Joining the Green Scene - Eco-Awareness and Eco-Friendly Living

By E.S. Cromwell

In the position of a present-day, average and all-too-busy person, what they're concerned about is how to get by well enough day to day. Their thoughts are typically centered around education, work, families and financial situations. What they don't think about, at least enough of (or at all, being the worst case), is the way in which they're living effects the environment they directly interact with and live in on a daily basis. And even when these individuals do ponder their living ways, they consider them as routine, in line with the many others like themselves in today's world. They feel how they live is just peachy, even a bit simplistic in nature, encapsulating lifestyles pushed by actions and motions that, they feel, are not contributing factors to the apparent environmental meltdown which has been worsening for a number of years now.

The Harsh, Non-Green Living Truth - The Hurt of The Earth

Yet, what they don't realize is that they are in fact living in a manner which is hurtful to the one thing in which we need most - our planet and our home, earth. In all honesty, the lifestyles that most of us lead are not peachy or earth-friendly. At best, they are infused with an environmental stubbornness and ignorance showcased by acting and living in denial amid the current eco-catastrophe we've placed ourselves in. And it's not as if eco-concerns aren't announced or are completely non-existent. It's merely a matter of who's paying attention to such notifications, which sadly, isn't many.

An awareness toward the current environmental mess our planet is in must be properly instilled into these unaccepting individuals. Once this occurs, they need to acknowledge and evaluate the situation and act accordingly to combat their current non-green scene ways.

All It Takes Is A Willingness To Learn and Change

Leaving standard and non-eco-friendly actions behind isn't all that difficult. Even if you're unaware of the specifics to what makes the 'green movement' green, you can research and inform yourself of the thoughts, principles and actions behind the global, green movement.

In simplistic terms, the entire green movement revolves around sustainability, in an environmental sense. The notion that a balanced environmental state can be maintained at a certain, healthy level, indefinitely speaking, is what separates green individuals' motives from standard individuals lack of action. The green aim is one with intent and it strives to promote longevity (whether it be potential or actual) of vital human ecological support systems - such as climatic, agricultural, industry and other various issues that directly impact our environment.

Making Green Changes, Both Big and Small

By simply changing a few aspects about the way you live day to day you can do your eco-friendly part and ease your way into the green scene. Just think eco-consciously. To ease the obstacles our environment is currently trying to bob and weave through you can start by living a life with conservation in mind. Save our environment by using less water, minimal amounts of electricity and lesser gallons of gas and so forth. This can all easily be done simply by showering in a quicker manner, not letting water run when you're not using it...by turning off lights or appliances when rooms and items are not in use. And by purchasing a hybrid car, or driving less - only when needed. All these actions, as well as a slew of others can help you become a conservationist.

Truly, joining the green scene is something anyone can do. Even by starting off small with using something like a solar ipod charger or even a solar laptop charger you can be saving a considerable amount of energy and act in a conserving manner.

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Ten Steps to Environmentally Friendly Landscaping

By Sonia C Llesol

When making homes more eco-friendly, most homeowners begin inside the house, such as choosing energy-efficient appliances and compact fluorescent bulbs. But there are also many chances that exist outside the home to make sure that we are being environmentally responsible such as doing environmentally friendly landscaping.

Eco-friendly landscaping saves time, water and money. A truly green garden and yard also spells out less work. Conventional landscaping wastes a lot of water and needs pesticides. Environmentally friendly landscapes require less water and less chemical involvement. Instead of using pesticides that are harmful to nature, you can apply some basic wisdom to integrate your yard with the natural ecosystem.

Tips on an Environmentally Friendly Landscaping:

1. The best way to green your garden is planting the right plants in the right place. Plants naturally like to grow based on soil, sun and water. Choose plants that naturally grow in your area and more likely to attract native birds, butterflies and bees which will enhance the beauty of your garden and helps it grow. In choosing the spots for your plants, take into consideration how big they will grow and give enough room for them to grow to their natural size. This can create a shade for your garden and saves you money on cooling costs.

2. Reduce the size of your lawn and replace with diverse landscape beds. Reducing your turf saves energy, mowing time, water consumption and lessens the need for fertilizers.

