Saving Money and Helping the Environment

For all of you out there reading Team Benya’s blogs, you already know that I’ve taken a pretty big interest in green real estate. I got my certification as a Green Realtor in March, and I’m working towards my LEED certification as well. Living a green lifestyle is pretty important to me, and while I’m not perfect at it, it’s a day-to-day effort. I’m lucky enough to share that effort with my girlfriend, Lauren. Lauren is pretty committed to trying to be green as well – she’s getting her MFA in documentary filmmaking with a concentration on environmental filmmaking, so between the two of us, we like to think that we’re doing a decent job contributing to the Green Revolution.

One thing we’re doing right now is starting our very own Victory Garden at our home. For those of you who aren’t familiar with them, Victory Gardens came about during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort. That’s why you might have heard them referred to as “war gardens.” The gardens grew fruits, vegetables and herbs by the public for their own consumption while soldiers at war were provided with food grown by the major food suppliers of the time.

While the current war in the Middle East isn’t really putting a strain on our food supplies like WW I and WW II did, there’s another war going on – the war between our need and desire for food and the amount of food miles our produce has to travel to get to our local grocery stores. What’s a food mile, you ask? A food mile is the distance food is transported from the time of its production until it reaches the consumer, and this concept has become a big factor in assessing the environmental impact of our food supplies on global warming. On average, food travels between 1,500 to 2,500 miles before it reaches our plates, and that’s a lot of carbon being put into the atmosphere just to make a salad.

Lucky for me, Lauren grew up planting a great big garden with her dad every year, and I’ve grown up planting a lot of my own fruit trees at my family home in Virginia, so we both have a basic knowledge of gardening, and relatively green thumbs. But, even if we didn’t have any past experiences, this isn’t a hard thing to accomplish, and it’s definitely something that any of you out there can do as well! Lauren and I don’t have a whole lot of space to grow the same kind of giant garden her dad planted for her growing up, but we can definitely reduce our carbon footprint this summer by growing the most basic of our veggies in nothing more than some planting containers.

Just a few weeks ago, Lauren bought more seed packets than I can count at Waldorf’s Christmas Tree Shop. (Lauren absolutely swears by this store). Then I went to Lowe’s and bought two seed starter kits. We popped open the seed packets, stuck a few seeds in each of the pods, watered them, plopped the lids on, waited patiently for a few days, and VIOLA! Seedlings! We’ve been excitedly watching as our very own baby plants grow a little more each day until finally we had to consider transplanting some of the faster growing ones into other pots. We’ve got a few different kinds of lettuces, different varieties of peas and beans, peppers, tomatoes, herbs, and even some melons sprouting up! We do have an herb garden that we built up last year – some of those herbs survived the winter freeze and have come back, and we’ll add our seedling herbs into the extra space soon enough. We’re also going to build a few more raised gardens in our yard for the rest of our veggies, but they’ll do just fine in pots on the deck if we didn’t have yard space. You can even do your part indoors if you don’t have an outdoor space for plants. Lauren bought a very nice, medium sized indoor planter, and I planted it with some fresh herbs that she uses most. That planter stays in the kitchen within easy access of the stove when we want to add some fresh parsley, thyme or chives to dinner.

Any little bit that you can do helps. Something as simple as having an indoor planter with the herbs you use most  close at hand when you’re cooking dinner contributes to the earth’s health in a multitude of ways! First, you’re not emitting carbon monoxide into the air because you’re not getting in your car to drive to the grocery store to buy those herbs. Second, you’re keeping your carbon footprint low by not contributing to the food miles problem of living in Maryland and buying parsley grown in California. Third, growing plants helps eliminate harmful air pollution by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air and increasing oxygen levels.

You’re also helping your wallet (this seems to be a trend in living a green lifestyle). Sure, maybe the investment you make into growing your own victory garden is a bit more than spending $3.00 for a bunch of basil at the store, but the point is, it’s an investment. Teach a man to shop and he has basil for a day, teach a man to garden, and he has basil for the whole summer!  You’re not spending money on gas while driving to the store, and if you nurture that basil plant, it will keep producing yummy edible leaves to sprinkle on your homemade grilled basil, mozzarella and tomato grilled pizza (recipes to follow!) all summer long. And if you’re lucky, that basil plant will return the next spring to give you another season of deliciousness.

So why not give it a try? Start your very own victory garden, or even your very own victory flower pot and see what great things you can grow!  Feel free to share your own Victory Garden stories and pictures with me as well!

Contact your Southern Maryland Real Estate Expert, Team Benya for all your Real Estate and Community Needs!

Team Benya ”Doing Business In the Community and Giving Back To The Community”

Thomas Benya (301) 653-1499 ThomasBenya@gmail.com

Marsha Benya (301) 653-9846 MarshaBenya@gmail.com

www.SouthernMarylandLiving.com

Century 21 New Millennium (301) 609-9000

9405-A Chesapeake St, La Plata, MD 20646