August 19, 2009

Green Ideas for Cheap!

Green Ideas for Cheap!

Everyone wants to help fight global warming, but I need to make sure that my wallet is not the casualty of the battle. If you follow some of these green ideas for cheap, you might find out that you can save the environment - and your wallet!

First, stock up on white vinegar. This is one of my favorite green ideas. This is a great all-purpose cleaner and can be used to clean floors, kitchen surfaces (it's especially good with grease) and bathroom surfaces. Mix it with essential oils of lemon of lavender for a pleasing scent (and microbial activity as well). You can also use white vinegar as an alternative to fabric softener in every load of laundry, even whites. Those companies that produce the chemically based cleaners will have to come up with green ideas of their own to compete with your new white vinegar revolution.

Organic food is delicious - and expensive. One of the tastiest green ideas is to grow your own vegetables and herbs. This is predicated on having space to grow them of course. However, I'm a renter without a yard and I grow herbs in window boxes and have a hydroponic grower that I use for lettuces. I have a fresh salads almost every day. If you don't want to bother with that, join a community-supported farm. This is like a collective and for $20 to $50 a week, you can have a big box of locally grown and organic foods for your whole family.

Using re-usable containers is one of the most forehead slapping green ideas. Not only are you throwing away pounds and pounds of garbage every year in coffee cups, take-out containers and water bottles, you're spending a fortune as well. Make your own coffee and bring it to work or school in a travel mug. Eco-friendly re-usable water bottles are now available in virtually any grocery or supermarket. Saving money and the planet is the combination I love seeing in the best green ideas.

So you see, green ideas don't need to be expensive ideas. In fact, all of the green ideas I've listed about would actually save you money. It's the biggest no-brainer I can think of. And all of them take no effort at all. When it comes to green ideas, you can keep the real green - your money - in your pocket and still do your part to help combat global warming and protect the Earth for future generations.



Backyard Mini Greenhouse Kit Reviews

Tips for Effective Garden Pest Control

Tips for Effective Garden Pest Control


I've been gardening for many years now. I took it up as a hobby after a friend told me how relaxing and rewarding it can be to tend to and raise my own vegetables. At first I was a bit skeptical about whether I'd even like it or not, but it didn't take long to realize that my friend was exactly right. Now I love nothing more than putting on some old clothes, listening to soft music on my iPod, and spending an entire Sunday afternoon pulling weeds and gathering my modest harvest.

The only thing I don't like about gardening is dealing with the incredible number of pests that attack my plants. Effective garden pest control is hard work, and takes a great deal of vigilance and perseverance. But there's no way around it if I want my corn, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, and cucumbers to thrive without any problems. So that's why I've been doing my best to gather good garden pest control tips that have worked well for others.

Of course, one way to control garden pests is to treat your plants with harsh chemicals that will kill everything from ants and fleas to aphids, slugs, beetles, and roaches. While this approach is generally cheap and effective, nobody wants to eat food that has come in contact with insecticides -- no matter how safe the manufacturers claim them to be. Even commercial growers have been abandoning chemical garden pest control methods in favor of more natural alternatives.

Because of the backlash against chemicals, there are now many organic garden pest control products on the market. These items usually consist of various combinations of ingredients like vinegar, sodium, potassium, garlic, rotenone, and mineral oils that work to eliminate common insects that attack gardens. In order to use organic solutions to control garden pests, you'll have to know exactly what kind of problems you're dealing with so you can choose the appropriate weapon.

Tiny bugs and insects aren't the only threat to gardens across America. Wildlife can be a major annoyance as well. It can be harder to keep wildlife out of gardens safely and easily, because obviously you don't want to harm any deer, rabbits, squirrels, or other animals in the process. One thing you can try is to install fencing in order to limit access, but this won't do much against birds or burrowing critters. People have reported having good luck placing various substances around the perimeters of their gardens. These include products that have a strong odor, like mothballs, or even the urine of natural predators (which can be purchased at garden pest control supply stores online).

If these garden pest control tips don't work for you, you can always call a team of professionals to come out and deal with the problem. That would be more expensive than doing it yourself, but it's definitely worth it!



Backyard Mini Greenhouse Kit Reviews

August 02, 2009

Garden Master 101 (weekly)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Gardening Fun group favorite links are here.