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A sunflower room provides a living outdoor playroom for kids in the summer which can be expanded and moved each summer. Plant the sunflower room as soon as the danger of frost has passed in your area (consult your local cooperative extension for safe planting dates) and the kids can enjoy their own private outdoor enclave all summer. As a bonus, the best variety of sunflowers to use for a sunflower room, Mammoth Russian, also produce some of the most delicious sunflower seeds for snacking.

You can plant a sunflower room straight in the lawn without suffocating the grass or using weed killer. You can either carefully cut the grass around and between the sunflowers with a string trimmer or weedwhacker, or just let it grow longer for the summer on that patch. If you do decide to kill off the grass inside the sunflower room, we suggest distilled white vinegar, which kills the vegetation but is safe for use around children’s and pets’ play areas. (continue reading…)

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With spring comes spring cleaning. Banish winter’s stale mustiness with simple cleaners that are so nontoxic you could cook with them.

Hot Water

Water goes a long way toward a clean home. Steam cleans and sanitizes hard surfaces, though avoid using steam on wood floors, wood furniture or laminate. However, you don’t need a fancy steam cleaner to get the benefits of steam cleaning in a kitchen or bath. Simply boil a pot of water and pour a small amount carefully on your stove, countertops, sink and bathtub. Let sit for a minute for the hot water to soften the accumulated gunk, then wipe clean. For vertical surfaces, carefully dip a cleaning cloth in hot, not boiling, water and scrub away. Watch to ensure that you don’t burn your fingers. Clean crusty burner pans by soaking them in a sink full of very hot water. Hot water and a microfiber mop make short work of tile and linoleum floors, too. (continue reading…)

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Leafy greens are a nutritional powerhouse, and an essential element of green smoothies and blended salads. Leafy greens are also a rising source of foodborne illness, particularly since they are often consumed raw. To get the most nutrition with the least worry, consider planting some of these easy leafy greens in your garden. Some are even pretty enough for a spot in the front yard. Most greens are cold tolerant, so you can plant the seeds directly in the ground as soon as you can work the soil in spring.

Leafy greens tolerate more shade than many garden vegetables, though they still need at least 4-6 hours of good direct sunlight a day for optimal growth. Though the plants are grown for their leaves, they will produce flowers and seeds, in an effort to propagate the species. Once a plant sends up a flower stalk, a process called bolting and easily recognizable by a rounder stem growing from the middle of the plant, the leaves become bitter and aren’t much use as a table vegetable anymore. Because leafy greens bolt but are more cold-tolerant than other vegetables like squash and tomatoes, they are usually grown as both spring and fall crops, with one planting as soon as the soil thaws in early spring and another in mid to late summer for a fall harvest as the days cool again. Here are six healthy, pretty and easy-to-grow greens to grow in your home garden or tuck in the flower beds to fill out the spring foliage. (continue reading…)

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Whether the groundhog predicts six more weeks of winter or an early start to spring, this is the time of year when I grow weary of the cold and snow and yearn for the green shoots of the coming spring. A windowsill herb garden is a fun project that even younger kids can get involved with, and scratches that itch to finally see something growing again.

Some gardeners insist on gloves when working with their plants. I like to go bare-handed and really get in touch with the seeds and the soil. There is some evidence that soil microbes can even help elevate your mood, though the beneficial microbes might not be present in the commercial potting mix used in most container gardens. (continue reading…)

©iStockphoto.com - Aprad Nagy-Bagoly

When frost comes nipping and the snow falls, the days of popping open a window to get fresh air in are over for another few months. Even when you can get fresh air in periodically, indoor air quality can be questionable, and dust and pollutants build up in homes hunkered down against the cold.  In energy-efficient houses with tight envelopes to reduce energy loss, the lack of air exchange affects indoor air quality even more quickly. With these five steps, you can keep your indoor air quality up all winter.

1. Clean

Keeping a proper cleaning regimen is an overlooked component of indoor air quality in winter. Vacuuming and dusting regularly reduces the amount of particulates that can potentially go airborne. When you’re cleaning hard surfaces, use low-VOC cleaning solutions to limit pollutant buildup. Microfiber mops allow you to clean hard floors with only water, without using floor cleansers. (continue reading…)

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A green house has to have an efficient plumbing system. Plumbing is much more than a network of pipes and drains. The potential for water and energy saving brings attention toward the plumbing in a green home. Efficient and careful plumbing can help to save thousands of gallons of water per year by reducing wastage of water. Efficient plumbing also minimizes wastage of hot water, lowering energy bills and reducing loads on the energy grids. Heating water consumes around 30% of residential energy.

A lot of energy gets wasted letting water flow while waiting for hot water. Water heaters themselves are another area where making the right decisions can add up to substantial savings in energy use over the life of the appliance. Water conservation is equally important. Our planet has a critical issue of water conservation. Only 1% of the water available on earth is drinkable, but unfortunately much of that is polluted. The availability of drinkable water is decreasing in many parts of the world. Thus we cannot afford to have luxury of taking clean water for granted.

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Many of us have the best of intentions for cooking for our family, but often fall short during the reality of everyday life. We’re all busy, and it’s tempting to visit Trader Joe’s or the local grocery store regularly to buy pre-made or pre-prepared food. This can be expensive as well as fattening. We’d love to be able feed our family healthy homemade food, but how do you increase your chances of actually being able to do this? How do you bring your good intentions into reality? One secret is to make your kitchen ready for you; invest in storage solutions that will make it easier for you to whip up daily meals. If cooking is easier, and the ingredients are on hand, you’re more likely to cook. Here’s some tips on outfitting your kitchen:

Invest in Good Bulk Containers

In order to cook, you need to have food. It sounds obvious, but having accessible food can often be a challenge. Instead of having small bags of beans or rice that get lost in the pantry, invest in some bulk storage containers that will let you store a larger quantity of the basics. You’ll be able to keep this easily visible on a shelf, and in addition to not running out you’ll be able to use these as creative prompts for those “oh-no-what-am-I-going-to-cook-for-dinner” nights. You can also use bulk containers for baking needs. They’re easy to clean, and during the summer you can keep them in your refrigerator or freezer to avoid indian meal moths. (continue reading…)