Doing a Year 12 Formal semi-ethically

Teenage Daughter had her Year 12 Formal the other night. Here are all the things about it that fitted into the Footprints Project.

• Her dress was second hand
• She borrowed shoes, jacket and handbag
• Twenty two of her friends met locally and hired a bus to take them into the city and back later
• All the jewellery she wore she already owned or borrowed for the occasion
• The make-up she bought will last quite some time since she rarely wears make-up
• Her corsage was not bought from a chain store but I don't know where the flowers were grown

The things that were not so ethical.

• The amount of product and heat that went into her hair!
• The hair clip
• The make-up was bought from the Body Shop whose parent company is L'Oreal.
• The nail polish

For the most part, I think we did well. I'm particularly proud of my daughter for wanting to try to do it as ethically as possible.

Cheers.

Vinegar weed killer

Our front garden currently smells like salad dressing! I read on the internet a little while ago that straight white vinegar makes a good weed killer so we tried it on the weekend. Some of the weeds responded almost immediately and wilted like cucumber in a dressed salad. Others, however, show no signs of distress. Proprietary weed killers take up to two weeks to work so we'll see what happens with the vinegar.

We decided to try it because we thought it would be preferable to weed killer. Our reasoning was that we ingest vinegar so how harmful could it be to the wildlife in our garden, including our dog and two cats. You may be wondering why we feel the need to poison the weeds at all; why not just pull them up? Those of you who have seen our garden already know the answer; neither Husband nor I have a single green thumb cell between us. We detest gardening and the harder the work, the more we avoid and loathe it. Add to the mix that our life of chauffeuring Teenage Daughter and Teenage Son around to their various weekend commitments means we get little time to keep on top of the weeds the way one needs to when pulling them up.

When I went to put something in the recycle bin after the big salad dressing spray, I have to admit the number of empty vinegar bottles in there bothered me. We went through four two-litre bottles and only did a fraction of the front garden. Yes, that certainly is an indictment of our gardening! However, the bigger picture is that herbicides are very concentrated. It can take quite some time to get through a two-litre bottle because only a small amount of it is mixed with water and sprayed on the weeds. I honestly don't know but now I'm wondering environmentally which is actually worse; to use so many plastic bottles, all of which use energy to be made and recycled, in an attempt to be eco-friendly or to use a product which may be more harmful but ultimately more eco-friendly in its packaging. It's something I need to research further. If anyone knows or knows where to look, I'd appreciate your input.

Cheers.