GardeningNude

Happy Halloween From Shawna and Harry the Franken-Pug – Thanks For Reading Our Green Lifestyle Blog!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Save Money – My Top Ten Tips for Reducing Energy Usage In Your Home!

According to a 2009 report from McKinsey & Company, Americans are wasting $130 billion annually on energy. This means we are spending way too much money due to inefficiency in our homes. During a difficult economic time, watching our utility usage is so critical, it can sometimes mean the difference between losing a home and saving a home.

Below are the Top 10 Tips For Reducing Energy Usage – my personal recommendations for running a household that saves money and energy:

1. Audit your household to understand how much energy you are using and where you might best save energy. Utility companies provide free audits if you request them.
2. Heating and Air-Conditioning is the number one consumer of energy in a home. Turn the thermostat down four degrees and utilize an automated energy-star thermostat if you are able.
3. Replace all traditional light bulbs with LEDs or CFL’s which utilize far less energy. Remember to dispose of CFL’s properly – they contain mercury.
4. Turn off lights, air conditioner, and furnace when not in use.
5. Beware of “vampire power” and unplug wall warts, standby electronics and anything else which might be plugged in but not turned on.
6. Water heating is the third largest consumption of energy in your home. Insulate the water heater and water pipes to maintain their efficiency.
7. Seal air leaks with storm window covers. Insulate windows with closed curtains.
8. Avoid using your fireplace – especially when the temperature outside ducks below 30 degrees Fahrenheit - it sucks a tremendous amount of heated air from your home.
9. Close doors, especially at night, to contain heat in bedrooms.
10. Weatherize home by insulating the attic and sealing leaks.

To reduce electrical usage in my home, I use automated light timers and motion sensitive lighting. Recently the Datexx Company* provided me with two of their products to test – The UTimer (see above) and the Smart Rechargeable LED Light. Guess what? I really like both of them and found they did help me reduce electricity usage.

Here is how they work – the UTimer gets plugged into an outlet and also into a lamp. It turns the lights on automatically in the evenings when the light changes to dusk; no complicated timers to program. If you like, it provides an led night light for you which uses only a tiny bit of electricity. Every day I used to turn the lights on way sooner than dusk; this timer has encouraged me to be a little bit greener by utilizing day-light for a longer period.

The Smart Rechargeable LED Light is a power failure light, motion detector light, photo-electric night light, and 8-hour emergency flashlight all built into one. I love this as it is a great night light in the hallway and allows us to go up and down the hallway without turning on more powerful energy-sucking overhead lights because of its awesome motion sensor.

Both of these products help you with the #4 item above – turn the electricity off when not in use. To purchase these products, simply go online to the Datexx Company.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

*These products were sent to me at no cost - I tested them for several months in my own home. My review is wholly honest, my own opinion, and not based on additional payment from the Datexx company in any form. In fact, my agreement with them is that I would review their product in a totally honest fashion, keeping my readers and viewers needs at the top of the priority list when considering this product’s recommendation and use.

Pumpkin Seeds - How Halloween Can Teach Your Children About Nature

 

All summer long our family grew pumpkins; first we planted tiny plants in the soil – they flowered bright orange flowers as large as my hand. Green balls soon formed in the early summer and grew into larger pumpkins mid-summer. Finally, in September, we watched the pumpkins ripen orange.

Picking the pumpkins involved my daughter steadying the pumpkin while I used heavy garden scissors to snip them off the thick vine; their lifeline to water and nutrients. Leaning down, she picked up a pumpkin and shouted, “WOW! This is heavy!”

Our “babies” sat smiling on the front porch for weeks, then one day Grandma came over and helped my daughter decorate for Halloween. They decided to carve the most famous pumpkin we grew this year; Peter Pumpkin. As they cut open the lid of the pumpkin, my daughter gasped and peeked inside. “Ewww… what is all that stuff in there?”

Grandma said, “Seeds. Now we have to clean them out so we can bake the seeds and have a treat.”

