Saturday, December 1, 2012

My latest DIY adventures

If you read my last post on natural treatments for TSC, I do intend to continue that series soon; still trying to collect all my information and have time to write it all down. :-)

But, in the meantime I wanted to share my latest creations. With cold and flu season upon us, I made a batch of elderberry syrup, as it is far cheaper to buy your own than to buy Sambucol from the health food store. I used the recipe found at Frugally Sustainable. It tastes pretty good too! I didn't include echinacea, as some recipes do, since the kids will be using it primarily and it seems there is some debate as to the safety of using echinacea with very small children. Since I've not researched it enough to feel safe using it regularly, I left it out. The honey I used in the recipe was raw, but not local. Since i'm not using it for allergy treatment, I didn't mind that too much.



My other creation is a face cream made from beeswax, red clover and calendula-infused olive oil, water, and lavender and frankincense essential oil. I will probably talk about this one again in the TSC treatments series, since it is for my little one with TSC. Red clover has been shown to have antitumor properties and has been shown to shrink fibromas through blocking angiogenesis. Calendula is soothing and healing to the skin. And, red clover does not smell nearly as strong as turmeric or frankincense which have similar antitumor properties. I'm still in the experiment phase but i am hoping to see her angiofibromas (red bumpy vascular tumors on the face associated with Tuberous Sclerosis) shrink as we use this cream. I plan to take before/during/after photos and post them later. I am just glad the cream actually came together, because my first try was a total flop. Creating creams or emulsifying oil and water (such as when making mayonnaise) is a tricky process and is really easy to screw it up. But, this time it worked, and I am so excited! After i made the cream I added in a few drops of lavender essential oil and frankincense essential oil.

If interested in making your own facial creams, here are two tutorials with slightly different processes.

Herbal Cream Recipe
Fabulous Face Cream or Lotion

To make my cream, first I made the infused oil. In the future I would probably use coconut or jojoba oil or a combination of the two, because I'm not super fond of the olive oil smell for a face cream. There are a few ways to make an infused oil. It seems the most common and best way is to use the same method as when making sun tea: put bulk herbs in a large jar, cover the herbs with oil to the top, screw on the lid, and set it in the sun. And wait. Some say wait two weeks; others say six weeks. I suppose it depends on time of year and the amount of sun you get. Then strain out the herbs. Considering the time of year, my oil wasn't getting very warm outside, so i used this method, which is faster, yet still doesn't get the oil too hot like the stove would. Once my oil was ready, i warmed two cups of the oil in a double boiler with 2 oz of beeswax until all the beeswax was melted. I then poured the oil-wax mixture into the food processor and let it cool five minutes. I then turned on the food processor and slowly and steadily added about 3/4 cup of room temperature water to the oil-wax mixture while the processor was running. Once it looks like everything is incorporated and it looks like a lotion, stop (don't process it too long). I then used a spoon to mix in a few drops of lavender and frankincense essential oil.

I got my herbs from a local store, Herbally Grounded. You can also buy bulk herbs and all the other supplies you would need to make the cream or the syrup at Mountain Rose Herbs.

I will write more when we've had the chance to use the cream and the elderberry syrup and see how they work!

Blessings...

Friday, February 24, 2012

The Naturally "Dr." Mom Guide to Family Wellness

Last night, our two year old was discharged from the hospital after having a CT scan and MRI of her brain. It was a long 30 hours while we were there, but Audrey's no stranger to the hospital so it wasn't scary. She had just been having non-stop debilitating headaches for the last two weeks that were only getting worse, so I felt they needed checked out (due to a genetic disease, her brain is also full of benign tumors that have the potential to grow, so I wasn't just running to the ER for a simple headache).

