What’s going on in sustainability:

I’m sorry that our state has to be the bearer of bad news, but Phil saw his shadow, and this winter will last six more weeks. Although the science of such traditions can be called into question, we’ve had a pretty harsh winter up here in the northeast and it seems like a long road back to the growing season.

But there are ways to get back on your journey if you’ve gardened before and it’s the right time to start your journey if this is your first year growing. It’s all about getting your mind into the growing season , even if there is a layer of snow on the ground. And the best way that I find is to start looking at those seed catalogs and start a crop plan.

This past weekend my community garden members got together and had a “seed party.” Aside from it being just a nice way to reconnect over the winter, I think it was really helpful for rookie gardeners to not only start thinking about what can be grown, but to also get a glimpse as to the process that many gardeners employ to create their gardens. because process is the biggest part of a growing season. I’ve seen people plant tomatoes in August, pumpkins in September, strawberries in July and start kale in Feb. As an experienced farmer knows, all of those mistakes result in small, stunted tomatoes, big, dead leaves with no pumpkins, beautiful green leaves with no strawberries, and a Kale transplant that dies on the operating table. By looking at a seed catalog, you not only see what’s available in your zone, but you get a good feel for when planting should happen.

As I said, the growing season seems so far away. But if you want to have food in April, seeds need to be started by the end of Feb. Which seeds to start first are all part of the process. Obviously, it’s silly to start lettuce or spinach because they mature in 30 days and are better off being sown directly into soil two weeks before the last frost. And you can’t really start root veggies. However, you need to time your plants so you don’t have a kale plant mature in march when the ground is still frozen and the plant outgrows its container before you get it into the soil.

So as I said, have some fun. Invite some of your gardening neighbors over, some with experience, others without, go through a bunch of seed catalogs and help each other plan when crops should go in the soil. You may even want to see who’s planting what so you can set up barter.

As I always say, you only get out of the soil what you put in. So if you just throw random seeds in the ground, chances are you’ll be at Whole Foods in July. But if you give it some thought and have fun doing it, you’ll be out in that garden all summer, one big step closer to a sustainable life.

Heading to PASA tomorrow with the boys. Please look for a full report next week.

Until then, this is the note from the urban homestead.

What’s going on in sustainability:

As I said in the last blog, the winter time for me is a time of great reflection and planning. After witnessing a huge boom to the Iceland economy, an NPR reporter once asked a resident the cause of Icelandic success to which the man responded, “It’s our cold winters. We spend our days sitting inside, reading our books by the fire, and then when the spring comes, we act.”

I thought this was genius, that was until Lehman Brothers in London went under and took down the entire banking system of Iceland with it. This doesn’t diminish the power of wintertime hibernation, but it does make me wish that I had that proper homestead where aside from study, I was also chopping the wood for my oven, tending to my greenhouse and managing my stock of preserves rather than bitching about my utility bills and going hungry until the next sparse farmer’s market because I refuse to buy greens from california or spinach that only comes in those little plastic containers. Maybe Iceland could have benefited from a little self-sufficiency too.

But that’s what this blog’s for, getting us collectively to those goals of sustainability. So, in my hibernation, I’ve been quite active, as is the city. In my own life, I’m in the midst of helping create the Walnut Hill Grower’s Cooperative. This is a  project that gets all of its growing resources (soil, wood, harvest materials, crop planning, business training, outlets) from the great Community Growers Alliance program through Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and land from the great collaboration with the Enterprise Center in Philadelphia. The project will use these resources to create a community farm where young people and senior citizens can make supplemental income by collectively growing and selling vegetables to local farm markets, co-op groceries and conscious restaurants. As I said, we’ve done a heck of a job in Philly getting diverse communities to realize the worth of eating local and organic, now it’s time to up the supply and create jobs that don’t live and die by the whims of grant funding, but that are supported by their own economic and social value.

I’ve also helped organize the idea to go beyond the internet list serve we have for local urban farmers and create a monthly meet up to become better organized. Our first meeting will be a potluck on Feb. 18th at 7:00. Our goal is to find ways to economically and socially support our farming endeavors and find any way possible to increase scope and effeciency through collaboration.

If you are interested in attending the meeting, or know young or senior residents in West Philly who could benefit from the Grower’s Cooperative, please contact me through this website.

As for events, I hope everyone had a good time at the Bee Keeping Kick Off last thursday. If you didn’t go, there are still so many opportunities to get involved with urban farming.