“So that’s where the seeds come from?” said my daughter. “Yep. Right in the middle of all those pumpkin guts.” They smiled at each other and continued on. In the photo above you see my kiddo carving Peter Pumpkin while Grandma sorts the seeds.

Watching them helped me realize that every little thing we do influences our children. Carving a pumpkin can become a scientific lesson about nature – learning where seeds come from. Planting the pumpkin plant and watching it grow was also a lesson – learning where our food comes from with the process of photosynthesis and seed production.

Every day we should be teaching our children a little more about life. It is not the sole responsibility of the school system to educate our children. Take a moment today to make a difference in the life of children and spend time educating them.

Below is a recipe for you to try with your family. Enjoy!

Garlic Pumpkin Seeds

1 1/2 tablespoons real butter, melted

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

3 cups raw whole pumpkin seeds

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (135 degrees C).
2. Combine the margarine, salt, garlic salt, and pumpkin seeds. Mix thoroughly and place in shallow baking dish.
3. Bake for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Today is “Botany of Desire” Day – Learn More About Nature By Watching This Awesome Show!

This evening an absolutely fascinating nature story will be shown on PBS at 8:00 PM. It is based on Michael Pollan’s incredible and deeply inspiring book, The Botany Of Desire; A Plant’s—Eye View Of The World.

Pollan examines the truly amazing link between the natural world and humans; proposing that humans and domesticated plants have formed a reciprocal relationship. Although there are hundreds of examples Pollan could use, he chooses apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes to describe his theory on this remarkable connection.

As a member of the press, I was fortunate enough to see an advanced preview of the movie and feel it is something really worth watching for the whole family – a way to understand the connection of humanity with the natural world. Above is a short PBS preview of the television show for you to enjoy.

I found the television show surprisingly beautiful and well put together – the scenes are gorgeous and the subject matter quite fascinating. Certainly a great way to spend an evening with your family.

Pop some popcorn, get in your comfy-cozers and spend a great evening watching the television show Botany of Desire tonight at 8:00 PM on PBS!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com or The Blogs - www.gardeningnude.com or http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

What Would Harry Do? Living Life Simply Can Make You As Happy As A Pug!

Today I challenge you to think more about spending time with your family community and living a simpler life. It is what Harry would do.

Every morning my dog, Harry the Pug, wakes up with a positive wag in his tail. He is old now and has arthritis, so getting up is not as easy as it used to be, yet Harry the Pug still wags his tail when he sees me. His schedule is quite rigid – his day starts out with morning ablutions, followed by a delightfully simple breakfast, a delicious bone, and a good pat from his family.

Several naps follow, and in the evening his master comes home from work. This experience is greeted with lots of tail wagging and barking. For the next two hours he sits with the family and if he is especially lucky, he gets an extra bone for his loving efforts – wagging furiously. He lies down for the night next to the television and is quite happy to call it an evening. That’s his full day. Every day. It is a simple life built around a thriving community who loves him.

Note the important highlights of Harry’s day – food, family, and home. For him it all equals happy.

When you are stressed out and think it is the end of the world – when you have lost your way and feel as if life is no longer important, it is time to ask yourself, “What Would Harry Do?”

Harry would wag it off with a doggy smile, go give a family member a hug, and realize that the most important things in life are the simplest; having a family to love.

My wish for you is the same – happiness because of a community that loves you. There is no better happiness than that.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com or The Blogs - www.gardeningnude.com or http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

A Review of the Lifetime Yardcart Wheelbarrow – and A Ride For Harry the Pug.

Want an awesome wheelbarrow to help you with your Fall chores? I have the one for you, plus it has the advantage of featuring a patented design that distributes more weight to the wheels and less to the user, helping to lighten the load when wheeling supplies around the garden. Also, the tub of the Wheelbarrow is made from 100 percent recycled material, which of course, means it is better for the planet.

My review for the wheelbarrow is that it is excellent - beyond wheeling Harry the Pug around the garden, I have also used it to lift heavier containers, bags of soil, and leaves. Sturdy and well-balanced, the cart seems to be easier on my back than traditional wheelbarrows.

