Thursday, April 22, 2010

Happy Earth Day

A second post in the same day? Unheard of! But I suppose a vegetable gardener must celebrate Earth Day. What do we do every day but dig in the earth? We live to get our hands dirty. We celebrate the soil itself each and every day. Many recently have gotten into growing their own food for love of the earth. I confess that is not me. I garden because it is in my blood. I love to watch the seeds sprout from the soil. I watch as the plants grow in wonder. I celebrate the harvests. The miracle of growing my food each day is why I do it.

I appreciate that it helps the earth too. I garden organically, or rather naturally. I let the bugs duke it out in the garden. If the bad bugs get too aggressive, I hand pick them. I rarely use pesticides and when I do they are very nontoxic and very directed to the individual bug. This year I'm using Bacillus Thuringiensis, which is a bacteria that only kills caterpillars. I'll only use it on the winter moths to protect my blueberry blossoms in the spring. In the last four years I haven't gotten any blueberries because the moths had eaten them all (they are an alien invader that came to Massachusetts recently). I'm also using Sluggo for the first time. It is nontoxic and I'm really sick of handpicking slugs after two years of excessive rain. This year is stacking up as a rainy year too so far. So I celebrate nature and let the good and the bad live (mostly) in the garden. They usually maintain a good balance.

The quest to use my car less is one reason for my move to the new house. My current house has a walkability score of 28 which is a Car Dependent score. The new house has a score of 79 which is Very Walkable (though weirdly they missed the CVS that is three blocks away when making that score). I used to try to bike to things. When I worked outside the house 8 years ago, I biked 45 minutes into work and an hour back home whenever the weather was nice enough. That extra fifteen minutes coming home was a result of the hills. I live on top of a large hill. It is work getting up. I could stop at the grocery store on the way home, but carrying the gallons of milk that my son went through was nightmarish on a bike. All that extra weight. I eventually gave up on doing grocery shopping with my bike as too much work. The new house will be within a mile of just about everything. Both of our families are going to be going down to one car (both Priuses or is it Prii?). We are thinking of a shared minivan with a third friend, but I don't know if we will do it or not. It would make hauling leaves easy.

We are also only 0.7 miles away from the red line subway stop and if they actually build the extension to the other line we will be close to the green line too. The bus stop along Mass Ave is just a few blocks away. Most things will be so easy to get to without a car. Life will be greener at Lee's End Eden, which is the new name of the condominium association. Though it was almost named Earth Lee. And I kind of liked Happi Lee Ever After. But Lee's End Eden it is. I hope it lives up to its name. I just hope I don't get kicked out for eating the apples.

12 comments:

  1. Happy Earth Day! I'm so excited for you taking the plunge and moving into a town house. I tried the walkability tool and my address has a score of 0 and I don't drive! LOL! You're so lucky to close to the metro system.

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  2. What a great new house. YOu're lucky to have the best of both worlds. With a yard that can be gardened and the ability to walk and use public transportation, it can't be beat. We're about 1.5 miles from the nearest shopping, but that includes 2 big hills and very little sidewalk. Every year I say that I'll walk to town more, but it never seems to happen.

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  3. With respect to walkability, what is really missing is a bagel place (like a Brueggers, with WiFi) that is close. That said, there are plenty of available commercial sites so if anyone wants to open up a bagel place in East Arlington, we promise to frequent.

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  4. Lzyjo, can you even have a zero score? Wow that is bad. My mom probably has a zero at her house (she lives in the mountains in Colorado) and she doesn't drive either. She is good at getting rides from neighbors and walks the two miles to the bus to town often enough. I remember when the bus went in. It made our life so much easier.

    The Mom, it is hard when it is all so far away.

    DH, What hubby commenting! But you are right, we do need a bagel place. I like how you are trying to get someone to open one on the blog. You couldn't convince me so maybe one of my readers will want to do it. I can't believe we will have four pizza places within a few blocks and no bagels at all. We eat bagels every week, but pizza very rarely. OK so come on readers. Surely one of you wants to open up a bagel place by us. The local mom and pop Arlington one closed a few years ago (the kids wouldn't take over the business) and nothing has come in to take its place.

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  5. Not bad on the walkability score. I guess ours would be good at the moment though it will soon drop percipitiously unless we find some miracle property bordering a village.

    Happy Earth Day to you too! I was looking for garden bloggers that were earth day posting. You're the second to mention it (my list is long).

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  6. Hi Daphne - our walkability score was 6. And I have NO clue how it was listed that high since some of the businesses it mentioned that we can walk to don't even exist. Great post! Happy Earth Day!

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  7. Happy Earth Day Daphne! I'm sure you will love your new diggs and that you'll turn it into even more of an Eden.

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  8. happy belated Earth Day... mind you everyday should be ;) instead of Sluggo have you tried oyster shell? Oyster shell which is semi ground for poultry ( to harden eggshells) it's a great deterent for them! no snail or slug in it's right mind would dare cross over a line of shell... would be akin to walking over shards of glass... the shell is also a great source of calcium for the garden...
    as for the car issue... i live out of town and have to drive unfortunately.. i do try and plan a a circle route so i can get everything done without added usage...

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  9. Ottawa Gardener, I'm sure a few more got on the bandwagon. Earth day and gardening seem to go hand in hand.

    Kate and Crew, wow 6. I know a lot of those that like to vegetable garden have land, which means not close to the city.

    Thomas, I hope so.

    Roasted Garlicious, I've never tried oyster shell. I've tried crushed eggshells and I've tried DE. Neither work all that well. I think I have armored slugs.

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  10. Happy late earth day to you! Your new home and neighborhood sounds like it will be a great place to reside. We are far too far from anything to consider biking or walking for services. Instead, we try to have "no drive" days where we just leave the car parked and do things close to (or at) home.

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  11. Happy Earth Day Daphne. I picked up my neuton, they start the trade-in sale on earth day. Now the lawn just needs to grow.... Thanks for the feedback on it :-)

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  12. kitsapFG, I have a lot of no drive days here. But then I work from home most days so it is easy. Makes gardening easy too.

    Dan, I hope you like it. I love mine. I have to get to mowing my lawn soon. I think this will be the first time in April I've ever mowed it. All the trees are blooming and leafing out about 2-3 weeks ahead of normal too.

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