The weekend of Feb. 4,5,6,7 will be the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) conference. Hoots and Hellmouth will be in attendence, getting ready for our new farm season. Expect a full report on this Blog.

The following week starting Feb. 10th, the famous Will Allen will be in Philly giving the Keynote to the Compost Matters conference, which will be a week of advocation for connecting the local food cycle through compost.

Also, please make note that Philly’s new incentive- based recycling program is under way, please check this link for details http://phillyrecyclingpays.com/recycling-rewards-detail.asp.

For all of you non Philly people, please use this time to check out the events leading up to the season in your community. Staying connected is the only way we will stay conscious.

That’s all I got, until next week, this is the note from the urban homestead.

What’s going on in sustainability:

Hopefully many of you will be able to make the Bee Keeping event in Germantown tonight. For more information, please look at the last blog.

As for this blog, I would like to offer something that has been on my mind for some time, and resurfaced last night while brewing beer and eating some food. The topic of conversation stemmed from a film titled, “The Future of Food.” The premise is a bleak assessment of where GMO seed, erosion, and climate change will leave our food security in the near future.

And although the conversation had a somewhat “doomsday” kind of feel to it, there was hope. Not the blind hope that some hold onto, but the cautious hope that the pragmatically optimistic homesteader relies on. As the conversation continued, the idea of the Transitional Town came up. This idea was started in England by University intellectuals and has since spread to over one hundred towns. The idea of a transition town is simple in its essence; basically is it a town where if the oil reserves dried up tomorrow and the electricity shut off, people would still be able to live. This is a difficult pill for the mainstream green minded person to swallow. For in its argument it implies on the base level that buying organic mass produced products and installing LED light bulbs is not  enough, and on the deeper level, there is no “green” solution to alter the way we live. The only solution rests in the realization that we will not be able to sustain this life of convenience and comfort we presently have in America, green or not.

This conversation resonated with me, for as I said, I’ve been thinking about this subject for some time, but not just in food security, although it is a major part. I’m thinking more in terms of how we as a culture are in no way ready to take this change on. And it’s not because we are too fearful or ignorant. I feel that it is because we are not organized. That at the end of the day, many of us still go to the organic supermarket chain with money that we rely on a completely outside source to give us. We have no control over our means of existence.

Some people who read this blog may disagree. They may live on a farm, or make a living through the commerce of something they create. But for many, we enjoy the socially communal life one finds in a city, or in a non-profit work environment. But I don’t feel it will be too far off the mark to charge that these institutions have in many ways failed us. That in many instances the structure of the non-profit is not that much different from the corporate structure, and that cities make us feel even more disconnected.

What made the conversation so beautiful last night was the dreaming that went on. Sure, some ideas seemed unrealistic, others not that interesting. But many were not confined to the way we presently live; a revelation that there are many ways to live. One way I propose is in the power of the cooperative. In past articles I’ve professed the power of the community group or volunteerism. But what the cooperative does is not just help support peoples actions, but to support their lives as a whole. I have existed in the world of the non-profit for some time, and in my experience, it’s current structure is no way to live. It’s almost impossible to thrive when every year the reissuing of grants shuffles people around and you are constantly living in fear of losing your job.

After reflection, this is what I came up for what it means to really live cooperatively. It means going beyond social network sites to find out what’s going on in my neighborhood. It means buying that hand made shirt or locally grown vegetable even if it’s more expensive and less inconvenient to find. It means never confining myself to a lifestyle or economic system that I think is unmovable. If the past year has taught me anything, it’s that any job, any investment, any system can disappear. And hopefully as you keep up with this blog, you will get the ideas of what to put in those missing places.

Sorry for the manifesto like entry, but I felt the need for a starting point for the great changes that are coming to Philadelphia and beyond, changes that have been in the making for years, and that can only continue if we finally accept them. This is what I love about winter. It is a time to lower activity, reflect on your actions, and then come back in the spring with a fresh perspective.

Please stay tuned in to this perspective. Until next week, this is the note from the urban homestead.

What’s going on in sustainability:

Although a week and a half in Vermont can really tempt the sustainable person to pack up and move the homestead to the Green Mountains, I can honestly say that I’m very excited to be back in Philadelphia. I’ve only been back for one day and already I’m overwhelmed with all that needs to be done, all of the different programs that will be developed to make this city the “Greene Country Towne” it was meant to be.

