She has studied many books about garden design to try to figure out how to flesh out the bare bones of her own garden.  Enviro Girl keeps coming back to those English Cottage Gardens.  She’s been hankering for the white picket kind of fence, but she has a lot of garden to fence around, so the price tag on such a project would be substantial.

Then she kicked around the idea of planting hedgerows, but they take eons to grow, and while she thinks she may plant some, she wants more immediate gratification. Like the kind that happens this summer.

While studying her garden-design books, Enviro Girl remembered (reminded by Jen on the Edge’s recent post) how Anne Hathway’s garden was framed out by very rustic-looking fencing and edging. Since Medieval times, gardeners have constructed wattle fences to provide structure, shelter and support for their plants.

Some research revealed that building a wattle requires a lot of “green” sticks, preferably live willows since they are flexible, durable, straight and don’t have too many excess branches to clip off. As it happens, Enviro Girl has a prodigious amount of willows growing on her property. To build a wattle you need sturdy branches for posts. As it happens, she also has enough fallen branches to heat an entire European village for two years.

So, the materials to build a wattle are plentiful and free if you live out in the country.  A person can build any size of wattle to suit their needs. All Enviro Girl needs is time–to gather the sticks and branches and pound/weave/shove/tie them all together. There’s hardly any snow on the ground and there aren’t any bugs or stinging nettle at this time of year, so this past week Enviro Girl began Project Wattle. Armed with a pruner, she attacked a berm of willows and dragged several loads up to the garden. Then she scavenged the woods and found a good supply of sturdy, straight branches and logs measuring at least 3 1/2 inches in diameter.

For the next month or so she’ll continue to cut willows and find fallen trees for posts. It’s great exercise tromping around back in the woods and dragging loads back up to the house, the fence will cost nary a dime, and the carbon footprint of a wattle fence is zero.  When the ground thaws, she’ll be ready to pound in the stakes and begin weaving the willows between them.

The same free materials Enviro Girl is gathering from her woods can be used to build trellises, gates, benches and other outdoor structures.  If you don’t live in the country, Enviro Girl advises you to ask a local farmer if you need brush and willows–they’d probably be thrilled to have you clear some of the undergrowth.

Read more about constructing your own wattle fencing at East Coast Gardener or Mother Earth News.

We’ve all been there–stinky situations abound in houses where food rots, kids vomit and drains plug up. Before you head out to buy dangerous toxic chemical fixes like Febreze or Glade Plug-Ins, check your pantry for these items that will naturally purify the air AND not pollute the environment:

* Equal parts distilled white vinegar and water will clean any carpets and fabrics, leaving them smelling like nothing at all once dried. Use this for pet stains, people stains, food stains and mystery stains.
* Bowls of vinegar set around a house will absorb any odors, including cigarette smoke, by the next morning.
* Baking soda sprinkled in a drain or in a garbage will take out the stink.  So will grinding up a chunk of lemon or lime in your garbage disposal.
* A box of baking soda will eliminate fridge odors–just keep another box in your pantry for baking needs.
* An old sock stuffed with coffee beans will keep coolers and freezers smelling fresh whether in use or in storage.
* Stuff shoes with newspaper to absorb odors and moisture when you’re storing them for any length of time.
* Chewing parsley will help fend off bad breath (on you, not on others!).

Each of these items cost less than a dollar, so they’re easy on both your budget and our planet.

It’s important to note that clean surfaces don’t carry odor, as in Enviro Girl’s kitchen, once she took out the trash and wiped out the inside of her garbage bin, that nasty kitchen smell was nothing but a bad memory.  You can layer good smells over bad–burn candles, spray air fresheners, sprinkle potpourri–but if you address the cause, you won’t have to sweat the smells.

First, it’s important to recognize that while the Valentine’s Day card is NECESSARY, it’s really only a vehicle for getting an attached treat. To that end, if you’re crafty, you can reuse scrap supplies like construction paper, CDs, yarn, fabric and have your kiddos make their own. Family Fun Magazine and many other web sites abound with cool card ideas that use up supplies already in your cabinet. Something as simple as a sucker with twin paper hearts attached as wings can pass for a butterfly card with a message like, “You make my heart aflutter, Valentine.” Basic, cheap, and definitely NOT over the top.

