An Eco-Friendly Home

Protecting the environment doesn’t have to be an expensive venture.  The simplest, small steps can actually have a huge impact, when multiple households adopt the same green practices.

Reduce water usage.

• Don’t run the water while brushing your teeth.
• Take showers rather than baths and keep them short.  Turn the water off while lathering your hair and turn it back on to rinse.
• Only flush the toilet when necessary
• Ensure you've got a full load before running the washing machine or dishwasher.

Reduce energy

• Invest in energy efficient appliances.  They’ll pay for themselves by lowering your energy bills.
• Unplug battery chargers when they’re not in use. 
• Use power bars to plug in your electronics.  Because they typically all use remotes, they continue to use power even if they aren't turned on.  By using a power bar, you can turn them all off with one flick of a switch.
• Instead of driving, walk or ride a bicycle for short trips to the market or the gym.
• Buy locally made, organic products. Less energy is used for shipping and you’ll be supporting your local economy.

Reuse. 

This is the perfect opportunity to get creative.  Try viewing items in a different light.  This is a terrific opportunity to get the kids involved, since they have such active imaginations. Toilet paper rolls can be used to keep excess lengths of cord need and tidy.  Egg cartons can be used to start seedlings.  Glass jars can be used as canisters or even as glasses for a back yard barbecue. 

Choose earth friendly products.

While the availability of eco friendly products has improved over the years, it’s become easier to make substitutions.  Buyer beware:  Some products abuse terminology such as “natural”.  Read the labels carefully.

The better solution is to make your own natural products.  You’ll save money as well as the environment.  Vinegar serves as a terrific cleaner and disinfectant.  A vinegar and baking soda mixture is effective for removing stains.  There are a multitude of tried and tested home made cleaning recipes available online.

Outdoor Activities For Children: Explore Nature in Your Own Backyard

Backyards are wonderful for fun and relaxation.  Many view it as their own personal sanctuary.  This is particularly true of animals and insects.  In fact, you may not even realize how many wondrous treasures of nature are right under your nose, just waiting to be discovered. What a fun adventure to share with your kids.  A wholesome and fun activity for the entire family and an important learning experience as well

Birds are just one example of the animals that can be found in  the backyard and chances are that there are several different species that frequent your little piece of the world. If you have a food source such as coniferous trees, fruit trees or bird feeders, you're likely to attract several birds.  This creates an ideal opportunity for some bird watching and identification.  Have a bird identification book on hand and document the various species found in your back yard in a journal with your child.  You can even include your own photos.

Needless to say, where there are birds, there are bugs, as these are another important food source for some of our feathered friends. You're sure to find an abundant selection of bugs and insects right in your own back yard. As with bird watching, it's fun to study and examine them. By visiting your local library, you should find several insect resource guides or books designed for children.

As an added bonus insects can often live in small containers. This makes it possible for a more up close look at how insects and bugs go about their daily activities. Many stores now offer the supplies needed for catching and storing insects.  These are typically in the form of a kit and may include small cages, containers and nets.

Last, but definitely not least, plants and flowers are also living things that are a fundamental and critically important part of nature. Some things that are interesting to note are the many ways that plants adapt to their surroundings or environment.  See how the plants and flowers in your own back yard compare to those found in reference material.  

We sometimes tend to take things for granted.  Wouldn't it be nice to stop and admire Mother Nature's handy work?  She puts so much effort into making our world a more beautiful place.  It seems only fitting that we take the time to appreciate the special gifts that are right in our own back yards.

Responsible Home Heating

You can reduce your carbon footprint by changing the way you think about home heating energy.

While natural gas heating is lower in emissions than oil, hydroelectricity is an even better option.

If you are in the suburbs and country, catalytic wood stoves, geothermal, and heat pumps are the best options for eco friendly home heating.

Shower or Bath - Which is best?

From an environmental perspective, a shower is better than a bath, as a shower will clean you using half the water of a bath.  Furthermore, if you place a bucket in the shower and save the greywater, you can use that to flush toilets or water plants.

For additional savings, shorten your shower by a minute or two and you can save over 500 litres of water per month.

