I've forgotten to post and track most of my daily activities for the month, so I've filled them retroactively. thankfully, I keep a daily journal to help keep reference.

I've been really intentional with my earth month activities, and it feels nice. I chose items that were easy enough to adapt to my life or bring back habits I've already tried. I predicted that the thing I would appreciate most is re-growing some foods, particularly my green onions. I was correct, because now my ramen tastes all the better knowing that I grew the garnish from scraps that I often throw away. I even knew they could be regrown and had done it before, I just fell out of the habit of keeping up with it. there's something fulfilling about it, it feels like a strange form of fostering an abandoned mini-garden and I get to harvest new yields. I think I'm going to step up a notch and start growing a selection of essential herbs that I am often running low on. And it will be right on my windowsill.

WOW! Talk about resilience! On the last day of the Ecochallenge, we continued to work on converting our bioswale into a pond and added in pruning our laurel hedge and trimming back our apple trees. What a huge effort! Do you have experience with laurel hedges? I can't believe how fast they grow! We are grateful for the privacy they offer and their vigor, but they are a lot of work to maintain, and, alas, quite invasive.

On the other hand, a core regenerative plant that shows up in disturbed landscapes is fireweed. I don't know where it came from, but we had to replace our fence last year and there was a lot of damaged and bare dirt. Nature has gifted us with fireweed! I am so excited to see it growing and we are looking forward to seeing the pretty flowers and how they can support our pollinators and help rebuild the soil.

For the pond, we have added in some cool shade plants that we hope will be happy, including some native sedges, a hardy waterlily, and fairy moss (for mosquito abatement). We'll see how that all goes, including assessing how they handle our microclimate.

It has been fun to look at broader ecosystems, during the Ecochallenge, and our own little yard, to see how nature can bounce back from disruptions.

During my earth month ecochallenge i have tried to drive less, hoping it can reduce my carbon footprint.
I have tried carpooling with co-workers and started using trimet transportation.

My earth month ecochallenge is going great. I have been able to conserve more food by being more cautious on not over buying certain foods. I have tried to maintain a balance in consuming more protein-based food and less processed food.

It was easier than what I thought, to check in everyday, made me realize small changes are implemented with habits and it helps integrating important changes in our lives.