Celebrate Earth Day Every Day

Earth Day is officially April 22, 2008. While celebrating our planet on this day is a nice idea, it’s even nicer to implement earth-friendly ideas throughout the year, every day if possible. With spring and summer right around the corner, it’s easy to do things to help you, your family and the environment. Here are some good earth day activities and ideas.

Create a Certified Wildlife Habitat in your yard by providing food sources (such as plants, seeds, nuts, nectar), water sources (pond, stream, bird bath), covered areas (rock pile, bird house, thickets), places to raise young (pond, thick shrubbery, nesting boxes), sustainable gardening (mulch, compost, chemical free fertilizer). Once you’ve done this, you may register your habitat for certification. Visit the National Wildlife Federation for this and more to do, not just on Earth Day, but every day.

My favorite garden shoes (ok, I’ll admit it, they are my favorite summertime shoes.. I wear them all the time) are my sloggers. I bought my last two pair from Target for about $10. My daughter recently bought some similar shoes (what are they called, that have the holes in them that everyone wears?).. well, from another site (and I’ll give them credit if I come across it again - Found it - Hip Mama’s Place is where I first saw them) I found out about Polliwalks - talk about some adorable summer / garden shoes for kids!

Container gardening is an easy way to build a garden in confined areas. Try planting specific garden pots, such as a “salsa garden pot” using a pepper plant, a tomato plant and a few herbs like cilantro, basil or oregano.

Use the USDA Hardiness Zone Finder to make sure the plants you plant in your flower beds will withstand the weather in your area. Or just visit their site - National Garden Association for SO much info.

Set up a worm compost to get some of the best and natural fertilizer there is available and let those little red wigglers gobble up your kitchen waste. Setting up a worm compost is easy and doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. You can make a wooden box, or even use a plastic bin (like a Rubbermaid container).. the key is to provide moisture, bedding and your compost shouldn’t smell foul. One of my long time favorite sites for worm information is WormLady.com. She has great, simple information on worms red wigglers in particular, sells them and also has some links to further information.

If you aren’t able to plant your own garden, your area may have a food co-op or other program. These programs allow you to purchase local in-season veggies all spring, summer and into the fall. This helps the environment too as well as supporting local farmers! To minimize getting to burned out on the same veggies every week, go in on it with a friend.

Get active - meet up with your community and clean up the neighborhood. Whether it’s just picking up trash or planting flowers and mulching the local part, it all helps and this activity brings the community together.

Save energy by joining Project Switch - switch out your costly, ineffective incandescent bulbs to help reduce your carbon footprint.

Join the World Wildlife Organization for their countdown to this 2008 Earth Day - but really, Earth Day is every day - so no matter which year it is, every little bit helps. Make A Change.

If you eat meat, go free range - the meat is healthier because the animal is healthier and usually treated more humanely. Recent studies have shown free range animals contain Omega-3 (a fatty acid essential to human health), whereas contained/caged animals do not. Hmmm…

Now, for some fun activities and information, visit Earth Day at Kaboose - some terrific crafts - like coffee grounds fossils, lady bug rocks and tin can herb containers. Plan an Earth Day Dinner - Angel Hair Pasta with Asparagus and for dessert have some Mudpie Cookies.

Above all, make your earth celebrations activities you and your family enjoy. Happy Earth Day!