Introduction

I live in Montgomery and I am trying to live sustainably. My family has gone green in some ways, and in other ways we have a lot of room to improve. I'll write about what we do well, what we are trying to improve, and where we are failing. I'll also write about what my friends are doing, and other ideas I hear about for sustainable lifestyles, all relevant to Montgomery.

My family is most sustainable in the summer. We have one window air conditioner, downstairs, which we only use on very hot afternoons and evenings. Otherwise we rely on an attic fan for the whole house and bedside fans for the kids. We have a fairly light-colored roof and lots of mature trees around our house, and that saves energy on cooling. This summer has been fairly comfortable.

My husband Larry has a mostly-organic vegetable garden, so we eat very locally. Tonight we had homemade tabouli, and zucchini and summer squash sauteed with onions and butter, and blackberries and blueberries, all from the garden, plus sauteed oyster mushrooms from the Farmers' Market. It was all delicious. I go to the Farmers' Market and look for items that Larry doesn't grow, partly just because it is fun and I see my friends there. It is on Saturday mornings until 1:00 in front of the Village Shopper. Some of the farmers grow the same vegetables Larry grows, but sooner or later than his are ready, and some have other vegetables, and some have fruit that he doesn't grow. I got early apples there last week, Seckel pears, and fresh corn.

Earlier this week, Larry and I went to the bridge on Harlingen Road across from Public Works. It is a historic bridge that was rebuilt a few years ago, and residents were invited to hear about the plans and make suggestions. We suggested some native plants to restore the streambanks. Joe Pye weed, ostrich fern, Itea virginica, silky dogwood, swamp white oak and American sycamore were our suggestions.

Now we go out and check on the plants and do a little maintenance once or twice a year. One of the neighbors has been keeping the weeds next to his property under control so they don't overwhelm the plantings (thank you, Todd!), and the plants on his side look wonderful, especially the ostrich ferns. Everywhere there are tall Joe Pye weeds in bloom, with lovely rosy-lavender flower clusters peeking over the railings of the bridge. There is also darker purple New York ironweed, and it and the Joe Pye weed attract butterflies. It is worth a detour to see the flowers.

We weeded around the trees and ferns. One of the sycamores had tipped over, so Larry pounded in a stake, and I helped him tie the tree up so it will have a chance to grow straight. Two swamp white oaks have died back to the ground and are sending up root sprouts, and Larry will prune off all but the strongest one from each tree and put on deer fences in the fall. They will grow into good-sized trees in a few years.

All the shrubs are doing very well. Some elderberries were planted and one shrub was covered with tiny dark purple berries in large, flat clusters. It was easy to pick the clusters so we brought a few home, but it took forever to take the berries off the stems to make a pie. Now I know why people used to make elderberry wine: you don't have to remove the stems! We combined the elderberries with blackberries, and it made a very good pie.

Tonight I am washing plastic bags. I soak them in warm soapy water in a bowl in the sink, then rinse in fresh water in the same bowl. I hang them to dry on a clothesline in the basement, using clothespins, the old-fashioned way. If anyone knows a better way, I'd love to hear about it. Some plastic bags aren't too convenient to reuse, so we recycle them at the grocery store, in a bin inside the entrance.

This week I saw monarch butterflies several places, yellow and black swallowtail butterflies (especially on the Joe Pye weeds), a tiny tan frog (a spring peeper), a green heron, and a great blue heron at the pond in our backyard.