Whenever there is a health problem in the family (often having to do with Audrey and new symptoms of the Tuberous Sclerosis), I often get friends and family saying how they're in awe of how "in tune" I am with my kids and when something is wrong, how dedicated I am to finding an answer or cure. People have said how shocked they are that often I correctly "diagnose" the problem with my kids before a doctor does. I hear what an "amazing" mom I am, which is kind of weird because nearly every mom I know would, I think, be the same way given the same set of circumstances. I think most parents want to do, give, be anything that their child needs. But over my almost- five years of parenting two kiddos, one of whom is special needs (I'm still a newbie but we've been through a LOT), I have found that some moms just don't take the initiative to have a family that is truly healthy. And I don't think it has ANYTHING to do with love, will, desire, or that they're any less amazing. Like anything else, I think some people just need the tools and information. Some of the items in my toolbox are a natural part of my personality...other things I've learned in our journey with Audrey as we were, in essence, thrown into the deep end of the pool and told to learn to swim.

So, I absolutely am by no means a doctor (my highest level of education is a B.A. in Biblical (ancient) Greek and Hebrew), but, to quote Jenny McCarthy, I definitely feel like I've just about gotten my Ph.D in Google Research.

I had intended to talk about this in a chapter of the book I'm writing about our journey with Audrey, but I think it is important enough I want to share it now. So here is my advice, for what it is worth, on having a healthy family.

1. Preventative care comes first. 

I'm not talking well baby visits and vaccines here. I won't get into the vaccine debate on here, but suffice it to say I'm against them for a variety of reasons, but the primary one being I just don't think it is the best way to grow immunity in a human being. I'm talking, begin to understand nutrition. Not just calories. But what good fats are. What they do in your body. What a healthy diet looks like. Stay away from processed foods. Find blogs on cheap, easy, home cooked meals. Shop the perimeter at the grocery store. Understand the ecosystem that is the human body and what happens when it gets out of balance. If you begin to learn about the human body, you won't be as likely to get tossed around by every new diet "fad"...but will better be able to critically evaluate for yourself if a certain thing is right for your family. Hippocrates, considered the "Father of Medicine", said

"Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food."

God has created your body not as a system of disease, but one that is able to self-heal, provided we nurture it and give it the tools it needs to self-heal. For Christians, Scripture teaches that the body is a temple of the Spirit of God. Treat it that way.

Another part of preventative medicine is exercise. But I believe good food comes first. You can't run a marathon if you're eating nothing but potato chips and diet coke all day every day.

Food is not just nutrition and calories. It directly affects cognition, behavior, mood, energy levels, immunity, etc. This is particularly noticeable in children. Because a child's frontal cortex--the area of impulse control--isn't fully developed until age 25, children are much more affected in their  behavior by food than adults are. Artificial colors, flavors, MSG, sugar overload, genetically modified food, and OFTENTIMES gluten (wheat protein) and casein (cow's milk protein) all act as neurotoxins. And the small intestine has more neuroreceptors in it than anywhere else in the body, besides the brain itself.

2. Always ask WHY.

Think like a detective. Western medicine is very good at treating symptoms, but except in cases of acute illness (broken bones, heart attacks, etc) very very bad at providing a CURE. Get back to the root cause of whatever the problem is, if at all possible. There is a commercial on TV that talks about getting at the "cause" of a stuffy nose--inflammation. But that is not (I would do my philosophy professors proud here) the FIRST CAUSE. What is causing the inflammation? Do i feel this way after eating a certain food? After I pet the cat? When I first wake up in the morning? When I get stressed? It may help to keep a food journal or a daily activities journal to see when the symptoms flair up the worst, and go from there. The body does not just stop working effectively for no reason. There is always a reason. Sometimes we may never know the reason, but we should seek it out when we can. Taking a pill should almost always be a short term solution while you try to play detective and find the cause so you can root it out and deal with it. Otherwise we will all find ourselves at younger and younger ages on a cocktail of prescription drugs...and some of those drugs being to deal with the side-effects produced by other drugs. You don't want to go down that rabbit hole. It's very hard to get out of it.

