Ah, spring. You can smell it on the air — that bracing ammonia smell wafting off your neighbor’s lawn; the acrid odors at the local home store, where the first six aisles have been packed with heaping bags of the season’s poisons.
Hydramethylnon, glyphosate, dicambra, atrazine and 2,4-D.
There’s a little something to wipe out every potential lawn and garden interloper, but the most popular consumer weapons in the annual war on nature are the “weed and feeds.” These fertilizers-herbicide combos were conceived of more than 50 years ago in the US to enrich turf grass, while simultaneously stamping out invading weeds.

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Just in time for weed-and-feed season, the Natural Resources Defense Council has filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to stop the use of the weed killed known as 2,4-D.
This neurotoxic chemical, infamous as a key ingredient in Agent Orange, is still allowed in products used to treat lawns, golf courses and in commercial operations.

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As we get ready for the spring garden, there’s plenty to do. We need to weed, compost and ready the beds. Inside, we’ve got seedlings we’re nursing along.
Yesterday, we began casting about for containers both for the larger seedlings and for herbs we may grow outside, which reminded me that we’ve seen a lot of cool re-purposing of containers for plants.
Here an old wash basin has been appropriated. We saw this outside an antique shop in the Midwest while on vacation last summer.

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Although it’s less obvious during winter, with the fields and forests having gone dormant, Texas’ historic drought continues to claim casualties.

Trees, especially, remain at risk because they use the winter months to grow root systems, and the moisture in the soil will determine whether they’ll recover from 2011′s record drought and heat.

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With the stricter light bulb standards beginning their phase-in this month, consumers will find many illuminating ways to cut their electricity use.

LEDs (Photo: DOE)use.

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Every year the holidays bring the same debate: Is it more eco-friendly to use a live fresh-cut evergreen or a reusable faux tree?

And the answer is that the most eco-friendly yuletide solution is to decorate a potted live tree, which is planted after the holidays.
The next choice would be to buy a live Christmas tree, and have it mulched after the holidays.
Pine and fir tree mulch is commonly used in civic garden areas or even as fuel. In recent years, people have come up with a variety of creative ways to reuse even whole discarded Christmas trees, according to the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA).

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Far right GOPers who oppose federal standards for energy efficient light bulbs have successfully attached a rider to the big spending bill moving through Congress.

The rider withholds funding for federal enforcement of new efficiency standards going into effect in 2012, though it leaves in place the 2007 law raising the efficiency standards for light bulbs.

While this could lead to some cheap, inefficient bulbs slipping into the market — potentially slowing of the adoption of energy efficient light bulbs — it is unlikely to stop the wave of innovation and lighting advancements already under way by manufacturers who’ve retooled to meet the 2007 requirements, according to lighting and energy experts who spoke at a news conference on Friday.

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This holiday season millions of people will be surprised by their loved ones with new smart phones, game consoles, lap tops, DVRs and televisions and a gazillion other electronic gadgets.
Americans, especially, who bought $11.4 million in electronics just over the Black Friday weekend, are hopelessly in like with their computerized convenience items, gaming equipment and ever-expanding retinue of TVs.
But with the joy of ringing in the new, comes a new responsibility to not trash the old – especially when it comes to electronics.

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While we are all enjoying the ho-ho-ho holiday season, we are perhaps less giddy when reminded that this also is end-of-year tax planning season. But the Alliance to Save Energy is urging American consumers to give themselves the gift of energy efficiency this holiday season – and reap the benefits when they file their 2011 federal tax returns – by taking advantage of tax credits for energy efficiency home improvements.

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This week, as you express your thanks for the good food on your table, you may want to also discuss how you can assure the future of healthy food.

Roger Doiron, founder of Kitchen Gardener’s International and the idea man behind the White House garden, extols the benefits of converting your lawn into a garden in this TedxDirigo talk. You will save money, help secure safer, healthy food for your family and put land into agricultural use on a planet that’s growing short of soil and water, Doiron explains.

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Urban gardening is taking root across the country as cities, suburbs, schools and churches turn to the land to produce food.
But as the trend sweeps across vacant lots and abandoned brownfields, it has raised questions about the safety of using dirt that may have been contaminated by industrial pollution, specifically lead.
Lead, which can be found in soil, drinking water and old paint chips, poses a threat to those who have contact with it, especially children who can suffer irreversible speech problems, cognitive delays, hyperactivity and nerve damage from significant lead exposure.

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If you think people should have a right to plant vegetable gardens wherever they want on their property, including the front yard, you need to know about Adam Guerrero.
He’s a a school teacher in Memphis who planted a veggie garden in front of his house, turning a non-productive patch of grass into a food generator. Guerrero uses his garden to teach his students about self-reliance, and nutrition.

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