The first issue I’d like to introduce for the New Year is an issue that has been gaining much momentum in activity in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Thanks to a passionate interest on behalf of Mr. Carl Flatow program director of Down to Earth, a science-based agricultural education program, Philadelphia will be the hub of activity to celebrate the life and achievement of L.L. Langstroth. Langstroth was a Philadelphia native and inventor of the modern bee keeping method employed by a majority of apiaries and hobby keepers today. The program Mr. Flatow is developing will be a celebration of Langstroth’s 200th birthday and his amazing contribution to bee keeping.

The kick off event will take place on January 21, 7:00 PM at the Unitarian Society of Germantown. The event will be part celebration, part information session with Barbara Ceiga of the Academy of Natural Sciences and bee keeping researches Marc Hoffman and Matt Redman.

For more information, please visit http://www.scifri.org/dte/pko.

But this event has even greater implications for Philadelphia sustainability than just celebration, history or science. Currently, there is no law “against” keeping bees in the city as there is with chickens or other livestock. But as we’ve discovered as a community with the great bike debate, it is a mistake to remain active off the city’s radar because sooner or later, the issue will be brought uncontrollably into the public sphere. And I don’t think it takes a clairvoyant to predict that as bee keeping increases, even if competent keeping leaves little room for someone to be stung, something will happen to stir negative public opinion.

That’s why our sustainable community must be the first to direct the conversation to show the need for a bee keeping culture in local sustainability. Many conventional people, when first hearing of this project will undoubtedly say, “There are apiaries for honey in the suburbs and rural land, why take the risk of liability of attracting bees to crowded urban environments?”

Aside from the fact that competent bee keeping is extremely safe, it is not just about the honey (although that is a sweet reward). The attraction of these amazing pollinators can benefit surrounding gardens (both vegetable and flower) and orchards dramatically. Even if you as a sustainably minded person would just like to stick to your tomatoes in the summer and not have to deal with the responsibility of bee keeping, having a hive close by will improve your crops beyond your labors of organic cultivation. It is in all of our interests as gardeners or people who just love walking past vibrantly colorful flowers to have bees in the city of Philadelphia.

In later issues as interests peaks, I will post my own experiments and progress of installing bees at one of my community garden sites. But for now, I can only promote the exciting events that are going be taking place in the Philadelphia area as the Langstroth celebration begins to take shape.

This is one great step towards developing another critical aspect of sustainability in Philadelphia and I hope you can get involved. If you live outside of the area, but wish to know more, there are many resources on the subject on the internet and books. If you are doing research, look up Langstroth Box to find out more about how to create and maintain a swarm. And please, keep a look out on this blog for my own adventures in bee keeping.

Until next week, this is the note from the urban homestead.

I won’t be doing a normal post this week, as I am currently in the midst of a very intense writing retreat at Goddard College. I’ll be back next week with our first forray into a sustainable New Year. However, I’m in the writing mood and want to tell a quick story.

Last night while standing around the camp fire we lit behind one of the common areas, drinking a beer and processing my day, I struck up a conversation with a young lady I had just done a reading with. She read three poems about working on a farm in Michigan and I read one of my essays on farming in Philly. At the fire, I aksed her about her experience and she started to tell me about the farm, and the farmer and everything in between when she stopped and said, “I actually saw a band from Philly in Michigan.”

“Really,” I responded, already knowing where this was going.

“Yes,” she went on. “A girl I worked with used to work at Camp Hill and she knew this great band who was playing at the Arc in Ann Arbor. We decided to go up for the show, but it was a crazy trip. It had finally stopped raining and the cherry and sungold tomatoes were ready to explode off the vine. So we went out picking, trying to get the harvest we missed the few days before. It was almost six and we still weren’t finished, with a two hour drive to the show. But we just kept on working, watching the sun go down, but we made it. Just in time. It was a great show.”

“So, do you remember their name?”

“Um, I can’t think of it. I just remember the singer had a really big beard and red hair.”

So, obviously the next few minutes of our conversation was about Hoots and Hellmouth, and how much she liked the show and the presence they produce. It’s funny, because when I thought about blogging during my residency, I was just going to put a “On Leave” sign on the site and call it a day. But that story was too good to pass up. A good old Hoots and Hellmouth farm story. Looking forward to a few more of them in the New Year.

Until next week, this is the note from the Urban Homestead.