However, if you’re like Enviro-Girl and have all boy children who don’t care to hand-craft 25 cards for their classmates, you’ll buy a box or two of character cards for a couple of dollars and have your kids sign their names. But you still have to attach a treat–or your kid will be a classroom pariah.

One option is to set aside Halloween candy in an airtight container to repurpose for those Valentines.  Enviro Girl has taken her sons’ Halloween suckers, Sweet Tarts and Bottle Caps to tape to their classmates’ Valentines a few months later.  She recommends these candies because they won’t spoil in your pantry; chocolate candy does not have the same staying power.

But does your child have to give candy to their classmates? Shelling out for fair trade organic candy bars for classrooms of 30 students can get expensive, and while that’s the most eco-friendly option, you can substitute all kinds of other items for a treat. Temporary tattoos, stickers, pencils, play dough, erasers or little notepads are all fun ideas–but they still fall under Enviro-Girl’s category of “Plastic Crappe.” She’d really rather find 25 Dum Dum suckers in her kids’ backpacks over 25 little toys and trinkets.  Your local organic food store will sell all sorts of “healthy” candy treats you can tape to Valentines. OR, instead of candy, perhaps individually wrapped string cheese, fruit leather, granola bars, pretzels, bags of popcorn or crackers can get taped to those classroom cards.  If it’s got to be candy, a Dum Dum sucker is small and probably the least harmful to a fair trade economy and uses minimal packaging–mostly made of paper. It’s the economical choice of candy, won’t contribute woefully to a child’s health since they’re only 25 calories each and fat-free, and they’re made in the USA–in Ohio!

Additionally, Dum Dum suckers will not cause allergic reactions–a huge concern for many children these days.  For a few bucks you can snag a bag of Dum Dum suckers and a box of cards printed on recycled paper.  This won’t break your bank, gives your child a socially acceptable Valentine’s Day treat to pass out to their classmates and leaves a carbon footprint of minor proportions.

Bottom line: if you can get your kid to make their own cards out of recycled materials and attach a whole grain granola bar to it, you’re an Eco Warrior with Super Powers. Keep the candy or treats to a minimum–one per classmate is plenty.  But if this battle isn’t worth it, buy a bag of Dum Dums and a box of Phineas and Ferb Valentines and save your super powers for the next fight.

When Enviro-Girl lived in town, she marveled at the gigantic snow blowers her neighbors employed to clear 20-40 feet of sidewalk and a short driveway to the street. Enviro Girl’s  garage was set back from the road and she shoveled three times the area her neighbors blew out with snow blowers.  Shoveling is a heck of a work out, inducing sweat and heavy breathing  within minutes –- but it’s the friendliest way to clear the snow. The trick to making shoveling a reasonable task is using the correct tool –- a shovel appropriate for your build and height – and attacking the snow in manageable bits. If 6-8 inches are expected to fall, shovel two to three times during the snowstorm so you’re only clearing a few inches at a time. If you can’t do this, only clear what’s necessary in the first round and clear the rest later.  A 2-foot wide path is adequate for mail carriers and pedestrians, and you might consider only clearing a path to one entrance of your house and leave the other access points alone.  If you get less than 2 inches of snow, you can clear it away using a broom.

Shovels produce no emissions, exhaust, air or water pollution–the person using the shovel might feel exhaust, but Enviro Girl argues most of us would benefit from the exertion of shoveling snow.  Shoveling snow won’t annoy your neighbors because it’s pretty quiet and it’s cost-effective.  You can purchase a snow shovel for $10-30 and they cost nothing to maintain or operate.

If you’re inclined to remove snow using industrial-strength machinery like Enviro-Girl’s husband, remember that bigger isn’t always better. A plow attached to an ATV uses less fuel and makes less noise than his 6.5 hp snow blowing machine.   (Enviro-Girl thinks her hubby is overcompensating every time he buys equipment with engines…you should see his chainsaw.)  An electric snowblower (Toro makes one that runs about $299) uses less energy, makes less noise, and gives off no emissions in stark contrast to its gas-powered counterparts – so if you must blow snow, electric is definitely the way to go.

