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Green suburbia bleg
Are you a green-living suburbanite? Do you want to tell your story to a major news organization? Even majorer than Grist?
Tell us about your creative green approaches to living in the suburbs. Have you replaced your lawn with switchgrass? Offered to install solar power for everyone in your cul-de-sac? Organized a carpool to a commuter-transit junction? Share your adventures below in comments.
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Comments
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GreenEngineer Posted 9:49 am
16 Jan 2008
Assuming we are in suburbia, though:
Greywater for laundry water disposal.
Rabbits for meat, and chickens for eggs.
Multispecies annual and perrenial garden that occupies the entire front and back yard. So, no grass.
Car-free commute: living near BART has its advantages.
Seven distinct diversion paths for solid waste: food for rabbits, food for chickens, food for worms, biostack (all organic matter that nothing else wants to eat), City recycling, city greenwaste (most just for big branches and old lumber), and used coffee (set aside for use as a direct soil amendment.
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wiscidea Posted 10:00 am
16 Jan 2008
I live 23.7 miles from my work place, though I reach the "city" limits a bit before that. It is a 38 minute commute. I can see one neighbor's house to the east and one neighbor's silo to the west. There is CRP land north of us and a corn field south of us.
I'm a pure emodiment of evil.
Should I share my green approaches to living where I do?
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Tasermons Partner Posted 10:17 am
16 Jan 2008
I xeroscaped my yard,
I only take showers,
I have my air consitioner set at 90 degrees in summer (I like heat!) and the heater set at 75 degrees in the winter,
I use both rainwater and water that comes from the air conditioning outlet (usually has several gallons a day in summer, even set at 90 degrees),
I buy offsets for the CO2 from both my car and my house (use Terrapass currently),
My lights are CFs,
I drive a small car, fuel-effient car (91 Honda Civic), usually less than 200 miles a month (except for long roadtrips I take a few times a year),
I walk to the store, and will sometimes take the bus to the university,
I only use cloth bags for groceries,
I recycle all my paper, cardboard, glass, plastic, and aluminum, etc. (only 2% of this city's population recycles! It's a travesty!)
I compost all my organic waste,
I use indoor plants to help filter the air,
I use green products whenever I can (I use Seventh Generation for toilet paper, towels, and cleaning/laundry products),
I use cold cycle on my washer, and usually hang my clothes out to dry.
I'd like to do more, but the area isn't deregulated as far as power, so I can only get my power from one company, and my home is also rented, so I can't really make major modifications like solar or insulation improvements, even if I had the money. so for now, I haveta stick to the little stuff I can do.
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Delay And Deny Posted 10:33 am
16 Jan 2008
Want to be green?
Be poor.
I live in the cheapest place I could find around Seattle and the Puget Sound (an inflated hellhole with no sunshine and all the less attractive and more obnoxious people from California who migrated here).
I live in a one bedroom apartment, so I only spent on average $40 on electricity including heat and air conditioning (for the 3 days a year it's actually warm here).
I live 6 miles from work...I can bus, or even walk. I drive becase I don't want to get sick and dreary cold rain has made me ill in past winters. But I only drive 6 miles. When it's warm, I bicycle. I also try to walk or bicycle to get food and other stuff because I'm close to the strip malls on the main drag.
My apartment house is actually an architectural wonder even though most would avoid it because of the high density of Section 8's. It has interior greenspaces, modestly high townhouse styling, lots of pine trees left standing. [I think it was built back in the 3's Company days for swinging singles like Jack Roper....electric fireplaces, you know.]
The suburbs are easier to be green in because they offer more economies of scale. You can load up at gigantic wherehouses and not have to go out that often. Add in cable tv and internet, and I expend almost no energy at all.
I don't even us up that much oxygen.
My Log
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LGT Posted 11:04 am
16 Jan 2008
http://feww.wordpress.com/videos/
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Sam Wells Posted 11:27 am
16 Jan 2008
We throw the scrap tires on the roof, the dirty dishes out the window, and laundry, are you insane? For heating we have four pit bulldogs. If the kids are good we let them jump in the bed with the dogs.
Now every once in a while we cook up some roadkill but only use the greenest charcoal we can find. Well, blackest but you get the ideal. Start it with newspapers instead of gasoline, too! Well, Elmer don't but he's one of a kind, no eyebrows ya know.
Yup, livin' in this upscale yuppie suburb is shore sweet. Garbage man loves us as long as we stay away from the flea markets. Neighbors, meh, they're always cranky. They're the ones with mowers, blowers, and all kinds of machines we ain't got no use for. Drives the donkey nuts, just nuts.
Onward through the fog
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mrLee Posted 11:56 am
16 Jan 2008
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wiscidea Posted 4:01 pm
16 Jan 2008
Our green approach to living BEYOND the suburbs revolves around preserving one of the major reasons for moving there. We like growing stuff... that is, we like to grow stuff and we like stuff that is growing. Much of our free time during spring, summer, and fall goes into two tasks.