What’s going on in sustainability:

A year passes, another begins, the earth renews itself. As you can see, it is so incredibly hard to avoid cliche when talking about the passage of yet another year. And it’s especially hard to not subscribe some transcendent importance when looking back over a decade of so much change. But as I read the paper and follow the narrative that was this decade, and think back to New Years Eve 1999 where the big concern was the machines either shutting down, or revolting and taking over the human race, I can confidently say that we are witnessing an epoch of human existence.  I also think back to New Years 1999 and am in awe of the conventionally minded person I was, and how much change I’ve gone through. Although I thought it impossible that my spinach and kale would still be green and fresh after being buried under two feet of snow for a week, I feel that there is nothing impossible about what humans can achieve on this earth, and how much they can grow and change as I think back to my former self. In honor of that, I’d like to offer a few thoughts to usher in this new year of such possibilities.

Many scholars, for better or worse, contend that it was human cooperative consciousness that brought us out of the trees and onto the plains where we cultivated food, domesticated animals and built our cities. And over the span of the hundred or so thousand years that we explored and refined this human experience, this cooperation manifested in the myriad of political structures, cultural rituals and economic systems that have come to shape the many peoples of this earth. Many judgements can be made as to the worth or need of such human interactions. Some say the earth would be a better place if humans just ceased to exist. Others feel that although we may be on a sinking ship, we may as well be the last ones to go down. Me, well I have no confidence to categorize humans as below or above other species on this planet. And it’s terrible hubris to think that we’ll destroy the earth, she’s much too powerful and will destroy us first if she has to. All I can say is that whatever this consciousness is, whatever forces us to cooperate to keep human life going is too damn important to ruin it by extinction due to greed and ignorance. I cannot accept such a fate for humans and I hope as sustainable readers of this blog, you can’t either.

So, as this decade begins, here are a few things to think about.

1. Community is the most important tool to organize and begin to solve some of humanity’s crisis’s on this planet. Before anything can be accomplished, people need to realize that just living in your house, voting, paying your taxes and hanging out with your family is not enough. The complacency of a people is only possible through their divisions, and this is certainly not a time for complacency. A good New Years resolution will be to try and start at least one community group that meets somewhat regularly wherever you live.

2. Consciousness will be lost if not in use. Something I’ve noticed and have understood of many humans is that uncertainty and inaction will lead them to do crazy things. Although we have a pretty good working theory of Spacetime, so many hardships are created by people who don’t know what to do with their time. Take an inventory in the beginning of this year. After finding stretches of time where you can celebrate or relax with family and friends on holidays, find time to learn the useful skills it takes to exist deliberately in this automated world. I will help by writing about projects on this blog.

3.  And finally, find balance in your life. I’ve been reading a lot of Einstein’s essays, and as a scientist, what keeps popping up is his foresight that the automation of this planet will lead to rapidly increasing unemployment. We see that right now as even someone as good intentioned as President Obama cannot figure out how to get this economy on track. It’s because we are going through change, and priorities are shifting. It’s time to find a new worth for a dignified human existence and that worth will be found in sustainability.

And with that final word, I will conclude this year of homesteading  and writing, take a breath and wake up in the New Year ready to continue this work. Until next week, this is the note from the Urban Homestead.

What’s going on in sustainability:

Today marks the one year anniversary of the end of my life on the road and the beginning of building my homestead. Although I’ll share with everyone what I’ve learned over this past year in next week’s end of the year article, I would like to share my thoughts of this holiday season.

I can safely say that this has been the best holiday season of my life. As I wrote last week, I positioned my life to comfortably have more than enough time to get my gifts by either making them, buying them from a local artist, or from a local shoppe. But I must say, at the risk of cliche, that this past snow weekend was the climax of what it means to sustainably celebrate life and the earth.

After I implored everyone to slow down and take time off, nature did it for me, dumping two feet of snow on the city of Philadelphia, shutting down the hustle, reminding everyone who grew up in the country of what a snow day could have in store. I must say that my friends and I (many in their thirties, most with nine to five jobs) went all out. During the snow fall we built an entire snow village of people in Rittenhouse Square, we went sledding in the hills outside Philly, I created a snowboard jump in Clark Park in West Philly, and my partner and I went cross country skiing on a river trail that is bordered on the other side by a hill road.