3. Understand what you can treat at home, and what you cannot.

This is a delicate balance at times. The more research you do, the more empowered you become to realize that there is actually a LOT you can cure without a pill...through diet changes, spine alignments at the chiropractor, exercise, stress relieving techniques, or herbal supplements. It really does make you feel good when you realize you cured your child's ear infection in one day with your own breastmilk or with garlic oil and didn't have to go to the doctor, PAY for a doctor visit, and put your child on a round of antibiotics that then leaves them open to more infection, as it kills off not just the bad bacteria, but the good stuff that creates part of our immune system. But sometimes when we begin to learn these things, our priorities shift. My goal used to be to cure everything at home, so I could say I didn't "NEED" some silly doctor. Then I had a special needs daughter, and I would have been stupid to not put her on some really strong prescription drugs that I absolutely hated, and she has a whole TEAM of medical doctors treating her. Pretty much every "ologist" there is. Now, my goal is not to be smarter than the M.D. or to be able to say I'm entirely self sufficient in every way and need no one, but rather, my goal is simply to have a healthy family. A big part of that is taking care of things at home, but I've learned that sometimes, some things are out of my range of abilities and i need help. We are social creatures that need to live in community, and sometimes there's nothing wrong with asking for help...even from a doctor. :-) Which brings me to my next point.

4. VERY carefully choose your family's health care practitioners.

We have seen SO many doctors I honestly could not list them all here, and the list is even longer when you include hospitals, nurses, chiropractors, etc. I have learned that there is no "noble" profession, only noble people or not so noble people. There are doctors who abuse their power and do not listen to their patients. There are too many doctors who think they're God. And there are nurses with absolutely no bedside manner and you wonder why they chose this profession. But there are wonderful nurses who work their butts off and get puked on and continue to smile. They advocate for you to the doctors and people at hospitals who make policy. And there are good doctors. Great doctors. People who want to HELP people. There are certain qualities that a good health care practitioner has, in my opinion.
          a. They listen, more than they talk. They can't prescribe a good cure if they don't know the full story. If they aren't willing to sit and listen to you, find a new doctor who is. This also means you need to be more patient in the waiting room, because if the doctor is willing to sit and listen, that means that not all the appointments will fit neatly into the schedule, and he may get behind. Audrey's first neurologist listened intently to everything I said, and also asked how we were doing, after the blow of her diagnosis. But I often waited in the waiting room two hours. Sometimes longer. That is a more extreme example..he really was slow in everything they did, including walking to the bathroom, but i digress...
           b. They don't talk down to you like you're ignorant. A good doctor can explain something to you without all the "doctor-ese" and medical lingo, without treating you like you're a moron. If you ever feel stupid leaving a doctor's office, or insulted...find a new doctor. I know we all love to watch House, but in real life if i had a doc like that I'd punch him.
           c. A good doctor is also a teacher. A good doctor knows that if you don't take responsibility for your own health or your children's health, no amount of pills is really going to do all that much good. When I was learning about Audrey's illness, her doctors took time to go through her MRI's and ultrasounds and point out to me what exactly was going on, explain to me how it happened, and prepare me for what I could expect in the future. You should feel empowered, or at least a little smarter, when you leave the doctor's office...like you learned something. If you didn't...you may want to consider a new doctor.
           d. A good doctor is HOPEFUL. I know they see sick people all day long, but a really good doctor can look past that and see a brighter tomorrow. This is especially important when a major disease is diagnosed. No one wants a doctor who tells you, after a cancer diagnosis, that you are definitely going to die in six months. First of all, it is depressing, and secondly, no doctor can know that.  They cannot tell the future, only look at statistics and past experiences. But your situation is unique and need not be like anyone else's.  When Audrey was first diagnosed at four months old with Tuberous Sclerosis and infantile spasms (a brain damaging hard to control seizure type), several doctors told us she would stop smiling, get autism, and be mentally retarded. She would never walk, never do anything. She is two, and despite uncontrolled epilepsy, she smiles all the time, she is quite the character, she runs, she climbs, she does not have autism, she is social, and she understands. Her only delay is in verbal speech.