3. Lessen your pesticide use and try to improve your soil so plants will grow healthy and discourage pests and diseases. Before using chemicals, take some time to identify the problem and research for ways to manage it without using chemicals. You can ask your local nursery for more details about this.

4. Build a rain garden. This is not only a great way to utilize your yard's existing topography but they do wonders on reducing water pollution and storm water runoff.

5. Leave the grass clippings on your yard instead of bagging them to be sent to a landfill. Begin a compost pile to recycle dead flowers, fallen leaves and plant cuttings.

6. Establish a wildlife habitat that provides home for butterflies, hummingbirds and beneficial insects. Consider trees or plants with berries, flowers and fruits. Fuschias and trumpet vines attract hummingbirds. Beneficial insects are drawn by sunflowers, thyme, alyssum, calendula and snowberry.

7. Exercise natural lawn care by mowing the lawn on a high setting in order to develop deeper roots and push out weeds. Mow your lawn regularly to remove only one-third of the length of the grass each time you mow. Cutting too much in one setting stresses the grass.

8. Choose absorbent materials for your patios, walkways and paths. Absorbent patios and walkways let rainwater to be captured by soil and then returned to aquifers where it will be purified instead of being shipped out to the ocean filled with pollutants that could harm the marine life.

9. Source your landscaping materials locally. You may not have an idea of how far your ornamental rock has to travel to get to your yard. There is a lot of environmental impact in harvesting that rock and as transportation rates continue to rise, it is more sensible to look for materials in your locality and recycle as much as possible.

10. Plan and design your eco-friendly landscape on paper. Through this you will be able to save on costs and maintenance on your landscaping. A professional will be able to make suggestions and help you choose the right plants and techniques on improving the quality of the soil and increase the irrigation efficiency of your yard.

Live your green lifestyle in Eco-Friendly Sunridge Canyon Homes and find elegant homes in Sonoran Foothills Luxury Properties

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How to Implement Eco-Friendly Features in Landscape Gardening

By Satya Narayan Das

Landscaping is improving the natural beauty of piece of land by planting different combination of plants and making the garden organic. Landscaping gardening works with almost all types of garden and you can do it to improve the height, size or beauty of the garden according to your style and tastes.

Making use of organic landscaping gardening techniques can save you a lot of money and since you use organic techniques it can help save the environment and make it healthier for humans and animals alike. The outdoor is a prime location and you can show your commitment of developing a green building that is beautiful, stunning, require less maintenance and save you money with every passing year.

Get the right plants and think before using chemicals. Many make the mistake of choosing plants only for their beauty and not thinking of the maintenance costs; maintaining plants can be expensive and caring for them could take away a chunk of your time. Plants that are drought tolerant are the best suited for any climate and those that are native to the place you stay are a better bet any day. The native plants grow naturally without much human interference and will require a little more watering other than the required amount of rainfall, however, there would not be any requirement of soil amendments.

Weeds can get in the way of plant growth however they are not as bad as having pests that invade the plants, chemical pesticides need to be used to eradicate these pests. Compost is relatively easier to get at home and in suburban yards that there is no requirement to use to chemical fertilizers unless you want a garden that is perfectly manicured. Chemical herbicides cannot be done without but minimum usage could build a good ecosystem.

Recycling can save so much as it makes use of existing products to create a clean environment. Materials that can be recycled include shredded leaves, rocks, and gravel. If mulch is included in the landscape environment, weed growth is prevented and water evaporation is reduced. As a result, you use save on water usage and also the use of chemicals.

If you are able to make your own compost it will work out cheaper and would be always available at your disposal. When you have your landscape designed with nature in mind and use products that are organic; you would not suffer from invasion of many pests compared to conventionally designed landscapes.

Not everyone practices outdoor living but after a hard day's work to relax in your lawn with green everywhere can having a claiming effect on you. Imagine coming home and having to mow the lawn, trim it or rake away dried leaves. Let your eco-friendly landscaping gardening techniques that is low on maintenance take care to de-stress you.

