Let us take a closer look at your home environment. Do smooth wool carpets greet you at your front door? If yes, then you get a dose of permethrin, a chemical used to treat most top-quality floor carpets, blankets, mattresses at the factory. If your carpet is synthetic, your body’s bioelectrical system probably gets statically charged as you walk over the carpet to the bathroom.

You take a shower, removing your skin’s protective acid mantle with a cleansing soap, massage in toxic chemicals as you shampoo your hair, and inhale chlorine fumes released from your shower water by heat. As brush your teeth with one of those fluorides toothpaste, you neatly kill off the oral flora that naturally fight bacteria and maintain the health of your mouth. Then you spray a bit of formaldehyde and aluminum under your arms to stop you from perspiring (incidentally, preventing your sweat from carrying toxins out of your body). Then you immerse yourself in a cocktail of chemicals as you rub in body lotion, apply hair spray, mouthwash and cosmetics. You get dressed. Most of your clothes are made from textiles that were manufactured from chemical substances, improved industrially and exposed to a number of chemicals during the production process.

Next, you go to the kitchen. Hmm. What can I eat fast? Oh yes, here is a packaged instant meal. You microwave it (destroying any surviving nutritive elements), stir it and it’s ready. If you took time to read the ingredients, you might find that some raw protein and vegetable oil blended with some mono sodium glutamate, ‘natural’ aromas and colorants were about to land in your stomach. You prefer eco-nutrition? Are you more into stuff like enriched minerals and vitamins? Nice! What exactly do you choose…additives that are produced chemically, or genetically modified ones?

You clean the stove and kitchen counter. Hardly any cleaning agents nowadays are produced naturally even if they claim ‘natural’ on the label. If you open a cabinet with cleaning agents, you see a chemical mini-plant in front of you. The workers who produced these cleaners in the factory wore gloves and a mask to protect them, but like most homeowners, you don’t, so you breathe in the fumes and chemicals leach into your skin. And let’s not forget the mold that can easily develop behind the panels of your lightweight, prefabricated home or in damp places.

Your stomach is now full; the weather is good, so you relax on your terrace with a glass of wine. You are probably sipping sugar in the form of glucagons, and a little sulphur. You’d rather have a cup of tea? There can’t be anything wrong with that! However, tea and many spices are usually sterilized chemically or radioactively. Perhaps your tea is sterilized with heat. That’s good. So sit back and enjoy the fresh outdoor air. You know that your garden is free of chemicals, and you are indeed fortunate to live in the country.

From a distance, you watch your neighbor tending his garden, spreading chemical fertilizers and happily spraying herbicides around all the weeds and trees. A gentle breeze carries them to you, and you innocently breathe them in. Even though you do not use insecticides, they are utilized everywhere, by farmers, city council workers, and home gardeners like your neighbor.

We are often forced to breath in a toxic mix of fumes, toxic particles, and chemical gases. And even those people who consciously try to make good choices cannot always avoid the ecological and health impacts of omnipresent toxins. No matter how healthy your lifestyle, it can be difficult to eat only organic foods, and to breathe only pure air.

Imagine how many hazardous substances your body may already have absorbed, and how many have accumulated there because your body cannot get rid of them all. Sooner or later, like a rain barrel collecting water, your body cannot take any more, and just one more drop causes the barrel to overflow. Your key detoxification organs and natural barriers, including the intestines, skinl, and respiratory system, can become overwhelmed, unable to cope with the toxic load, and toxins spread and collect in different organs and tissues, and around your cells. Your immune system goes into a state of full alert, and may begin to attack the body it was designed to protect, resulting in a pattern of chronic allergies or autoimmune disease. Eventually, your immune system can become exhausted, and you become prone to infection, allergies, and chronic disease.

How can you avoid or correct toxic overload? By doing three things:
1. reduce your exposure to toxins from any source
2. cleanse your body of toxins with a program like Renew You’s 7 Day Eco-Detox System, and
3. eat raw whole foods (as much organic as possible), especially lots of fresh, raw vegetables and fruit, and probiotic foods to assist your body’s natural detoxification and elimination processes. Goodness in…Bad out!!!

Bojan Schianetz is Australia’s Allergy Relief Guru and developed the revolutionary BioFast Allergy Free System, which allows to treat multiple allergies in one single session. This new system has helped thousands of children and adults to regain control of their life in under 30 days. Find out more at my website http://www.RenewYouJourney.com

Author: Bojan Schianetz
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Tissot virtual reality

Everyone has a personal responsibility for keeping the planet green and healthy. So, what can we do to assist in greening the planet? Massive change is necessary but if we’re not capable of that small adjustments add up to profound shifts. Leave the big changes to those with the resources to implement them.

We can make small advancements simply by starting in our homes and businesses. If you have never thought about working for yourself then re-think this possibility. If you consider the benefits of working for yourself doing what you love to do, the benefits spill over in so many ways.

Have you considered starting a home based business? Do you realize the positive planetary and personal gains to be realized by doing this? Consider the following…

1. By working from home you reduce the amount of time in your vehicle which relieves the already congested traffic in most major cities.
2. It reduces green house gases which contribute to the warming of the planet.
3. It reduces our dependency on oil to allow the introduction of other technologies such as electric cars.
4. Big business knows what makes them money. The planet must go green they know this.
5. Staying at home to work allows more personal time with family which also greens the planet by bringing families back together.
6. Take the time to research the many ways to start your own business from home doing what you know and love. Building a business based on your personal knowledge and genuine interest sparks passion that fuels the process to levels of success far surpassed by working at what you don’t like.
7. If you’re thinking this is easy, well it isn’t. But I assure you working hard for yourself beats working hard for someone else any day. What you will find is that the time you put in building your business really doesn’t seem difficult until you look back after your success and say “How did I do that?”
8. Working from home is not for everyone. But it may be for you.
9. Working from home allows for personal time to sneak away to enjoy life doing whatever else you love to do. Keeping your own hours is very freeing.
10. Working at home essentially puts you back in control of your life.
11. Knowledge is power. Use your personal experiences and passions to enlighten anyone who wants to listen. Believe me, there are a lot of people who are seeking information. Share.

Greening your home also includes greening your body. Endorse and promote companies and lifestyle that sell organic and sustainable resources. Eat organically grown produce and restrict our use of packaged fast and frozen foods. Buy products that are eco-friendly by being biodegradable. By displaying our desire to use and promote these resources we send a message to everyone.

The way of the future is green. The future of business is eco-commerce. Live well, Live Green.

The health of ourselves and the planet should be our top priority. Spread the eco-word through business and personal endeavors.

[http://www.ecoroomdecorating.com]

Author: Margaret Zobatar
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Beading Necklace

TURN OFF/UNPLUG

This is the hardest one in my opinion. When you leave a room turn out the lights, that’s the hard part. If your like me this simple task is nearly impossible, why, I don’t know. Other things that go along with this are, TV. I noticed the other day that both my TV’s were on and I was using the computer and I was the only one home. Simply turning these things off when you don’t need them is a big step to saving a lot of energy and money. Also just unplugging appliances that are not in use saves a lot too.

DRIVE LESS

About a month ago, we went to our neighbors to have dinner, 2 blocks down the street. I drove. When we got there my wife said “I guess we could have walked”. That’s what I mean when I say drive less. You could also ride your bike to work, save gas and get in shape. Another way is to limit your shopping to only a couple times a month (we do this and it saves money both in gas and in shopping). Watch TV instead of going to the movie or ride your bike to the theater. There are many ways to drive less it just depends on the person.

GREEN BAGS

You know, the ones at the grocery store. Some are actually green, the color. The ones we got cost a dollar a piece. We use them for many other things than to haul grocery’s, very handy. Plus, their cool.

WATER BOTTLE

Ah yes the water bottle. There are many different kinds to suit your personality. I suggest getting 2, keep one half full in the freezer, that way you can fill it the rest of the way and it will stay cold, and one in the fridge. If you have bad water, get a water purifier. I have done the math and this is less expensive than buying bottled water. The big, main reason for the water bottle is the landfill The plastic bottles that water comes in take a long time to degrade. Before long all that will be in the landfills will be plastic water bottles. Not good.

THOUGHTS

OK, my thoughts on living green are waste not want not (my grandma has told me that many times). The way society is living these days is messy. Look at all the trash everywhere, we pollute our precess air with exhaust. We are a very wasteful bunch. Think of it this way, remember when your mom would say “keep your room clean in case somebody comes over”. Well think about how the aliens look at the mess we’ve made.

MORE

These are just a few ways to live green. There are many other ways. You just need to find the green living that suits you best.

TRAVIS G TURNER
http://pensiveblog.com/

Author: Travis G Turner
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Digital Camera Information

First what is eco-friendly mean? If we don’t Google it, I would say it means friendly to our environment, no chemicals no harmful out-gassing and uses only raw materials. The Wikipedia definition states it is product that inflicts little or no harm to the environment. This is a very grey area. Now lets apply this to decking. There are several products available; pressure treated, composite and hardwood decks.