First, we have a vegetable garden. We are STILL eating carrots, potatoes, garlic, squash, dried herbs, frozen strawberries harvested last season. We do not use chemical fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, et cetera. We minimize water use by mulching. Our soil is a bit sandy, but we've enriched our garden with trailer loads of compost from a nearby county composting site, where those living in real suburbs drop off leaves and brush that the county shreds, composts, sells for $5.00 per small trailer load. We do not kill rabbits, gophers, or other pests, but do our best to exclude them from areas we don't want them.
Second, we are fortunate enough to have a 2-acre prairie remnant east of our house. This is my summer recreation... removing invasive plants, pushing back brush and expanding the area of grass and forbs around the remnant. We add a few new plants now and then... grown from seed or purchased from native plant nurseries. In the fall we might scatter seed purchased from native seed companies or collected from one area and moved to and another. I'm trying to increase the biodiversity. Switchgrass? We've got big bluestem, little bluestem, side-oats, indian grass, but not switchgrass. I thought of planting some, but I heard it is aggressive and can really dominate small areas. I carefully consider the postive and negative features of every species I might add to my yard.
I do not understand why someone would move to a rural area, surrounded by farms and nature, and then proceed to install a manicured monoculture lawn around their house! Or cover a nice gravel driveway, a gathering place for birds and insects, with stinking toxic black goo! If folks aren't interested in living in harmony with the local ecology, they should stay in the city.
For me, a pleasant week off from work means spending time in the garden, tending the prairie, or starting a new "garden" project, NOT jetting off to some remote location.
We have a minimal lawn around the house. Sort of need a firebreak when you're surrounded by relatively wild grass. We accept whatever grows there, do not apply chemicals for any reason, and absolutely do not water even if there is a drought. The lawn might turn brown by August, but it always recovers... and there are enough "weeds" so it looks a bit green.
Most of the plants we add to "flower" gardens are native and appropriate for our dry sandy soil. I really don't care for cultvated varieties that are selected purely for appearance and no longer feed insects and other wildlife. I feel every plant I add to my yard should support the local ecology.
We really try to live in harmony with the local flora and fauna. For example, when we noticed the swallow tail butterfly caterpillars on the dill, we just planted more dill so there would be enough for them and enough for us.
There is more going on and I have a lot of ideas, but I imagine I've said enough about growing stuff.
We compost all of our kitchen and most of our yard waste. Larger chunks of brush are hard to deal with. We've got a couple brush piles for the wildlife and leave a lot on the ground to decompose where it falls, but we have to burn some of it... ashes to ashes... CO2 to CO2.
I wish we could have installed a gray water system for the new fruit trees, but that's illegal in Wisconsin. We did once siphon the water from the bath tub out onto the lawn, but it was a lot of work and we never tried again.
Anyone who pays attention to my posts probably knows I have an SUV, but it was the smallest most fuel-efficient one we could find to meet our needs. It is not a status symbol. It is used as a utility vehicle, not just a car. Furthermore, I do not use it regularly for commuting.
Regarding commuting, we minimize use of gas by planning our trips between home and the "city". I go grocery shopping or run other errands on my way home from worl. If we drive somewhere on Saturday or Sunday, we usually make a day of it, never driving 23.7 miles to pick up a single item! That would be crazy and expensive.
Other stuff... two of us eat less than pound of meat each week and I'm working toward becoming a vegetarian; we try to purchase environmentally friendly cleaning products (motivated, in part, by the desire to protect our septic system); we too have a rescue dog (spayed); we are not interested in accumulating toys (no lawn tractor, no snow blower, no big-screen TV, not really into material possessions); our house is a mere 1200 square feet (not a McMansion in the exurbs!); all paper, plastic, and metal is recycled (though newspaper is used as a weed barrier in the garden and around trees); we puchase organic food when we can afford it or if it is particularly important to us (like milk, celery, carrots, apples); we also purchase some local food (especially eggs); and we are eliminating most highly processed food from our diet (started this project before Michael Pollan's latest book, but substantially encourage by him).
Oh... and we both volunteer to help a local conservation organization and help landowners conduct prescribed burns each spring. This alleviates some of the feelings of guilt regarding where I've chosen to live.
That's all for now. There are a few other things most environmentalist living anywhere try to do. I really must do more. This has been an interesting exercise. I look forward to learning -- from the Grist staff and those visiting this site -- more about living in harmony with the natural world and reducing my footprint. Feel free to send an email if you wish to offer constructive criticism.
Peace.
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caniscandida Posted 12:27 am
17 Jan 2008
The National Wildlife Federation promotes a certification program for making one's suburban/exurban property wildlife-friendly:
http://www.nwf.org/backyard/
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
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TimJFowler Posted 2:41 am
17 Jan 2008
I've replaced my lawn with native grasses, wildflowers and a garden that grows larger each year. I have a 3 mile commute to work that I bicycle when the temperature is in the 40's or above. I'm always looking for new ways to save energy and waste less water and other resources. Check out EcoNewMexico.com for the day to day quest to live more sustainably in the American Southwest.