Reducing landscape maintenance is by reducing the size of the lawn. Many have transformed their yards into huge landscapes by eradicating the grass and replacing it with low-care, drought-resistant shrubs with mulch filled in the spaces. This transformation can give you less work for the landscape in the future and a bed of shrubs will give a much pleasurable appeal in a landscape than a monolith of a lawn. The effective way of removing features that attracts pests are by adding physical barriers and getting mechanical methods for removing pests; this will help cut down on pesticide and herbicide costs and make your landscape less toxic and more enjoyable.

If you are really interested to know more about landscape gardening, visit our blogs at http://www.landscape-idea.com and post your valuable comments on our blogs.

Collect your landscape gardening ideas from landscape ideas

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Go Green With Eco Friendly Promotional Products

By Diane Mcguire

The trend of being eco-friendly is booming in the United States. Small and big companies are continuing to contribute in world's welfare. Going green basically concerns adapting of several initiatives in personal or professional lifestyle in order to provoke lesser damages to the environment. Going green is simply being more ecologically and environmentally responsible.

The promotional industry is a suddenly experiencing a noticeable increase in going green. Eco-friendly products are becoming popular in the industrial as well as the corporate sector. These products not only help in promoting effective campaigns but also help in spreading the word about the company's social awareness and values. But that is not only why promotional items are going green... Yes, the real picture is different. With many, many more benefits attached to it!

Eco-friendly promotional products provide the imprinted brand related message with an additional message of: "We care about the environment." This in turn elevates the brand image and reflects a positive impression amongst existing and potential customers, along with the repeated exposure of your logo.

Choose from a wide range of grow cups and relative plant growing items. This will create a buzz at trade shows and increase the respective brand's popularity. Choose from a wide range of eco-friendly apparels, notebooks, bags, bottles, etc. You can also order for customized eco-friendly tissue wipes, pens, pencils, magnets, etc. and imprint your company's logo with any desired message.

For example, organic totes and recycled bags are popular eco-friendly gifts amongst corporate companies. You can imprint your logo & message on your particular selection from the wide range of organic, recycled and biodegradable bags available on our website. In contemporary times, conservation of the environment and initiatives towards it; is a matter of concern for every individual, private company or a governmental body. Everyone's doing their bit, and you can do too!

Here are a few tips to start off with: manage your energy consumption by switching off the lights, computers and other electronic appliances when they're not being used. Consider traveling by a medium of public transport at least once a week. Encourage the use of recyclable bags and avoid wasting paper. Consider saving limited resources such as fuel, electricity, etc. in whichever way possible.

Our eco-friendly promotional items are recycled and biodegradable. We are always on a mission to craft new and relevant environmental friendly products. Thus, if you are looking for an ecological solution to your promotional strategies, your search shall definitely end here.

If you are a distributor or sales representative of promotional products, and if you haven't included eco-friendly products in your collection, we strongly suggest you to do so. Along with benefiting the environment it might also end up benefiting your business in various ways.

Diane Mcguire has rich experience in the field of online promotional products. Her interests include Internet marketing and online business trends

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Is Your Greenhouse Eco-Friendly?

By Nicki Goff

Greenhouses are a great way for even the home gardener to grow top quality and nutritious vegetables and fruits for many months of the year. One of the more popular and eco-friendly trends in gardening is to become an organic or natural gardener. If you grow vegetables or fruits in your greenhouse, you may want to make your greenhouse eco-friendly.

Growing your own food is a good way to reduce your energy consumption. Think of this - the produce you buy at a grocery store may have been grown in fields, or even a greenhouse thousands of miles away. It has to be trucked to your store, or even flown in - using energy. The store must keep it cool, so that takes more energy, and your trip to the store takes even more energy! So, you can save a lot of energy by growing your own foodstuffs.

If you plan to use your greenhouse in the cooler months, it will require more energy in the form of heating and additional light. You can't cut down on either and expect to grow healthy plants. However, you can save on your utility bills by increasing insulation in cool months and using lower energy supplemental lighting. Just adding a layer of bubble wrap at night can reduce the heating needs.

Another way to stop heat loss is to keep the glass clean so maximum sunlight can enter the greenhouse during the day. If your greenhouse has a fiberglass roof, make sure any moss or algae is scrubbed off and it is kept clean. Seal any cracks and make sure the door fits well. If you have poly sheeting on the walls, put a second layer inside on the studs so there is an air space to prevent heat loss.