5. Be willing to say "No."

If a doctor offers a diagnosis, or prescribes a certain medication to deal with said diagnosis, and you have issues with it for whatever reason, DO NOT be afraid to question the doctor, not give the medicine, get a second opinion, etc. Doctors are not Gods. They are not all knowing, or all seeing, or always correct. If they were, they would not need malpractice insurance. With regard to your children, you know them better than any doctor does. Here I will speak to my friends with kids with epilepsy for a moment--if a doctor has your child on an AED and the side effects are worse than the cure, insist on a different medication or lowering the dose. This was really hard for me to do in the beginning because I was petrified of going "against doctor's orders" and her condition getting worse. But every time i blew off my intuition I regretted it. I will mention that more in my next point. It also reiterated what I mentioned about finding a good doctor who is willing to listen to your concerns and is willing to offer alternatives. There have also been times I've taken Audrey to a doctor because I needed a diagnosis, but then treated it at home with other methods. (see again on knowing what you can treat at home and what you can't.) For example, we found Audrey had chronic ear infections that were causing her to have hearing loss, and they wanted to do tubes in the ears. Instead i first took her to the chiropractor who aligned her neck such that the fluid could drain properly, and now no ear infections, and no surgery required! But first she needed to see an ear/nose/throat doctor to get a diagnosis.

6. Learn about natural treatments, and keep your Dr. Mom bag handy. 
Check out this book for a starting point.

In addition to healthy foods and chiropractic care, I would recommend keeping coconut oil, amber, garlic, apple cider vinegar, certain essential oils, probiotics, baking soda, and Vitamin D handy in your mom bag. And do some research on what all these things can cure. You'll be amazed. Also, if you're nursing....breastmilk gets rid of pink eye, sinus infections, diaper rash, and heals cuts. Also consider, next time you're sick, doing a quick google search for natural cures for whatever the illness is. I cured my own case of shingles that was quickly covering my entire body, in three days with B12 and Lysine. In addition to the above, if you have kids I would keep on hand a stethoscope (cheap on Amazon) and more importantly, an otoscope. It is so much easier to be able to see at home if your baby has an ear infection than to wonder until it gets bad, or take your baby to the doctor every month to see if they have one. And if you're pregnant, a fetoscope can tell you not only your baby's heartrate (and hear your baby's heart anytime you want, once you reach 20 weeks), but your baby's position, and where the placenta is located. 


7. Above all else, always listen to your gut.

The Holy Spirit, Mama Intuition, your gut...(i think the first two are separate, as I'm not God... but intertwined) LISTEN TO IT. We've been trained in our society (I think largely because society is run by western-minded men) to ignore intuition, to look only at what you can see and have PROOF of. But intuition is not just some new agey idea. It is the right brain, and like any other muscle, you have to practice using it to be able to hear it effectively. Practice using your intuition. Even self-defense coaches say that too many women are mugged, raped, robbed, etc because they get a certain feeling that something isn't right about a situation (hairs stand on the back of your neck, etc), but they brush it off as them just being silly hyper emotional women...only to find out too late that their intuition was trying to tell them something. Will there be times you take your child to the doctor thinking something is really wrong, only to find out there's not? Probably. Will you feel silly and like you overreacted? Maybe. But you'll feel a whole lot worse if you DON'T take your child when something IS really wrong and it could've been corrected if just addressed sooner.

So there ya have it, my best advice on how to take control of your family's health and wellness. Hope it helps someone, for whatever it's worth. :-)

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Finally, I start the cloth diaper series....

...I've been meaning to write since I started this blog. But, I've held off. For something that should be as simple as what to put on baby's bum, there is a RIDICULOUS amount of information out there on cloth diapers. And how to wash them. And how to store them. And which kind is best.