My only concern is that when the wheelbarrow arrived, all the parts were covered in plastic wrap. Why? That seems like a waste of good resources and an added expense that could be eliminated to lower the cost of the product. Outside of that, I feel the product has been great in the garden. Plus Harry the Pug enjoys riding in the wheelbarrow – you can see him getting a ride at the end of the wheelbarrow assembly video (above).

Size-wise, the wheelbarrow’s tub has a capacity of six-and-a-half cubic feet and can hold up to 550 pounds. It is available at Lifetime.com and Sam’s Club stores.

As a reminder - if you use a wheelbarrow to do fall chores, collect your fall leaves for mulching, not for burning.

Today’s post is a “Two For Tuesday” – this blog is on both my greening blog – www.gardeningnude.com AND my gardening blog – http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com – ENJOY!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com.

*This product was sent to me at no cost - I tested it for two months in the garden. My review is wholly honest, my own opinion, and not based on additional payment from the Lifetime company in any form. In fact, my agreement with them is that I would review their product in a totally honest fashion, keeping my readers and viewers needs at the top of the priority list when considering this product’s recommendation and use.

A Trip To Indiana in Fall – Get Out In Nature For Better Health and More Energy

Can spending time in nature – you know – out in the dirt and weather - improve your health? According to growing scientific evidence on nature’s healing power – YES!

Last weekend, my family’s journey to Indiana is testimony of that. Of course, Indiana is beautiful, I am biased since it is my home state. Spending a fall day in the woods of Indiana with my family last weekend did more for me than I can say on both an emotional and a physical level because reconnecting with nature and touching the environment goes a long way towards anti-depression and better health.

It began with the crisp fall air, and extended all the way to the sunshine. Best yet; spending time outdoors with your children learning about nature is a fantastic way to stay connected with them as well. Building your familial community means closer and more emotionally stable families.

According to Richard Louv, the author of Last Child In The Woods (Algonquin Books, 2006), by encouraging our children to get outside more, we are helping to prevent "Nature Deficit Disorder." This condition, according to Louv, encourages diabetes, poor test performance, overweight children, as well as allowing other disorders such as ADD and ADHD to manifest itself. I believe Louv has it right and that we should be getting our children and ourselves out in nature far more.

Our family owns a good sized ranch in Indiana and uses “mules” – little mini off-road vehicles – to drive around their extensive wooded property to maintain and manage a nursery of trees. While the mules are not a particularly “green” choice, the experience of touring the ranch and property on a fall day in an open air vehicle was marvelous. Above (from right to left), you can see my cousin, Sunday, my oldest daughter, Kelsey (now in college), and me bundled up and riding off-road through the woods on a beautiful fall day.

Connect your family with nature – take them outside to enjoy activities which involve sun and air exposure. Get dirty! Have fun! Do things which stretch outside your ordinary box of life boundaries – it will make a difference both for yourself and for the people you touch. Do it today because tomorrow comes much too quickly.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com or The Blogs - www.gardeningnude.com or http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Feeding the Hungry – A Homemade Video On How You and Your Children Can Make A Difference For A Food Bank!

According to AmpleHarvest.org,”an estimated 100 billion pounds of food, enough to totally eliminate hunger, is thrown away annually in the United States.” Be shocked – and then make a difference for your community by stopping the waste.

Regularly clean out your food pantry - – if you are not eating the food in your home, donate it to a local food pantry before it gets outdated. If you grow a garden and have leftover vegetables, do not leave it standing on the plants; take it to a local food pantry and donate it to someone who could really use it like we  did in the above video. Organizations like AmpleHarvest.org enable neighbors in need to obtain garden fresh produce that might be left standing unharvested due to over production in home and community gardens. Please send food pantry’s that are unregistered to this website to help make a difference for people in your community.

Above is a homemade video my daughter and I made about collecting vegetables from the garden and taking it to be donated. Having my eight year old help plant and grow the plants, then film our trip, gave her a strong sense of ownership with the experience. Notice how excited and proud she is that she is bringing “her baby” the pumpkin to give to some other child.

