Happy Earth Day!

We've been making lots of changes around our house as a result of watching this video, The Story of Stuff. One of these is an easy one--getting rid of unnecessary catalogs. We get a bazillion catalogs (what feels like) every day and even duplicates of some, it is ridiculous. Anyway, a website called Catalog Choice allows you to register and then designate the catalogs you don't want to get. It's so easy and feels really good!

{think of it as saving this tree--the tree in our front yard, one of the oldest in town.}

Welcome Little Critters!

Our contractor warned us but it has still been difficult to swallow. The work on the house has eliminated most of the grass in both the front and back of our lawn. It also means my beloved hydrangea bush looks like a pile of flattened sticks. It's all replaced with the red clayish mud characteristic of this area. They will be flattening the ground so that what used to include dips and holes will be level, just without any life.

The flip side is that we have an unprecedented opportunity to recreate our lawn, which really needed the help. As winter drags on I can't help but start thinking of spring. Who knows what we will accomplish with two little ones this spring but we did find this. The National Wildlife Federation will certify your lawn (no matter how small) as a Wildlife Habitat. As they put it:

All you need to do is provide elements from each of the following areas:
Food Sources - For example: Native plants, seeds, fruits, nuts, berries, nectar
Water Sources - For example: Birdbath, pond, water garden, stream
Places for Cover - For example: Thicket, rockpile, birdhouse
Places to Raise Young - For example: Dense shrubs, vegetation, nesting box, pond
Sustainable Gardening - For example: Mulch, compost, rain garden, chemical-free fertilizer

You pay the NWF $15 and they send you a little certification sign for your lawn as well as their magazine.

Considering we already compost and have a bat house I figure that we can easily incorporate these other ideas into our plans for the yard. Unfortunately, I've had a hard time finding much information on plants native to New Jersey. The only sticking point. Any ideas for where to search?

We've Gone Batty

It doesn't look like much but this slatted block of wood is our new bat house! It all started when a friend gave us screen and a book on how to build a bat house. After the little guy arrived we realized that we didn't have the time to build our own but we really like the idea of having a bat house for natural insect control. After reading Last Child In the Woods, we were even more into the idea. So, we ordered this pre-built bat house from The Organization for Bat Conservation.
So, this past weekend we painted it black (as the book recommends for keeping it warmer) and attached it to a post that happens to live in our backyard. It's only around 12 feet tall, when they recommend 20 feet but, we are hoping for the best. Our future plans include building one with little C when he's get older and sitting outside around dusk to watch for bats. It's a whole family adventure really and we are all pumped.

Sad Little Garden Patch

We were determined to grow some vegetables this summer but didn't end up getting it together for a bigger garden patch. Instead, we planted this little guy. I am proud to say that we seem to have a healthy jalapeno pepper growing (though I have to admit this one started from a starter plant, not a seed.) We keep saying...next spring we will be on top of it. This remains to be seen.
The marigolds and lavender are supposedly natural pesticide plants. We got the inspiration for this little patch from the book "The Practical Organic Gardener" by Brenda Little. Though, we were much less intense about it than she would have liked.