Our April/May print issue just published, and the new ‘current issue’ has been updated on CH.com. Following is the letter to readers I offered as an intro to the current issue:
Ten years ago, if I met you at a party and you told me you worked in the green industry, I would have assumed that you were a landscape designer, studied horticulture, or owned a garden center. Today, for most Americans, the green industry has come to mean something quite different. We think of funny looking light bulbs, insulation made of recycled denim, electric cars, energy-efficient appliances, and solar panels.
But long before our blue planet started going green, millions of professionals in the green industry were busy making commercial and residential landscapes more beautiful and inviting. This issue looks at green in both senses.
While current pop culture and media buzz seems to focus on new energy efficient and sustainably manufactured products, not much credit is given to the notion that the greenest product is the one that doesn’t get made. The same can be said of houses: buying an existing home has a much smaller environmental impact than building a new green home. Many of the house projects we cover are renovations—outdated, inefficient older homes that get updated for contemporary life. But the renovation project we feature in this issue is exceptional. On page 40, you’ll find the story of a house that has evolved since the early 1700s and, over the past five years, has experienced dramatic renovations that not only preserve its historic nature but also make it one of the most high-tech houses I’ve ever visited. This combined with extensive new gardens, give the home green credentials no matter how you define them.
Still, existing houses are not for everyone, and our story on buying or selling a green home offers advice about what to consider if you are in the market to purchase an eco-house, or what features to consider for resale value if you are building or buying a new green home.
A more garden-variety definition of green turns our focus outside and into the landscape for a glimpse of what spring has to offer after the snowiest mid-Atlantic winter on record. Our cover story features a serenely beautiful little garden in the Eastport neighborhood of Annapolis. Other stories—on what plants to select for container gardens in the shade, great recipes for vegetarian cooking, and how the beauty of the garden is enhancing interior décor—explore green from horticultural, culinary, and decorative perspectives.
We hope you’re not sick of going green, but because we know you might be, we thought that some unique alternatives might be the perfect way to welcome spring.
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