The suburban landscaping aesthetic includes a lot of lawn and not a lot of trees. I’m bucking that trend by replacing my one dead ornamental plum tree with three uncommon native trees that will support more biodiversity, soil health, and climate resilience. In order to do that, I needed a crash course on how and where to plant, plus how and where to prune.
I am excited about trying new techniques to mend my clothing, in both invisible and visible ways. What remains to be seen is how welcome some of the results will be in professional settings. Even as a sustainability professional, I don’t often see colleagues wearing mended clothing, and I wonder if that is an intentional choice or the symptom of a pervasive business norm.
The 250th anniversary of the American Revolution (during unprecedented tumult in our democracy) has had many thinking about what it takes to stand up to tyranny. The rise and fall of authoritarian regimes can hinge on outside-the-box thinking and the presence of an educated populace armed with critical thinking skills and knowledge of history – and we saw a call for that this past week.
We use machines to make our lives easier, but we are not making use of the time we save in a meaningful way. Omnipresent AI tools in our daily lives are contributing to our reduced capacity for long attention spans, research and curiosity, critical thinking, and creativity. We’re relinquishing some of the things that make us human, and it’s not AI’s fault; it’s ours.
When I first saw an Earthship on the Discovery Channel in the ‘90s, I immediately wanted to live in one. While I now recognize that there are some cons in addition to the pros, I am still inspired by the radical and thoughtful design toward net zero energy use and waste. And I was delighted to stay in one recently and learn more about it first-hand.
Culture shapes us, and then we shape culture. The intervening time in between those things runs on the order of 30 years, which is often an explanation for reboots, revivals, and remakes of popular culture. The influence of the 1960s on the 1990s, and the 1990s on me was apparently very strong, which I realized this past fall when traveling in the Southwest.
Many people are wrapping up their garden work for the year, but it’s never too early to plan for the spring! If you’ve been putting off planting a pollinator garden for want of ideas on how to start, the Missouri Prairie Foundation has put together sample garden plans for people with sun, shade, and even picky neighbors. If you don’t know where to start, you should start here.
Gardening is part science and part art, but the art component is far more demanding than I’m comfortable tackling on my own, and the moving target that is nature eliminates much of the certainty that comes with the scientific component. After several years of analysis paralysis, I decided it was time to get some professional help – by way of a landscape designer.
Although we know that “Reduce” is the most important component of the Three R’s, it’s hard to advocate for reducing consumption during the biggest commercial holiday of the year. Examining our motivations during the holidays (to understand why we choose to spend our time and money the way we do) can help reduce our consumption and may help improve our mental health as well.
At least according to some, the decision of whether you buy a real or plastic tree doesn’t have as much of an environmental impact as what you choose to do with it once you have it. Getting rid of your real tree at the end of the season can be confusing, especially if it’s unclear what the most eco-friendly end-of-life decision is.