I love dirt (when it is outside)!

My garden is thriving this month and I can't wait for the next month to show even more color. The veggies are growing, slowly, but surely and everything seems to be bigger and better than last year.

All of my yard and garden are organic. Not certified, but close. he he  I use no pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, funcicides, or fertilizers that are not completely natural or certified organic.  I haven't used any of these chemicals for years and my grass, flowers, fruits and veggies are beautiful proof that I am doing something right. 

To prep soil, I use compost from my bin, mushroom compost and natures helper.  To fertilize, I use Miracle Gro organic fertilizer for the whole yard.  For weed control, I use corn gluten on the lawn and shredded newspaper in the plant beds with a heap of mulch.  When there is something bothering one of my plants, I spray soapy water on it, slugs get cups of beer and caterpillars get picked off and squished.  If I really need help, I bring a leaf or more to a Master Gardener friend to help and make suggestions about incecticidal soap or other organic bug traps.

My reward: My kids and my dog can play in the yard at their leisure and I never lose sleep over it,  I attract more birds and toads and wildlife, and I am never polluting the waterstream or anything else for that matter.

Where do I begin?

For several years, I have been gradually increasing the amount of "green" things that I do in my life and I would like to be able to tell my friends about what I have learned along the way.

I have been a consistent recycler for years, but that did not seem like enough. Then I had kids and my view of the world in which we live, changed. Now, most of the "green" moves that I make are motivated by two little people that don't even know what they have inspired.

I started with food and realized all of the chemicals and hormones and antibiotics and who-knows-what-else was not what I wanted to put in our bodies. After switching to organic milk, I started with the "Dirty Dozen" list of fruits and veggies that Environmental Working Group recommends that you buy organic.  I started pricing out where to get the cheapest apples, pears, strawberries, etc. I also learned out to save food and eat in season. (That is quite a challenge, since I still can only freeze food and we just eat a lot of frozen fruit in the winter.) I buy most of the pears and apples in bulk at Trader Joe's and strawberries from May-July where I find them cheapest (sometimes Costco has frozen ones). I buy potatoes in a big bag at Publix. Blueberries I either pick in July and freeze or buy frozen at Costco. Salad greens I get at TJ's.

From the fruit and veggies, we moved on to meat. As many of you know, I don't eat much meat, but I have watched Food Inc., and many other food documentaries (as well as read the book, "Skinny Bitch" by Rory Freedman) and I know what they do to it. Scary stuff, if you don't already know, you need to find out. So, I buy organic chicken at Costco and grass fed beef and organic beef hotdogs at Trader Joe's (along with most of my other food). I have gotten fish recommendations from Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Now I try to buy all organic when it comes to what the kids eat. Whole foods has the best and cheapest cheese sticks and boxed mac and cheese, both organic. TJ's has organic tomato sauce and pasta and cereal. Costco has great frozen organic veggies and peanut butter and jelly and edamame.

Now that I am set with where I buy food and what I buy, I am concentrating more now on where it comes from. I would rather have local than not and I would rather have made in the USA than China. For example, I needed honey. Publix honey is made in FL, but the Organic Goodness Brand was made in CA. No question about that, I bought the one from FL.

I still have a lot to learn and I am learning more daily. Keep reading.