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grygy Posted 9:44 am
17 Jan 2008
Bicycle to that great BART station when it isn't raining and I'm not too pooped - looking for a good electric assist to help me up the hills when I am. Bath water goes out the window to the fig tree next to the compost bin, thanks Umbra for suggesting that a few months ago (and it's really easy using a standard 3/8" outboard engine hose siphon squeeze bulb).
CFL's and LED nite lights everywhere except where dimmed, keep the heat low from the natgas fireplace and use waste wood in the woodburner for romance and on really cold nights. And biggest trick of all - built our current house out of recycled Styrofoam (Rastra) 10 yrs ago, and last fall finished a new infill house next door made of reused, insulated shipping containers (called reefers). Very cool looking, I just wish it had cost less than a regular stick house, but first in the world (we think) is never as cheap as you plan for.
Keep those ideas coming, folks!
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willa Posted 10:05 am
17 Jan 2008
I do various other green stuff, but not nearly enough. I still haven't even replaced my basement door that has a big gap at the corners that's letting cold air in. Sometimes lazy is green, but not always...
Canis, I beg you not to replace the original windows in your childhood home. There's nothing ridiculous about old wooden windows; often, they are at the point of needing re-puttying and whatnot, but the Delaware valley is surely awash in preservation carpenters and such who could take care of that. A decent storm window outside the original wood window and you're set. Replace them with new windows and you are locking into a cycle of high-embodied-energy replacement-window replacement every couple of decades, where the original windows could last another hundred years with a little TLC, and in the meantime they're not just green, they're an aesthetically integral part of the house.
I put new Pella windows in my barn, and the damn things are a joke. So poorly made, I wish I had found some salvaged wood windows and had them restored instead. But at least they're energy efficient, until they start leaking like sieves...
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wiscidea Posted 10:39 am
17 Jan 2008
I wish I'd thought of that 10 years ago. I won't tell you what we did to get the siphon running. Anyway... from now on, the bath water goes out the window. THANKS!
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brenna Posted 2:56 pm
19 Jan 2008
No commute; we both work from home.
Luckily we live within walking distance of the library and several shops and restaurants.
Recycling is huge for us!
Replaced all burned out lightbulbs with CFLs.
Pay extra for energy usage to support renewable energy and salmon protection.
No meat.
Try to buy organic foods with our reusable shopping bags.
I'm sure there's more, but it's a start!
Brenna
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caniscandida Posted 7:43 pm
19 Jan 2008
lovely to hear from you again, after so long! I hope all has been well, and you are getting to play with some horses.
The house where my parents now live is not at all the house where I spent my childhood. They and my grandparents moved there around 1990. In principle, I do not at all like the idea of ever owning or living in a suburban house. But this one has promise; I always liked it, even though I do not like the way my parents are keeping it. Advantages: it is within walking distance of a light-rail train station, with frequent service into Center City Philadelphia (the ride takes a bit under a half of an hour); it is within walking distance of a Whole Foods, a Trader Joe's, a liquor store (PA being one of the fuddy-duddiest of those states that are squeamish about how alcoholic beverages are sold), a Barnes and Noble, a Starbucks, not one but two public libraries, a good pizza restaurant, and the parish church (a bit of a hike up a fairly steep hill). And I could get to schools where I might teach by bike.
The windows that I hate so bitterly are suburban-house windows of the 1950s. Making the twice-yearly seasonal change, from "storm windows" to screens and back again, is a big chore, and too difficult for my aging parents. I do not know what the options are, and I thank you for your thumbs-down on Pella windows; but I am sure there is some better way.
The thing is, the chances do not seem all that great that I shall ever be truly the Lord of that Manor, ensconced for many a merry year. For one thing, my Michael wants to retire to Boston, or Portland. He thinks Philadelphia is OK, but to visit, not to live there. Plus, he has allergies. Nevertheless, changing the windows will be a good investment, I figure, even if we do not choose to live in that house, but shall want to sell it.
Appearance-wise, I agree that the old wood frames should not be tampered with, and that if they too need to be replaced, restored wood is ideally the way to go.
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
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willa Posted 10:26 am
23 Jan 2008
You have my preservationist dispensation to do away with the 1950s windows :) , unless it's a 1950s house that itself merits preservation. In any case, storm windows that slide and have screens--thus never having to be changed seasonally--can be installed over just about anything without permanently altering the house much.
The Philly-area 'burbs are pretty nice, I think, especially where convenient to the train. Boring, but nice. Then again, the Boston 'burbs aren't exactly scintillating either. I think if I didn't have horses, I'd actually enjoy living somewhere a little more urban, or at least somewhere walking distance to the train. My house is a couple of miles from the station, which was the best compromise I could make, but I still wish I were closer. Retiring to somewhere walking distance from things is definitely a winner.
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