EcoSmart Garden Insect Killer

A few months ago at our monthly Bennetts Brook Green Group meeting a few members were discussing the need to rid their yards of grubs that were wreaking havoc on their gardens. We all went on the hunt for an environmentally friendly alternative that would not simply flood our lawns with heavy doses of chemicals. So when EcoSmart contacted me to review their Garden Insect Killer I was definitely excited to report back to all of you as well as the BBGG.

The product comes in either a 32 ounce bottle with a nozzle for a hose attachment or a 24 ounce spray bottle (the one I was sent) and individual bottles retail for $8.00 - 15 in the EcoSmart online shop. The price is right as I did a little research in my local garden center and chemical based insect killers average at a similar cost.

And that is the best part. The ingredients in this product include a whole bunch of natural oils such as: rosemary, peppermint, thyme and clove. Additional ingredients are listed as water, mineral oil, octadecenoic acid potassium salt, and lecithin. Naturally I had never heard of octadecenoic acid potassium salt and was curious as to what it was.

Turns out this is a fatty acid salt. So what does that mean? It is classified as a soap and adjuvant (an agent that is inert alone but modifies the effects of other agents). So since this is an agricultural adjuvant I consulted Wikipedia to read:

“The adjuvant acts here by reducing the surface tension of the water on the surface of the spray drop and by reducing the interfacial tension between the spray drop and surface of the leaf. This requires an adjuvant that will preferentially aggregate at these surfaces. This may not be done effectively by the surfactants that form and stabilize the oil/water emulsion from the concentrate formulation”

Basically what I have deduced is that this acts as an extender to help spread the oils out all over the surface since the main ingredient is water and we all know that water and oil don’t mix. Fair enough but what exactly is octadecenoic acid? When I plugged this into wiki it suggested a new spelling (octadecanoic) and led me to the page for stearic acid. A fatty acid, it is developed from animal fats. As is lecithin.

So the good news is that EcoSmart’s claim for an all natural bug killer is in fact all natural, the bad news is it is clearly not a Vegan alternative. The other good news is that it is listed to rid the yard of aphids, mites, thirps, whiteflies, beetles and caterpillars. Grubs become beetles and therefore would be removed naturally. Again, the bad news is that by then it is potentially too late as new eggs may have already been laid causing more grubs.

I will be giving this bottle to my sister in law, you all know her as the fearless writer and reviewer Melissa around these parts, so she can give it a go and hopefully rid her yard of these pesky critters once and for all, in the most environmentally friendly way possible. Until her practical review comes out however I am granting a Three and a Half Leaf Rating to the Garden Insect Killer!

EcoSmart you have shown that with an eye to the planet as well as the health of humans and our pets we are able to have natural alternatives to keeping our gardens pest free. ♥love♥

How Much Do YOU Spend on Each Load of Laundry?

Perhaps this is a strange seeming question; most people would not track their budget down to this level, but with the current market conditions and a renewed desire to provide in a meaningful way for our families, laundry detergent is one place where uber savings can easily be achieved. We just have to be willing to get our hands a little dirty for cleanliness.

The last few bottles of detergent I have purchased have been to test drive some of the more popular shelf brands which claim to be Green. In essence they have worked well -- my clothing is clean, smells nice and the impact I am washing down the drain has been lowered -- but the cost has definitely hit a little too tight on the old wallet.

A couple of nights ago while at our monthly Bennetts Brook Green Group meeting, one of the meeting organizers, Julie, shared her discovery of a recipe to create homemade laundry detergent from four simple ingredients. When she shared the cost to create it I vowed to pick up some rubber gloves and become a chemist as soon as this bottle of detergent runs out!

Straight from Julie:

“We've been using this detergent for about a week and I'm really happy with it. The laundry seems to be getting clean and the cloth diapers don't have any stink issues. For less than $10 we now have two gallon jugs of detergent plus enough ingredients to make at least 9 more batches. That's 20-30 gallons, or 640 to 960 loads of laundry, which works out to about 1 to 2 cents a load. It did take a bit of time to make and it was a little scary heating the baking soda and handling the Borax (use gloves!), but well worth it.”

The main reason she started doing research was because her family uses cloth diapers and she was beginning to find that there was build up from other detergents that began causing absorption issues. After looking into this and doing a ton of research Julie discovered the following recipe for homemade detergent.

Laundry Detergent

1/2 cup 20 Mule Team Borax

1/2 cup Washing Soda

1 bar Ivory soap
Water (as indicated)

(up powdered ingredients to 2/3 cup if you have hard water)

- Shave the soap into a medium sauce pan with 6 cups water. Heat until soap is melted.

- Add powder ingredients, stir.

- Have a large container with a lid (or plastic wrap) waiting with 4 cups cool water. Add soap mixture, stir.

- Add 1 gallon + 6 cups cool water to bucket, stir.

- Cover and let sit for 1-2 days.

