Green alternatives to a grass lawn

Pretty perennials like this Jasper's Beard save water!

What's the big deal about having a grass lawn anyway? I see a lot of media emphasis placed on having a lush, green grass lawn. Most of it stems from companies trying to sell you chemical fertilizers and pesticides. No thank you! There are plenty of alternatives to a green lawn that won't impact future generations negatively. If you can grow a green lawn without chemical usage, you have my blessing. As for me, I'm seeking some other options to save both water and the environment.

Do you really need all that grass in the back yard?

When we moved into our fixer upper, we were faced with a huge yard filled with native weeds. We made a decision to gradually rid ourselves of the “lawn”, one project at a time. It's going to be a long process. Right now we have an area of raised bed/bucket gardens, a fire-pit area started in one corner and a hugelkultur. In the middle is an area of weedy lawn. As we progress, the weedy area will become paths through some pretty garden beds and features.

What are some ideas for the front lawn, that don't involve grass?

Here in Denver, we use something called Xeriscaping.

It's a technique where native plants abound. The idea is to plant flowers, herbs and other natives that use less water as an alternative to a green lawn. The plants are scattered among rocks and other interesting landscaping features. I've seen some truly original lawns since moving to Denver. That alone is reason to consider this option.

You can grow organic veggies in the front yard.

Some municipalities frown on this practice, while others sing it's praises. Get around the naysayers by scattering your veggies in flower beds. They'll blend right in. I know one local gardener who encourages her neighbors to help themselves to her front yard veggies. She has a garden in the back for just her family. I love her idea! I'm going to try to incorporate it into my next project.

I'm a big fan of English gardens.

Unfortunately, the climate here is semi-arid. We don't get the rain they do in England. Most traditional English garden flowers require more water than I can afford to give them. So, I've come up with a great idea for my front yard. I'm going to try mixing Xeriscape with English garden style and small grassy areas for something totally unique.

What if you really love your grassy green lawn?

Maybe you have future football players in your family. Maybe you just love the look. Whatever your reason for keeping your grassy lawn, you can do it in an ecofriendly way. Start by checking your local home improvement store for non-chemical fertilizers and pesticides. You can also plant grasses or stepable plants that use less water.

Having a green lawn doesn't necessarily mean you must have conventional grass or use chemicals and tons of water to maintain it. When it comes to a fabulous lawn and garden, you can go green and still have it all.

Are fabric toxins lurking in your kids' clothes and bedding?

Sadly, even natural fabrics can be treated with toxins.

What are your kids' clothes made of? Could they be toxic? How do you clean them? Do you bleach your kids' bedding to keep it germ free? If so, your kids could be breathing and absorbing toxins as they sleep. Are fabric toxins lurking in your kids' rooms, either on or in clothes and bedding? Here's how to be safe when choosing and caring for your kids' clothing and linens.

Your kids' clothing may be chemically treated.

Today's clothing industry often adds pesticide and stain repellant to textiles. This is true, whether we are talking about blue jeans or bed sheets. In addition, fire resistant chemicals are routinely used in sleepwear and more. Kids with sensitive skin may react to the chemicals in new clothing. As for the rest, they are still exposed through skin absorption.

What to do:

*Wash new clothing several times before use.

*If reactions still occur, soak in lemon juice and water to detoxify. Then rinse thoroughly.

Wash kids' clothes and bedding with care.

Most conventional detergents, bleaches and stain removers contain highly toxic chemicals. Because of its' toxicity, chlorine bleach is one of the worst things you can use on your kids' clothing. For years we have been taught this is the best way to kill germs. Actually, there are other ways to wash, disinfect and bleach clothing without using chemicals.

What to do:

*Avoid dry clean only fabrics. The conventional dry cleaning process involves chemical washing.

*Wash clothes with vinegar and baking soda.

*Bleach clothing with lemon juice and hydrogen peroxide.

*Disinfect clothing with thyme extract. This is made by seeping thyme in clear vodka.

Which fabrics are most likely to contain chemical residues?