Now, many readers who live in the rural areas may have done the same thing, and they may smile at the thought of doing such activities in the city. But to me, it was more than novelty. These experiences were put into perspective after attending a one man show of “A Christmas Carol,” at a church a block away from my house. I was rocked by the part when Scrooge says to Marley (I’m paraphrasing), “But what of your business on earth, doesn’t that rest your soul.” To which Marley replies, “Benevolence was my business, generosity was my business, the general welfare was my business.” Through out the play I thought about the people who are dismantling our health care bill and hindering our climate change accord. I became despondent, thinking it would take more than three spirits in the night to change their minds.

But then, I thought back to my weekend. I thought of the dozens of people who stopped as we built snowpeople in the park. Some we got to just take time to sober up and enjoy some unaltered beauty, others we actually employed to help us build. But all walked back to their random center city apartments with the satisfaction that some people preferred to bringing some beauty to the world rather than sitting in a bar. Or there were the people on the number 9 bus just trying to get out to Manayunk from University City Philadelphia, who at first gave suspicious stares as we stumbled onto the bus with two sets of skis, poles and boots. But after talking to them, they realized that we were not some rich couple heading off to 30th Street Station and a weekend of skiing in upstate New York. We were just two normal people, skipping out of work to take advantage of a natural sport that is very important to us.

As I reflect, all I can think about are the smiles, the conversations, the thank you’s and ultimately, this final realization. In a way, my friends and I were the Christmas Spirits who visited Scrooge that eventful night. Yes, we need people like Obama and company who will put those systematic changes in place to secure that our sustainable work is not in vain. But the entire movement of sustainability hinges on our ability as sustainably minded people to show the world that this life is not only possible, but also extremely fulfilling, peaceful and beautiful. And that example will be what helps us as a people rise above the greed driven detractors who actively deny the possibilities of a better world. If I remember nothing else from this holiday season, that will be it.

So, please have a happy holiday no matter how you celebrate it, keep the beauty of the solstice and the changing earth in mind and above all, enjoy.

Until next week, this is the note from the urban homestead.

What’s going on in sustainability:

Ah, the holidays are upon us. As I’ve said, this is my first fall in many years where I am living in one place in the north, and I’ve been soaking up every little bit the holidays have to offer. But even though I feel that I’ve really settled down, I still feel a bit like a traveler as I watch the people around me respond to the holidays. In my experience this season, I can come up with three generalizations. There are the people who do a preemptive check out of the whole stress, there are the people who partake and the season becomes more of a burden than a celebration, and then there is the example I’d like to offer, the person who participates fully and loves every minute of it.

It’s no surprise that many who handle the holidays so well partake in a sustainably minded lifestyle. However, I am surprised by the people who do live sustainably eleven months out of the year, and then freak out for one month, even if they still are not going to the mall. If you read this blog and you find yourself in the latter category, here are a few things to remember.

1. It is completely okay to slack off at work and focus more on family and friends right now. Unless you have a job where people’s lives depend on you, like an ER surgeon, most of us are still evolutionarily wired to wind down at this time. Some look at the solstices as a mystical time sanctioned by the Gods, others, don’t think of it at all. But in the simplest terms, the solstice represents the peak of the Earth’s death and rebirth. The days become the shortest of the year, the winter chill has just fully set in, and this month of celebration was invented to take a break from the constant motion of the harvest, and prepare mentally for the strains of winter. The people who have cut themselves off from the cycles of the earth in their temperature controlled environments and non local, convenience based food chains have a tough time accepting their natural inclinations to not want to do anything right now except celebrate with loved ones, eat food and have a few drinks. This natural want coupled with our society’s constant emphasis on production creates an anxious malaise for people who just want to relax.

2.  The convenience of buying gifts actually creates more strain. If you read this blog, I imagine you are in the flow of trying to buy all of your gifts locally and sustainably. But as you scower your city and town trying to find ethically made shoes or recycled journals for stocking stuffers, I imagine that you feel more stressed than if you just did a one day sweep through the mall. But since our consciences won’t allow for such a short cut, but you are still finding it too forced to enjoy the thrift store adventures or connections you make at local shoppes, take a break. Spend a night blowing off the holiday party you really don’t feel like going to or the yoga class that will be there in the New Year, get out the craft supplies and your creativity, and make a few gifts. This year I’ve canned pears, brewed beer, made wine and will be making bath salts. Granted, my work and living situation is in general much less stressful than people with 9-5’s, but I still have to make time in my schedule. I usually spend these nights inside, with a few friends and a few drinks, and just have fun. Just pick a few small, homemade gifts you can make in bulk and give them out to your friends and co-workers. It will save you money, stress, and let you stretch your creative muscles that may have been cramping as you’ve just put in a good year of work.