All of our children should understand and identify with the feeling of caring for others, most especially those in need right in our very own neighborhoods. Building our community means building our economy and contributing to the emotional health of other human beings. Of all lessons in life, I believe this one should take priority for our children. Grow a garden if you can because it can make a real difference for the world. Teach your family and neighbors how to grow a garden as well. Get started planning right NOW – at the end of this gardening season – to plan for next year’s vegetable garden. Purposely plant vegetables which are easy to grow and which might be mass producers so you can contribute more to help those who really need it. If you cannot grow a garden on your property, invite your neighbors to participate or build a community garden on a local community property.

What will you do to have your children understand the importance of helping the hungry?

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Fall Beauty – A Real Smile In The Garden

Today – a glorious Sunday in fall – I wanted to show you a little bit of beauty in nature. I hope it makes you smile. This photo of moss and a fall leaf was taken at the Chicago Botanical Gardens on the rose path. Enjoy!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com or The Blogs - www.gardeningnude.com or http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

GAIAM’s Kitchen Compost Pail – A Great Way to Encourage Garden Composting – A Video Review

Composting is one of the easiest ways to create incredible soil for your garden which requires very little or any amendments. Compost is “black gold” and the first step to composting is getting your kitchen bi-products inside your home out to the larger composter behind your home.

Truly, compost pails are a neglected part of the composting process because of their simple nature, yet many people give up on composting without really trying at it because they do not like the smells or issues related to “rotting” veg material sitting on their kitchen counter. A compost pail combats that problem.

This stainless steel compost crock* was sent to me from GAIAM, an awesome company focused on providing products to customers who value the environment, a sustainable economy, healthy lifestyles, alternative healthcare and personal development. They are keeping life green – and this crock is a part of that by encouraging better composting. See the below video review I made for the compost pail:

Compost pails hold kitchen scraps. A pail should be large enough to hold at least a day’s kitchen compost and perhaps two – this crock holds more than that easily. Here’s some advice on utilizing a compost pail in your kitchen, with a mention of some of the better features of this particular pail:

• Wash the pail on a regular basis. Rinse with warm water and soap. I like to dry it with paper towels I might have already used but not diminished much, then I put the paper towels in the compost pail as it is great material to compost. Good idea for reusing paper in the kitchen.
• Empty the pail every two days or whenever it fills – with the lid and charcoal insert GAIAM’s crock uses, it keeps odor down considerably, so can be kept longer.
• Fruit flies become far less of a problem with this pail due to the lid structure. Be sure to keep your pail lidded for prevention of fruit flies.
• Regularly sterilize the pail with hot water and bleach. This prevents harmful bacteria from becoming a problem.

Please get a kitchen compost pail soon; it’s a great holiday gift and will encourage the user to really consider composting in a more serious light.

I loved GAIAM’s stainless steel kitchen compost keeper after testing it for almost two months, and plan on using it for a long time because it was really easy to use and has a terrific non-stink charcoal insert in the lid. No compost stink in the kitchen is fantastic! It helped remind me to bring the material out to the garden composter, instead of tossing it down the garbage disposal. All around a win-win product.

If you would like to learn more about the above composter and perhaps order it, just click this link.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

FYI – I also posted this on my gardening blog – http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com, but felt it was so useful for composting, I should post on my “greening” blog as well. Enjoy!

*This product was sent to me at no cost - I tested it for two months in the kitchen. My review is wholly honest, my own opinion, and not based on additional payment from the Gaiam company in any form. In fact, my agreement with them is that I would review their product in a totally honest fashion, keeping my readers and viewers needs at the top of the priority list when considering this product’s recommendation and use.

Kids and Recycling – Expand Their Brains When They Say, “I’m Bored!”

Fall rainy days and children combine to produce the inevitable complaint, “I’m bored.” Not too long ago my youngest daughter and I came up with a genius solution to the “I’m bored’s” which was fun and educational. Here’s how it went:

“Mom, I’m bored.”