But snow’s only part of the problem in the winter. Ice simply must be dealt with and there are various methods to employ.  You can chip it away, potentially damaging the concrete/asphalt beneath.  You can scatter other substances on top of the ice to gain traction on the ice until it melts naturally – sand, cat litter, bird seed, and fertilizer are good choices. These things won’t melt your ice, but they’ll help you travel over it safely until sunshine and warmer temperatures do make the ice disappear. (Enviro-Girl is going to try used coffee grounds next time her driveway freezes over.  It’s important to note that she has a strict rule about no shoes or boots in the house!)

If you can’t wait for Mother Nature to take care of things, you can melt the ice. Some places install heated walkways and driveways – radiant heat systems that run hot water pipes below the brick or concrete. These use a lot of energy. Rock salt melts ice and is fairly inexpensive, but it’s really tough on plant life and when it drains away through storm sewers it can mess up ecosystems in lakes and rivers.  Too much chloride is toxic to freshwater plants and animals.  It runs off into water supplies, it kills roadside plants, it builds up in streams and lakes, it can degrade the soil.  It’s also rough on cars, skin, and road surfaces. Rock salt doesn’t work at temperatures below 20  degrees Fahrenheit, either.  In response to the rising costs of road maintenance and environmental concerns, many municipalities have switched to applying brine–rock salt and water combined–before ice can form.  Brine saves money and leaves behind less salt residue.  Sugar beet juice mixed with brine is being studied in several communities because it works well at temperatures as low as -30 degrees Fahrenheit and reduces the amount salt required to melt ice.  Many people use Calcium Chloride for melting ice.  It’s three times as costly as rock salt and can still cause skin irritation, but very little Calcium Chloride goes a long way in melting ice.  Calcium Chloride poses the same environmental risks as rock salt.

At the end of all her research, Enviro-Girl plans to use traction on the ice in her driveway.  She’ll chip away at it with her handy chipping tool (a great work out!) and pray for warmer temps soon. One other thing Enviro-Girl has learned: if you let an ice storm fall on a cleared driveway, you’ll have a skating rink that is impossible to clear. If you let an ice storm fall on a snow-covered driveway, you can shovel the ice and snow off pretty easily. In this case, a little laziness paid off on half of her driveway – unfortunately it isn’t the half she needs to drive on!

Disclosure:  Enviro Girl and her family didn’t clear their rural 1/4 mile driveway with a snow shovel — they depend upon a neighbor with a tractor.

The first is one even your Grannie used — honey to quiet a stubborn cough. One spoonful can be more helpful than over-the-counter cough syrups for children, as found in a Pennsylvania study. The honey soothes a throat irritated from coughing and coats it. For adults, two teaspoons are probably a better dose, but not for diabetics, due to the high sugar content.

While you’re checking out your pantry, don’t overlook the wonders of cranberry juice. Great for urinary tract infections, drinking the juice or taking cranberry extract pills can actually help to prevent them. A Dutch study found that cranberries keep bacteria from attaching to bladder walls. The caveat here: be careful if you take blood-thinning meds like Coumadin or Plavix; possible interactions may lead to bleeding.

Another berry with healing properties is tart cherries. Drinking their juice can prevent gout attacks and relieve muscle soreness after exercise. There is evidence that their natural anti-inflammatory content can reduce arthritis pain, too. Research on animals shows links to retarding diabetes and heart disease, making these cherries not just for pie anymore. Be certain to reach for the bright red tart cherry, high in antioxidants than its sweeter relatives, black or Bing cherries.

Ginger, fresh or powdered, has been shown to have powerful anti-nausea effects. Studies have shown taking one gram an hour before surgery reduced nausea and vomiting those first 24 hours after the event. The National Cancer Institute also found that patients undergoing chemotherapy who take as little as one-quarter teaspoon of ginger daily before their treatment cut nausea by 40%.

But you can use it for simple motion sickness by eating one or two pieces of crystallized ginger, found in most supermarkets and food stores, before getting in that car.