Composite decking is the least environmentally friendly product. Let me state that this product is marketed as green but let’s examine a few things first. The decking is man made from plastic or composite that has been recycled. Testing performed on the recycled plastic (High Density Polyethylene ) has confirmed that the recycling process loses some of its original tensile strength and the recycled product does not readily biodegrade in the landfills. The fact that this plastic is made of petroleum also escapes the corporations that tote its environmental benefits. Petroleum is costly and sometimes environmentally damaging. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill is one example of the damages transportation of petroleum has caused. Now going back to the loss of tensile strength, how does that affect the life of the deck once installed in an external environment? What happens when plastic is exposed to heat over a long period of time? Again Google one of the composite company names to expose warping, staining, flaking, molding, fungus and other complaints and lawsuits. If you are replacing your deck in less than 10 years time is it really environmentally friendly or if you have to apply chemicals to it to prevent mold and fungus? Do a little homework and you will realize wood is the only eco-friendly decking resource.

Wood is a renewable, recyclable and totally biodegradable product. This product is a primary producer in that it only requires its natural habitat to develop and grow. The sun, water and soil along with the seed produced from another tree is all required to make this raw product. Wood uses less energy to process than steel, concrete, plastic and aluminum. It is used for insulation and has low thermal diffusivity (measure of how quickly a material can absorb heat from its surroundings). The only downside is wood made of certain species of wood will not be as dense and strong as others and would require some type of treatment to be usable outdoors. The new technology now available has opened doors to allow other wood to be available that has otherwise been unaccessible.

Pressure treated decking has been the most commonly used lumber. This lumber is in-expensive, readily accessible and easy to install. The chemicals used to treat lumber, has helped its resistance to insects, decay and mold/fungus. The only problem is the chemicals used to pressure treat the lumber has been chromated copper arsenate, a toxic chemical used until about 2003 and now other chemicals are used such as copper azone but no current information has been supplied as to whether it is any less hazardous also CCA is still being used in certain industrial and marine applications.

IPE decking is made from a hardwood with origins in South America, Central America and parts of the Caribbean. This hardwood is one of the strongest densest woods available. The janka hardness for Ipe is 3680 compared to the California redwood at 420. The fire spread is rated the same as concrete and steel. Naturally resistant to mold, fungus, decay and insects, Ipe requires no chemicals. The lifetime of the wood without a UV inhibitor is 40 plus years and with the inhibitor over 100 years. Ipe has a slip co-efficiency above the requirement for commercial applications for restaurants and hotels. This is the deck you will get to enjoy without all the maintenance. FSC certified Ipe is also available for the most discriminating clients and projects. The Forest Stewardship Council will certify that your lumber comes from a responsibly managed forest. Now that is as eco-friendly as it gets.

Rosi Lehr is a contributing writer for Advantage Trim & Lumber Co.

Ipe Decking

Author: Rosi Lehr
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Excise Tax

Planning your wedding can be a lot of fun. It can also be a great big giant headache. There are so many things to consider, feelings to protect, and your own happiness to pursue. What do you do first? How do you prioritize?

First of all, relax. Take a deep breath…and release. There. Much better.

So you want to have an environmentally friendly wedding – an Eco Wedding, if you will. But how do you go about planning one? Is it possible to have the wedding of your dreams without doing so much damage to the environment that there won’t be anything left for your children’s wedding?

The answer is a resounding YES!

And the best part of having a Green wedding? You save money! What could be better than having a dream wedding while saving the Earth and fattening your wallet? Maybe eating a whole lot of chocolate without breaking out or gaining weight – but that’s a whole different issue.

Back to the topic: Stress-free eco wedding planning. Right.

If you are planning a more intimate wedding – family and close friends only – why not have a short ceremony and the reception at the same place?

Some friends of mine actually went to a justice of the peace accompanied by immediate family only, then invited 20 of their closest friends to their favorite restaurant for a wonderful and beautiful organic feast. Transportation was provided to limit CO2 emissions.

If you want a larger wedding, consider having the wedding and reception at the same venue. Ask what furniture is accessible on-site and how much of it is available for your specific date. If the venue provides tables, chairs, linens, utensils and such, you save money and stress from coordinating furniture rental.

Ask about the site’s recycling policy. Do they recycle?

Does the venue provide a caterer, or can you hire your own? Some places may not let you hire an outside caterer. If this is so, ask the caterer if they use seasonal fare and support local farmers (the shorter distance food needs to travel, the less CO2 emissions produced from transporting it).

Find out about the chef’s vegetarian menu. Is it more than just steamed vegetables over rice or pasta? Request that the wedding cake be made of organic and natural ingredients – no artificial sweeteners.

Opt for a vintage gown or a second-hand dress. After all, it’s traditionally a very bulky dress that you’re going to wear only once. After the wedding, sell it to a consignment store so another bride can use it. Another option is to donate the dress to a charity that will either use the dress or use the material to make another dress.

