Recycle Your Oil

• RECYCLE your used lawn mower or auto oil by bringing it to either Wallace's location.

• Wallace's will burn the oil, smoke-free, to heat our greenhouses in an efficient and environmentally friendly way.

• This helps dispose of your used oil properly, thus protecting precious surface waters and groundwater, while assisting us in reducing heating costs (and thus keeping costs lower for our customers).
  

Wherever you are, anytime, avoid spilling any motor and fuel oils. Even a little bit of oil can cause a big slick on surface waters or can affect ground water.

Market to Market:
Summer time is harvest time and it is time for everyone to hit the local farmer's markets for fresh, locally grown fruits, veggies and herbs. Iowa farmers grow the sweetest sweet corn and most flavorful tomatoes. The quad cities has so many farmer's markets that you can always find one open on your schedule. Check out www.localharvest.org. Type in your zip code for a map to all of our great local farmer's markets.

Green Tips to Survive Red Hot Days

• Become a fan-atic. Use ceiling fans instead of your air conditioning or try out one of Wallaces decorative room fans.

• Keep that stove/oven turned off.

• Get out in the garden to harvest veggies and herbs for fresh eating.

• Drink lots of cold water (from a pitcher- not plastic bottles).

• Hang Low... In your house- hang out in your basement or first floor where cooler air prevails.
  

Green Up Your Cook-Outs

• Fire up a propane grill--charcoal and wood grills emit much more carbon monoxide and other VOC's (Volatile Organic Chemicals) than the earth friendly propane types.

• Buy reusable dishes to serve up your famous burgers, dogs and kabobs.

• If you must use disposable dishes, make sure they are compostable.

• Time to top those burgers with lettuce, tomato, onion... grow your own or buy local and eliminate the thousands of miles that produce travels to get to the grocery store.
  

Ways to Save Water

• Fix your leaky faucets, hoses and fixtures.. Don't throw away your leaky hoses.

• Simple patch kits cost less than $5.00 and work great.

• To save even more water, add an automatic shut-off valve to the end of all your hoses.

This will allow you to stop the water flow when it is not needed.

A Challenge! Wallace's challenges you to change just one thing in your gardening this year and every year to be more green and make a difference.

* Try collecting rain water with a rain barrel,
* using organic pesticides,
* starting a compost pile,
* or simply planting a tree.

Once you see how easy it is, you will definitely want to try more!

When it's once again Spring Cleaning time, green it by disposing of difficult household items in the proper way.

Celebrating an anniversary? a birthday? or are you just in a gift-giving mood?

• Ditch the traditional bouquet of flowers and switch it up with something long-lasting and usable like a new indoor potted plant, or a bouquet of flower seed packets for spring planting.

• Still insist on that bouquet? Go Green by choosing a florest with the VeriFlora Certification, which indicates sustainable growing practices.

Green Up Your Family!

• Start with back-to-school preparations. Before starting a new semester, sort through your materials. Many supplies can be reused or recycled.

• Notebooks, folders, and binders can be reused; recycle unwanted papers and reuse your old folders and binders.

• Share your used books with friends, relatives, or younger schoolchildren.

• Change the light bulbs in your house to CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lights).

• Replace the batteries in your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors with re-chargeable batteries.

• Invest in some canvas or fabric re-usable shopping bags for all of your shopping. They reduce plastic waste in landfills. As an added benefit, Hy-Vee will take $.05 off of your bill for every bag you bring in.

• They also hold more items and won't break under stress . . . no more spahetti sauce breaking in the parking lot.