Remember way back in April when I wrote about the city of Ottawa’s TREE Program? Well, my delivery day is fast approaching!

I received a letter today explaining to me that my tree would be delivered to me sometime between September 22nd and October 2nd and will include everything I need to plant this tree right away: a sapling, some soil, a pot, some soil nutrients and compost.

I wonder what kind of tree it will be? They make no promises that you’ll get a tree of your choosing (you choose 3 options on your application) but they do say that they try their very best to get you one of your choices. I chose, in order:

1. Japanese lilac
2. Hackberry
3. Crabapple

I’ll be taking the tree up to my parent’s house to plant on their farm. My mom is very excited to see what we get and has a place picked out for it already. What a better way to show my commitment to going green than to plant a tree! I’ll be sure to post some pictures/video when the tree comes. I’m so excited!

What are you waiting for, Ottawa residents? The next tree delivery season is May/June so be sure to fill out your application now! Don’t have anywhere to put a tree? You can also fill in a form recommending a spot for the city to plant a tree for you.

Going green is a fun process, actually. I’m learning a lot about things that I didn’t even know existed before I started! And, as with this story, sometimes it’s the little things that really blow my mind — like Muichic jewelry! I know I’m new at all this but… they can make ivory out of nuts? Why on earth would we kill animals (elephants, hippos, narwhals, walrus, etc.) for it then?

I wear a lot of jewelry, myself, but I’ll tell you — I don’t wear ivory. Not before this going green experiment and I certainly won’t now after reading about this botanical alternative:

The jewelry, made in Colombia by hand, is made from tagua nuts — specifically the seeds of the tagua palm trees. Doesn’t it look just like real ivory? It’s a great reason to conserve the tropical rainforests of South America for those interested making money as it’s just as sustainable as clear cutting to make room for grazing cattle. And why wouldn’t you take this over real ivory? It’s almost impossible to tell the difference — not to mention a much more reasonable way to acheive the ivory ‘look’ without causing so much destruction and death.

Check out their website right here for more details.

Throughout this whole going green process I’ve noticed that I’m starting to question things that I never used to.

Take my Nintendo Wii, for example. It seems I’m always changing, charging, or losing batteries for the Wiimotes. Where’s the beef? Well, sure – I use rechargable batteries I’m not crazy! But aren’t there better options yet? This is 2009. I can power a disco ball with my usb port, but I’m still stuck with the same kind of clunky batteries that I used in my Sony Walkman in the early 80’s to play my Wham! cassettes. Lame.

So what do you think? Where are the alternatives, good readers?

If you’ve been following along, you’ll agree that this — the green experiment, bringing me from not-so-green-at-all to whatever shade of green I can manage to get comfortable in — has been a scatterbrained journey to this point.

Researching and discovering cool green news, products, foods, and initiatives has been really key in this  ‘going green’ journey. I think my preconceptions of what it was to be ‘green’ involved things that were way less cool and interesting, and way more bland, boring, and well, a lot of work.

And in hindsight, I’m almost ashamed to admit that it takes neat videos, celebrities, yummy looking, easy to make food, cool inventions, and flashy sales pitches to catch my attention when it comes to becoming more eco-friendly. But it does — and I’m probably not alone.

Like many of you, I just wasn’t born and raised to care about the environment, to put it bluntly. I certainly don’t blame my mother, she had plenty of things to worry about, like many mothers do. But as I’m getting older — gaining knowledge, experience, observations of my own and opinions to go with them — I find I am starting to notice, with the help of this green experiment, of course, that I should care about the environment. That it’s important to care about the environment. And whatever it takes to motivate me to actually do something, so be it — why be embarrassed? That’s why companies and organizations make these flashy sales pitches, cool inventions, and neato videos featuring their products and initiatives.

So what am I doing differently? How has this experiment changed me?

Well, I can tell you honestly, my interest in green, eco-friendly things has been awakened. I notice eco-friendly things everywhere – things I’d definitely not noticed before. The buses here in Ottawa, for example — some are hybrid! You know, I hadn’t even noticed that before all this. I’m definitely more aware of things like EcoCabs, reusable cloth bags at grocery stores (and now the need to pay 5 cents for every plastic grocery bag you use), organic food and drink everywhere! But do I notice things that aren’t eco-friendly? I don’t think I’m quite there yet. I mean, unless it’s blatantly obvious, I don’t notice it much.  But I’m hoping to get there!

I hope you’ve enjoyed taking part in the journey so far, I’m looking forward to seeing what this next part of the journey holds for me.

I’m working on a post about this whole experiment and where I feel I am with it right now — how much I’ve learned, how I’ve applied it in real life, what my favourite parts are, and what the parameters are on my expectations of where I’ll be on the green scale (light to dark green, that is) at the next check point.

What I’d like to know from you is — how do you think I’m doing? What advice would you give to someone going green, like me? In other words: Advise me! I’m curious to hear from my readers.

Does someone who uses eco-friendly light bulbs count as light green or are they a wanna-be earth-lover?

What’s your take?