Turning to your medicine cabinet, next time you reach for the menthol rub, such as Vicks, for a cold, be aware that you could be treating nail fungus at the same time. Safe and easy to obtain, wipe those nails affected with a cotton ball wet with white vinegar before applying a thin coat of the menthol gel. Easy to apply, studies show using this approach once daily cured or cleared up the fungus, sometimes more effectively than more expensive alternatives.

While you’re in the bathroom, don’t overlook baby shampoo at the back of the closet if you’re one of the many adults who suffer from itchy, red or crusty eyelids, known as blepharitis. This causes scaling and crustiness along the base of the eyelashes and is very common in older adults. The Mayo Clinic suggests the following: Dilute a tiny amount of baby shampoo with water and gently rub the mix with clean fingers on your closed eyelids twice a day for one minute. Rinse well with water. Remember to apply the mix only to the eyelids, never to the eye itself.

Eco Lassie is not recommending specific brands of items, nor has she or Eco Women profited from mentioning any of these remedies.

1.  Quit the plastic bag habit.  Find that reusable shopping bag (Enviro Girl knows you have one somewhere) and stash it in your car/bike basket/briefcase.  Each time you forget to bring it in, refuse the shopping bag offered to you by the cashier and carry your purchases out of the store in your hands.  Using your hands or a reusable shopping bag reduces pollution, plastic use and can even result in 5-10 cent bag rebates depending on where you shop.

2.  Quit the bottled water habit.  Get a PVC-free water bottle and fill it up.  Drink tap water.  Drink tap water flavored with lemons or oranges.  Drink tap water chilled over ice or straight up.  Drink tap water out of glasses, mugs or champagne flutes.  By using your own container and filling it with tap water you’ll save loads of money (at a typical cost of $3.79 per gallon, bottled water is 1,900 times the cost of public tap water) and reduce the pollution, plastic, fuel and environmental devastation that comes with bottled water.

3.  Switch from conventional, commercial cleaning supplies to natural, environmentally safe cleaning methods.  You’ll save money, reduce air and water pollution, detox your household and reduce the trash your household produces.

4.  Start buying the locally grown organic version of one thing you consume.  Maybe it’s bananas, beef or broccoli.  Choose one product off your shopping list and commit to finding the locally grown or produced organic alternative.

5.  Turn it off.  Going low-tech saves electricity.  Switch off lights, stereos, computers, TV sets, video games and hair dryers.  You’ll reduce your noise and light pollution, reduce your electric costs and improve your quality of life.

6.  Quit using paper towels in the kitchen and elsewhere.  It’s easy–Enviro Girl did it and here’s her story.

7.  Reduce your trash by recycling more, consuming less or composting.

8.  Once a week, pass on the meat.  Meat is one of the biggest polluters on the planet, the major cause of deforestation and endangering species.  Raising cattle requires huge tracts of land for grazing and crops to feed them.  This might be the most challenging Eco-resolution, but will ultimately make the biggest environmental impact and save you the most money.

“Going green” works a lot like going on a diet–it’s little changes that incrementally add up.  Just as you can lose weight by giving up soda, you can reduce your carbon footprint and environmental impact by giving up paper towels or bottled water.

Tell the Eco Women, what is your Eco-Resolution for 2012?

Was it handmade?  Let’s say your grandmother spent nine months sewing you a quilt that does not go with your home decorating style.  Obviously something handmade involves feelings, so you cannot re-gift a quilt carrying nine months of grandmother’s life and love sewn into it.  In general, something handmade should not be re-gifted if it was made specifically for the recipient.  The only caveat Enviro Girl can think of for this rule is if the handmade was mass-produced, like her strawberry jam.  She makes gallons of homegrown and homemade jam, jam not expressly made for any individual, so in the case of her jam, were someone to re-gift the jar she gave them (unopened, of course), it would be appropriate.

