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6 Simple Ways To Make Your Home Eco-Friendly

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Many people are trying to be more environmentally conscious these days in every aspect of their lives- including their home. Turning your house into an eco-friendly oasis is easier than you think, there’s no need to build a new home. There’s many small, simple ways to make your home more efficient, and improve the environment.

Use Friendly Paint

If you’re rebuilding or renovating, consider purchasing paint that’s low in VOCs (volatile organic compounds) which are compounds high in toxicity that can cause air pollution and even cancer to those who breathe it in. VOCs are unstable compounds that vaporize into the air still seep out even years after painting. Paint the second largest VOC contributor into the atmosphere, second only to vehicles. Choosing a paint that is low in these compounds will help reduce your carbon footprint, and could save your health! Regular exposure to paint emitting these vapors has been linked to many different cancers.

Try Composting

Altering your lifestyle to include a compost pile is a simple way to help out the environment. Putting all organic food scraps, such as banana peels and eggshells, into a bin and then using the resulting compost on your yard will not only improve your land, but the environment by reducing waste that is sent to landfills. Many cities have a composting service that will pick up your compost if you don’t have an area to use it in.

Install Solar Panels

Solar panels will reduce your electric bill by providing clean, natural energy to your home. Solar water tanks are also out there, to replace water heaters. Harnessing solar energy reduces the need for non-renewable fossil fuels that we currently use to produce most of our energy. Solar panels may be pricey to first install, but the change in electric bills will make up for initial costs.

Use Low-Wattage Light Bulbs

A really simple way to improve the eco-friendliness of your home is to switch out basic light bulbs with low-wattage, energy efficient ones. It’ll not only save you energy costs, but they last longer than traditional bulbs as well. This is one of the simplest ways to reduce your carbon footprint.

Find Low-Flow Alternatives

Another fairly simple step to making an environmentally friendly home is to invest in low-flow toilets and showers. These do the same job as regular appliances, but use less water- protecting the environment and saving you money.

Clean Green

Eco-friendly cleaning supplies are important to protecting the environment and yourself from toxins. Most eco-friendly cleaners contain grain alcohol, coconut oil, or other plant oils instead of toxic chemicals that you shouldn’t be ingesting and that shouldn’t be released into the air. You can also make a change by making your own cleaning products using simple ingredients around the home like soap, water, baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, and borax to save money and go green.

It’s not hard to take these steps to improve our environment. So, take a trip to the hardware store and get started on making your home and eco-friendly oasis today.

Fahreed Tulbah is the owner of Caden Roofing, a professional roofing company in Austin, Texas that prides themselves on having competent, experienced workers that provide top-quality roofs made with inspected materials for both residential and business buildings.






Make Your Neighbours Green With Envy

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When was the last time you stared out of your bedroom window, eyeing up your next door neighbour’s back garden?

Admit it, we all do it.

Mentally measuring the length of the grass, critiquing their taste in gnomes, wondering how much that conservatory cost; you know you do it.

Make your neighbours green with envy with these tips to getting your garden looking beautiful.

 

Grass

The foundation of most gardens is the grass – a beautiful green lawn can make any garden look good.

When you look up and down the road, everyone’s grass is a different colour, this is because everybody cuts, waters and fertilizes it differently, not to mention the fact that there are a variety of common grass types.

You may think your lawn needs cutting, however the longer you leave it the better.

When the grass is longer, it traps more moisture and shades the roots and soil from the sun, which means it won’t dry out and will stay green.

When you do mow it, put your mower on the highest setting and it will look neatly trimmed and greener.

To maintain your green grass, water it at around the same time every morning with regular fertilizing in early and late spring, as well as early and late fall.

 

Flowers

When picking flowers, most people tend to focus on colour. Instead, focus more on texture and size contrasts in order to achieve a diverse, inviting outdoors space, as opposed to an area that has been purposely co-ordinated and looks unnatural.

 

Veg patch

Growing your own may take a lot of setting up, but it can be really worthwhile, money-saving and look great! With your own personal allotment you can grow anything you like, from potatoes to pole beans, radishes to rhubarb. Stick a scarecrow in there for good measure too! Why not?! A vegetable patch can really make a garden look like a practical and delicious haven.

 

Accessories

Move away from the traditional gnomes and terracotta and find some unique garden ware that will have your neighbours saying ’Where can I get one of those?’. But be careful, don’t overcrowd your garden with accessories so much that it takes the attention away from the prettiest accessories… the flowers.

Making your garden look fabulous is a lot of fun, but make sure you regularly maintain it for all year round fabulousness!

Becky is a keen gardener who loves styling her garden with unique garden ware from http://www.nutscene.com/.

Keeping Gardens Green

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In these environmentally conscious times many of us are keen to garden in as green a manner as is possible.  Just where does one to start?  So often the word green is just inserted into a description but might not mean anything more than the colour of the paint on a gardening tool.  A little bit of research can go a long way although it will take a long time before being able to do everything.  There is no need to do everything at once.  In marketing there is the well-known 20/80 split.  That means that 20% of smokers buy 80% of cigarettes!  It is a remarkably consistent pattern for many products. So with 20% of the effort required you can achieve 80% of results that you want to achieve!

Nowadays one of the big problems is that people want to pave over large parts of their garden.  On a small scale this does not matter but when whole streets cover their front gardens for parking and put down slabs for patios in their back garden the amount of rain that can be absorbed into the soil is reduced and the resulting run-off can cause flooding.

There are ways around this and still avoid the need for weeding.  Where hard standing really is a must there are various types of concrete grids which allows rainfall to seep through into the soil but is more than capable of keeping vehicles from churning up any mud.  Any greenery growing through the grid can be kept orderly by using a strimmer.  The greenery softens the visual impact of the concrete but does not hide it.

Alternatives include putting down permeable matting and topping it with chippings.  This arrangement will allow rainfall to seep into the soil and boot water supplies for nearby plants during dry spells.  This can reduce the cracking of clay soils which in turn reduces the risk of subsidence of buildings in droughts!

One can use decking instead of concrete or stone slabs for patios.  By leaving a few gaps the rainwater will soak into the soil.  If one does not want to be bothered by having to keep undergrowth in check lay down permeable matting and most problems will be kept manageable.

No option is perfect but some are definitely preferable to others.  A few stepping stones across a lawn can make it easier to cross without having much impact on the environment.  By having some herbs growing next to a path one can breathe in the scent when they are crushed underfoot!  (Do be careful not to slip!)  A garden can please more than one sense if a little thought is given to it.

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Post written by London Florist – Flowers24hours.co.uk , know more about the florist on their About Us Page.

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