Plants within the greenhouse need watering, and since they can't get rainwater directly, set up a rainwater collection from your roof. You can fix simple gutters in place with downpipes that feed into a storage tank right inside the greenhouse. Rainwater is much better to use than tap water, since it does not contain chlorine.

Within the greenhouse, you may still have pest or disease issues. One of the best ways to prevent disease is to pay attention to the ventilation. Plants need warmth, but they also need some ventilation. In warm or hot months, you may need to open all the vents - top and side - to control heat buildup. Even in cool months, you should open the roof ventilator about an inch at midday for a few hours to allow air change. Stagnant humid and cold air is the main cause of grey mold and other diseases.

Use good quality sterilized soil in your greenhouse pots or beds. This will ensure it is pest and disease free. If you are using your own compost, you can sterilize it by baking it at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes. Alternatively, solar sterilizing can be done outside, and you can find directions for this on the internet. The soil within a greenhouse should be kept on the dry side in cool months, since cold wet soil encourages root rot.

So why not have a look at your greenhouse this year, and see what changes you can introduce to make it greener. Your greenhouse will be much more eco-friendly as you make these adjustments, and you will enjoy healthy nutritious foods with less energy consumption.

Gardening expert Nicki Goff offers a free e-mail starter course all about her main passion... herb gardening. Visit her website for access, and her new comprehensive e-book on creating, maintaining and enjoying your own home herb garden, along with bonus e-books on specific aspects of herb lore.
Look for more gardening tips, links and articles on her garden blog.

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Consider Living in an Eco-Friendly Home

By Lian Canonigo

If you are looking for a house and you want something eco-friendly, then this is something that you should give much of your effort to. Finding a new home can really be a tough job, but searching for a green home is incredibly tougher. Nowadays, there are several green homes out in the market. Some of them are even for lease. However, you can not immediately jump into signing any agreement by simply listening to a broker claiming that such property is eco-friendly. You have to identify it by yourself that it is indeed an eco-friendly home.

So how are you going to detect whether it is a green home?

Normally, when you find for a possible house, it is the location that you first look into. This helps you narrow down your choices. Well, if your aim is to live in a green house, try to consider places that are near your workplace, your kids' school and public transportation. In this way, you can minimize the use of your vehicles which causes emission of harmful elements to the air. Regardless of how you test your emission, it can somehow give negative impact to the air. You can try browsing through the internet for more houses for sale suggestions in a particular community.

Another thing you have to keep in mind when searching for green houses, you need to know the basic features of such home. You have to be aware of the characteristics like the construction materials used. The positioning of the house and how the surroundings are affected when there is climate change. A good example of this is during winter, will you be hit by the winter sun. Or if summer season is coming, is it too hot in your place. Knowing these things will help you adjust your living condition as well as monitor the use of your cooling and heating system in the house.

The size of the house should also be included in your list of qualifiers. When you get a bigger and wider house, you will have more energy consumption. This is because since the space is too big, you need to set your cooling system at a higher lever as well as your heaters. Aside from that, you will have to install more lights and frequently use them to light every part of your house. Unlike in medium size homes, they can easily monitor the use of their utilities. They can easily get away with natural lighting and cool breeze that goes inside their home. The air can make the surrounding cooler since they have smaller space to go around. Hence, you can stay in a place without the turning your airconditioner.

The style of the house will also be essential if you wish to stay in an eco-friendly home. You have to be familiar with the insulation of the house. Does it have bigger windows? Will you be fully protected during extreme weather elements? Questions like these must be answered properly so you will know if it is indeed a green home. You see, the safety of a certain house is very much essential regardless if it is a green home or just an ordinary one.

There can be so many identifiers for an eco-friendly house. The factors mentioned above are some of the basic ones. But the very first thing you have to do is educate yourself about the whole concept of eco-friendly home. Once you are fully aware of the idea, it will be easier for you to distinguish which one is a genuine eco-friendly house.

You might want to experience what it is like to live in one of these communities Surprise Green Housing and Tolleson Green Housing.

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