And the next Green Award goes to...Homegrown Edible Landscaping!

A bit of my spotty blogging in the last few weeks has been due to a lovely fact -- my partner and I are about to buy our first house. Of course, the timing couldn't be better, what with the $8,000 tax credit to first-time buyers and the ridiculously low interest rates.

But more than those financial incentives, I'm just celebrating the fact that Joe and I will be under the same roof long-term, something that hasn't happened for most of the last 8 years of our relationship, due to long distance arrangements of the employment/grad school persuasions.

The house is everything we wanted -- great location in the city, a place for Joe's office that's separate from our living area, and... get this ... a YARD!

Which brings me to the next Gender Lens Green Award, which goes to a wonderfully innovative mom-and-pop-type company, known as the Homegrown Edible Landscaping Company.

Based in Lancaster, Pa, this husband and wife team's motto is "A yard is a terrible thing to waste." Their philosophy is that grass takes up space in a lawn where food could instead be grown. Environmentalists have been encouraging folks to buy from local farmers for some time now, because it cuts down on cost, as well as the fossil fuels it takes to transport such food from farm to processing center to grocery store. But the Homegrown Edible Landscapers take it a step further, suggesting that growing a portion of our own food is even MORE desirable because it requires no transportation and a low upstart cost.

They say this on their blog:
Homegrown is an environmentally friendly and human-powered business. In our designs, we exclusively use materials which are local, recycled or salvaged from the trash, and local and heirloom plant varieties. We use hand tools and bike power as much as possible.

Bike power. How cool is that??
While I'm not sure we'll be able to get this great company to come all the way to Philly to landscape our yard (and edibly so), I'm just completely inspired by their innovative and environmentally friendly practices.

And, of course, it doesn't hurt that everything they grow is EDIBLE.

OMG, what could be better? Food, a few steps outside your front door.