Wedding flowers can cost a lot of money. A less eco-minded girlfriend spent over $10,000 just on cut flowers alone! Yikes! Instead of replicating this extravagance and waste, why not ask your bridesmaids to feature their organic bouquets from local suppliers as centerpieces for the tables? Or display a potted plant that someone can take home and plant in their garden. You can also use the flowers from the wedding ceremony to decorate the reception area. Most florists will accommodate this eco-minded request.

Now for the wedding favors. Some examples of eco-friendly favors are seed packets – tastefully decorated, of course. You can make your own and slip them into recycled organic envelopes, or you can purchase them online. Organic and fair trade chocolate is another option. Try to give something consumable and biodegradable – stay away from plastic trinkets that end up in the landfill.

And finally, give yourself a break. Hire an experienced and reputable wedding planner. It may seem like an indulgence, but it’s really more of a necessity. Hiring a wedding planner can actually result in saving you a lot of money (and your sanity!).

How?

Wedding planners know all the intricacies involved in planning a wedding. Your wedding won’t be the first one they have planned. They are very well-connected and know who the reputable providers are in the business.

Wedding planners are also very experienced in the negotiating process. Because they work with vendors on a regular basis, they can get you a discount on a lot of things that you may not be able to negotiate yourself. They have your best interest in mind and can help guide you into making informed decisions.

Call us today and find out how we can help make one of the most important days of your life a stress-free and eco-friendly day as well.

Posh Productions Event Planning & Design -
Amira Harris: Lead Wedding Planner
-Calgary, Alberta Canada
http://www.poshproductions.ca

Author: Amira Harris
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Pressure cooker

Spend a few dollars on some measuring cups and spoons and save many dollars over your lifetime of housework! Guessing volumes always leads to wastage, so one of the top ways to make your cleaning Eco friendly is to become more frugal and start measuring the amount of all the cleaners you use.

Another useful Eco cleaning tip is to stop believing what the manufacturers tell us. Laundry detergent is a particularly good example. We are always told to use much more than we need. The makers want us to be happy with the results so have to account for the worst case scenario.

But, how much of our laundry is really that dirty? The odd wash will be full of grass-stains and other problematic things for our laundry detergent to deal with. But most of the laundry is just ‘worn’, maybe with the odd bit of dirt, but mostly just a bit stale and in need of a freshen up.

The really green approach would be to wash clothes far less often and it is true that a cashmere sweater in need of dry cleaning will often be perfectly fine after just being hung outside in the fresh air for a day. All that sun and wind will freshen that sweater up easily. But, realistically, most of us will not stop doing the laundry as often as we do. However for all the ‘ordinary’ loads of washing where there are no tough stains to speak of, try halving the volume of laundry detergent used. You will see little or no difference in the results and you’ll save a little pollution and a lot of your hard earned cash.

Any cleaner becomes more of a simple green cleaner if you use less of it. Beware, this method of Eco friendly cleaning can become addictive. I started halving the volume of detergent for most washes, but then used less and less. For many loads a squirt of vinegar in the rinse cycle is really all you need. Those washing machines are tough and really get the water working to clean up your laundry pretty well, all on their own!

Now I use Eco Wash Balls which ionise the water making dirt easier to dislodge and remove. Ionisers are one of the main active components of laundry detergents. I use this one benefit without any of the polluting disadvantages of detergents. No more detergent for me at all. But, if you do not want to go ‘cold turkey’ just use half the amount in all but the dirtiest loads of washing and save yourself a bundle!

For information on Eco Wash Balls and choosing a simple green cleaner visit the Eco Green Cleaning Product site.

Author: Lec Watkins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Lowest Price Prototype PCB Assembly

Similar to Greening Your Garden, the basics of lawn care starts with your soil. If you haven’t had a soil sample taken in the past 5 years, this is where you need to start. Many local Garden Centers carry soil kits. The do-it-yourself kits will provide you with a bare minimum of information. You should really send a soil sample away to a lab for an “organic” analysis. An organic analysis will tell you exactly how much of each “amendment” you need to add to your soil to bring it up to par. A “regular” soil analysis tends to include only the PH level and the three main nutrient levels you can correct with fertilizers – nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Ideally, you should take your soil sample in the spring.

PH of Soil

Most grasses like a ph level of 6.5 which is slightly acidic. A ph of 7.0 is neutral. Dandelions on the other hand, like soil with a ph level of 7.5, slightly alkaline. Thus a proper ph level will support the growth of your grass and at the same time retard the growth of dandelions. Dolomitic lime is used to increase the alkalinity of the soil, where magnesium and calcium are also needed. Hi-cal lime increases the alkalinity where the soil has adequate magnesium. Flowers Of Sulphur is used to increase the acidity of the soil.

