Tuesday, April 29, 2008

People- and Planet-Friendly Cooking

Ah, so many interests, so little time to pursue them all...

The Natural Epicurean (Austin) offers an 800-hour culinary program. Graduates earn a Natural Food Chef certificate and access to assistantships, internships, employment, etc. There are courses offered to community members, as well. Check out their weekend "retreats" for intensive instruction on a variety of topics.

www.naturalepicurean.com

Another quiz -- green vacationing?

http://www.sierraclub.org/ howgreen/getaway

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Living Green

Don't miss the Live Green in Plano Expo this Saturday, April 12th, 9am to 5pm at the Plano Centre located at Spring Creek Parkway and Jupiter Road. Last year was an enormous success, and we anticipate this year to be even better. One critical change: speakers will be inside the Centre and not competing with live entertainment outdoors. David will be at our booth, along with Keith Pulliam of Appealing Gardens (our preferred contractor.) I will present our program -- sustainable solutions for common landscape "emergencies" -- at 11am.

There will be plentiful vendors and educational programs to help you learn to live a greener, healthier, better life. See you there...

Thank you, Dallas Arboretum

Last Saturday David taught a class about sustainable landscape design at the Dallas Arboretum. (I stayed home with Sage.) There were some technical difficulties, so he did not have access to the PowerPoint presentation. Fortunately he brought our portfolio bursting with colorful photos. If you missed it, or if you attended that event and would still like to see some of the photos in the PowerPoint, we will present a similar program at North Haven Gardens on Saturday the 19th at 1:30pm. Unlike the 2-hour program at the Arboretum, the North Haven presentation will be 30-45 minutes.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Kicking Off

Spring may have sprung a couple of weeks ago, but April 1st marks the beginning of this year's Earth Day activities. With so many workshops and events, Dallas-Ft. Worth-Denton is the place to be this April. No fooling.

Despite near-record rainfall last spring and summer, Texas' water resources are insufficient to meet our growing population, especially at our current rate of consumption. Not only are we wasteful, many of our habits are contaminating our already scarce water supply. We manipulate Nature, thereby driving away beneficial insects, birds, butterflies and other wildlife. We humans have become so detached from Nature we have forgotten our role within the ecological process.

Today is the day we get reacquainted.

Learn about revamping your landscape with sustainable practices by attending our workshop this Saturday (4/5), 9-11am, at the Dallas Arboretum. Register at www.dallasarboretum.org. Next Saturday (4/12) from 9am to 5pm we will be at the Live Green in Plano Expo. Our presentation -- "treatments" for your landscape emergencies -- will be at 11am inside the Plano Centre. The following Saturday (4/19) check us out at North Haven Gardens for another educational program.

Overwhelmed? Don't be. You can't change everything in one day. Start small, making changes at home first. Then move on to making changes in your neighborhood, at work and in your places of worship. Conserve, preserve, restore and celebrate Texas...y'all.