Green Influence

My friend, Lisa, completes online surveys for cash.  I had to wonder at why she would spend time doing that, when there were so many other worthwhile ways she could be spending her time. 

On one occasion, I teased, "So, have you made your first million yet?"  She simply arched her brow and told me that she had, in fact, been enjoying the extra income; but drew my attention to something that I'd overlooked.

"I know you think I'm wasting my time; but what better way for me to encourage companies to adopt green practices and produce more eco-friendly products?" she said.  "They pay me to share my opinion with them.  I tell them that I want environmentally friendly products."  "If enough people put pressure on the manufacturers, they'll finally begin to listen."

I can't argue with that logic.  Lisa definitely is fighting the green fight.  She's walking the walk and talking the talk.  She even uses a portable solar laptop charger when she's on the net.

Her recycling bins rarely have anything in them, as she has reduced the amount of packaging to the point where she seldom needs to recycle.  Many of the items that most people would be recycling, Lisa finds a way to "re purpose". 

• Egg cartons go back to the farmer's market for a refill. 
• Vinegar jugs are filled with distilled water, then frozen.  This fills empty space in the freezer to make it more efficient, and also works well for packing in the cooler.  She uses vinegar for everything from laundry to household cleaning, to an eco-friendly herbicide, so she has plenty of vinegar jugs. 
• Vinegar jugs are also used for drip irrigation.  She punches small holes in the bottom and sets one beside each of her thirsty vegetables. 
• She reads her newspapers and magazines online.
• She's put a stop her her junk mail.
• She grows fresh produce whenever possible and what she can't grow, she buys fresh and organic.
• Composting and mulching takes care of the organic matter, which means less waste and better home grown produce.
• I could go on; but you get the idea.

I have to admit that Lisa knows what it means to be green and if she happens to make some green while she's at it, who am I to judge?  In fact, she sent me the information and I have to say, it is one of the easiest ways to make money online and most of the offers are simply requests to share your opinion.  I've joined and am now I'm also getting paid to tell companies that I want to see more earth friendly options on the market.  

Free Mulch

If you’re reading this, you’re probably familiar with mulch and have used it in your own garden. What you may not realize is that there are several options available for organic mulching. What’s even better, there are all kinds of sources for free mulch that you may have overlooked in the past. These freebies include lawn clippings, leaves, and pruned clippings from other plant maintenance. One shouldn’t be surprised that these natural mulches are both beneficial and versatile.

Many homeowners, and even gardeners, choose to bag their lawn clippings and use them for compost. This is admirable and can be a fabulous addition to your compose bin; however, consider the benefits of leaving the clippings on the lawn or spreading them throughout your yard. When used as mulch, grass clippings can prevent moisture evaporation as well as weed growth. So you benefit by having an extra layer of protection for your lawn and conserve water as well. Yet another benefit is that, when the lawn clippings decompose, they add valuable nutrients to the soil, which promotes a healthier growing environment.

During the rainy season, you may find that you can’t keep up with mowing the lawn, as it really isn’t advisable to mow grass in the rain. When dealing with heavy growth, you will find that you have far too many grass clippings to leave on the lawn. Another practical option is to rake up the excess and utilize it in your garden. Simply spread a thin layer around the plants to help keep the soil cool and conserve moisture. Focus on the plants that have the least drought or heat tolerance first.

Our yard is vast and, as such, we accumulate quite a large amount of branches and twigs from our pruning sessions. That being said, we’ve always found a multitude of uses for them. We use larger branches to create small brush piles that act as natural habitats for our local birds and we also reserve some to have on hand for bonfires. The smaller branches are ideal for creating mulch. It didn’t take us long to realize that, given the size of our yard, we could justify purchasing a wood chipper; however, for most gardeners, it is more practical to accumulate some clippings for a time, and then you can rent a chipper to make a terrific mulch. Be sure to save up enough to make the rental worthwhile. Consider not only the rental; but also your time and gas to pick it up and drop it off. You may want to get together with others in your neighborhood and split the cost. Be certain to read and adhere to the safety instructions, as this can be dangerous equipment, if not maintained and operated properly. If the chipper appears to be in disrepair, you may want to shop around for a different rental outlet.

