Vanity Fair is the latest magazine to come out with a “green issue”, their second one. We also have in our living room the “Annual Green Issue” of the Chicago Life supplement to the New York Times. Chicago Magazine recently had a “Green Awards” feature on its cover. Even Elle magazine had a green issue last spring. Wired has joined the bandwagon. So has Domino. Even Parents magazine had a green feature in their March 2007 issue. I’m sure I’m missing a few, but you get the idea. Green is hip. Very hip.

I wonder how long we’ll continue to see magazines featuring “green” issues as something that’s new and exciting and easily brought into the mainstream. Will it mean that we’re all doing something right when these special segments no longer appear, instead replaced with the same old boring bamboo furniture and organic evening gowns? I hope so. In the meantime, I still miss Organic Style.

World Shutdown Day is tomorrow—can you do it? Advertised as one of the “biggest global experiments ever to take place on the Internet”, the idea is to find out how many people can go without a computer for one whole day. What will happen if we all participate? If we really do keep off the computers for 24 hours tomorrow, all Emails will go unanswered, and blogs won’t be updated. During lunch breaks, people might talk to their co-workers or go for a walk outside, or buy a newspaper. At home, computer games will cease and instead we will have lunch together and talk about the world. And then read a book in the afternoon. But the real issue is how addicted are we all to our computers? On the Shutdown Day site at last glance, the running tally is 51,635 claiming that they CAN go without computers, whilst 8,075 have admitted they cannot. The site, in 13 different languages, charts people’s reactions from around the world on what they will do instead… National differences abound: in the UK: masturbation, playing the piano, Canada: smoke dope, hang out with my family, the U.S.: read one of those flappy things with the paper screens and from Sri Lanka: this is a disaster. Some of the YouTube responses are quite clever such as one depicting the smashing of computers. But never mind that, the question is: can treehuggers do it? :: Shut Down Day via :: PFSK

Originally
from TreeHugger

reBlogged

on Mar 23, 2007, 7:14AM
Originally from TreeHugger on March 23, 2007, 12:14pm

Time to start considering the yard again. I had great success with my alternative ground covers last year. I added some White Dutch clover seed to my grass mix and put Creeping Thyme in my borders. The Thyme rocks! It has fully taken over, does great without much watering and keeps the weeds down to a minimum.

I got mine online at Outside Pride. An 1/8 of a pound covers a lot of area.

Until now, Creeping Thyme from seed never had quite the robust, long-blooming beauty of the more expensive plant varieties. Well, creeping thyme has swept all that away! This super-vigorous, lemon-scented, brighly-flowered variety spreads 18 inches in no time in the sunny garden, giving you months of deep pink blooms and heavenly fragrance for mere pennies! 

Many homeowners include White Dutch clover in their lawn seed mixture because clover sprouts fast and grows so dependably that it’s a valuable aid in getting a new lawn started. Nodules on the roots fix nitrogen from the air. Actually, up to 1/3 the nitrogen your lawn needs can be obtained from white dutch clover! Grows vigorously even in poor clay subsoil around new home construction.