My children are 4 1/2 and 2 1/2 years old. The older one potty trained completely right at three years old. My daughter is still in diapers. I began cloth diapering my oldest when he was 2 months old, and my daughter from birth.

Last year, nearly everyone I knew got pregnant and had a baby, and I got a lot of emails asking about cloth diapers. I spent a lot of time sharing what I had learned and repeating myself over, and over...and before another wave of babies comes through my circle of friends, I want to share this series on what I've learned about cloth diapering in the last almost-5 years, and I will try to make it as simple as possible. But before I get into the styles of cloth diapers, the differences between them, etc, I wanted to write a post on the differences between cloth vs. disposable, and what you can reasonably expect from cloth diapering, should you choose it.

I won't spend a ton of time on why people choose to cloth diaper, but rather just a short list of a few of the most common reasons:

  • Cost/the economy (on average the cost of disposables over the diapering period is between $2000- $3000...and you get none of that money back...just thrown in the trash, whereas cloth can be as cheap as a few hundred dollars over the diapering period, to as much as $1000 depending on the style and brand, but much of that money you get back by selling them after the child is done with them)
  • The environment
  • Health reasons (Dioxin, a chemical found in disposables is a known carcinogen)
  • They're so STINKIN CUTE!
Now on to what you can reasonably expect from cloth diapering. Some cloth diapering friends and I had a good laugh the other day, about how common it is for people who cloth diaper to "fudge the truth" a little bit about how easy and carefree cloth diapering is. The truth is, sometimes cloth is SO much easier than disposables. Other times, it can be a royal pain. I feel it is only fair to pull back the curtain and let potential future cloth diaperers know how things REALLY are cloth diapering a baby.

In the early days, when the baby is small, particularly if the baby is breastfed, cloth diapering really honestly is a breeze. First of all, the elastic in the diaper or cover is stronger than in disposables, so you have far fewer newborn poop blow-outs. Which means fewer clothing changes mid-day, and fewer of those awful bright yellow stains up the back of your favorite outfit for your baby (or stains on YOUR favorite shirt, from wearing your baby during said blow-out, as has happened to me). The diapers don't stink too badly (if baby is breastfed), and they are easy to clean. The poop is so runny you don't even need to rinse them first. (Honest!) It all just dissolves and leaves with the wash water. So when they're small, the diapers work better than disposables, they're cuter, they're cheaper in the long run, and I would argue they're even better to deal with post-diaper change than disposables, because you just throw them in the wash with no hand rinsing and you're done...they're not sitting in a Diaper Genie collecting funk and you don't have to take it outside to the trash. You also don't run out of diapers in the middle of the night, like has happened to me during short stints when I've used disposables. (Even if all your cloth diapers are all dirty, nearly anything can be made into a diaper in a pinch.)

When your sweet baby gets a little older though...things start to change. The honeymoon is over. You begin to wonder why the diapers are starting to stink so badly after he pees. You wonder what to do now with REALLY nasty poops with solid food in them that you clearly cannot put in your washer without it screaming in revolt. Suddenly you have to worry about either pre-dunking diapers in the toilet (isn't that the nightmare everyone has about cloth diapers and why so many choose not to?), or buying a diaper sprayer which costs more money and is only slightly less gross. And stripping diapers. And why do my diapers suddenly smell so bad even when they're washed? And why are they leaking all of the sudden? And why, after stripping them, am I having the same problem again a few weeks later? What's the best detergent? What's the best wash routine? It gets maddening!



And then one day you find yourself with a pail full of dirty cloth diapers that stink so bad of ammonia they could burn your nose hairs, and some of them have poop crusted on so bad from days of you avoiding rinsing them out, and it becomes very tempting to just throw the whole gosh-darned thing in the trash...all several hundred dollars worth of it...and go buy some Huggies. (Confession time: I've done this more than once, and so have a few of my friends.)

