Events at Missouri Botanical Garden all start in a similar way: cool, dark, and calm before thousands of visitors arrive to enjoy the day. Staff and volunteers arrive early to the quiet grounds of the Garden to prepare, including the Zero Waste Ambassadors team of volunteers dedicated to reducing the waste sent to the landfill…
Category: Sustainability
Chemical-Free Weed Control
Spring is upon us, and the signs of the changing seasons are all around: tulip leaves poking out of the soil, blooming magnolias, and weeds appearing in garden beds. This early in the season, these weeds seem innocuous enough, but soon they will be blooming and forming seed. Here are our tips for controlling unwanted…
Plastic Pot Recycling: Update and Perspective
Missouri Botanical Garden has been tracking and supporting plastic pot recycling issues and options for many years. This spring, we regret to report that public plastic pot recycling will not resume. Wasn’t Plastic Pot Recycling “suspended” for 2020-21? Why is it being ended now? The collection program did not re-start as usual in spring 2020,…
Slow and Steady Wins the Fashion Race—Sustainably
Take a look at your outfit choice for the day. For many, getting dressed might seem like a daily task that requires little thought other than maybe ensuring that you aren’t wearing your shirt or pants inside out. But for many, the desire to step out of the box to try out a rising fashion trend has made its way to…
9 Tips for Keeping Your Winter Green
The holiday season (and post-holiday period) can be a challenging time to maintain sustainable practices. Here are tips from the Garden’s EarthWays Center for green winter living: Do a Home Energy Audit – and Act to Boost Efficiency! Doing an informal audit and fixing some basic leaks can secure parts of your home or apartment…
Green Living Festival | Sustainable — Useful — Fun! for 20 Years
We celebrate Earth Day every April 22. On a chilly September day in 2001, an Energy Festival in mid-town St. Louis anchored the other side of the year. One “green” event in spring, one in fall. For a while, that was it! On June 2, 3, and 4, 2021, the Green Living Festival carries this…
Efficiency + Comfort = Good Investment!
Our city home was built over three eras. The original four rooms have sheltered families since about 1870 — that’s one hundred and fifty years! A kitchen and indoor bathroom were added sometime between then and the 1940s, when a new two-story wing was constructed. Property records tell us the first occupant, a Dutch tulip…
Storm Drains are for Rain
This year, many of us have been cooped up at home and are looking for new and interesting ways to get outside and help our communities. One Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) project, coordinated by the EarthWays Center, is providing scouts, families, municipalities, and just about anyone in the area with just such an…
St. Louis Teachers Leading on Sustainability
Leading on research in plant biology, ecology, conservation, and preservation is what the Missouri Botanical Garden is best known for. Less well known is the impact the Garden is having in the St. Louis community. Many teams at the Garden work in partnership with organizations around the St. Louis region to support initiatives around native…
Keep Green and Carry On
The Garden’s Sustainability Staff Maintain Significant Achievements During COVID-19 Despite the current pandemic, the EarthWays Center has been resilient as ever when sharing sustainable solutions with the St. Louis region. All programs and projects continued, and staff learned many new systems to maintain virtual contact while working remotely. This period of remote work has allowed the Garden’s sustainability division to…
Cooking with Weeds
A “mess” is a breakfast dish of German origin that involves fried chunked potatoes, onions, and whatever else you have to throw in. It’s a Sunday morning tradition in our house. In this example, I throw in wild plants available free in my own backyard. Field garlic. Photo by Wendy Applequist. This is field garlic,…
Preventing Food Waste at Home
As many of us stay at home in an effort to practice social distancing due to COVID-19, the only trip out of the house is to the grocery store. A priority for many is how to make the food in the kitchen stretch as far as possible before the next trip to the store. Learning…