3. Make the season a full experience, not just the last week. Round here at the homestead, I started my ideas and gift making right after Thanksgiving. As I said, I keep this whole month mellow to reenergize for the New Year and enjoy friends and family. Even if you follow steps one and two, waiting until the week before Christmas will do you no favors. Remember, sustainability is a lifestyle, one that should be savored slowly and mindfully. Hopefully these tips will encourage you to take a break and enjoy every moment as the nights of Hannukah pass, Christmas comes and goes, Kwannza begins, or you celebrate the solstice any way you please.

Until next week, this is the note from the Urban Homestead.

One of Philly’s cornerstone venues, The Fire, has recently fallen on some hard times, and as one of the countless bands that have darkened the stage there, we felt like we should show some support.  If you love Philly music, then you should too!  There’s gonna be a big ol’ benefit this Sunday at The World Cafe Live featuring tons of awesome local acts (including a short solo set from Sean) as well as a silent auction (we’ll be offering a house concert up for bid!).  $20 gets you in the door, and it all goes to restoring The Fire to its former glory.  And beyond!  Check it!

What’s in the ground:

As I said, this section will probably disappear soon, as the season moves on and the soil renews itself. But I had to pat myself on the back. After a nasty little snow storm on Saturday in Philadelphia, and watching my partner’s nasturtium totally wilt, I thought my lettuce was good enough dead. But when I went to salvage yesterday, I ended up picking half a bag of lettuce greens and spinach, the cold weather making it even more delicious. Knowing that today was going to be rainy and in the fifties, I did a quick cultivation of the soil and am hoping for lettuce at least for another few weeks. I’ll keep y’all informed.

What’s going on in sustainability:

Sustainability is a funny thing. Sometimes it invokes the “urban” part of this blog as the modern green image of the progressive family using compact bulbs, driving a Prius, and shopping at the local co-op. Other times the “homestead” image invokes the simple farming family, gathering around the wood burning stove and playing old time music on hand carved instruments. The reality is that real sustainability exists at the mid point between these two images.

I use this example to explain a big issue many sustainably minded people face during the holiday season. For those of us more entrenched in the city and its traditions that are so hard to escape, we go and look for a tree to decorate our living rooms that was sustainably grown, in organic soil, and ethically sold, which there is basically no market for. So in the end, these constraints send us just down the street to the lot selling a whole forest’s worth of prematurely chopped trees.

Then there are others of us, pining for tradition who wish we could just trek out into the woods with a sleigh and an axe, chop down the tree and triumphantly return home. I actually have heard people contemplate doing this in Farimount Park, Philadelphia’s huge city park.

In reality, these two extremes are not the most sustainable solutions, and a midpoint does exist. With some forward thinking, energy and help from the internet, you can find nurseries that are selling potted evergreens, douglas firs, or any other kind of decorative. Aside from not having to deal with those flimsy stands that will always let you down (my most vivid childhood memories of christmas trees are when they fall over out of the stand and crash on the living room floor), the tree is much more happy and secure in its own soil. And you can be much more happy and secure that you are supporting sustainable farming. Instead of letting the tree adorn your living room for three weeks and then kicking it to the curb (or burning it in the city wide bonfire like in New Orleans) you can replant the tree in your yard if you have land or in a wooded spot where you’ve researched that your tree will thrive in that ecosystem. My housemate even came up with the great idea of buying a fruiting perennial tree, decorating that, and then replanting it in the yard.

Now, this may be a little more difficult in climates where the ground is already freezing. But as I read the report that this has been the warmest decade on record, the ground should be easy to dig in, and goodness knows we can use a few more trees in the ground to trap that pesky CO2. So, rather than taking another tree out of the ground, put something back in. And if you’re really festive like me, and still enjoy decorating the outside of your house, cheesy string lights are just last century. Go back two centuries and take those discarded tree branches after you prune your potted tree and string them up on your porch with a few ribbons. It’s cheap, fun and it reuses, which is the best kind of sustainable action.

So, enjoy this holiday season and I’ll be back next week with a sustainably festive tip.

Until then, this is the note from the urban homestead.