A "Greener" Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day, Susan Harris, fellow garden writer, has asked me to highlight her new campaign Green the Grounds. Much like the Eat the View campaign to get an edible garden at the White House, Green the Grounds.org is a public education campaign aimed at getting sustainable landscaping installed at highly visible official residences (like our state governors) to inspire homeowners to "green" their own yards and gardens.

For Marylanders, we can rest easy that the Governor's mansion in Annapolis is Bay-wise and earth-friendly, reports Susan. Now, we locals need to out a bit of pressure on the Virginia manse and the DC mayor's abode.

Then there are the nearby White House grounds themselves, which are looked after by the National Park Service (NPS). I'm going to take the call for the "green" care of the White House lawns even further and demand that our taxpayer-funded public servants in the NPS green all their operations. See this recent post on the NPS poor practices and dependence on diesel fuel. Just one example of the disconnect in their mission.

Sure, the NPS issued this press release several years ago declaring their "green" stance. Yet, the web site they established for reporting on their green practices is now defunct and the one that has replaced it has not been updated since early 2007. So NPS, guess we can all tell where your department priorities area at?

BTW Is it ironic that today is also Admin Professionals Day aka Secretaries Day and the florists and gift shops are really pushing those pesticide- and herbicide-laced flower arrangements as the perfect gift for your office help? How about giving that Admin Asst a nice organically and locally grown plant to help clean the office air?