Hey all,

A few years back I dreamed of an idea for a series of books that I am calling the Simple Sustainability Series.  Simply put (and no pun intended), they are a series of book designed to simply explain the whole notion of living green and sustainably.  My first two offering are My Ordinary Extraordinary Yard, which is the story of how the Urban farm came to be and Fowl Play, a book on keeping chickens in the city.

Needless to say I am very excited.  Please check out the listings on our YourGuidetoGreen.com site (see Latest Products section) and as a limited time special offer pre-order both of them for $10, including shipping!

My Ordinary Extraordinary Yard / Fowl Play COMBO Pre-Order

Technorati Tags: book, books, Chickens, city, green living, Sustainability, Urban Farm, yard

It’s that time once again when many are heading back to school and there are so many things that we need to think about! Just getting our children and maybe even ourselves sitting back into the classroom is an event. Getting ready for school is quite an undertaking and has quite an impact on our pocketbooks and our environment. At YourGuideToGreen, we try to make both as painless as possible.

Having gone back to school at the age of 39, I remember how exciting it was. Once I had received the supply lists from my teachers, I was always eager to get to the store and fill my recycled denim backpack.

The challenge becomes what choices do we make around getting our children and ourselves back to school? From healthy garbage free lunch boxes to purchasing used books, there are oodles of things that we can all do to reduce our impact this school season. In The Big Green School Bus, our own Maura Yates explores many of the things that we can do to lighten our back to school steps.

You can also Shop Green 4 Back to School and know you’re purchasing quality eco-products for this school season that won’t break the bank and are durable and time tested. From lunchtime needs (including Lunchopolis!), to stainless steel bottles, to supplies for future College grads, shop with conscience before heading back.

Have a great green day!

Greg

Technorati Tags: back to school, books, garbage, healthy, lunch, school, stainless steel bottles, supplies, used

This time of the year I get a lot of questions about how to best water our yards. Short of standing with the hose or installing a sprinkler system, what can we do? Two of my favorite solutions are greywater and rain water harvesting. Over the next few weeks we are going to explore these options, starting with greywater.

For the longest time after I went to my first permaculture class in 1991 I understood the notion of water harvesting to be one where I had to collect and store the water in some kind of container. The part that I missed was that a perfect storage container for the water is FREE… it’s the ground around my home. That’s right, don’t build tanks, put gutters in place to put the water in the ground where you need it. Our articles over the next three weeks will share many strategies about just how to do this.

This week’s article, called Greywater Turned Green, explores the many aspects of greywater. But before you go there, here are some quick greywater answers.

• Greywater is the water that goes down your shower, washer and sink (not including the kitchen.)

• Blackwater, which is not usable in our landscape, is the water that goes down the toilet and kitchen sink.

• Don’t ever store greywater, as it begins to smell very quickly.

• Greywater is legal in some states. Check with your local municipality for the regulations in your area.

• To see Arizona’s regulations click here

We also have two fantastic books on the topic. Create an Oasis with Greywater gives you the inside scoop on irrigating with household wash water while relieving septic tank strain and doing it all chemical free! Plus Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands Vol. 1 shows you how to select, place, size, construct, and plant your chosen water-harvesting “earthworks”.Most of all have fun with your greywater. Have a great green day.

Greg

Technorati Tags: blackwater, books, greywater, permaculture, rain water, regulations, resources