Synthetic fabrics are actually chemically produced. Some are not fabric at all, but different forms of plastics made with a petroleum base. You best bet is to purchase natural fiber fabrics such as cotton and wool. It's important to remember, not all natural fabrics are free from chemical treatment. In fact, a great deal of the cotton fabric available has been heavily treated with pesticides.

What to do:

Be sure the natural fabrics you buy for your family are labeled 100% organic.

Kids' room carpeting likely contains toxins.

The majority of carpeting in homes is made from synthetic materials. In order to insure easy clean up, most carpet is treated with stain resistant chemicals. Some carpet is treated with fire resistant chemicals as well. Between the make up of the carpet and all these added chemicals, that makes carpeting a real health hazard. When kids walk on the carpet in their rooms, particularly if it's new carpet, these chemicals can be transported into their bedding via their clothing.

What to do:

*Opt for tile or untreated hardwoods.

*Use organic natural fiber throw rugs.

Greening your moving trash

Moving creates a ton of trash, doesn't it? And not just trash, but also piles of things you have no wish to take with you. What can you do with it all? What are some ways to stay green while disposing of unwanted items when you move?

Have a yard sale. The more items people have to buy new, the more resources they use. Price it low so that they're more likely to buy it. After all, the object isn't to make a profit, it's to reduce the amount of things you have to dispose of.

Dropping your used, unwanted items off at a local thrift store has dual benefits. Doing so keeps them from wasting away at the landfill, which is decidedly green. You'll also bring more money into the community through their sales.

Maybe you'd rather donate your goods to a local charity, such as a homeless shelter? If so, call ahead first to see what they'll accept. There are also those donation boxes you'll often see in shopping plaza parking lots. Either way, they'll be put to good use. And either is always an environmentally friendly alternative.

You can drop large branches, etc. off at a business that makes mulch. Vegetable scraps that you've generated while packing and getting ready can go to someone who does composting, if you really want to go all green with the move.

What about the actual trash? If you really want to dispose of it in a green manner, make sure that it's all just trash. Sort out the recyclables. Fold and tie the cardboard for pick-up. If there's any lawn trash involved, bundle it according to city specification.

Try not to create future trash while moving.

Wrap fragile items in towels to cut down on paper use. You have to bring the towels anyway. Might as well put them to good use.

Leave clothes in dresser drawers for the move instead of using additional boxes. Remove the drawers for carrying, then slide them back into the dresser and secure them for the move.

You can do the same with bookshelves. Just lay them on the floor and fill them with the books that go on them. Other items can be stacked on top of them and it saves boxes.

If you think green with all of your moving activities, you can likely come up with other ways to be conserve resources while moving. Just ask yourself, “How can I do this greener?” Chances are, you'll come up with more green moving solutions on your own.

Green drawing solutions for kids – Cutting paper waste

Got a little artist in the family? Worried about the enormous usage of paper? If you're one of those parents with boxes and boxes filled with nothing but drawings, paintings and such, you have good reason to be concerned. Child artists often go through 25 or more sheets of drawing paper a day. It's not exactly a green hobby, is it? Plus, where do you store all that stuff? Is there anything you can do to get kids to green up their art?

Captain obvious says, get a white board or a chalk board.

It'll cut down on paper use in a big way. While you don't like to think of your kids' drawings as wasteful, you have to admit, this solution certainly makes them less so. If your kids still want to save their drawings, you can always take a picture and save it on the computer for posterity, right? Then, just wipe the slate clean and start over.

You don't want to limit creativity.

How about some different creative outlets? For instance, you could get them their own camera or cell phone so they can take up photography. The nice thing about this hobby is that they only print out the very nicest of their pictures. The rest may take up space on their computer, but at least they don't waste paper.

Digital sharing

Kids can easily e-mail photos or photos of their art to relatives. They can post them on Facebook if they're old enough to have an account. That way, the whole family gets to see their work without making tons of copies and wasting more paper. Friends and relatives can pull up the art anytime on their computer so there's no need for them to use paper to print them unless they choose to.

Getting more creative

While your kids are on the computer, why not download some applications that will help them as artists? There are plenty of instructional videos they can watch. Plus, they can learn to edit their work, make collages and calendars and more. Even though this is likely to encourage more drawing, painting and such, they still have the option of only printing their best work.