“You can’t be bored. You’re nine years old – go play.”

“I’m still bored.”

“Do the dishes! That’ll keep you busy.”

“That’s not the type of bored I am.”

“Hmm…” As I glance around the kitchen, my eyes fell on the recycling bin. “Hey! Look at that – you have an entire recycling bin full of craft supplies.”

“I do?”

“Yep. You do.”

Two hours later my daughter put the finishing touches on the above creative crafts. One milk jug car and another aluminum can sports car, plus several other fun things. All ended up back in the recycling bin after dinner, but the products provided two hours of active, brain-building play. She had to figure out how the tires would fit on to balance the vehicle, why we all have license plates on our cars, and aluminum is very thin so it can also be sharp and dangerous. She learned just a little bit more about life.

We currently live in a country where 4.5 million children are diagnosed with ADD, millions of children suffer from depression, and childhood educational programs are being cut due to funding problems at our public schools. Enabling active play where children learn to build and create at home is an important part of brain development. Schools are just the beginning of a child’s education; we as parents, friends, and family of children should be actively working together to help our children learn and be healthy.

Make a difference in the life of a child – suggest creative and green ways to solve the “I’m bored’s” and your child will begin to see the world in a whole new way.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

College of Dupage Students Make A Difference With A Rain Garden

Educating the community on the benefits of having water conservation oriented gardens is critical to help the storm water system in the United States experience less stress. Students from one College of DuPage classroom in Illinois are working to help make a difference for the water conservation in their community by building a rain garden.

Planted depression gardens called rain gardens, allow rain water runoff the opportunity to be absorbed. This water comes from urban areas which are impervious such as roofs, driveways, walkways, and compacted lawn areas. By collecting rain water in this way, it reduces rain runoff by allowing stormwater to soak into the ground that would normally flow into storm drains and surface   waters and then cause erosion, water pollution, flooding, and diminished groundwater. Rain gardens can cut down on the amount of pollution reaching creeks and streams by up to 30%. By saving water from automatically funneling into your region’s storm water system your community could be saving millions of taxpayer dollars as well as recharging your local ground water supply.

One man trying to educate college students on the importance of this concept is Jim Kleinwachter. He teaches a Rain Garden class at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn which is part of the Horticultural program there. This class focuses on how rain gardens, bio-swales and other native plantings can help reduce flooding, conserve water, and provide food and shelter for a variety of wild creatures.

Last week, Jim and a group of students from the college, went on a field trip to McDonald Farm, which is The Conservation Foundation’s corporate property, and built a rain garden to demonstrate the benefits of water collection. In the photos above you can see the class’s progress from their initial dig of the rain garden area (which is situated right below a downspout), through the plant arrangement phase, to it’s completion. In the top photo you can see the final product – a successful rain garden!

Congratulations on the beautiful rain garden team; it will serve to educate the community on how easy it is to build and install a rain garden for years to come. To learn more about rain gardens from the Conservation @ Home Program, feel free to click this link.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Save Money and the Earth – Turn Off That Light Switch!

Switching off the lights both at your home and business could save you a whole lot of money and do good for the earth as well. “Residential lighting consumption was about 215 billion kWh, equal to about 15% of all residential electricity consumption. About 311 billion kWh was consumed for lighting by the commercial sector, which includes commercial and institutional buildings and public street and highway lighting, equal to 23% of commercial sector electricity consumption,” according to the Electricity Information Administration (EIA).

Turning off your lights when you are not in the room helps use less coal. In the United States (in 2007) 617 electric generating facilities burn coal. Generating electricity is dirtying our air with pollution from the coal burning.

In 2008, 65 nuclear power plants with 104 operating nuclear reactors generate more than 808.97 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), or almost 20% of the nation’s electricity. Nuclear power plants create radioactive material which must be disposed of; but there is no place on earth which is really safe for this disposal and the waste is building up.

The message is clear: turn off the lights - simply turning off your light switch when you are not in the room brings humanity a little closer to living cleaner, plus it saves you a bundle of money during a difficult economic time.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com