No SF – Page 46 – Green Lifestyle Market

Eco-Friendly Landscaping: Helping Ensure the Future

For many people, landscaping is a form of personal and artistic expression. It’s also a desire to improve the quality of life for the entire community. Lush beautiful gardens are a delight to those taking neighborhood strolls, and more than one life-long friendship has begun with appreciation of natural beauty freely shared and the exchange of gardening secrets. Landscaping is also a great way to incorporate more of the beauty of nature into urban environments.

A combination of events such as increasing energy and water costs and global warming have caused homeowners to consider the far-reaching benefits of eco-friendly landscaping. To make your landscaping more eco-friendly, there are a number of things you can do. Eco-friendly landscaping doesn’t just reduce global warming and the cost of yard maintenance, though. It usually reduces the amount of work required for upkeep, which leaves more time for enjoying your yard.

Replacing Traditional Lawns

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “…maintenance over a 20-year span for a non-native turf grass landscape can cost almost seven times more than the cumulative costs of maintenance for a native prairie or wetland.” The high cost of maintaining a traditional lawn isn’t just economic, though. Research shows that lawn maintenance produces greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

The fertilizer and pesticides commonly used are also a source of potential pollution of groundwater. As public awareness of the negative environmental impact of traditional lawn maintenance has increased, many states have begun providing information for their residents on how they can make their own home environments as healthy as they are welcoming.

For those who love greenery and the look of a lawn, one alternative is planting clover. Clover contains natural insect repellents and competes well against weeds, reducing the need for pesticides.

Native Plants

One way to reduce water costs and honor the particular environment you’ve chosen as your home is by using plants that are native to your area. Native plants require less maintenance and they have developed a natural resistance to common pests and diseases, reducing the need to use pesticides. An additional benefit is that they attract beneficial insects and local wildlife.

Xeriscaping is a set of seven design principles introduced in Colorado to help people utilize native plants to help conserve water. Some critics claim that these principles limit their choices too much. However, if plants native to your area don’t provide enough variety, there are many disease-resistant plants available that provide beauty as well as variety.

Garden Plots

Growing concerns about the health effects of genetically modified foods is another reason many people are choosing to replace at least part of their lawns with low-maintenance garden plots that produce fresh organic fruits and vegetables. According to experts, drip irrigation systems deliver water directly to your plants with 90 percent efficiency, compared to the 50 to 70 percent efficiency of traditional sprinkler systems.

This new trend has led many communities to begin gardening cooperatives in which each member grows one or two items, and everyone comes together to trade items after the harvest. One advantage is that everyone is able to enjoy a wide variety of fresh vegetables without the difficult task of creating multiple soil conditions and planting and watering schedules for different plants. Fruit trees provide shade in addition to fresh fruit, and also raise real estate values. Deciduous trees that drop their leaves in the fall can help cool your home in the summer and provide compost for flower beds. Trees typically don’t require much maintenance so there’s really no reason you should skip on planting some in your garden!

Natural Pesticides

Unlike chemical pesticides, natural pesticides won’t seep into the ground water causing contamination of drinking water. One natural pesticide, made from the pyrethrum plant (Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium) is rated highly effective against a large number of insects.

Another natural pesticide can be made by soaking ground onions or garlic in warm water overnight. After straining, the liquid is sprayed on flowers and fruit trees. This natural insecticide is especially effective against aphids and apple borers.

These examples of eco-friendly landscaping prove that we can help preserve the earth without sacrificing beauty or variety.

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How To Make Your Home Office A Healthier Workplace

When you’re setting up your home office, you might be thinking about the computer, fax, and copier, but there’s more to consider than how you arrange your workspace. People spend most of their day in an office, so it’s important to make it the healthiest place it could possibly be.

Air Quality

Green plants can enhance the look of the home office, but they can do much more than that. Plants like ivy are beautiful additions to a home office, and they have the ability to make chemical pollutants harmless. They can also help eliminate mold. If you’re a beginner gardener, choose a type that will be easy to keep alive like a spider plant or a Philodendron. They are hardy plants that can take occasional neglect while keeping the office air clean.

