Day 353 of our Green Year: Local Flowers

Layla and I have an upcoming anniversary and that means giving gifts for each other, although its not really required. Typically, I like to give Layla a bouquet of flowers on our anniversary (cliche I know) and I have thought about that and how to make sure it is green this year. Last year, Layla gave me a pot with a flower seed in it for my birthday, and I wanted to do something a bit different, so I am going to get her another bouquet of flowers, but will do it in a green way.

First, I am going to get flowers that are native to the area of Alberta, or at the very least Western Canada. Second, I am going to get them from a greenhouse that is here and which grows it here. This is because I want to lower the carbon footprint associated with those flowers. The less those flowers have to travel the better. Since I also want to get flowers native to Western Canada, even the seeds won't take long to travel here.

Lastly, this helps to support the local economy, which is very important in these trying economic times.

In addition to the flowers, we will also try and plant some trees, give money to an environmental cause and, as luck would have it, on our anniversary we are speaking to some kids about the environment at a youth club. That means for this anniversary, we are using sustainable flowers as gifts, planting trees and teaching kids about why they should care about the environment.

Sure we could not buy each other gifts, but our anniversary is about showing love and nothing is as lovely as flowers and the environment :)