Green Living Blog: Small town green

After reading this post, don't forget to enter our contest – you could win a new dishwasher. Plus, do you have your own story to tell? Send it to greenchallenge@canadianliving.com (no more than 300 words, please), and you could win one of 30 daily prizes.

Today's winner is Lillian Kozenko.

We recently moved to a small town here and as a new house resolution – well, we are going green! My husband is fixing up a diesel car that will get amazing mileage and we are cutting down on our car usage altogether by making less frequent trips to the city through careful planning. As the weather gets warmer, we will be walking our daughter to school more often. And as we furnish our "new" house, we will be keeping a close eye out for environmentally friendly materials and secondhand items that add charm and reduce the amount of waste others take to the dump. I have a compost bin started (purchased secondhand) and am getting into the habit of hanging laundry to dry outside. A garden is in the plans and of course local native perennials that will help sustain butterfly and bee populations. Oh yes, lots of work – but it is worth it in more than one way! Nothing is more relaxing (not even yoga) than folding fresh laundry off the clothesline, smelling the beautiful flowers in your own yard or taking a bite out of that delicious organic lettuce salad you grew yourself. Small Town Green and loving it!

Thanks to Lillian for sending in her story – and don't forget, if you still haven't entered, there's still time to send your own story to greenchallenge@canadianliving.com.Lillian wins a set of five fab books from Random House, including the following:

The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen