(CC) Audrey Michael/Flickr
National Geographic’s The Green Guide currently has a great article on landscaping and gardening products that are more eco-friendly than some traditional choices. “Greener Garden Supplies” covers a wide range of products, including garden tools, hoses, fencing, patio furniture, composting mixes and rain barrels. There’s even information about pest-eating insects that you can buy, for those who are looking for chemical-free alternatives to insecticides.
According to the article:
More and more people are choosing to garden organically. So it’s somewhat troublesome that garden tools and supplies are often made of materials that are decidedly not environmentally friendly. Just try to find a composter, for instance, that’s not made of a material like polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The wooden handles of garden tools and the fence and other materials we buy require trees, of course, to manufacture. And therein lies the gardener’s dilemma: Must we contribute to environmental degradation in our quest to till the soil? The answer, happily, is no.
For more information on greener landscaping practices and products, please check out Plantique’s tips and advice:
Get ready for an exciting 2009 landscaping season! Plantique will be blogging about many creative and practical landscaping design ideas, as well as useful gardening ideas and news for the greater Lehigh Valley region and beyond.
For more great winter gardening ideas from Plantique, click here.
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Outdoor living spaces can be your escape from the everyday, right in your own backyard.
We have seen the bottom fall out in the housing market. Oil prices are fluctuating wildly. Homeowners are traveling less. Many consumers are planning to make upgrades on their homes rather than making a move to a bigger house with a larger mortgage commitment. By increasing your home value today, you can probably expect a quicker sale when the housing market does improve, and you will set your home apart from others of similar size in the current market as well.
An August 2007 Wall Street Journal article on home landscape improvement states:
Real estate agents say a nicely landscaped property can have a pronounced effect on the asking price of a home…Nearly 20% of buyers say they consider landscaping to be a ‘very important’ factor in their decision to buy a new house, according to a new study by the National Association of Realtors.
The Lehigh Valley is in the midst of a severe cold spell. In case any of you haven’t already done so, we suggest you take a moment to make sure all garden hoses are disconnected from the spigots around your house. The danger in leaving the hoses connected is that they can cause the spigots to freeze and break. If this happens, water can leak inside the home when the spigot is finally turned on in the spring, potentially causing lots of damage.
To prevent them from bursting or breaking in freezing winter temperatures, it’s best to store your garden hoses out of the elements and completely drained of water. If they must stay outdoors, at least make sure they are empty.
For more great landscaping and gardening ideas from Plantique, visit our tips & FAQs, newsletter archive and photo pages.