Organic Fertilizers

Fertilizers list the percentage of Nitrogen, Phosphorous & Potassium on the bag, such as 7-7-7. Soil also requires other macro-nutrients including sulphur, calcium and magnesium and trace elements such as iron, boron and zinc.

Organic Nitrogen Sources:

Canola seed meal: (6-2-1) maximum of 5 kilograms/10 sq meters (10lb/100 sq ft). Lasts 5 months.

Fish meal: (10.5-6-0) max 2.5 kg/10 sq mtr (5lb/100 sq ft). Lasts 6-8 months.

Blood meal: (12.5-1-3) max 1.5kg/10 sq mtr (3lb/100 sq ft). Lasts 4 months.

Organic Phosphorous Sources:

Bone meal: (3-20-0) plus 20-30% calcium. Max 2.5 kg/10 sq mtr ( 5lb/100 sq ft). Lasts more than 12 months.

SingleSuperPhosphate: (0-20-0) plus 20% calcium & 12% sulphur. Max 2.5kg/10 sq mtr (5lb/100 sq ft). Starts to release in 2-3 months.

Organic Potassium Sources:

Kelp meal: (1-0-1.2) plus 33% trace minerals. Max 0.5kg/10 sq mtr (1lb/100 sq ft). Lasts 6-12 months.

Wood ashes: (0-0-1 to 0-0-10) Raises PH level also. Max 1 kg/10 sq mtr (2lb/100 sq ft). Lasts more than 12 months.

Compost – that old black magic

All soils benefit from nutrient rich applications of compost at any time. Compost from rotted organic matter is the best all round soil conditioner. It improves drainage, provides plant nutrients and provides beneficial micro-organisms. Apply any time of the year and often.

Watering

Most people water their lawns too much. Lawns need about one inch of water per week. If you haven’t received enough rain in the past week to make up a full inch then you can add your own rain water from your rain barrels. One deep watering is much better then short spurts of water. Soaking the soil once a week will encourage deep root growth which will withstand the dry periods better.

Water early in the morning before it gets to hot and the water evaporates. Don’t water at dusk as this leaves the grass wet at night which can encourage disease.

Cutting

Don’t cut your grass shorter than 3 inches. Longer grass crowds out the weeds and can withstand pest attacks better. Leave nitrogen rich grass clippings on the lawn to feed it.

Aeration

A major cause of weed problems is compact soil. The compact soil stresses and kills the roots of your grasses, allowing weeds to move in and take their place. Aerating the soil allows oxygen to penetrate and restores proper drainage. Most lawns should be aerated at least twice a year, once early in the spring and once in the fall.

After the spring aeration, top-dress with screen compost and pest-resistant grass seed. Immediately after aerating in the fall, apply organic fertilizers as needed. A mid-season aeration is recommended for lawns with heavy thatch.

Use an aerator that leaves a “plug” of dirt on your lawn. By removing some of the soil you are sure to get air and water down into the soil. Aerators that just use “spines” to make a hole could compact your ground further and the holes can quickly fill back in.

De-thatching

Thatch is a dense layer of dead grass stems and roots compacted on the surface of the soil. It is resistant to decay. A thick layer of thatch tends to prevent water from soaking into the soil.

Thatch, thicker than a half inch encourages insects and disease. De-thatch in the FALL. If you discover in the spring that you have a thick layer of thatch, aerate and wait for fall. De-thatching will create some stress for your lawn. It will help if you add a layer of compost afterwards.

Insects

Ants

Ants are attracted to nutritionally poor, dry soils, low in organic matter. Generally, if you increase the organic matter in your soil by top-dressing with compost, your soil will retain more moisture and the ant problem will take care of itself. You can apply sand, borax or bone meal to the mounds also.

Chinch Bugs

Chinch bugs like lots of thatch, dry grass roots and soil low in nitrogen. Aerate in spring and summer and de-thatch in fall. If you have hordes of chinch bugs and they are killing patches of your lawn, put a capful of dishwashing soap in a sprinkling can filled with water and drench the problem area. Then lay a piece of white flannel over the problem area. The chinch bugs will cling to the flannel as they try to escape the soap. In 15 to 20 minutes, vacuum the flannel or rinse in a bucket of insecticidal soap. Sounds crazy but it works.

Sod Webworm Moths

If you notice small whitish moths darting about, you likely have sod webworms. Best action is to aerate and top-dress with endophytic grass and de-thatch in the fall. If you need more help that this, you can try introducing beneficial nematodes as a “natural” control.

