Too Many Seeds in a Packet?

I picked up several packets of seeds this week. Out of curiosity I counted the seeds in the packs. Just as I suspected, there were many more seeds than I would use in a single growing season, so it occurred to me that a great practice would be to trade 1/2 packs with other gardeners.

My brother-in-law does a bit of gardening, perhaps I'll trade with him.

The other idea I had is to start extra plants and give them away to encourage gardening. With all the uproar over the economy, a little victory garden may just be what we each need to pick up the wallet slack.

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Repurpose Before Recycling

I love magazines. Well, I should, I make a living writing for them.

You know that I love to save money. And I'm a friend to the environment too.

Naturally, I pop my old magazines into the recycling bin when I'm done with them. But could there be more? I'm suggesting that we send them on to families who cannot afford to buy them. When we buy a magazine, we barely cover the costs of production. Getting the print out there facilitates advertisers. Passing on a magazine to someone who would not ordinarily get it may increase the reach of advertisers and increase the market. Who knows, when income increases, they may become a subscriber?

Perhaps send them to a local girl scout troop to use in craft projects such as story boards.

Use them to line the birdcage and then throw them in the composter (for use on lawn, not veggies).

My grandma made me a string of beads from magazine pages that were rolled on toothpicks and sealed with a glue like mixture. She even made me a string from surplus wedding announcements. Really cool. Huh?

The point is that repurposing trumps recycling in the big order of things. I'm trying to do my part.

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Woot! We are Still Reducing Electrical Usage

In the month of December we set out to reduce our consumption of electricity, and WOW did we ever. Still looking for new ways to save, we are continuing to save even more. Last month we got our usage down to 476 kwh.

It's the little things that add up. Unplugging when not in use turned out to be one of my biggest electricity sins. Our TV uses a ton of electricity even when off. Phantom drain is real.

I was planning in January to undertake water usage. unfortunately there have been many challenges in our neighborhood with the water. Seems road construction has lead to numerous water main breaks and thus, much flushing of the lines. Our water usage is through the roof! Yikes! We have had brown, dirty water. I'm not usually a fan of bottled water but have consumed more in the past three months than is environmentally friendly.

So, construction is slated to be over soon and I'll tackle water usage.

Until then, I'll be tackling smaller ways to save money.

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