Earth Day 2012 Highlights

I've always loved Earth Day, notwithstanding the fact that one of it's founders/supporters turned out to be The Unicorn Killer. Look up Ira Einhorn in The Crime Library. In any case, I went to the local festival this past Saturday, and came away with all kinds of freebies, ideas, reading materials, trinkets, and seeds, and I paid for nothing.

1. Earth bracelet; using pony beads, one booth featured bracelts made on black chenille pipe stem cleaners. Each color of pony bead meant something. In order, it went somethin like Black/night; yellow/sun; pink/animals;purple/flowers;brown/earth;blue/sky;clear/air;red/fire. What a neat idea! 2. Hats made out of the funny pages, always popular, were giveaways.

3. Wildflower seed packets and many, many brochures and ideas for compost. There were also examples explaining the layers that go into the compost heap. 4. Several University Extension services were there, and not all were local,w hjich isg reat. There were articles and materials for turfgrass management and nonchemcial alternatives for the home lawn. These suggested soil tests and organiz fertilizers, thatch lessons, pest managemetn, weed control, watering and the best time to do it,guides to lawn diseases, guides to lawn pests and when they show up. 5. Beautiful poster giveaways for the gift of trees campaign. At the garden festival, I was actually given a free red maple sapling to plant. 6. Our friends at resuable usables made collage pins, or had the kids to them, one of my favorite personal crafts to make. There were also restoration hardware stores shwoing how to make crafts from recycled house parts and materials inlcuding a wine stopper door knob, a deacon's bench made from an old door; a planter made from a file cabinet, a kids play ktichen from an old entertainment center. Really cute, clever ideas that promote recylcing! 7. Newsletter on Regiona Air Pollution situations.

8. Literature from local river centers on activites, eagle watc, nature displays, and activities. 9. borchrues on wildlife resources and getting wildlife license plates. Very Cool. 10. Pamphlets on county parks and activites and conservation board areas. 11. ID theft prevention, infor on document destruction and recycling services. 12. Waste commission info. 13. Habitat for Humanity info. 14. Hidden Habitat Hidden Pictures from National Assn. of Coservative Districts, League City, TX, this and others on recycled paper. 15. Waste Management Items with things that require appointments and things that are accepted on the pick ups. This is very useful. 16. Earth Cycle Garden Products on Copmpost 17. Announcementsof lawn and landscape programs with public works and water companies 18. Community recycling literature 19. Mother's day programs at local botanical centers featuring herbal plants 20. Summer Camp info. 21. From Rainscaping Iowa, sil quaity and lawn tips 22. Partner in Horticulture events and displays on how to eat/cook local 23. Wild Places Orga nd Rvier Action 24. Horitculture Hotline Info. 25. Local Sierra Club book group; including books Eaarth, The View from Lazy POint, Four Fish, Eating Animals, Food Politics by Nestle [no kidding!], A Walk in the Woods, Seeds of Destruction. 26.Plant sale announcements. 27. Infor and displays from companies that recyle metal 28. Bookmarks from Backyard Conservation What was great is that the whole thing was next to one of our local botanical centers. My flowers are doing great, and lilacs and hydrangeas were super early. In fact, the violets, whose glory is May Day, are nearly done. Early summer conditions. I planted wild flowers and morning glory this morning, and am eying a bonsai pine for my terrariums. It is bittersweet without my mom; I do the flowers for her and take ACS daffodils to her each year, just as I did when she was living. I ahve been trying to mulch leaves and recylce twigs and wood for different things, and am mixing wild plants, even pretty weeds, in ports for effect. I also tried to reseed pumpkins and gourds to see if I can get volunteer plants. Our butterfly bushes are attracting some brown and orange examples; I am tempted to take a monarch class for myself. Happy greening this beautiful spring. May your seeds blossm into beauty soon.