The New Green Economy

I’m a strong supporter in real solutions.  In every aspect of our lives, the natural environment continually surprises me with its resilience and persistence.  The more our society pollutes, the more I search for the natural component that’s ready to step to the plate and heal the wounds inflicted by so many unconscious decisions.

The BP oil spill left me again looking for its healing counterpart.  I’d remembered reading it somewhere: the eater and healer of petroleum hydrocarbons, but the “what” continued to allude me.  As solution driven as always, I finally came across the “what” that I had once read, and I decided to share it with my fellow seekers.

Hidden in one of my most beloved books, The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins, I reread the sought remembrance on pages 56-59 under Compost Miracles.

With the recent flooding throughout the Americas these last few months, I thought to address a little known, but extremely important, forgotten grass: bamboo.

Bamboo is an arborescent (treelike) grass belonging to the family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae.  The family Poaceae, true grasses, is thought to comprise 20% of the known vegetation covering the Earth.[1] Grasses are extremely important to both the ecology at large, as well as to humans specifically.  Grasses provide us with a host of benefits, three of which are supplying staple food crops, conserving soil moisture, and preventing soil erosion.

Like common lawn grasses, bamboo spreads by roots called rhizomes and must be removed by digging up the roots themselves.  An entire grove of bamboo is usually just one plant, for the roots are all connected and grow from the mother clump.  Bamboo is classified as either a clumping bamboo or a running bamboo.

Clumping varieties grow slowly and spread through very short rhizomes that keep the bamboo stocks close to the mother clump.  These varieties are easy to contain and rarely get out of hand before the property owner notices.  Running varieties grow more rapidly and spread far and wide, growing very long rhizomes that can be unmanageable when left unattended for years on end.  Clumping and running bamboos can be herbaceous (foliage stocked) and deciduous (woody stocked), as well as tropical and temperate.

Unlike common lawn grasses,

Using blue, food-grade, 55 gallon barrels, setting up a rainwater collection system takes determining where you wish to collect rainwater, gathering the needed materials, and a good sunny day.  Below are the 10 steps I used in constructing a rainwater collection system for use in watering my garden-landscape.

Step 1 – Gather Materials and Tools

Materials:

4 Blue, Food-Grade, 55-Gallon Barrels – $8 each from local honey and vanilla manufacturing company

1 Metal, Male Threaded Spigot – $5 from local hardware store

6 Metal, 5/8 In. Male Threaded Coupler with Tightening Clamp – $2 each from local hardware store

8 In. Tube, Fast-drying Silicon Caulk – $4 from local hardware store

3 Ft., ¾ In. Diameter Garden Hose – Had on hand: $5 value.

8 Ft., Flexible, Downspout – Had on hand: $10 value

8 Cinder Blocks – Had on Hand: $10 value

6 In. Square Window Screen – Had on Hand: $10 value

Tools:

Garden Snipers for Cutting Garden Hose

Lock-in Pliers for Tightening Spigots

Sustainability is more than just a home that provides shelter, warmth, and power.  Sustainability is good, nutrient rich, organic food.  Secure your families local organic food by investing in Edible Landscaping.  It’s easy, long-lasting, with minimal maintenance.

Edible Landscapes can be created in innumerable combinations of annuals and perennials.  Annual plants are herbaceous and live one, sometimes two, seasons.  Perennial plants live for more than two seasons and are perpetual growers’ season after season.  Many perennials are deciduous, meaning they are woody stemmed plants that shed their leaves annually; while some perennials are herbaceous, meaning they have the texture, color, and resemblance of foliage leaves.  Herbaceous perennials die back to their roots in the winter and re-grow new foliage every season.

I have been planting edible landscapes for seven years now.  I have found that both perennials and annuals will practically maintain themselves when planted and grown under three key guidelines.

If you’re an existing home owner and are considering energy-efficient improvements this year, there are several options that you may want to consider.

The three major tax credits are listed below.  Before making your purchases, remember to research the specific product and make sure the manufacturer qualifies for the energy-efficiency rating under the IRS specifications.

With all the talk on carbon credits, cap and trade agreements, and proposed policies regarding carbon “pollution”, one question needs to be considered: what is carbon, and why a carbon tax?

Carbon is life.  It is the 6^th element on the Periodic Table of Elements.  It is one of the four most abundant elements in the universe: hydrogen, helium, oxygen, and carbon.  All life is composed of carbon.  Carbon is the chemical basis of all known life on Earth.

If carbon is the basis for all life, are we as a nation proposing a tax on life?

In 2600 BC, on 200 acres, the Oldest City in the Americas, the Origin of American Civilization, thrived.  The Lost Pyramids of Caral encompass a city with some of the largest pyramids in the world, uncovered in the sand mounds of the Peruvian Desert, between the Pacific Ocean and the fertile forests.

Called the Mother City, Caral’s uniqueness is highlighted by its cultural diversity; agriculture achievements; and trade relations.  In its prime, Caral was a grand center of trade and commerce.  With no fortifications, no war depictions, and no signs of warfare; it was a time of peace and play. 

With trade relations over 200 miles away, the people of Caral enjoyed a booming commerce

There are two methods to follow when building a home:

• A Disposable Home: a home that is dependent on continuous external input for its continued operation – such as energy, time, materials, and money; and will eventually reach a state of disrepair where it is no longer financially feasible to maintain.

• A Living Home: a home that is a self sustaining cell producing more energy and free time than it consumes; creating an autonomous structure that is interconnected to maximize your families’ investment.

Last time we discussed the meaning of “green”, and how a “green” product is either comprised of biological nutrients – nutrients made from organic, biodegradable materials; or technical nutrients – nutrients comprised of manufactured components that are continually, or partially, reused and upcycled into a new product.

In order to determine how your products’ lifecycle directly impacts your business’s bottom line, you must first determine which nutrient cycle your product is currently in.

To determine your product’s current nutrient cycle, ask yourself: Of the materials that compose my product(s),

Green is understanding, respecting, and incorporating the lifecycle of any given product, by-product, material, and/or additives of such product into the designing, manufacturing, storing, delivering, installing, and restoring the individual materials and product to an equally, or superior, reusable form.

Simple put, being green is understanding the lifecycle of any given product, and properly restoring the nutrient to the cycle in which it belongs.

In the book Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough and Michael Braungart illustrate this point brilliantly with their description of the two nutrient cycles of all matter; described as either a biological nutrient or technical nutrient.