- Mixture will have gelled. I use my hands to "squish" the gel into tiny pieces and stir.
- Pour into milk jugs or something similar.- Makes about 2 1/2 gallons. Use 1/2 cup per load.

Cool!

Bear in mind that borax is the naturally occurring sodium borate which is a mineral (typically mined after seasonal lakes evaporate) so just like any other compound one should take caution when using it.

Additionally, Washing Soda (Sodium Carbonate) is added primarily as a water softener but is a mineral as well. The good news here is that the mineral is naturally occurring and 100% regenerative so it can never be mined out.

Not sure where to find Washing Soda? The product is sometimes referred to as Soda Ash and the top producer of it is Arm & Hammer. Most supermarkets will carry it in their cleaning supply aisle near the laundry detergents (I have been told Stop & Shop carries a generic version but have not yet confirmed this). In addition, because it is sometimes used to regulate pH levels many pool supply companies will carry it as well.

Additionally, it can be created by placing Baking Soda in a 500 degree oven for 30-60 minutes but again, exercise caution while doing this! (As a side note, this is how Julie created her Washing Soda and it does appear to be working for her which is fantastic!)

When our current bottle of eco-detergent runs out this is a science experiment I am ready to tackle. I may even add a few drops of an essential oil like lavender or eucalyptus to give my clothes a nice scent.

Have you made your own detergent? What was your recipe and how did it work for you?

Photo courtesy MarketingShop

Contaminated Without Consent

During the last Bennetts Brook Green Group meeting one of the organizers, Julie, shared a DVD with me about chemical contaminates called Contaminated Without Consent. With so many different subjects to cover we did not watch it that night but she sent the link and I was able to sit and watch this sixteen minute movie this morning. It is frightening to think how many chemicals are present in our bodies that have come from nothing more than our food, air and water. Especially our children, factory workers and people proximate to those factories. The information from the studies is as recent as two years ago.

By clicking on the picture below you will be taken directly to the video on YouTube but if you would like to learn more about the Organization and the studies they are conducting please use the above link to visit the Organization website here.


So what can we do? Researching the products we use and the ingredients they are created from is the first step in protecting ourselves from toxins and harmful chemicals but in reality we need to collectively stand up and say, hey, we are not comfortable with this so companies will remove these chemicals from the products we use; the products they create.

As an eye opener and awareness vehicle I am awarding this movie a Five Leaf Rating. Please take a few minutes and watch to start protecting yourself today.

Green Group Gets Better Every Month!

Last Thursday was our forth official Bennetts Brook Green Group meeting, a group which has formed due to all of our overwhelming desires to better our lives through sharing of environmentally responsible ideas among each other. It started as a neighborhood idea for my sister in law (frequent GLR contributor Melissa) and her neighbor Julie and the primary members are in fact in their community but as each month goes on, Matt and I (as well as my Mom most months) are finding the short drive out there well worth our time and small emission contribution.

This month we had a guest speaker Laurie Sabol who is the Clerk for the group MassRecycle and wow was she ever fantastic! Not only did she give us all little gifties of pencils created from recycled US currency but all of us left with a wider view of so many interesting topics.

Much of what we discussed was locally related information to Ayer, MA but all can be applied to our planet. For example Laurie discussed how she has toured the facilities of some local recycling plants to get a feel for the entire process. I thought that sounded like a pretty cool idea for a field trip and just about every state has one! Also she shared with us information on the initiative Massachusetts is undertaking to reduce the use of plastic shopping bags everywhere. This too is something worth looking into nation wide.

With MassRecycle Laurie jokes that she is ‘just a Secretary’ but she was so knowledgeable when it came to topics such as the Waste Ban (a statewide ban that legally prohibits throwing in the trash such items as glass, monitors, yard waste and a myriad of other items) and what the state has done to catch and prosecute (mostly companies) those who are non-compliant, that I knew she was far more than just a Secretary, Laurie is certainly an advocate for the planet.

She additionally shared with us some websites, one of which is informative on a national scale:
masstoss.com
cleanup.org which will lead you right over to earth911.com.
(You may have read about Earth911 on GLR back in December last year)

All in all the group was extremely chatty and full of so many great tips that it would take a novel just to talk about all of them so I will leave this post with Laurie’s amazing contribution of time and dedication to her cause.

Have you considered hosting a green group in your local community? It is fun and a great way to meet new people with a common interest!

Thinking Nothing but Healthy Thoughts

The tissues I received as the BBGG door prize were timely indeed, I have caught my first cold like something in well over two years and it has definitely knocked me out. It is difficult for a go-go gal like me to do nothing more than watch cheesy movies all day, to lie on my sofa and simply take care of myself. Sometimes the body has its own way of telling us to slow down however so today I am taking the hint.

I have been thinking all day about the ways I could tie my illness into an environmentally significant post -- touch on one of the comments I received regarding cloth hankies, the benefits of orange juice on the immune system or how I reduced my carbon footprint by not surfing the internet all day -- but in the end I want to do exactly what I have been advising friends and family that have caught various illnesses recently -- think healthy thoughts.

