Green Living

7 Things You Can Do Now to Heal Your Home and Make It a "Well Building"
From Living Green by Greg Horn
1. Remove the Carpet – Carpet traps dust, mold, phthalate particles, pesticides and other toxins commonly used in lawns and gardens. Wood, tile or stone floors can be kept much cleaner, which is healthier. If you wan to "warm up" your floors, use organic cotton or wool rugs that can be taken outside and cleaned or washed.
2. De-chlorinate the water – Chlorine from tap water is absorbed through your skin and lungs, especially during a hot shower. So it makes sense to filter your drinking and bathing water, but also consider a saline system for your pool if you have one. These systems use sodium chloride to keep your pool clean at about one-sixth the chlorine content of a pool using regular chlorine. Saline systems also keep your hair from turning green while sharply reducing a major source of chlorine absorption through the skin. One helpful website for saline pool systems is www.salinepoolsystems.com
3. Insulate, insulate, insulate: The tighter your house is, the less energy you’ll consume to heat and cool it and the fewer outdoor pollutants can get inside. There are numerous types of nontoxic insulation, including cellulose and Icynene, that are safe and do not outgas.
4. Replace your mattress: The formaldehyde and flame-retardant fumes that outgas from standard foam mattresses are just plain bad for you. These fumes can adversely affect your health, and you can’t avoid them because your face and body are touching or only inches away for several hours a night. Buy an organic mattress even if you can’t make any other investments to heal your house.
5. Dump the artificials: All artificial personal care products, fragrances and cleaning supplies contain toxic ingredients, some of which can cause serious health problems for you and leave residual effects in your house. Conventional cleaning supplies can be exceptionally toxic.
6. Bake out the bad stuff: High heat in the house will speed outgassing of new construction materials and furniture, and will also stop the growth of mold spores. The steps:
a. Remove all people, pets and plants and close all doors and windows
b. Turn up central heat as far as it will go (or use space heaters).
c. At the end of each 24-hour period, open the doors and windows and air your home out completely. Use a fan if necessary.
d. Sniff around and check for odors. See if they are gone, or if you need another day of baking.
e. The process can be completed in as little as one day and rarely takes more than four days.
7. Open the windows and ventilate: Air quality in the average American home is far worse than outdoor air
quality, precisely because our homes are so much more airtight in the 21st century. You can help outgas
fumes by simply opening windows on mild days and letting fresh air circulate through your home.

Favorite Gardening Websites

St. Pius Community Garden Members recommend:

K- State Research and Extension Lawn and Garden
htt p://www.ksre.k-state.edu/DesktopDefault.aspx.

GARDENWEB forums.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/

Savvy Gardener
http://www.savvygardener.com/

Community Orchard

We are in the researching phase of planning a Community Orchard at St. Pius. I added several websites to our list, if anyone wants to check them out and offer their opinions on the project. Just scroll down and you will find our list of Environmental Websites. The ones about Urban orchards include: The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, Edy's Fruit Bars Communities Take Root, Toronto Community Orchard and Earthworks urban orchard project.