopping and diverse cultural experiences.

But with a shaky job market and no guarantees, the peace and security of living the simple life on your own piece of land can be awfully alluring – hence the new generation of surprisingly young urban refugees aiming for rural self-sufficiency.

“Most of these kids say they’ve just saved and want to put their money someplace that won’t go away,” Montana real estate agent Tom VanHoose told WSJ. “They see General Motors go down and AIG go down and they are asking, ‘Gee, can my company go down?’ There’s a lot of angst and anxiety.”

Considering that land in some areas of the country costs as little as $1,000 an acre and off-grid green homes can be built for a pittance, it’s possible to be debt-free and have extremely low living expenses when you own your own land. And you don’t necessarily have to become a farmer, depending on your crops for your income – access to high-speed internet makes it possible for people to keep their jobs and telecommute while hobby-farming or raising just enough food for themselves.

It’s not for everyone – nor should it be, considering that high demand for a rural farming lifestyle could encourage sprawl. But it also might be more possible than you think, even if you’re an unmarried city chick who’s never planted a seed in her life: many “˜ruralpolitans’ are single, and femivorism is an intriguing new trend as well. Or, perhaps you could have the best of both worlds with an urban homestead a la the Dervaes family’s “˜Path to Freedom’ house in Pasadena.

So, could you become a “˜ruralpolitan’? Do you think keeping your own chickens, growing your own food and raising your kids on a farm would be worth it? What would you miss most about urban life?

Image: hipiotix

The post Ruralpolitans: Giving Up Urban Life for the Sticks appeared first on EcoSalon.

These days, making your house energy efficient makes sense not only because it’s good for the environment, but also because it’s good for the household budget. But figuring  out what needs to be done, how to get it done, and working out the costs can be as daunting as trying to find your way out of a maze in the dark.

Luckily, the Sierra Club has taken the guesswork out of greening your home with their new interactive Green Home website. It’s the brainchild of Carl Pope, Sierra Club executive director, who discovered when trying to green his own home that access, information, and assistance weren’t all that easy to find.

As a result, Pope and his colleagues at the Sierra Club created a user-friendly web site that provides all the facts at your fingertips. With more than 100 sustainability-related articles by prominent green journalists available to read, and contact details for thousands of  authentically green product providers and services, this site is seriously resource rich.

The post Green Your Home with Help from the Sierra Club appeared first on EcoSalon.