The power of our minds is just that, powerful. We have the ability to heal ourselves, acquire the things we want and do the things we want to do by focusing on them and allowing them to come to fruition. I am a firm believer in mind over matter and I imagine this is one of the main reasons why I have been exposed to many sick people this winter but have not yet caught anything myself; I live each day with the knowledge that I am simply a healthy person. This time I must laugh at the irony; my cold comes after literally a week of working from home, being exposed to virtually no one let alone a crop of sick people. As I lay here and type now I am visualizing myself up and around, starting yoga for the first time in a long time and enjoying swim class this upcoming Friday morning.

To see myself as healthy, breathing well and feeling no aches in my muscles makes me happy, it makes me feel like myself. With that feeling comes the knowledge that my body will do its best to cycle through this sickness and expel it quickly. I will do what I can to assist it by staying hydrated with juice, tea and water, eating bowlfuls of soup and taking it slow and steady so as not to aggravate any residual germs into a relapse. Then I will be again the person I know I am, healthy and happy.

There Are A Few Things I Simply Can Not Give Up

Green design, green products, green living, green this and green that -- the word Green has overtaken the general media! With the advent of so many fine things there will always be some things that just do not make the cut where safety, convenience, comfort, price, or a combination of all of the above, is concerned. As a self proclaimed Greenie I tend to give everything a try and if it works for me, fits into my lifestyle, then it will be here to stay. If not then I must revert to my old choices with no guilt and know there are so many other ways I can make a difference instead.

This past Thursday night was the latest Bennetts Brook Green Group (BBGG) meeting. It was small, only seven of us, but once again we touched on many fantastic topics and I was the lucky recipient of two lovely items that evening! One of the members picked up reusable shopping bags for everyone at Walgreens (I love this store) and at the end of the night I also won a door prize. I had the option of choosing between a bar of soap and a box of tissues. I eyed both but decided to go with the tissues because I had never used any of this company’s products before and was rightfully curious.

The brand is Seventh Generation, a well known name just about everywhere these days. The box is eye catching with little green leaves on a white background and on one side details of the product are given. These hypo-allergenic tissues are made from 100% recycled paper, have no dyes or bleach and are two ply. The bottom of the box indicates that if all households using tissues were to purchase a recycled product we would keep 17,000 pounds of chlorinated pollution from water ways and save:

☼ 283,000 trees
☼ 730,000 cubic feet of landfill space
☼ 102 million gallons of water

Yes this is wonderful and yes I am excited to feel good about making a difference. But am I literally looking down my nose at this gift? Well, sort of. No, they are not soft and no I do not believe I could use them if I had a cold as my nose would be raw after just one day. I am certainly happy to have the opportunity to try them out but I am a firm believer that anything we use has got to be the right thing for each of us personally or it will end up in a landfill before its intended life cycle is complete.

I will leave these tissues in the holder on the back of the toilet because we do not get sick often in this household and may only ever use one tissue a day. For that purpose they will be just fine and it will make me feel good knowing I am doing something more environmentally friendly but when this box runs out I will not replace it with another. Instead I will donate to plant a tree and use that as the trade off for the box of Puffs Plus with lotion that will make its way into my cart.

AngelFood Ministries is Helping Neighbors

Last night was the second Bennetts Brook Green Group meeting and although there were fewer members present this month there was still fantastic conversation going around with relation to many different environmentally related topics. We started the night discussing the progress of our entertainment center and some of the snags Matt has encountered with using the pallet wood (update soon; the snags are not what one might think). Melissa talked about her recently renovated basement and the benefits of researching prior to purchasing potentially unneeded materials. We discussed my Mom’s amazing efforts to reduce her electric bill through unplugging and other simple methods and then discussed benefits and drawbacks of certain types of de-icing materials. Sue provided some wonderful information with regard to the drawbacks of sugar and then she shared details of a program a friend, who was interested in saving some money, had passed on to her called AngelFood Ministries.

The mission of AngelFood is to provide brand name, wholesome foods to all people at a reduced cost. The ministry operates out of Grace Church in Hudson, Massachusetts and food orders can be placed either in person or online. The most exciting part of the program is that, according to their website, it is open to anyone not just church congregants. For thirty dollars a box of food can be ordered and it is enough to feed a single person for up to a month or a family of four for about a week. There is no application process and no income verification but orders must be picked up in person at the church.

The food provided is not day old or dented cans but restaurant grade meats and fresh produce. Also, there is no limit to the number of units or special orders that can be purchased however an initial purchase is required prior to ability to purchase special orders containing meats such as steak, chicken and pork products. When picking up the food the purchaser must bring their own bag or box.

In tough economic times it is a wonderful affirmation to see caring and compassion stretching to such a humanitarian cause as ensuring people are fed for a little bit less financial outgo.

For those in Massachusetts who are interested in checking out the program I encourage reading through the website, visiting Grace Church at 353 River Road in Hudson or calling the AngelFood information line at (978) 562-8550 x109 (answering machine).