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Laura Allen, who helped changed the grey water laws in California, conserves energy too by air drying her clothing.

What’s the big deal about hanging laundry out to dry? My guess is the dryer is just too convenient. I’ve read that back in 1981 only about 13% of American households had dryers, but now almost 80% do. Personally I love my clothesline. It was definitely one of the old Italian lady features that charmed me when I moved into my house 15 years ago. But besides nostalgia, there are other reasons to get out the clothes pins. If you’re trying to save money you can save between $100-300 a year by hanging your clothes out to dry. You’ll also be doing the environment a favor as well. According to the US Energy Information Administration ” a typical household could save 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere by hanging out clothes.” If that doesn’t convince you, here’s a few more reasons to switch:

Hanging laundry gets you outside in the fresh air away from that annoying computer.

Sunlight will naturally bleach and disinfect your clothes, just turn the black stuff inside out.

Line dried laundry smells great.

Your clothes will last longer and shrink less.

Tara Hui, a San Francisco urban farmer and featured farmer in Backyard Roots hangs her laundry on the line.

You’d probably never believe Gary Rosenberg’s garden was on a roof top so I had to prove it with this photo of him climbing up a ladder to it. His Berkeley garden is so densely planted and lush that I was constantly checking my steps to make sure I didn’t walk off the edge. His house didn’t have a backyard and he wanted to make use of his large flat roof top so he began the rooftop garden back in 1994. First, he made sure the foundation was strong enough to support all the weight. Then he then stripped the old roof down to the structural elements and covered them with thick plywood. He topped it with two layers of modified torch-on, a rubber-like surface that is extremely waterproof and durable. But the mechanics of his garden is really not what it’s all about.

“I don’t teach gardening, I teach civil disobedience,” he explained, and there’s nothing that bothers him more than our wasteful consumer society. Almost all the containers, building materials, and even plants have been gleaned. He uses solar power, a composting toilet, and recycles the water used to for his plants into a very rich compost tea that he reuses on his plants. He also allows his plants to live their entire lifespans so he can collect the seed from successful plants so they can naturally adapt to the climate. He doesn’t see weeds as a problem, because they are biomass and natural carbon sinks that he eventually add to the compost. The way Gary sees it, if we could redirect the waste stream, improving society would naturally follow.