Green floral substitutes for party balloons

Daffodils really brighten up parties!

 Why would you want to find substitutes for party balloons? No birthday party is complete without colorful balloons, right? The problem is, balloons are far from ecofriendly. Those cute little orbs are made with hazardous chemicals. Discarded or runaway balloons are ingested by animals. They're a choking hazard. Plus they waste precious helium. What can you use instead?

Why not brighten up your party with simple floral arrangements?

Here in Denver, you can buy seasonal flowers quite inexpensively at King Soopers or other grocery stores. Plus, if you keep an eye out, you can even find day old, discounted, pre-made supermarket bouquets for as little as 2.00. I'm sure it's the same where you live. They come in a wide variety of colors. They're certainly a renewable resource and they're as green as it gets.

Tulips are another colorful flower that grows easily.

Simply plant bulbs as directed for a crop that will have all your spring birthday decor covered. For variety, throw in some sunny daffodils or day lilies.

Got a fall birthday?

Why not celebrate with the lovely fall colors of marigolds and zinnias? Both bloom well into fall. Plus, they grow like weeds in sunny areas that some flowers wilt in. Those orange and yellow marigold blossoms bring a cheerful environmentally friendly touch to any celebration.

Wildflowers are naturally prolific.

The seed for these is inexpensive and plentiful. Imagine a beautiful wildflower bouquet gracing the table of your next celebration. Who needs balloons when you can have lovely, naturally beautiful flowers instead?

Whatever happened to old fashioned glass bottle cutters?

Seriously, you guys. I go thought a lot of these glass bottles. Sure, they can be recycled. But guess what? I also go through a lot of drinking glasses. And it's not always the grand-kids that break them. I sure would love to have one of those simple bottle cutters they used to sell in craft stores. You know the ones where you place the bottle on it's side, turn and voila! Instant drinking glass, ready to be sanded for safety.

Drinking glasses aren't the only thing simple bottle cutters are good for either. You can also use them to make garden plant watering devises by just cutting off the bottom of the glass. Who needs those fancy globes? Plus, they're so darn expensive.

And yes, you can recycle the glass bottle itself. In fact, you should. But me, I'd rather make useful items, then recycle the leftovers. After all, you can still recycle your homemade drinking glasses after they shatter. That way, you get double usage. No waste!

Now, I've seen a few more elaborate glass cutters for sale online and such. But that's just not what I'm looking for. And scoring tools don't always cut a straight line, especially with shaky arthritic hands. So if anyone knows what I'm talking about and knows where they can be found, please leave a link in the comments. I'd be very grateful.

Going green goes brown

This brown lawn is actually green!

Recent droughts have turned green lawns brown. But don't worry, they're actually green. What? Good heavens, I've really gone off the deep end this time, right? Really digging for this one, right? You think? Not so fast, my peeps. Going brown means going green in a drought, doesn't it? It means conserving water, right? Not only that, there are plenty of other browns that are actually green. The browns in your compost for instance.

Brown balances compost power.

Yin Yang, etc. etc. Without the brown ingredients, compost is just a big pile of decayed, wet mush. You have to mix it up a bit. Yup, compost is useless with those dried leaves and other brown matter.

Brown bagging it can be green.

There is a train of thought that suggests using brown paper lunch bags may be greener than those re-usable plastic containers. After all, plastic manufacturing is not exactly green, is it? And at least those brown bags can be recycled or composted. I guess grandma knew what she was doing after all, didn't she?

Brown University goes green.

“Brown is Green” is the slogan of a Brown University green initiative to promote and encourage green events. And I thought this was my idea. Turns out, great minds really do think alike.

Brown and Green is a great UK food store.

Some of my readers are from the UK. Maybe they even frequent Brown and Green, a food store specializing in local and sustainable food. That's certainly a green thing, isn't it?

Brown isn't the only green, either.

In fact, green comes in many colors. I bet you can think of a few yourself. Re-usable shopping bags, for instance. They come in beautiful multicolored prints, don't they? They're not all green. And yet, yes they are.

Turns out a greener planet comes in all colors. Who knew?