Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
NORFOLK -- It’s a new spin on gardening.
In a year’s time, you could nurse a thousand baby oysters into creatures capable of filtering thousands of gallons of water a day.
Next week, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation will hold a seminar about oyster gardening. It’s fun! Just ask Kendall Osborne, his two daughters and a neighborhood friend.
“It's been great for the kids because we get to find a lot of critters in there,” he says.
The Osbornes have been oyster gardening in their back yard for seven years now. A small floating crib sits off the dock in the back yard. Once a month, they pull up the plastic envelope that protects the tiny oysters from predators.
The oysters are cleaned with a hose and a brush. When they are fully grown, they will be transplanted on local reefs.
In a matter of days, their oysters will be transplanted on a reef in the Lafayette River.
Over the years, pollution and over-harvesting have negatively impacted both the oyster population and the water quality of the bay and its tributaries.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation says the efforts of oyster gardeners are helping to make a big difference.
Local reefs are said to be some of the best restoration success stories in the entire Chesapeake. But the Bay needs billions of oysters. not millions.
“Currently, our population is between two and four percent of historical averages. We'd like to see that increase by 70-80 percent, so a lot more oysters than we now have,” notes Chris Moore with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
The Osbornes are doing their part by starting yet another garden and hope others will share their commitment to a cleaner Bay.
You don’t need to live on the water to become an oyster gardener.
The seminar on oyster gardening is Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Norfolk Yacht and Country Club at 7001 Hampton Blvd.
There will be other seminars in the coming weeks in other Hampton Roads localities.
Sign up through the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
