THANK YOU for your donations to the Community Garden

A big thank you to Charlie Moley, who created a superb poster to present in Albright Hall for sponsorships of garden plots.
We have raised over $450 that way! The congregation is really excited and will be blown away but all the produce God will grow. We are so blessed to be able to do this with all the help we are receiving from the congregation, the vestry and interested community members. Plant sales also went well. The Holgates and McDowells received over $400 worth of donations for their tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, basil and many more species! We still have to raise more donations, since the irrigation alone is quite costly.

Community garden Planting Schedule

Here are some quick dates for planning put together by Rob Holgate.  Not sure we will plant all of these but here is the info anyway.  These are based on the average last frost date for STL of April 7th.  These dates may precede some suggested dates by a week or so since we are working with raised beds which warm up more quickly in spring.

The week of:

Feb 7

Start eggplant, peppers inside

Feb 14

you could start some lettuce inside if you want to, to do higher maintenance early starters (watch for frost like a hawk) and then do another planting every 2 weeks.

Feb 21

start tomatoes inside

Feb 28

Plant outside:  peas, spinach(and every 2 weeks),

Mar 7

plant lettuce outside (and every 2 weeks after)

Mar 14

Plant outside:  carrots, radishes, (and every 2 weeks after), also onions, chard

Apr 4 (week of average last frost)

Put tomatoes out, plant dill out

stop plantings of spinach

Apr 11

Plant out: beans (bush beans more every 2 weeks, pole beans bear continuously so only plant once), cucumbers

Apr 18

Put eggplant, peppers out

Plant out squash, melons

Apr 25

plant okra out

stop successive plantings of lettuce, radishes in a bit, carrots and bush beans can go on for 4 more weeks if anyone is still not tired of plantingThe harvest:

May 1

will have us in the middle of spinach, radishes, lettuce, chard harvest

Jun 1

will have us in the middle of carrots, chard, peas, summer squash, cucumbers and the start of the beans

Jul 1

will have us in chard, beans, squash, 1st eggplants, 1st peppers, 1st tomatoes

10 % Challenge - we did it!

National Headlines among Churches: The 10% Challenge 

Approx. 250 congregations from 38 states entered the Interfaith Power and Light challenge. The IPL was initiated through Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco and provides over 10,000 congregations with sustainable resources to help lower the carbon footprint in faith communities all over the States.

Our very own Grace Church entered the 10% challenge. We displayed our ongoing efforts to reduce our energy and waste impact in our church buildings through comprehensive measurements like energy audits, light sensors, changed light bulbs, recycling and the vision to significantly reduce our energy bills by replacing our 45 year old Heating and Cooling system!

Grace made it into the finals and 5 random winners received a cash incentive of $10,000. While we were not among the recipients of the money prize we have been awarded with the 10% Challenge Certificate that we will proudly display as soon as we receive it. Congratulations Grace, we made national headlines by protecting our fragile home, God’s gift to us.

Movie event a big success!

THANK YOU to all who came to our first Diocesan wide movie event.

‘The Human Footprint’ by National Geographic presented a challenging display of our impact on God’s planet. Our Grace Creation Care Ministry (GCCM) Team did a fine job hosting this event, providing popcorn and cider to more than 35 parishioners from different churches throughout our Diocese. Several eco friendly household alternatives were displayed and the Cathedral bookstore provided many sustainable options from jewelry to green Bibles. This event was co-hosted by our Diocesan ‘Green Team’ – SustainAFaith. Its members include Kay Faddis from Emmanuel, Webster, Kelly Carlson, Associate Priest at St. Peters, Ladue and Barbi Click from the Cathedral. A big thanks to all of their hard work!

Bishop Smith on Caring for planet Earth

Reflections on Sabbatical
includes a very heartfelt observation by Bishop Wayne Smith, that, if all the data are truth regarding climate change, how then shall we live? He mentions that he enjoyed reading 'Eaarth' by Bill McKibben.
Please read the article and share your thoughts on this blog. I would like to  suggest that we read 'Eaarth' as a group and offer a discussion evening later in the fall.

The Presiding Bishop and the Oil Spill

Please take some time to read Presiding Bishop Schori's comment on the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Electronic recycling in St. Louis until 10/2010

 Monthly drop-off location for electronics in St. Louis: From February until October:
E-cycling collection site:  Chesterfield Valley Athletic Complex on the Parks & Recreation Buildingparking lot, 17891 North Outer 40.  Items can be dropped off every 4th Saturday of the month Feb-Oct from 10-4.  No fees, a donation to cover handling expenses is appreciated.

Accepted Items: - Computers, laptops, monitors, printers, cables and peripherals (keyboards, mice etc.)
- Networking equipment, telecommunications, phones, clocks, etc.
- TVs, VCRs, stereos and like audio/video/satellite/cable equipment
- Home electronics, blenders, toasters, etc.
- Washers, dryers, dishwashers, furnaces and A/C equipment
- Electrical, cabling, and communication machinery and equipment
- Lawn equipment, tools, old mowers, tillers, etc.
- Old motors, transformers, and all electrical equipment
- Car and lead-containing batteries
- CDs, VHS, DVDs, cassettes, DAT, and all types of software
Business and residents can also request a low-cost pick up service.  All donations are tax deductible.
For more information: rdavis@witsinc.org    314-382-1650    www.witsinc.org.

Recycling batteries and cell phones

We have a new service at Grace: Call2Recycle is a voluntary program that recycles rechargeable batteries and used cell phones.

Population, Politics, and the Environment

Warren Davis shared this video with me. A must see from our very own St. Louis faculty.

Kilowatt Ours

I would love to show this at Grace and Diocesan wide. Emmanuel saw this screening and they loved it! It's a wonderful example of how to avoid building power plants by simply conserving energy and reducing our wasteful usage of our resources.
Please check it out!