WHAT READERS SAY ABOUT
“Serious thinking on the
deeper connection between
the environment and social
and political issues.”
increasingly expensive seed packets. Good
results can be obtained within one year,
thoroughbred seed within three to >ve.
‘Brandywine’ tomatoes famously will not
set fruit in heat above ninety degrees, and
yet, as of this writing, the Brandywines
from my own seed have put on their second
big set of fruit, with no rain and temperatures between ninety->ve and a hundred
for a painful portion of the day. I’d rather
see the zone map stay the same for sel>sh
reasons: harvesting tomatoes in December
makes me a hero in Zone 8, but a nobody
in Zone 9.
and seeds and rely more on seed saved from
my own ?owers and veggies. The zone map
change is an interesting way to talk about
global warming, or what the USDA website
o;cially calls “changes in weather.” But my
best indicator for planting is experience,
and my best tool is saving seed. Seeds will
gradually adapt to the microclimate of a gardener’s own yard, eliminating the need to
scrutinize the maps on the backs of those
Green and Clean Made Easy By P. J. DelHomme
WHEN I WAS A SINGLE GUY, by definition, I
wasn’t all that clean. It used to be the only
things I cleaned on a regular basis required
oil—chainsaws, engines, guns. A jump in
the river counted as a bath. I got married a
year ago, and, well, I’m cleaner now; one
might even call me socially presentable.
Recently, my wife Kate and I decided to
put our house on the market in anticipation
of stocking a larger home with children. We
got rid of the clutter and duct-taped a few
fixtures, saving the cleaning for the end.
Thanks to a couple of Rottweilers and my
not-so-clean self, the house still resembled
my pad from the bachelor days of yore.
My trip to the grocery for cleaning products found me gazing down the sparkling
white aisle of supplies. In the past I’d never
spent any time here unless I needed toilet
paper or Drano, and the bleaches, detergents, and soaps smelled strong enough to
make my eyes water as if it were the end of
hunting season. I got out of there quick,
returning home with only the case of PBR
needed to make cleaning tolerable. Then,
just in time to stop a tiff regarding the
absence of cleaning products and overabundance of award-winning refreshment,
a friend turned me on to the idea of all-natural cleaning products.
In Missoula, there are almost as many
nonprofits as bars, and if you’ve been to
this Montana town, you know that’s a
healthy sum. One in particular, Women’s
Voices for the Earth (WVE), pronounced
“weave,” works on issues that affect women
and their families and has a mission to rid
households of toxic cleaners. According to
WVE’s executive director, Dori Gilels, only
10 percent of more than eighty-five thousand chemicals available to U.S. consumers
have been tested for their potential toxicity
to humans, and many have been linked to
asthma and reproductive problems. The
fact is, cleaning-product companies are not
required to list their ingredients on labels.
To help make homes safer, WVE has put
together a booklet called the “Green
Cleaning Party Kit,” which provides natural
alternatives to that overpowering aisle in
the grocery. The only catch is that you have
to make your own products.
Ingredient gathering took me to our
new local food co-op for the first time. It
had, in bulk, all the vinegar required for the
all-purpose cleaner; soap flakes, washing
soda, and borax for the laundry detergent;
and baking soda and castile soap (Dr.
Bronner’s) for the creamy soft scrub. It took
some convincing to get my male friends to
come over, but when I mentioned beer, and
the little diddy that phthalates found in
commercial detergents and glass cleaners
have been linked to reduced sperm count,
the green cleaning party was on.
That evening, as the elk sausage spattered on the grill, we measured and mixed
the ingredients. Wire grill-brush in hand,
we tested the creamy soft scrub on a rusty
shovel and saw it shine right up. And the
all-purpose cleaner worked wonderfully on
the dusty car windshields. It even lightened
the grass stains on the Briggs and Stratton
lawn mower in the garage. In the age of extreme clean, it felt good to go easy. As for
the laundry detergent—the beer ran out,
and no one felt inclined to stick around to
sniff my skivvies.
