Replace Toxic Household Products with Coconut Oil Coconut oil is best known as a curry ingredient, smoothie additive, and beauty product. It also belongs in the cleaning cabinet as a natural and powerful cleanser and polisher. If you haven’t switched to non-toxic household products yet, now is the time. Each year the U.S Poison Control […]
Preserve the Harvest in a Root Cellar Imagine eating homegrown cabbage, beets, potatoes, onions, carrots, apples, and other produce on a winter evening, without the use of canning or refrigeration. Before home refrigerators, this scenario was commonplace thanks to the low-tech root cellar. A root cellar is any food storage area that uses the earth […]
Save Space by Growing Up Want to multiply the number of plants you can grow in a garden or on a patio or deck? Grow up! Vertical gardening, a technique to cultivate plants up surfaces or supports, is the perfect way to squeeze lots of plants into a small space. Growing up, rather than out, […]
How to Create a Wildlife-Friendly Backyard Today’s environmental news is often alarming, especially the warnings that biodiversity, a term used to describe the immense variety of life on Earth, is under siege. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warns nearly one third of known species are threatened with extinction, including 41 percent of […]
In the craft beer world, solar panels and ambitious recycling programs have become the norm. Microbreweries from Alaska to Colorado to Massachusetts strive to be sustainable, local, and organic. But there’s an even greener way to drink beer: Make handcrafted ales in the comfort of your own home. The 1.2 million U.S. homebrewers have some […]
Your Introduction to Hydroponics When most people think of gardening, soil comes to mind. But plants don’t actually require it to survive. They mostly need the nutrients and minerals in the soil. Plants can grow in water, gravel, perlite, rice hulls, pine bark, cedar shavings, and other mediums, or even suspended in air. The science […]
The kitchen is a bustling place in most homes: Meals are made, conversations happen, and days are planned. That’s probably why it’s one of the most popular rooms to renovate according to The National Association of Home Builders. And with the improving economy, both remodeling and new home building and are surging. Choosing to build […]
Green Breweries and Wineries Americans consume 9.4 billion gallons of alcoholic beverages a year: 87 percent beer, 8 percent wine, and the rest spirits. The environmental impact of producing, packaging, and selling all those beverages could make an environmentalist reach for a drink. Breweries and wineries consume large quantities of water, raw materials, and other […]
I grew up in a fairly typical late-20th-century family. We lived a few blocks from the center of town. We bought all of our food at a chain grocery store—and much of it was instant, frozen, or packaged. I’d never spent much time around livestock or farms, but at a young age, I longed to […]