A not so green thumb!

I do not have a green thumb. I do not like weeding. I do not like lawn work. I like playing in the grass and nature but I do not like gardening. I never have. I never will. Never. I know, never say never but folks, it just won’t happen. The problem is, I love a nice manicured lawn and if I could make a million dollars telling you this and have someone do it for me, I would. I like a potted plant here and there, some tulips to come up and that’s about it. Every time I get a plant I forget to water it. Then it dies and I feel bad. So what the point? My son planted something in a cup at school and told me to not touch it. I did and guess what, it’s dead. He was not pleased. My yard, however, is huge and we have a ton of landscaping which equal weeds, weeds, weeds. Not cool.

So how the heck will I go earth friendly when it comes to my yard? My hubby likes the big tractors, the bad chemical stuff that kills the weeds and stops the lovely dandelions my sons picks for me. My lovely better half really was a landscaper in another life time. He’s just a natural. I try to tell him, dandelions give us wonderful yellow paint for the sidewalk and I can make many, many necklaces and crowns from them. My cute face and pleading just don’t cut it. I found a company that sells eco-mowers and we’re researching buying one of these. That will cut back on our consumption of gasoline and pollution. If anyone uses an eco-mower, please share your thoughts and feelings on how they operate and cut the grass. We got a lot of tips from the site, Grinning Planet and HGTV had some nifty advice too. Our local lawn and garden center had a few options but after talking to the owner I learned that maybe 20% of his customers seemed interested in “organic” lawn care products. Bummer. So I’m still researching and basically advocating for the weeds and trying hard to not care about a manicured lawn while I lay in the grass with my dandelion crown.

P.S. I’m typing this and the kids and hubby are outside weeding. I'm feeling guilty. Nah, I hate weeding and gardening.

Green Gardening and Cow Manure

Have you heard of CowPots? I had no idea what a CowPot was but when I thought of the two words put together, I took a guess…where a cow takes a poop? Funny enough, that’s exactly it…a biodegradable, environmentally friendly way to garden with cow manure!. Farmers have cow manure and need to do something with it, plants need nutrients and a pot, and the ground doesn’t need pollution to help grow the plants. It makes sense really. When I read the story, about the farmers who thought up this idea, I had to laugh and think of what I would do if my husband used my toaster for his cow manure experiment. I might be “green” and earth friendly but I would not be so crazy about cow manure in my kitchen. Didn’t I just post about E.coli???

Anyhow, these little pots sound great because they are made in the U.S.A., they’re a highly renewable resource, odor free and non-toxic, plants love the pots and grow like crazy because of the nutrients, and the pots decompose. It doesn’t really matter if you like cows, meat or milk, a cow is going to take a dump somewhere and a farmer will have to do something with it. Why not make money off the stuff and help the environment?

In addition to CowPots, you can buy stories about using the CowPots from Chrissy the CowPot! If you want to do something fun this coming Earth Day or spring, you can get a CowPot kit that includes a story, a CowPot, finger puppets and seeds. A great gift for a spring birthday! My son loves planting stuff and when he was really little he was obsessed with cows (notice the picture)! What a fun, earth friendly weekend project!