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I love this weather

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The weather’s been so nice hear in Toronto lately that it’s almost felt like spring!

My husband and I just got back in from taking our Labrador Retriever puppy out for a walk around the neighborhood. Now it’s only 1 Celsius out, just about freezing – but there’s no wind at all and it felt much warmer to me than it really was. We had quite and enjoyable walk!

Earlier today my husband went outside and raked up all the leaves that have blown into our back garden and front yard. The garden beds now have an extra inch or so of leaves covering them to give them a bit of winter protection when it turns cold again. Surely it will be cold again soon! I think we’re expecting snow tomorrow in fact. Although the weather is supposed to be around freezing or just above all week so more than likely any snow that falls will melt rather quickly.

And here I thought we were going to have a brutal winter! Perhaps I shouldn’t speak too soon.

How is winter in your area? Is your garden buried under snow or are you having spring like conditions?






I wonder how many of my neighbors grow toxic plants?

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I think I’m going to have to become an expert at picking out toxic plants.

When we take our puppy for walks she tries to investigate everything and often tries to taste everything she encounters. I don’t know how many small stones I’ve pulled out of her mouth!

Now that the cold weather is here the plants in peoples gardens have all withered up and I can’t tell what the heck they are. As a result going near enough to any plant to taste it is taboo for our little pup.

It’s bad enough that I have some very toxic plants in my own garden, but since I haven’t been walking around the neighborhood much this year, now that I’m out everyday walking around the neighborhood I have no idea what everyone else has been growing or whether it might be harmful to my pup if she tries to taste their plants.

I guess for proper dog walking etiquette it’s best anyway if she’s not wandering onto everyone’s lawn to investigate their gardens.

For those of you with dogs how do you keep them out of the plants? – your own or your neighbors.

Living green can save you money

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As a follow up to the post I wrote about whether the Live Earth concert would make a difference in the way people live I thought I’d write about one of the comments on the Go Smell the Flowers site that inspired my post in the first place.

One of the posters seemed to believe that changing over to a green life style would cost a lot of money and might discourage people from making such changes.

Well as someone who has changed her own life style over the years to live in a greener manner I can tell you that a green lifestyle can actually save you money.

Sure the energy efficient light bulbs cost more, but they last four or more times longer than regular light bulbs and barely make a blip on your energy bill so you’ll end up saving money by using them. Plus, if you’re a little bit afraid of heights like I am you won’t have to stand on chairs, step stools or ladders as often to change bulbs.

We compost our food scraps and then use the compost. We also add grass clippings, a small amount of paper product and leaves collected in the autumn to keep our compost going then we use the compost on our garden each spring. The compost is rich in nutrients and acts as a natural fertilizer for our garden.

Growing your own food is cheaper and less fattening than buying processed food or even veggies and fruit that have been transported from the other side of the country. The fruit and veggies that you’ll grow will be full of nutrients and fresher than those you can purchase in a store, plus the act of gardening is good exercise.

If you have a small space you can grow veggies in window box planters – whether they are mounted in a window area or not. If you compost you can use the compost that you’ve made on your own to fertilize your home grown veggies. Once you purchase your initial materials the cost of growing your own food is very low.

Hanging your clothes outside on a line to dry in the sun is cheaper than running the dryer and your clothes smell fresher. Our dryer is very old and uses a lot of energy – we save a ton of money by not using it very often.

Walking, or biking more often is good for you and doesn’t cost you a cent.

Taking public transport is cheaper than paying for gas and insurance for your car and has a lower C02 footprint.

Buying a re-usable bag to bring to the grocery store has an initial cost, but if you shop at a store that charges 5 cents per plastic bag you’ll save money in the long run and keep plastic bags out of landfills.

The law says we must recycle here in Toronto – at least if you are a home owner. The city provides the various recycling containers that we use so it doesn’t cost us any money to perform this task.

If you convert your house to an alternative power source it will be expensive, but in the research I’ve done on this I’ve learned that many homes in my city that have converted actually make surplus energy and the local energy company ends up buying it back from them. So in the long run that saves money or possibly even makes you money.

All of what I’ve mentioned above can save you money and I don’t find them difficult to do at all.

Do you have any more tips or ideas?

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