I have tried nearly every detergent, I've tried numerous wash routines, and I've used every kind of cloth diaper in an effort to avoid all the above listed problems with cloth diapering an older baby. And my detective cap has come out a few times wondering why this is such a huge problem now-days with cloth diapering an older baby, when ALL babies were cloth diapered throughout human history until the late 1970's. What gives?

And this is where I say we expect WAY too much out of cloth diapers. First, we expect them to be the washable version of a disposable. We expect them to hold a gallon of liquid without smelling and without leaking. Numerous studies have found that due to the super-absorbing chemicals in disposable diapers, people are changing their babies' diapers less and less often...we're a busy people after all and don't have time to change diapers every time they're wet. No matter how gross and unhealthy this is, we don't smell it with disposables because they contain chlorine that masks the smell.

So, in our effort to make the "washable disposable"...the diapers are made with elastic...and 8 to 10 layers of fabric sewn together...and synthetic fabrics like microfiber and Zorb that hold 7 times their weight in liquid, but don't rinse out as well in the wash. And because we're busy, they sit in a dry diaper pail for two to three days before we wash them. (okay...or SEVEN) During this time, the urea breaks down into ammonia, which is the nasty smell that burns your nose hairs. Add to it that most washers are now HE--using precious little water (I don't even think they get normal clothes clean, let alone diapers containing human waste), and detergents now have more and more additives, fragrances, softeners, and citrus oils....It's just a recipe for disaster no matter how you slice it.

Fifty years ago, cloth diapering was a different ball game than it is now. Diapers were made of 100% cotton, and most were flat diapers that were only one layer thick (the fold and pin kind). there were no HE washers, detergents had fewer additives, and cloth diapers were washed EVERY.DAY. They also changed diapers more often, and potty trained their children at a MUCH earlier age than we tend to do now. (And there is no evidence that the children were psychologically scarred because they were potty trained completely by two years old, either.) I suppose the fact that they were in cloth that didn't absorb as much, and that they changed more often, also led to a baby who was ready sooner to be potty trained. Why go on the potty when I've been trained for two or three years to go in my pants, and the diaper leaves me feeling dry even after I go?

The Solution?
Wool Soaker (cover) I made from a thrift store sweater
Well, I would suggest the most obvious solution is to use flat diapers with wool covers. Wool covers are the most bulletproof cover out there, they're ADORABLE, and they don't stink of ammonia when they're wet. I will address wool in more detail in another blog entry.

People get scared of flat diapers and pins because we've been trained to think they're difficult and antiquated. But really they're not at all difficult to use, they're trimmer than some other cloth diapers (fits better under jeans, etc), they're the cheapest option, and they fit from birth to potty training. I would also suggest washing more often. Like, daily. And don't use an HE washer. Diapers need WATER running through them to truly get clean. Flat diapers can get clean in an HE better than other diapers can because it's only one layer thick, but still, when it comes to diapers, the more water in the wash the better. We could all also use a little bit of SLOWING DOWN. Perhaps if we don't have time to change our babies' diapers  more often, we've got too much going on and should reprioritize.  Our pastor just did a sermon series on this very topic. Here's a funny video about being unhurried that my husband made for the series.

REALISTICALLY SPEAKING....
I know few people who cloth diaper are going to give up their HE washer and their all-in-one diapers. So, my advice for keeping the ammonia funk to a minimum is:

