St. Louis Earth Day is a proud partner of the 3rd annual Sustainable Backyard Tour this Sunday, June 23rd from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, but please register online.
Choose carefully and start early – over 30 backyards, side yards, front yards and courtyards will be on display, highlighting different approaches to sustainable practices at home. The tour is a self-guided, open-house format, showcasing eco-friendly yards in St. Louis City and County.
A diverse learning experience.
Tour sites demonstrate a range of green living practices, including low-impact lawn care, composting and using recycled materials creatively, organic gardening, chicken and beekeeping, gardening with native plants, mushrooms, fruit and nut trees, as well as rainwater conservation, pesticide and herbicide reduction, renewable energy production and backyard habitat creation. In most cases home owners will be on hand to answer questions and share stories.
For more information, visit the Sustainable Backyard Tour’s website: www.sustainablebackyardtour.com.
Our homesteading director.
For each year of the tour, SLED’s Executive Director, Cassandra Hage, has participated as a tour site. Over the past three years, Cassandra and her husband have planted an edible landscape, yielding hundreds of pounds of food from their small South City lot; and, each year they raise the bar to keep their stop on the tour interesting!
Their favorite crop last year was white peaches — the first year of production from their peach tree, which yielded 250 lbs of delicious fruit. So far, the favorite this year is strawberries, picked in abundance about every other day from May through mid-June. While fruits are the jewels of the garden, an abundant supply of veggies from the kitchen garden are a regular part of nearly every meal. After St. Louis Earth Day responsibilities, it’s pretty clear that gardening is Cassandra’s passion!
For more details about Cassandra and Tim’s impressive homesteading operations, check out their profile in Alive Magazine from April 2013.
Earth Day Action Grants… in action.
The Sustainable Backyard Tour was the recipient of an Earth Day Action Grant in April. Part of our inaugural class of awardees, the new initiative aims to provide micro-grants for community groups and small organizations for specific projects with Earth Day-aligned goals.
Read more about our 18 grant recipients who were recognized at this year’s St. Louis Earth Day Festival in Forest Park on Sunday, April 21st.