White Grubs

These grubs are soft and white, with a C-shaped body. They can be from a quarter inch to 3 inches long. And they can cause patches of your lawn to turn brown and die. The best defense is a dense healthy lawn. De-thatch, aerate and keep surface moisture to a minimum by watering deeply and infrequently.

Milky Spore Disease – a naturally occurring bacterium will control white grubs for years once well established in your soil. You can also try introducing beneficial nematodes.

Beneficial Nematodes

Beneficial nematodes are nature’s way of effectively controlling the larvae stage (white grubs) of the Common Chafer, European Chafer, Japanese Beetle, Asiatic Garden Beetle, Black Vine Weevil, Strawberry Root Weevil, plus May & June Beetles.

They are a safe and sensible way to reduce white grubs infestations and other pest insects while not harming your grass or beneficial insects.

How to apply: normally you just add them to water and spray onto the lawn. Follow the instructions from your supplier. A package of 50 million nematodes will cover 2500 sq. ft. or 250 sq. metres.

Weeds

Most weed problems can be attributed to poor soil conditions. Look after the soil and you also look after the weeks. Aerate, de-thatch, check PH levels, add compost.

Chickweed

This annual plant sends out tangled stems that root rapidly in acidic, moist soil. Check your ph level and adjust for acidity. Hand pull the weeds and your problem will soon disappear.

Clover

All clovers are extremely beneficial to lawns. The fix nitrogen in the soil and are often planted as “green manure”. Clovers attract beneficial nectar feeding insects. Think twice before you decide to do away with this “weed”. If you are determined to get rid of the clover, make a solution of one part vinegar and one part liquid fertilizer (fish fertilizer is best). Squirt the patch of clover with this mixture. The clover and grass will turn brown, but the fertilizer will bring back the grass.

Crabgrass

This is a sign of close mowing and poor aeration. Improve your soil to get rid of the crabgrass and pull by hand.

Creeping Charlie

Creeping charlie likes mostly shady areas. To get rid of it, increase drainage by aerating, de-thatching and adding screened compost. Allow soil to dry in affected areas between watering.

Dandelions

Dandelions attract the parasitic wasp that helps to keep down caterpillar, fly maggot and earwig populations.

You can control dandelions by pulling by hand, checking the ph levels of the soil and mowing the lawn before the dandelions go to seed.

Thistle

Thistle has a deep root that cannot be destroyed easily. It must be dug out completely as any little pieces left in the ground will grow anew. Fill holes with topsoil and sprinkle with ryegrass.

Bruce Knight is editor and a contributing author for the GreenTerraFirma.com website. He is active in alternative energy (solar) and natural alternatives to commercial products. GreenTerraFirma.com contains many additional articles of a similar nature to this. Visit GreenTerraFirma.com – http://greenterrafirma.com

Author: Bruce Knight
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Benefits of electric pressure cooker

This is what distinguishes fake green from real green. Real green doesn’t leave a deficit of resources. It doesn’t create big holes in the earth or deplete resources. It doesn’t create big piles of inorganic matter or fill big pits with toxic junk. If you’re really concerned about living in harmony with your home, the earth, here are five things you can do that are truly earth-friendly; that will have a positive or neutral impact on your environment. There are many more, but this is a start.

Eliminate all commercially made toiletries regardless of how “natural” they purport to be. Before you look at the ingredients (if they’re even listed) look at the packaging. Is it plastic? (Plastic is made from petroleum.) Is it plastic in a slick glossy box? (Plastic coated paper can’t be recycled.) Literally every toiletry in your bathroom can be replaced with four simple items:

Deodorant Stone: This white slightly translucent “stone” is made of mineral salts – that’s it. You wet it and rub it on. It will literally last you a decade or more and it works. It will not keep you from perspiring – you’re supposed to perspire – but it will keep offensive odors at bay. If you want a scent, a drop of an essential oil is enough to scent both underarms.

Food-grade hydrogen peroxide or baking soda: These are substitutes for toothpaste and tooth whiteners. Food-grade hydrogen peroxide may be hard to come by depending on where you live. It’s a 35% concentration, so it has to be diluted – preferably with filtered water or rainwater. (More on that later.) The 3% hydrogen peroxide you find in the drug store is NOT suitable since most of it is contaminated with mercury. Diluted 35% hydrogen peroxide also makes an excellent mouthwash and tooth whitener. In the absence of 35% h.p., baking soda is also a viable option. And it comes in a recyclable biodegradable paper box with no plastic coating.

News flash: Offensive body odor, cavities, and bad breath are not the results of aluminum chlorhydrate, fluoride, or minty mouthwash deficiencies. They are all the result of an acid pH caused by a diet of over-cooked, over-processed foods. Want to smell good and clean up your mouth? Then clean up your diet. If you eat garbage, you’re going to smell like garbage, no matter how many toxic chemical-laden products you use.