1) If you have an HE washer, there are a few things you can do to get more water flushing through your wash cycle with the cloth diapers only. If you have an HE top loader, you might have a setting that allows for more water. On my mom's, this is the "bulky" setting for pillows and such. It will fill the water to the top like a standard washer. If you have a front loader HE, you may have this same wash option, or you can pour extra hot water through the opening where detergent goes. You can also "trick" your washer into thinking there is more to wash than there is by adding a soaking wet towel to the wash load. The extra weight of the wet towel will make the washer "think" there is a larger wash load, and add more water accordingly.
2) Part-time EC (elimination communication, also known as infant potty learning). It is not a new concept and is still the default in most of Africa and China. I will post about it in more detail in a future post. Few people will EC full-time, but doing it occasionally isn't difficult, will cut down on the number of dirty diapers, and will make it easier to potty train your child completely down the road. Again, more detail on how to do this later. But if you're itching to learn more, you can google "Elimination Communication" and find lots  of good articles and books.
3) Change diapers more often.
4) Either rinse the diapers (including wet ones) immediately, use a wet pail to store them in, or wash them daily. The more time diapers have to just sit, the more time the urea has to break down into ammonia. And poopy diapers are MUCH easier to rinse out if you do it immediately after the diaper change.
5) Use a good detergent that rinses clean or make your own.
6) If you've part time EC'd your baby from birth and made an effort to potty train them sooner, this doesnt' become as much of an issue, but when they do get older and have big grown up man poops in their diaper...these really are awesome. Disposable, flushable diaper liners catch the poo, then you just throw it in the toilet. 

Cloth diapering doesn't need to be a nightmare. In fact, it can be a lot of fun. Maybe our expectations are just a little too high.

More later on types of cloth diapers, EC, detergents, and wash routines. Stay tuned!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Sustainable Gardening in the Desert

Gardening. In the middle of the desert. For this midwestern gal, it sounded like an oxymoron. Or at least something that wasn't sustainable--plants need water, and Las Vegas has precious little of it. I grew up in central Illinois, with the best, blackest, richest, dirt you'll find just about anywhere. Stuff just grows in central Illinois. I grew up surrounded by corn and soybean fields, and several people I knew (including my family) were in the habit of growing tomatoes every year--the reddest, juiciest, biggest tomatoes you've ever seen. As big as your head. Ok...maybe not that big. But definitely the size of a newborn baby's head. And the garden rarely needed watered. My college years were spent in Houston, and while the soil there is mainly made up of clay, the warmth and humidity year round makes it easy to grow a garden, with some added potting soil or compost.

And now, I live in Las Vegas. We've lived here a few years...long enough that I consider it home--where it freezes in the winter, and hits 117 for months on end in the summer. When I first moved here, there was a lot about the natural environment I wasn't fond of. Everyone's yards were covered in rock; few people had grass, and there are scorpions and black widows aplenty. (During the summer on my mom's back patio we can find at least ten black widows hiding in corners on any given day.) But over time I've learned I wasn't giving the desert a fair shake. It's different from the wetter climates back east to be sure, but it has its own share of benefits. Like the fact that we have no mosquitoes. And no gnats. And very limited flies unless you live near a garbage dump or horses. That's right. You can sit outside on any evening and not get bit by a single mosquito. Ah, heaven. And I learned the black widows pretty much keep to themselves.

Similarly, tomatoes have a hard time growing in scorching Las Vegas sun, and having a full grass lawn is one of the least "green" things you can do in this town....but you'd be surprised just what DOES thrive in Las Vegas. Even with our blazing sun, crappy soil, and four-inches-of-rain-per-year.

With the right potting soil, watering routine, and giving the vegetables partial shade, you can grow nearly anything in Las Vegas, but I want to focus on things you can grow here that are more sustainable. Not everything prefers rich, acidic black midwestern dirt.

First, the indigenous plants:

The Succulents
Prickly pear cactus, aloe vera, and blue agave come to mind. Blue agave is best known for its use in making Tequila, and more recently its popularity in the production of "Agave Nectar". However, since there's a fair bit of controversy over the supposed health benefits of agave nectar I don't know that I'd recommend it for consumption, but it's a very common plant for decoration. Aloe vera on the other hand, is well known for its healing benefits. You can buy the juice at whole foods and drink it or add it to smoothies; it heals sunburns and has antiseptic properties on cuts. But those flimsy, pathetic looking houseplants you find in window sills in temperate climates? Nothing like what Aloe looks like in its natural habitat.