Does it have sentimental value?  Family heirlooms fall into this category, although it’s fair to argue that what’s sentimental to one person can have zero value to another.  Years ago one of Enviro Girl’s great-uncles gave one of her sons a toy car emblazoned with the logo of a local business.  It’s an antique, her sons have zero interest in cars or antiques, the great-uncle has since passed and Enviro Girl knows someone who’d get a kick out of the car because it’s old and has this particular name on it.  Enviro Girl believes in her heart her great-uncle would prefer the car go to someone who would truly appreciate its value.  If the intent of re-gifting is to match the value of a gift with a recipient who will value it, Enviro Girl says Go For It!

Is it timely?  Re-gifting last year’s hot toy as a birthday gift because your child got two last Christmas is both cheap and wrong.  Never, ever re-gift something that is not trendy or has expired.

Would the gift-giver’s feelings be hurt if they knew you were passing along their gift to you?  This is your best litmus test.  Every year Enviro Girl’s grandma sends her home with three pounds of chocolates.  Every year Enviro Girl brings boxes of those chocolates along to holiday parties as hostess gifts to share–grandma won’t mind those chocolates being enjoyed by a crowd instead of getting stale and eventually tossed into the garbage back at Enviro Girl’s house.

Will the gift-giver or recipient find out?  Enviro Girl thinks you’re pretty safe to re-gift across social circles.  A co-worker gives you a coffee mug you’ve absolutely no use for?  Go ahead and give it to somebody in your book club, freshly wrapped with a new gift tag, of course.

Will the recipient like the gift more than you did?  If the answer to this question is “Yes!” then absolutely re-gift.  Enviro Girl believes that considering this question would actually prevent a lot of re-gifting in the first place.   Each time Enviro Girl receives body lotions and soaps from others, she sets them aside to give to her mother-in-law.  Enviro Girl has freakishly sensitive skin, most people giving her those benign tubes of lotions and body washes don’t know that.  Enviro Girl also knows her mother-in-law really enjoys strong-scented lotions and body washes and will use every last drop.  Enviro Girl has never felt a twinge of guilt passing on something she knows the next person will truly value.

There are politics to re-gifting, but with careful diplomacy, you can pass along things and make others happier in the process.

Tell the Eco Women:  Do you re-gift?

1.  Attend a holiday concert.  Many high schools, colleges and churches put on breathtaking performances–often at no cost to the public.  The Nutcracker, A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life are often performed by local theater groups this time of year, too.  Theater is magic, Christmas is magic, combined, they become magic squared.

2.  Go to church and participate in the spiritual side of the season–inspiration is free!  Many churches offer nativity reenactments and special music services during Christmastime.  Enviro Girl and her Christian brethren argue that “Jesus is the reason for the season,” attending a Christmas Eve service provides a great meditation on what Christmas means.

3.  Bake cookies.  Two weeks before Christmas on a Saturday afternoon, Enviro Girl makes a double batch of sugar cookie dough and her sons enjoy a few hours decorating cut outs.  The house smells great, the children are merry and artistic expression reigns!  Building a gingerbread house could become part of your holiday tradition if you have the skills and patience (Enviro Girl does not).  Any type of communal baking experience bonds families and friends more than a gift exchange ever does.

4.  Go caroling.  Enviro Girl only does this activity with a large group of people, preferably when she’s had a cocktail or two, because her voice is NOT melodic.  But caroling is free and fun and makes the neighbors laugh.  You can sing your way through a nursing home, a hospital, or even sing while you ring a bell at a Salvation Army kettle (as Enviro Girl’s sons are prone to doing).  Heck, you can even head to a local establishment for some low-cost karaoke fun!

5.  Look at the lights.  Many cities have light displays, Enviro Girl’s family enjoys  one at the Botanical Gardens nearby.  Local high schools donate choirs during the event and for a few dollars more her family enjoys a horse-drawn  hay ride through the displays.   In almost every town there are people taking huge pride in their outdoor light displays.  Head out at night and appreciate the artistry.

6.  Visit a historical home or museum–usually the exhibitions have a holiday theme during December.  This experience can be both educational and entertaining while supporting the local arts scene.

7.  Take a hike.  Bundle up and take a look at what winter reveals in your area.  If you’re lucky enough to get snow, you can cross-country ski or snow shoe.  Spot the tracks in the snow, revel in the fresh air, discover the beauty of a winter wonderland.