Homemade soap: Making soap is easy and fun. If you use the cold process and rebatch it, you can make bar soap, soft soap, dish and laundry soap, and shampoo from the same recipe. Many people like the natural scent of homemade soap, but if you prefer something more foofy, a little essential oil goes a long way. (Essential oils are packaged in glass, which can be recycled or reused. They also last a long time because a little goes a long way.)

Extra virgin coconut oil: This can replace moisturizer, hair conditioner, and foot crmes. If you don’t like the smell of coconut, use expeller pressed. It has a neutral scent. Coconut oil contains lauric acid, the same as breast milk, and absorbs completely into hair and skin without blocking pours. It is also high in omega 3 fatty acids and helps repair sun damage. Now granted – if you’re living in a country where coconut is not a native plant, there is some fossil fuel consumption required to get it to you. However, a little goes a long way. Buy it in glass jars if possible (less petroleum consumption.) For skin and hair moisturizing, put about 1/8 tsp. in the palm of your hand and rub your hands together. Massage it into your face and neck and wipe the rest off in your hair, working it through to the ends. Adjust the amount for thickness and length of hair. Done right, it takes care of the frizzies and fly-aways and makes even sun-damaged hair feel soft. Don’t worry if you get a little too much on – it will absorb and interestingly won’t stay greasy looking. It can be worn under make-up, but it should be given time to absorb. It takes about hour. Massage about 1/8 tsp. or less into your feet to prevent heal cracking and athlete’s foot. Coconut oil has anti-fungal properties.

Just say NO to drugs. Remember that old campaign? What ever happened to that? Now pharmaceuticals are the most abused drugs in the US, outstripping street drugs, and TV commercials have replaced shady street corner drug pushers. We even insist that the government pay for our habit and they’re happy to oblige. What’s wrong with this picture?

Prescription drugs are a serious environmental hazard to water and soil. (Plus, they come in PLASTIC bottles – more petroleum.) Municipal water supplies do not and cannot filter them out. Imagine the outrageous combinations of pharmaceuticals, especially psychotropic drugs, which come through your tap and flow into surface and ground water. Drug pollution doesn’t just come from flushing outdated pills down the toilet. Drugs are prescribed assuming that you will pass up to 60% of them through your body without using or absorbing them. That means every drug user is flushing pharmaceuticals down their toilet, not just the surviving relatives of the granny who dies with 20 prescriptions in her medicine cabinet.

There is no disease known to man that is the result of a drug deficiency. There are no drugs that cure – they only treat. And your body doesn’t know the difference between a legal and an illegal drug. Think about that.

There are natural alternatives to every discomfort and most of those alternatives start with what you eat and drink. There is a plethora of information out there if you’re truly motivated to live earth-friendly and healthy to boot. You can’t live green and use drugs. It’s as simple as that.

Collect rainwater: Depending on where you live, rainwater is a relatively clean source of good water and if you set up a passive system, once it’s in place, the water is free. In urban areas with a lot of air pollution, this may not be a good alternative, but barring that, mechanically filtered rainwater is drinkable and certainly suitable for watering your…

Organic garden! Number four: grow your own food. Again, there is abundant information about growing food just about anywhere you live, from the average suburban lot to container gardening on an apartment balcony. You will be amazed at how much better food you grow yourself tastes, not to mention the satisfaction of realizing you can take care of yourself. In addition to that, organic gardening makes extensive use of a fifth way to be green….

Composting: Your kitchen scraps, non-coated paper, and even dryer lint can all be composted either in a collection bin or worm bin. Red wiggler worms make excellent composters and there are kits available that make worm composting easy and convenient even in limited spaces. There is no odor problem associated with them. Increasingly, offices are even using them in their lunchrooms.

These truly green tips are, let’s face it, not contributors to the economic recovery. In fact, if you continue down the path of truly living green, you will cut your consumption of marketed goods in significant ways. And less consumption, while good for the earth, is not good for an economy based on the unlimited growth of spending. On the bright side though, given that the whole system is foundational on a fiat currency and is destined to collapse anyway, regardless of whether or not you continue to over-spend and pollute, at least you’ll have some survival skills. While all around you panic, you’ll be fed, healthy, and clean. Now that’s sustainability!

Author: Vincent DiAngelo
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Recycle Water

Well you are not really recycling water but what you are doing to trapping rain water to be used at a later date so you do not pull more water from the municipal supply. You do this by using a rain barrel, which is just really a fancy word for a container that catches rain water from your down spouts. Just use a garbage can, rubber maid container or something similar and instead of your rain down spouts just going to the ground, redirect them into your containers. When they get full, use the water in your garden.