Aloe thrives in the sandy, white, alkaline, junk soil we have here in the desert, and can handle the heat. It never needs watering either. You can harvest the outer leaves and use the inner "gel" for both food and medicinal purposes.

Prickly pears, found on cacti, also grow naturally here, need little to no watering, and though I've never tried them, I hear the fruit taste great and are good in smoothies.       

Next, onto the Mediterranean!

In recent years there has been a greater focus in America on the many health benefits of eating a mediterranean diet. The region is considered one of the world's few "blue zones"...where people are living better, longer, happier lives. Many of the world's "super foods" are native to that region, but most of those foods are expensive. Have you priced pomegranate juice lately? Or dates?

So imagine my excitement when I had my lightbulb moment: Las Vegas is pretty similar to Israel's ecosystem. It is hot and dry, in a valley surrounded by mountains, with rocky soil. So here is my list of super foods that can not only survive in Las Vegas, but thrive here, with minimal intervention on my part!

Pomegranate Bush (People have them all over town and I've heard they grow like weeds, with far more pomegranates than they could ever eat. A good problem to have in my opinion.) 



Stone fruit trees (Plum, Nectarine, Apricot)--they all use minimal water, are pretty, provide good shade, can handle the summer heat, and need at least some cold in the winter to produce a good fruit crop. My mom has a dwarf plum tree in her front yard, and with absolutely no help from us, it produces lots of miniature purple, juicy plums every year. They make great jam, and are an easy snack during walks around the block. :-) Those dwarf plums have grown to be one of my favorite trees.
Which is sweeter? The plums, or that sweet face?
Olive Tree- Moderate to low water usage, thrives in heat, grows large quickly, provides good shade, does well in rocky soil, and of course, provides olives!





Date Palm Tree- low water usage. From my understanding, the leaves are sharp enough to easily cause much bodily harm, and they grow quite tall. But for free dates, it might just be worth it to hire someone to climb up there and harvest them for me! I love Larabars, and dates are the primary ingredient in them.

Nuts! Almond and Pistachio trees grow well in Las Vegas with minimal watering. Pecans also grow well but the trees get huge, and they require a bit more water.


Fig Tree- Fig trees also grow rather quickly and thrive in desert climates. In addition to the tasty fruit, the leaves are large and would provide great shade.

Grapes- If you just want grape vines for covering and shade, they will grow with basically no watering. To produce grapes, a bit of watering is needed, but they do well in Las Vegas soil and sun, which is a big plus.

Lavender- I cannot begin to describe how excited I was to learn that lavender grows best in sandy, alkaline desert soil with lots of heat, and needs little watering. I guess I always assumed it needed a more temperate climate, as its common name, "English Lavender" would suggest, but such is not the case. Not only do I love the smell of lavender, but the aroma calms down my busy children and gets them to sleep. Lavender essential oil also has anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory properties and can be used to sterilize surfaces in cleaning the house and in cleaning wounds. Oh, I cannot WAIT to grow lavender! P.S.- a wee bit of trivia for my Bible-reading friends: when "nard" is mentioned in the bible, (see John 12) they are referring to lavender. (The Greeks called it "nardus" after the city of Naarda). During Roman times, a pound of lavender would cost a month's wages!


Some other plants that grow well in Las Vegas climate that may require some watering but can handle the soil and heat: rosemary, cumin, beans, sweet potatoes, melons, pumpkins, zucchini and summer squash, spinach, strawberries, and carrots.

So, I write this blog to encourage you to try to live sustainably wherever you call home. If it's possible in Las Vegas, it's possible most anywhere. We're in the process of buying our first home, and I've already planned out our garden and orchard in the back yard. I am hoping it will need watered infrequently, and when it does, I plan to use grey water and captured rain water. As we tackle new ways to keep our footprint down in the desert, I'll share our journey with you.

How do you live sustainably where you live? Any advice to those just starting?