The Scent of the Office

Aromatherapy has been around for thousands of years. Inhaled essential oils can promote healing and recovery. In the office, they can be used to help boost energy levels and relieve stress. Aromatherapy has been shown to help with memory as well. It’s the perfect accessory for the home office.

Brightness and Light

Many people are impacted by the loss of natural light. When you’re sitting in an office all day, your body craves the benefits of natural lighting. Winter depression is a real condition that is caused by less natural sunlight. There are light bulbs that emit a full-spectrum of colors missing from standard bulbs. Along with helping your mood, natural lighting can reduce eye strain and fatigue.

Surrounding Color

Color can also have a positive or negative impact on your mood. There’s a psychology behind the choice of color as well as which ones will have the greatest impact on productivity and creativity. Orange is used to stimulate creativity while yellow stimulates a person’s intelligence. The color you choose will help heighten the traits you’d like to incorporate into the home office.

Ergonomic Furniture

It’s been proven that being hunched over your computer for eight hours a day can have a detrimental impact on your health. You should be sitting with your feet flat on the floor. Your arms should be at a 90-degree angle, and your back should be straight and tall. This means you have to have the right chair. Ergonomically correct chairs will help you maintain a healthy spine alignment, which will reduce pain in the back, head, and neck.

When It’s Time to Stand

Even with an ergonomic chair, you shouldn’t spend your entire day sitting. There are health concerns when people are sedentary. Joints start to ache. Muscles are slower and less responsive. If you’ve ever sat for too long without moving, you know it can be almost painful to start moving again. A standing workstation can relieve many of those aches and pains. You could even purchase a working treadmill, which has a desk built into it for computer work or reading.

The Sound of Music

Silence can become a vacuum when a person is alone all day in their home office. Soothing music playing in the background can help increase emotional well-being. Music can also mask sounds from outside the office that create distractions. The kind of music you choose should be based on whether it will motivate you, distract you, or increase your energy. You might want something soothing to help relieve stress or more energetic music to keep you energized. In the home office, the choice is yours.

Conclusion

A healthy office can increase productivity and reduce stress. Working from home allows you to create your perfect environment.

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The Seasonal Switch

I hate the high cost of air conditioning. I also hate stuffy houses, the closed windows, and the loss of fresh air. And yet, each year it seems that once those windows are closed and the air conditioner is turned on, it stays turned on until the fall, regardless of the fluctuation of outdoor temperature.

Knowing this phenomenon, I always wait as long as possible to turn on the air conditioner. I strip down to short shorts and tank tops. I run fans and take cold showers. I hold out as long as I can, but when that temperature hangs in the nineties during the day and refuses to drop at night, heat makes sleep impossible. That’s when the windows are slammed shut and the switch is flipped on, usually for the duration.

In the last few years, I lived in a huge house with lots of windows. All but one of them was near to impossible to open. This inability to easily turn that air conditioner off and open the windows made me even more aware of the fact of how many days or nights it was cooler outside than inside.

So why do we do it? Why do we batten down the hatch and flip the switch, never looking back until summer’s end? Summer storms are certainly one factor. When we leave those windows open when we aren’t home, rain blows in. Pollen is a problem. Crime may be another. But I think the primary reason we shut those windows for months on end is a combination of laziness and a lack of knowledge in how to cool our homes naturally.

When daytime temperatures are high and nighttime temperatures drop, it’s fairly easy to keep your house cool. Shut the windows in the morning and open them at night. You can use fans to help cool down the house at night. Set half of them to draw in air and the other half to blow it out. If you have a two-story house, try using the downstairs fans to draw in cool air and the upstairs fans to blow out hot air.

If you do turn on that air conditioner, pay attention to the outdoor temperature each day and each night. Turn off that air conditioner and open those windows every chance you get. Your diligence will be rewarded when you receive your electric bill.