As you walk down the sidewalk, ever seen a little delicate white bloom of a beautiful and stubbornly determined flower surrounded and wedged in by concrete? You cannot help but to be fascinated by its delicate beauty, its resilience and its vulnerability as people amble, saunter and trudge over and around it without any concern by most yet appreciated by a few. I have seen grown men be awed by its wonderment and compelled to get on their knee to examine it closer and even take a picture. I am not a professional environmentalist by any measure, but we must admit that our natural abode or home is dynamic, stirring and moving as we consider that each one of us is an integral part of nature. So, we must ask ourselves, what can I personally do to enhance and encourage the beauty in my natural living space? With that said, in a recent episode, my guest elaborated on how we can contribute to the betterment of our entrusted environment by practical tips and tricks as an immediate plan of action. Of course, our natural world is huge and immense but the best place to start making a difference is right in our home where we exist. My guest spoke of the three Rs, reduce, reuse, and recycle to minimize household waste and like that little flower, best to get on with it, even if we feel as if our life is wedged in by the concrete of life's unforgiving hard challenges. Again, to use the same illustration, Even if we feel our existence is small, even if we go unrecognized by most, and as we know this diminutive white blossom will not last forever and at this point it also applies to us as well, however, I am certain some of us at this moment feel contributive which is commendable, and I am also certain some appreciate who you are. So, I say, “in the meantime we can bring beauty to our surroundings, and I am confident some will continue to admire your efforts."
The first thing folks se when driving up is our lawns and gardens, so what can we do to support its healthy growth and reduce water utility and not to mention save our pocketbook? Many have learned to implement the practice of composting at home. Compost is a blend of ingredients used as plant food and to enrich soil structure that encourages physical organisms, minerals and other biological properties thus beautifying your home. To make a healthy pile of compost, it boils down to just three ingredients: green material like kitchen scraps and grass clippings. Also, brown material such as coffee grounds, natural sawdust, twigs, and sticks, and of course, moisture. When you practice the making of compost, the soil increases water retention, mitigates erosion, and retains organic materials out of public landfills. Incidentally, if you have a wood burning stove or a fireplace, keep your ashes to add to your compost providing nutrients to your garden. However, always remember to wait until the ashes cool off which reminds me of an incident of a trailer dumpster becoming a bonfire when ashes were discarded too prematurely, it lit the night, and I was almost compelled to dance celebratorily around the fire. These folks would have fared much better to have kept the ashes for their gardens, but even a blind man has 20-20 hindsight. During the sizzling summer season, you can elevate the cutting height of your lawnmower to keep grass roots shaded and cooler thus reducing unwanted weed growth, hot spots, or browning spots, And by leaving grass clippings on your lawn in lieu of discarding the clippings will return and provide nutrients to the soil instead of overwhelming landfills. and your conscious effort in reducing life giving water will reflect itself in your natural surroundings and your utility bill. There are so many ways we can reuse or repurpose household items and here are a few according to my special guest. Repurpose glass jars, soda, and juice bottles, they do not belong in the landfill. There are so many Creative ways to reuse these items such as gift jars filled with your imagination. How about making a flower vase wrapped with a ribbon? Just do not pluck your neighbor's flowers of which I would do as a boy to give mom a gift, I was quite a romantic. There are always savory liquids left over in the kitchen that we can freeze. And I have heard jars can be utilized to ferment our food like making sauerkraut for a tasty hotdog lunch. Touching further on leftovers, we can freeze meat bones to make broth for other meals like soups, gravy, and sauces. Instead of tossing your potato peelings into compost, why not roast them? With a little salt and pepper, this would make a delicious crispy snack, and the same with apple peelings, you can convert them into apple chips sprinkled with a bit of cinnamon sugar. I am beginning to salivate! Lastly, there are so many ways to recycle items and here are some ideas by my guest and by my own research. There has been an outcry about non-biodegradable plastic bags for the longest time. So, how about these following ideas? Use plastic bags as shelves and garbage liners. You can cut them to size and line bottom shelves and kitchen cupboards to make it easy to keep these areas clean from flower residue, sugar, etc. In our home, we take advantage of plastic bags to line waste baskets around the home, especially in our bathrooms. You can simply wash these plastics bags, dry, and cut them to fit whatever you want. I have also heard that you can take it a little further and turn it into creative fun projects such as sewing them onto a piece of fabric and attach Velcro to them to convert them into adorable and fun lunch wraps, your imagination is limitless. If you have kids, why not use leftover soda or beer bottle caps as a project to create cute wind chime by hot gluing them together to strands of string and connect it to a mason jar cap or to a coffee container, just make sure your little one knows to wait for it to be empty, trust me on that one. For most of us, we have curb side pickup for grass clipping, branches, and such, but what about other items that should be recycled? Most municipalities have an official website for garbage and recycling services that we can call and inquire about best practices on recycling. The agency is operated by the Public Works Department Solid Waste Division of which you can google for your locality. To get bac to the delicate blossom growing where you would least expect, did you know they have been found in ancient Egyptian graves of thousands of years ago, and in China have been created in silk for just as long? What is the message being conveyed? It is sufficient to say that we are compelled to make an innate connection with our entrusted natural home.
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