Search Results for: blog make a frugal greenhouse

Eating Organic and Local For Less: Part One

You’ve chosen to eat organic and local to reduce your impact on the earth. If you also want to eat on a budget, how can you eat frugally and be green? Switching to organic food reduces the amount of pesticides, antibiotics and hormones used to grow your food. Switching to local food reduces the travel distance and greenhouse gases emitted when your food travels from far away to your plate. However, for many people eating organic and local food seems totally out of reach. How can you go organic and local without breaking your budget? Create connections with local farmers. … Continue reading →

Natural Gas Drilling: Safe or Not

I will be the first to admit that I don’t know a lot about how we get our energy. I don’t give much thought to what goes on behind the scenes to light my house, power my television, heat my stove, or cool my house. But, in writing this green blog, I must do a lot of eye-opening research. Today, I stumbled across an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about drilling for natural gas. Specifically, the article focused on a coloring book to teach children about natural gas drilling. The coloring book features a cute little dinosaur called Terry, a … Continue reading →

Selecting the Flowers for Your Wedding

Earlier, we talked about choosing the size of your wedding bouquet. Now it’s time to break the whole flower thing down to the finer basics – what kinds of flowers do you want? There are a number of different variables to go into the equation. Let’s take a look at them. 1. What time of year are you getting married? If you’re working with a florist, you can be almost sure of getting the flowers you want, regardless of season, because florist flowers are grown in greenhouses. However, there are some things, such as waxflower, which are only available during … Continue reading →

When You Want to Ditch that Lawn

Does a patch of green outside your home seem more like an obligation than a delight? Would you rather spend your Saturdays doing something other than mowing your lawn? An increasing number of home owners are deciding to ditch the once standard lawn and move on to something that requires less maintenance and less water. But ditching the lawn may not be all that easy in your particular area. Here is what you need to know. Check with your town or city ordinance In some areas, there are rules that may prevent you from ditching the lawn. This is because … Continue reading →

Public Transportation: The Way to Go!

I know, I know, it doesn’t seem to be the first thing people want to consider about when talking about green living. Americans have become so dependent on their cars and I must admit that the thought of public transportation makes me cringe sometimes. Not being able to leave somewhere or go somewhere else when I want it is hard to swallow, but when I started reading about all the benefits of public transportation, I started to change my mind a bit. By taking public transportation, Americans can limit the amount of greenhouse gases and smog-producing pollutants. Did you know … Continue reading →

White Roofs and Clean Coal Anyone?

Living green and helping the environment seems to be on everyone’s mind lately and President Obama is no different. Now, it seems that his Energy Secretary Steven Chu has a few ideas up his sleeve. Chu’s first idea is simple – paint roofs white to reflect sunlight. The idea was actually developed by Chu’s former colleagues at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Of the white roof idea, Chu said, “There’s a friend of mine, a colleague of mine, Art Rosenfeld, who’s pushing very hard for a geo-engineering we all believe will be completely benign, and that’s when you have a flat-top … Continue reading →

How to Grow Your Own Herbs

Whether you pronounce the “h” or not, herbs are a wonderful thing for both cooking and medicinal use in your home. Most herbs are pretty easy to grow, even indoors. Growing your open herbs is economical and will keep you away from pesticides. From basil to lavender a few simple tips will have you growing your own herbs in no time. How to start First, determine which herbs you would like to grow. You can decided to start your herbs from seed or from nursery plants. If this is your first time growing herbs, or if you choose a perennial … Continue reading →

Interview with the Chicken Lady 3

Are you ready to raise your own chickens and enjoy delicious home grown eggs? This is the last blog post in our series that asks an expert chicken lady about all there is to know. If you missed the earlier two posts, I strongly suggest that you go back and catch up. Just click on the links: Interview with the chicken Lady and Interview with the Chicken Lady 2. What supplies do you need to raise chickens? How do you house them? Instead of having a traditional coop or chicken house, I decided to make a more portable structure for … Continue reading →

How to Garden in a Bad Economy

Let’s face it, the economy is affecting everything, even gardening. In fact, I think it is increasing the prevalence of gardening, as people look to grow their own food, stay close to home and have activities that don’t cost a lot of money. There are many different ways to garden, and some strategies work better than others when the economy is in a downturn. Here are some ideas about keeping the economy in mind when you garden, getting the most out of your garden and adapting your gardening techniques to the current economic situation. Let’s start with the biggest trend, … Continue reading →

What to Do with Old Windows

Reusing what you have is usually a sure bet to save money. Some things have obvious reuses, such as paper bags from the grocery store, while others may be a bit obscure, such as what to do with a bunch of leftover allen wrenches. One item that keeps coming up in reuse questions is the old window. This may be the year that we replace our old drafty single pane windows with insulating double pane ones. Just throwing the windows away could cost us two times. The first is the cost to dispose of the windows, either through the window … Continue reading →