Chapter 8 covered "cleaning and household pests." Nell's introduction to this chapter makes perfect sense. I must quote one line to keep from screwing up her meaning, " A pest is something that annoys us. Annoying doesn't mean useful, so 'pest' is a relative term. Consider stoplights. Annoying? yes. Essential? probably." This being said, we live in a world where we don't want to stop and think about whether "pests" have a purpose, we just want to kill them so they don't bother us on our picnics or pop up in our gardens. Killing these pests doesn't come without a consequence as the chapter suggests; we become exposed to numerous chemicals just because we don't want to weed our gardens and can't handle a few ants at our picnic. BUT as the chapter goes on, Nell provides different eco-friendly ways to rid your house of many different pests, as well as making your own cleaners. One thing I found really interesting that she listed were different plants that clean the air, such as areca palm and english ivy. A couple of new terms I learned from this chapter involved reading product labels. The exact definition of toxic is provided as "toxic materials are substances that can be poisonous to people and pets, can cause illness and death if swallowed or absorbed." Corrosive products "can severely burn skin and eyes or internal organs if swallowed."
Chapter 9 covered "gardening." One factor Nells puts extreme importance on is "composting" which involves letting nature decompose your biodegradable products such as yard waste, you can then use them as fertilizer in your garden. She then discusses some gardening tips such as eliminating chemicals, banishing pests the "green" way, and knowing how and when to properly water.
All in all, these chapters were really informative and definitely gave me a new look on our culture and pests!
I liked the analogy with pests and the stoplight! Also, I've always wanted to try composting. Not that I have a garden, but it's just better than adding to the trash!
ReplyDeleteI nanny for a family and I hope one day I can live like they do. Always eating organic, very minimal use of harmful chemicals around the house. They have a chicken coop and a HUGE garden and a all the leftover food and stuff goes to the chickens and the garden. It the way to be.
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