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Hey there, earthlings :)
Today is Earth Day (so Happy Earthday i guess, haha!), and in honour of that i will plant a tree today - and also because it's part of my Day Zero Project, task 8 being to "Plant a windowsill herb garden", task 13 being to "Plant tomatoes and or other fruit and vegetables" and task 75 being to "Plant a tree on Earth Day". So why not kill two (or actually three) birds with one stone!
Also, i want to show you 3 different ways of "home gardening" that i did and that you can do too!
1) Planting Herbs
This is the easiest, most unfailing way to start your own little garden. Simply buy a fresh herb plant (basil, chives, oregano, ramson, rosemary, sage, lavender, mint...) and repot from its cheap plastic container into a proper clay pot. It's important to fill it with fresh soil and to water it accordingly, so it won't die off as soon as it would if you left it in the lousy plastic pot!
This is a great alternative to buying small batches of fresh herbs at a time or buying dried herbs. And very rewarding! My little mint plant has been my "fosterling" for a solid 1 1/2 months now, and it's still growing and glowing :)
2) Sprouting Seeds
This is perfect for beginners (like me) because you can't do anything wrong really, and you don't need to have a green thumb! Just get a bag of seeds (i'm using cress and arugula sprout seeds), spread them in a seed sprouter, and water frequently according to instructions. I watered mine 2 to 3 times a day, and it took them only a few days to grow into beautiful sprouts :)
3) Growing Vegetables
Now this is a little more advanced, but still very doable and fruitful for amateur gardeners and flower friends like me - as long as you take care of your plant according to their needs. If you are unsure about these needs, ask google or your botanist of confidence for instructions ;)
The pictures below were taken last year at my parents' house when we (actually: my Mom) grew our own bell pepper and zucchini!! However, i didn't count this as accomplished for my Day Zero Project because it wasn't actually me who did the work, so my boyfriend and i grew our own tomatoes this year! :)
EARTH DAY: Planting a Tree
Okay, so this is the main attraction of the day. In case you didn't know, today, on April 22, is Earth Day. Earth Day, obviously rhyming with "birthday", is an annual event to raise awareness of our consumer behaviour, our way of treating animals and our overall environment.
Now, why should you care? You live on this blue marble. It's a miracle that this earth and all its earthlings exist, so why do we do so much harm to it? You too!
Do you separate waste? Do you reuse and recycle? Do you ask the waiters to pack your leftovers into your tupperware container for you to take home and finish later? Do you give away your sorted out clothes to a charity? Do you turn off the water tap while brushing your teeth? Do you make sure not to throw away any leftover foods? Do you use as little tin foil as possible (as the production of aluminium wastes an incredible amount of water)? Do you turn off the lights whenever you leave the room for longer than just a couple of minutes?
If you do - great! If you don't - it's okay to admit that. But don't say, there's nothing you could do to participate in helping, saving, healing our planet!!
There are so many big and little things you can do!
Cook at home instead of eating out or ordering your meals! Cook in advance and cook in bulges in order to provide yourself with the food you need but also save energy (because you only have to cook ONCE instead of SEVEN TIMES a week... ideally) and also prevent loads of plastic wrapping! Take your own linen shopping bag instead of getting another plastic bag every time you do groceries! Get crafty and make (or bake) your presents instead of being part of the insane shopping and throwaway society! Head outside and take a walk or ride on your bike instead of taking the car! At the very least, use public transport to get from one spot to the other. Use the blank flipside of various sorted out sheets of paper to write down your grocery list, instead of throwing them away and investing money and harming the rainforests by buying an extra shiny notebook for that!
However, the most beneficial thing you could do for this planet is to eat a PLANT BASED diet! Simply by decreasing your intake of animal products you can do more for this planet than anything else!
If you didn't already know, livestock are responsible for 18% of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together. Burning fuel to produce fertiliser to grow feed, to produce meat and to transport it - and clearing vegetation for grazing - produces 9% of all emissions of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. And their wind and manure emit more than one third of emissions of another, methane, which warms the world 20 times faster than carbon dioxide.
And the solution to that problem is not "let's kill all the cows that are causing that CO2 emissions", but rather "let's stop herding together cattle for the sole reason of mass producing burgers, steaks and other meat". You don't need meat in order to live! You can get all your vitamins, minerals and proteins from plants! The cows however do need their meat in order to live! I think i made my point.
I rarely ever rant and preach about vegan and non-vegan lifestyles - simply because everybody has to chose their own life and i can't force them to adapt my personal choices - but i won't close my eyes and shut my mouth and just tolerate animal torture and ecological destruction.
To do my bit, i have planted a tree today, dedicated to the earth and our awareness of the world around us that fosters us but is being exploited by us. I didn't buy this tree in a garden centre because that would've been planted anyway - instead, i took a tree scion that had been growing on my friend's balcony, and nursed it on our own balcony for the past week.
I'm not sure what kind of a tree it is, but judging from its leaves, i'd say either a beech or a hazel. I'm hoping it's a hazel because i'd love to see its little hazelnuts growing there after a while! And also, hazelnut is a symbol of love and life and fertility, immortality, spring and luck. So what could be more perfect to be planted into the ground on Earth day?!
// EDIT: It's an alder tree!! It is associated with the Goddess of Spring, Eostar, and is known as a symbol of balance, protection, strength and safety! (Aren't that even better properties of an "Earth Day tree" that is meant a proclamation against the destruction of nature, and to ensure the safety of our planet?) Alder trees belong to the birch family and look very similar to hazel trees.
Anyway, here it will grow and produce oxygen for us animals and humans to live and breath and do our best to take care of our environment, our world, our life.
HAPPY EARTH DAY!
By the way: it's almost embarrassing to admit, but i totally overlooked the fact that i was featured with this post over on Sarah's blog a while ago! Whoopsie. Thank you so much, Sarah!
♥
Maisy
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