Happy Earth Day!
We celebrated Earth Day over at the Chino Creek Wetlands and Educational Park, learning about being water-wise and planting California and drought-friendly plants and veggies, as well as sustainable nutrition from a veggie garden. We also got to meet some amazing animals, including an alpaca, a ferret, and a parrot! We signed the Wyland National Mayors Challenge For Water Conservation pledge to help save water and learned how to make small changes (like watering early in the morning instead of in the heat of the day or to take shorter showers) to do our part in conserving water.
Among lots of other freebies, we came home with a few awesome succulents, a water meter, tomato, and artichoke plants, and several Earth Day worksheets and coloring pages to help the kiddo (and us) learn about water conservation.
Planting Earth Day Succulents
We decided to get the succulents into pots right away, and H helped choose a few planters for the veggie plants. Because we are renting and unsure of future housing plans, we have been planting in pots so we can take them with us when we decide to move. Now, I’m great about keeping succulents alive, but veggie plants, especially in planters, are a completely different animal, and I’ve had to do a bunch of research. Even though the plants were free, the supplies were not, and I don’t want to have a waste of money on my hands. Albeit, a minor one, as I am notoriously thrifty about spending right now.
Deciding Where to Plant for Earth Day
Since our front porch gets a lot of afternoon sun, we decided it is the perfect place for our little Earth Day garden. We already have a number of succulents, and I am trying to learn to propagate from leaves. I am told its very easy, and I’ve done some reading, but I have a black thumb, so I need to follow instructions to the letter. As for the veggie plants, at this point, it is planting and watering and hoping. A lot of hoping. Maybe someday soon, we will be able to add homegrown vegetables to our homecooked meals.
We started with soil and what I thought were fairly large plastic planters with good drainage. I have no doubt we will be moving to larger planters next year, as I know artichoke plants take up a LOT of room, but I figure we have a pretty good start.
Next Up? Strawberries! (at H’s request)
How do you celebrate Earth Day? Leave us a note in the comments!