Battery Power to the Rescue

Whether it’s mowing your lawn or tilling the dirt, there are battery powered alternatives to gasoline that can do just as good a job. Today’s lithium batteries are far superior to the ones built just a couple of years ago. They have become lighter, stronger and they last longer meaning longer use in between chargers. Grab yourself a solar powered battery charger (or make one if you are handy) and your power tools will never need gas or the grid.

Reuse Old Wood

Do you build things for your gardens such as benches, tables and so on? Instead of going to your local home center and buying new, find someone who is giving away old wooden pallets. A simple search in your area on Craigslist or your local newspaper will yield you plenty of results. Then take that wood and your building.

Cardboard Egg Cartons

From now on buy the eggs that come in the cardboard style egg cartons as opposed to the Styrofoam version. Styrofoam takes hundreds of years to decompose, where as you can use the cardboard cartons as planters for your seedlings, and get his, you can plant the cardboard because it is biodegradable. Now how’s that for going green!

Plant the right Plants

You are already a gardener so that makes you an expert at planting right? Did you know by planting trees and shrubs to block out the sun from your house will cool it down in the summertime? Better yet they can block the wind in the wintertime and that will keep your house warmer. Trees take years to grow so it would be best to get started right away.

Compost

Last but not least, but last for a reason, all good gardeners do the ultimate environmentally friendly technique of composting. This is where you take organic material, such as food waste, leaves, grass, twigs, etc., and let it rot. This is done either by burying it so the ecosystem underneath your soil can do it for you, or in a container called a compost bin. The United States creates over a trillion pounds of organic waste per year that ends up in a landfill. We can reduce 100% of the space if composted our organic material.

As you can see none of these ideas will cost you an arm or a leg nor will they cause you to make life altering changes. But what they will do is get you closer to being greener by helping the environment.

About the Author
Bruce is the co-author of the book Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A guide to vegetable gardening for the rest of us. It is a practical easy to follow book that teaches gardeners everything from composting techniques, aeration and frost conditions, to choosing the right tools and picking the right seeds. To learn more about Mr. Tucker or to inquire about the book you can visit: AveragePersonGardening.com.

Author: Bruce A. Tucker
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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And here’s something even stranger: The labels on cleaning products don’t even tell you about most of the really nasty stuff that’s inside them. If these products are as safe as they’re claimed to be, why don’t the companies tell us what’s in them? Call me suspicious, but I honestly don’t think it’s because the recipe is top secret. If it was, there wouldn’t be so many competing products with identical ingredients.

Don’t look to the government for help on this one. They only require companies to list “chemicals of known concern” on their labels. The key word here is “known.” The fact is that the government has no idea whether most of the chemicals used in everyday cleaning products are safe because it doesn’t test them, and it doesn’t require manufacturers to test them either. Actually, under the terms of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which administers the act, can’t require chemical companies to prove the safety of their products unless the agency itself can show the product poses a health risk-which the EPA does not have the resources to do since, according to one estimate, it receives some two thousand new applications for approval every year. How tough is their review? You, decide: In 2003, according to the Environmental Working Group, an agency watchdog, the EPA approved most applications in three weeks, even though more than half had provided no information on toxicity at all.

For the most part, the EPA simply relies on voluntary testing agreements with major manufacturers. Last time I checked the dictionary, “voluntary” meant “if you feel like it.”

Over at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), drug companies follow a more rigorous and respected process of testing before a medicine is approved for public use. But most of the things you buy in a drugstore aren’t drugs, and there is no such process for testing and approving the vast array of chemicals used in literally thousands of other everyday products and cleaners.

There’s seldom any way for you to know either what kinds of chemicals are in tub cleaner, detergent, shampoo, makeup, or anything else, or whether any of the ingredients are toxic. About the only information we’re commonly given is what the warning label on the product as a whole says-assuming it has one. Oh sure, if there’s a skull and crossbones and the word “poison” plastered on the container, we know it’s really dangerous stuff. But there are other levels of danger. The EPA assigns toxicity levels to products like cleaners and pesticides based upon ÿhow much harm they’re likely to cause if you swallow, inhale, or absorb them through your skin. How they measure this is pretty technical.

Sloan Barnett is a regular contributor to NBC’s Today Show and the Green Editor for KNTV, the NBC affiliate in San Francisco. She has been a television and print journalist for more than 10 years, and wrote a popular consumer advice column for New York’s Daily News for nearly a decade. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and three children. FMI, please visit: http://www.greengoeswitheverything.com

Author: Sloan Barnett
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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