Saturday, May 12, 2018

Front porch flower garden

Some of my front porch flowers
I've gotten a pretty good start on my front porch flowers, although I've got quite a bit of work to do. My pretty tulips in the foreground are just about done, and I enjoyed them tremendously for a couple of weeks, but now the pot will go to other flowers.

I also purchased some new outdoor carpets for the front porch, which are supposed to be easily cleaned (very cheap at Costco), so I threw out the old ones that were stained from years of damp conditions during the winter months. These should do better, at least I hope so. They are made of recycled plastic bottles, which makes me very happy.

These days I'm making some efforts to reduce my plastic usage, and I bought some really cool Bee's Wrap alternative packaging instead of sandwich bags. Recently I learned that we in the US use over 2 million plastic sandwich bags each day, mostly for a single use. Here's some information on this product:
SUSTAINABLE, NATURAL ALTERNATIVE to plastic wrap. Wrap up cheese, fruit, vegetables, and bread. Cover a bowl, or pack a snack for your next adventure. Use as a place mat, or bundle up hiking and backpacking tools, utensils, and toiletries for zero waste camping. Also makes a great earth friendly kitchen gift!
I've used the smaller of these wraps to carry my nut snacks on a couple of hikes, and it's easy to use: the warmth of my hands makes it stick to itself, and when I put it back into my pocket, it stays nice and snug. I clean it off and hang it to dry after use. If you have some tricks to reduce your plastic usage, I'd love to hear about it.
:-)

19 comments:

  1. Your garden is looking lovely. A very inviting place to sit.
    Single use plastic bags have been banned here for a while. Which pleases me. And I try and buy things with minimal packaging and re-use what I can.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The banning of free plastic bags in shops had a dramatic effect on the amount of plastic bags being thrown away. The majority of us have now got into the habit of using reusable fabric shopping bags. We can also now get compostable bags for the wrapping of food and for the first time this month one of my magazines was wrapped in this material rather than a plastic bag. A small step but has the possibility of a big impact on the environment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your front porch flowers are very pretty.
    Good for you trying to use less plastic. It is a problem in our world that is just now being addressed. I will look up Bee's Wrap, thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your porch always looks so welcoming and begs to come sit a spell :)
    I try my best to use the woven shopping bags, and glass bowls for storage in my kitchen, but sadly those plastic bags are still very much in use in our state.
    Off to look up Bee's wrap now, thanks for the introduction.
    Hugs,
    ~Jo

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very nice! Unfortunately I did not get the bark chips laid down before my surgery, and it's not high on the priority list for my poor man. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  6. We ask for paper grocery bags when we can and use our own shopping bags. That Bees Wrap looks like a good product! Your flowers are lovely! We are not warm enough for flowers yet..it will freeze again tonight.

    ReplyDelete
  7. We are going to have to make a major change in our plastic usage. You're doing the right thing by trying to use fewer plastic bags.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have thought about the bees wrap stuff, but then I wonder if there is a trade off with the use of water to wash them all the time after each use. We used to use waxed paper before we had plastic wrap, but it doesn't stay tightly closed. It's hard to go back when an efficient product is developed and so widely used. I do think about plastic usage, though, and am making small improvements.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Beautiful. I love flowers!

    Those new rugs, made of plastic, shoukd be very sturdy & most kikely you can hose 'em off to clean.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It’s a work in progress for us. I’ll check out this product.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Good for you ... I recently gave up drinking water from plastic bottles, b/c of the plastics polluting the oceans and also b/c I read that little bits of plastic are polluting my body.

    ReplyDelete
  12. There is always space for a garden. Well done. Never heard of those bee's wax wraps. Will check them out. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Your porch looks lovely. As for the plastic problem, it seems that there should be a better solution than simply banning plastic. Can it not be recycled or changed into something that is biodegradable? I probably sound naive (and probably am), but you'd think we could come up with something...

    ReplyDelete
  14. I have some bee's wrap and it is great for using the same day or the next day. But I wrapped cheese in it for storing in the frig and it made the cheese taste funny. Short term, they are great. :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Nice planting. I think one has to be careful with the bees wax product as it is flamable. Hikers could make use of it as a fire started if needed. I think gettinf used to no water bottles of plastic is not geing pushed enough. And straws of stainless steel are now on the market. We have far too many items now created out of plastic. We managed 60 years ago. Not sure why we cannot reverse to overuse of plastic. It now being said we are even creating too much clothing waste and need to remake and rethink how to keep fabrics from dumps. Still those who run the economy are more to blame as they insist on the constant production lines to profit. We are stuck by a system that is hard to end as we depend on jobs.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Dear DJan, thanks so much for letting us know about the Bee's Wrap. I clicked your link and saw it on Amazon. I'll order and use because like you, I read about our plastic bag use and I know I'm a real culprit. I have to have a plastic bag each day to put the scooped kitty litter in. but maybe I could just use paper lunch bags. That's an idea that just now came to me. I so want to be a good steward of our planet. Peace.

    ReplyDelete
  17. You have decorated the porch very nicely. I like that blue rug.

    ReplyDelete

I really appreciate your comments! If you see a word verification box here, just ignore it. I don't use the darn thing and Blogger is trying to get us to use it, I guess. Ignore it and your comment will still appear.