Earth Week Tuesday

This Earth Week I plan to post an agenda of activities for each day that grounds me in unity with the Earth. 

Agenda today:

1. Wildlife Garden

2. Sharing Nature
3. Take action

4. Artwork

1. Wildlife Garden: 

Every year for Earth Week I choose a new focus for learning. This year I chose the National Wildlife Federation website, "Garden for Wildlife", dedicated to "educating and empowering people to turn their own small pieces of Earth into thriving habitat for birds, bees, butterflies, and other wildlife".

It's all about re-establishing native plant communities and protecting the local watershed with sustainable gardening practices. I'll read a little everyday, and make a plan for how to improve my yard habitat this spring and summer.

Step two: Sustain your wildlife garden and the ecosystem with Sustainable Practices. Maintaining your landscape in a sustainable, environmentally-friendly way ensures that the soil, air, and water that native wildlife (and people) rely upon stay clean and healthy.

They list three categories to help manage a wildlife-friendly habitat in a sustainable way:

• Soil and Water Conservation: Riparian Buffer • Capture Rain Water from Roof • Xeriscape (water-wise landscaping) • Drip or Soaker Hose for Irrigation • Limit Water Use • Reduce Erosion (i.e. ground cover, terraces) • Use Mulch • Rain Garden
• Controlling Exotic Species: Practice Integrated Pest Management • Remove Non-Native Plants and Animals • Use Native Plants • Reduce Lawn Areas
• Organic Practices: Eliminate Chemical Pesticides • Eliminate Chemical Fertilizers • Compost

2. Sharing Nature:

Yesterday I talked about mindfulness in the garden (quiet, slow, talking to Mother Earth), but today I'll be in the garden with my grandson... so, a very different energy.

 

I found this great post at Kids Gardening on mindfulness for kids, and today I'll try this Observation Exercise (which I have simplified for a three-year-old attention span) that they suggest making into a routine way to enter the garden:

1. Stop on the porch and say, "Shhhhh. Quiet garden. Let's look". 
2. Observe the conditions in the sky, the shape of the clouds, where the sun is in the sky, and what the weather looks like.
3. Then make a quiet visit to 3 spots that we can return to throughout the year - I think, the planter on the porch, the raspberries, and the vegetable beds. 
4. At each spot, ask a question such as: "What sounds do you hear? What do you smell? What color is this flower?" 
5. At each spot observe in two ways: 

• Zoom in and look as closely as you can. 
• Look for changes from the last time. 

3. Artwork:

I'm going to a rally on Saturday, with a theme of forest protection, and I've invited others to join me this week to make signs and banners. Yesterday my grandson and I painted a tree flag:

1. I taped the tree shape with masking tape on a piece of blue fabric.

2. We drew with green fabric markers to fill the tree.

3. We removed the tape (look at his hands fly!)

Today we will sew the edges.