Trees are my passion so, it goes without saying that one byproduct in our yard would be an abundance of fall leaves. Leaves are fantastic for mulch and often times I will mix them with grass clippings to give them a bit more staying power. Since northern temperatures can drop to minus 40 degrees celsius, I like to bed down some of my more delicate plants for the winter and protect them from the harsh cold. The added insulation, that the leaves and grass clippings provide, means that my plants can tolerate these conditions. Insulating your plants is particularly important if there is a chance of prolonged hard frost without snow cover. Snow is a natural insulator so, in its absence, it is best to give your plants a little extra protection from the cold.

Christmas tree recycling programs provide fabulous, fragrant mulch. Our nearest city calls it their Tinsel Mulch Program. Of course, the tree bag, as well as any tinsel, is removed from the trees before they’re dropped off; but it makes for a catchy name. Real Christmas trees are the most environmentally friendly choice and, even if you aren’t able to have a live potted Christmas tree, both you and the environment can benefit from a genuine tree. With the proper Christmas tree recycling programs in place, none of the tree is wasted. The entire tree goes through a commercial or industrial grade chipper and pulverizes it into the most wonderfully fragrant mulch. Depending on the program, a certain amount of mulch can be picked up by the homeowner for free or, for a nominal fee, you can take a larger amount. In any case, this is premium mulch at a reasonable price. If you’re local government doesn’t have a program like this in place yet, it would be worth asking for. It keeps all those trees out of the landfills and puts them to good use.

Because all of these mulches are organic in nature, they will decompose over time and will need to be replenished. Some of this decomposition can rob the soil of nitrogen, so it is important to keep an eco friendly fertilizer on hand for this purpose. If you have a compost bin, this is the most likely source that would be readily available. Typically, each time I add new mulch, I also spread and work in some compost around the plants first, then water it in with rain water. If there’s a light rain, I’ll sometimes slip on my rain gear and mucking boots and do this in the rain. Think of it as a pampering day at the spa for your plants.

The use of free, natural materials for mulch and compost will not only improve the health of your plants and enhance your landscape; but will also help the environment by diverting these beneficial byproducts from our landfills. I’m sure you’ll agree that there’s a sense of satisfaction in growing something yourself. This sense of accomplishment grows with the knowledge that you’re helping the planet by utilizing the materials at hand, much like Mother Nature would do. Next time you visit a woodland, take note that there is a thick layer of mulch on the forest floor. It will be made up of leaves, twigs, mosses, grass…you name it. It is a system perfected by Mother Nature.

Get Growing With Your Own Greenhouse!

If you have a love of gardening, but live in an area with short growing season, then your own greenhouse might be the ideal solution. If you start small, you may not be able to produce large quantities of flowers or vegetables; but you will be able to learn the ropes.

The Hobby Greenhouse Association is an organization made up of greenhouse enthusiasts, which can provide a wealth of information to both novices and experts. It is a terrific way to connect with other gardening enthusiasts.

A hobby greenhouse is typically a small, framed in glass structure, designed to maximize growing space by utilizing space and light with glass shelving. Essentially, they allow you to fit as many plants as possible in the small space.

Another version of the hobby greenhouse can include a zippered tent of clear plastic with shelving inside. While this is not as sturdy as the glass greenhouse, it can be idea for the small scale hobby gardener, who mainly requires a place to start flowers or houseplants.

Naturally, there are several hobby greenhouse designs available and they’re typically the same size as a storage shed. Among one of the best is a Solar Prism Greenhouse, which is made of a single piece of clear plastic. This greenhouse design works like tiny prisms side by side. Rays of sunshine are trapped and bounce back into the greenhouse at all angles.

Some greenhouses are even equipped with automatic sensors, which can open vents to increase airflow and also help maintain the optimum interior temperature. As you become more confident and experienced, you’ll find there are many innovative greenhouse designs available. The Hobby Greenhouse Association, or HGA, is one terrific source for some of these designs, which have been created by its members.



Gardening is a fabulous hobby that offers countless rewards. There is a real sense of accomplishment in growing your own plants and vegetables. You’ll be helping the environment, sharing with others, relieving stress, and, feeding your family fresh, healthy produce. Get growing!