8.  Have a holiday movie night– rent Elf or throw in your beloved copy of It’s a Wonderful Life, pop some popcorn and heat up some cider.  Every single person has at least one favorite holiday movie, and it’s a great time to teach kids classic lines like “The Grinch’s heart grew three times larger that day” or “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!”

9.  Hit the local skating rink.  The scrape of the blades against the ice,  Christmas music flowing through the cheap stereo speakers, families laughing and gliding past at varying speeds–ice skating is great exercise and skate rental is cheap.

10.  Decorate a tree outside for the birds–string popcorn and slather pinecones with peanut butter and birdseed.  Not only will you give a gift to your feathered friends, you’ll be entertained by the guests in your yard.

This time of year doesn’t have to be about spending, buying, wrapping and fighting crowds.  Slow down and enjoy the holidays in a low impact way to maximize your pleasure!  Reader, what low/no impact fun do you plan for the holidays?  Do you enjoy any of the activities listed above?  Anything not included that you’d like to tell us about?

What better way to use your old plastic bags than to make a beautiful wreath to hang on your door? Plus you can give these wreaths as gifts and get rid of your old plastic bags at the same time.

Here’s all you do:

1) Take a wire hanger and bend it into a circle (this is the form for your wreath).
2) Take the baggies or plastic bags (they must be folded and can’t be ziploc) and cut all seams so baggie is completely open.
3) Then cut the baggies in half (one by one or in bunches)
4) Tie each piece to hanger in a half knot.
5) Move ends of baggies until wreath is full in body.
6) Decorate with Christmas ornaments, ribbons or whatever you have and WAH-LAH!!! You’re done!

It’s super sustainable and a wonderful symbol of the season at the same time.

Enviro Girl has seen wreaths made out of all nature of materials, from wrapped hard candy to glass ornaments to pinecones.  Below are some of her favorites, tutorials linked for your convenience.

1.  Paper wreaths–Enviro Girl made hers out of an old college textbook and a foam center ($2.00 at a craft supply store).  She learned how to make it here.  She discovered a neat magazine wreath here.  She’s also discovered that those swim noodles can be used as wreath forms, simply cut to size and duct tape the ends together.  Enviro Girl even repurposed some styrofoam packaging that came on some chairs she ordered.  Long skinny foam strips?  Meet duct tape and creativity!

2.  Rag wreaths–Enviro Girl has a couple and they can be made for any occasion.  You can use any fabric, from old wool sweaters you’ve felted to scraps from other projects.  Retro Housewife Goes Green created an excellent tutorial on how to make this funky wreath:

3.  Pinecone wreaths are a perennial favorite.  Enviro Girl has scads of pinecones in her yard and she made one for her porch using a wreath form and some floral wire.  Martha Stewart has a nice tutorial on creating pinecone wreaths.  The exact same directions can be modified to make your own wreaths out of branches, boughs, dried flowers, miniature pumpkins–you name it!

4.  Enviro Girl has used old wire hangers as wreath forms, so it pleased her to find this tutorial by Eddie Ross explaining how to make this fantastic Christmas wreath.  You can use old embroidery hoops, tires, hula hoops and picture frames as the base for a wreath.

5.  Felted wool is a charming way to decorate–you can felt wool from old sweaters (thrift stores are a great resource) or mittens or scarves.  You can make your felted wool wreath big enough for a window or small enough for a tree ornament,  Family Fun explains how.

6.  Old yarn can make a wreath, too.

7.  Even buttons can look neat as a wreath.

8. Wine corks, ribbons, tulle, craft paper scraps, pom-poms, cookie cutters and sea shells can be turned into festive wreaths.

Enviro Girl even went out to the edge of her property and gathered some old rusty barbed wire and wrapped it into circles and attached some pinecones to it, creating a very rustic wreath for her front porch.  The sky’s the limit for how you can make a wreath–all you need to do is start with a circle form and add the materials of your choice.   Here are more handmade holiday wreaths if nothing here caught your fancy or suited your taste.   Now grab your glue gun and add a little handmade to your holiday!