Sustainable & Creative Living
Gardening is a great activity to share with kids of any age! Children love plants and watching them grow. Gardening not only teaches kids about caring for our environment and the earth, but it also helps them learn to appreciate the outdoors and build connections with family at the same time. Here are 5 tips for gardening with kids.
If you have a backyard herb garden and try to use your crops as often as possible, but sometimes find yourself not able to harvest them as quickly as you would like, this DIY Tin Can Herb Garden may be just what you need. I had a small herb container garden on the upstairs patio off my kitchen that I had to relocate downstairs because of my mischievous cats. When I found that I wasn’t using my herbs as much as I’d like to because of the trek downstairs and around to the backyard, I came up with this DIY Tin Can Herb Garden. [Read more…]
If you’re a vegetable or herb gardener, you know that dreaded feeling of having too much leftover and not wanting any of your hard, nurturing work to go to waste. Usually, when this happens I start handing out dozens of tomatoes, excess leafy greens, and basil by the handful. I will pass them out to just about anyone that I know will enjoy the goodies grown in my garden. What I can’t use in a timely manner or get rid of, I have to find new and creative ways to cook and use my excess vegetables and herbs. This Homemade Italian Sea Salt is [Read more…]
I love gardening and caring for houseplants, but I freely admit that because of my schedule, my plants don’t often get the care they deserve. This is why I stick to easy to care for plants. This means I tend to have a lot of the same kinds of plants. Another reason I have a lot of the same plants is because I propagate the ones that I like and want to have more of. Here is a guide to Easy Plant Propagation: [Read more…]
This is the time of year I like to go to my local nursery or the garden departments of all nearby big box stores. I try to stick to easy to grow plants as much as possible. Check out my post about Low Maintenance House Plants & 5 Essential Tips for their Care. But no matter how easy plants are to grow, they’ll still need some care. One item of business with plant care is [Read more…]
As a parent, keeping my children safe is always a priority. We think about external factors but what about the toxins in our own homes? Most of the time we have control over the products we use so why are we using cleaners full of toxins? Our homes should be a safe haven from toxins!
Over the past couple of years, I’ve given up using almost all synthetic and toxic household cleaners and detergents in favor of more eco-friendly and natural products. One of the products I use a lot of these days is vinegar. It’s all natural and extremely versatile.
Bird watching has never been an intentional hobby I took on but it became an especially enjoyable and interesting hobby when I moved to my home on The Gulf of Mexico. I’ve just always been fascinated by seeing these creatures and all their different shapes and colors. And so many find their way to my backyard; like Great Blue Heron, Egret, Roseate spoonbill, Osprey, and even Eagles; Hummingbirds capture my attention more than any other bird.
While these tiny birds appear fragile and delicate, they are actually quite resilient—migrating thousands of miles every year. Hummingbirds can fly forwards, backward, sideways, and even hover midair. Their wings beat 70 times per second and three times that rate when they are diving. No wonder they’re so eye-catching!
Although the area I live in is naturally an attractive location for wildlife, I do a few simple, but key things to make sure I attract hummingbirds:
With spring officially in full swing, everyone is busy enjoying all kinds of outdoor activities. Not only are we spending time at parks and beaches, we’re also spending a lot of time in our backyards barbecuing, swimming, and gardening. Whether you’re outside enjoying your beautiful garden or even inside enjoying colorful spring potted flowers, keep in mind that some of these lovely flowering plants are poisonous to dogs and cats.
People often give and receive plants as holiday or hostess gifts this time of year. One of the most popular is the Christmas cactus. Normally at holiday time they are healthy and in full and beautiful bloom. This plant can live many years and bloom again seasonally with the right care.
Although gardening is one of my favorite hobbies, the lush green plants that I would bring home from the nursery often turned into brown, dried-up dead things. I just wasn’t able to give them the attention that they needed. Instead of giving up on houseplants, I’ve learned a few tricks to help keep them alive and healthy.
