Going Beyond A Greener Home
Getting a greener home goes beyond the simple idea of a green landscape. When you are ready to go green, there are numerous ways you can make changes to your home to save money.
In addition to saving money, you can also make an important impact on the environment in a very ‘greenway’ in a way that will be worthwhile and easy to do, whether you believe that or not.
For starters, there are ways to reduce your consumption of energy created, for the most part, by fossil fuels. Fuels that are adding to global warming.
When you look closer at how your home operates, an energy audit will define just how many areas of daily life you may easily change to save some energy and resources and save you some money in the long run by lowering a utility bill or two.
Let’s Go Outside For A Greener Home
You can go beyond the most noticeable things, such as adjusting thermostats and using more efficient light bulbs.
Good green landscaping is important when building an energy and money-saving home.
How about planting a garden or adding some trees?
The U.S. Department of Environmental Protection says planting trees can reduce a home’s air conditioning and heating cost by approximately 25%.
Trees can shade the house during the summer and produce some edibles if you choose fruit and nut varieties. They will drop their leaves for winter and not shade the sun when you can stand to use that energy.
If you have space, consider them.
Also, consider an old-fashioned vegetable garden. Get your hands in the dirt. Instead of high-maintenance greenery such as lawns, mark off some square footage in a sunny yard spot for a vegetable garden.
Not only are you saving money on the high cost of fresh produce, but you will also be eliminating some of those processed foods from your diet, will get a little exercise, and eliminate some of those packaging materials manufacturers use for them. Less in the landfill.
You should consider the way plants use water. There is no such thing as a drought-free area. Lack of rainfall happens occasionally no matter where you live and our natural water resource is more important than those fancy exotics you plant.
My Salaam. Here are 5 steps for a greener home for you and your family. My Salaam. It doesn’t matter what we believe, who we are, or where we live the Earth is our collective home, our point of connection, and our shared responsibility. Taking care of our planet has never felt more urgent this means we all have a role to play.
And water is not getting any cheaper.
You should be considering plants that will require the least amount of water and maintenance such as fertilizer, not only to survive but will also be pleasing to your eye.
Think native.
Go to your local nursery or big box store and look around. Most plants have care labels to help you make an educated selection.
If you still have questions, seek out your local cooperative extension service. Most municipalities have some botanical gardens with trained staff who will point you in the right direction to native plant types.
You could also Google “native plants ‘your area'”
A Greener Lawn Is Not A Greener Home
Yes, I know you love that ‘perfect lawn’ you worked so hard to come by, and all the neighbors have one.
However, that beautiful green lawn you own is one of the most inefficient plants you can have on your property. The green lawn is the opposite of what this post tries to convince you of – ‘A Greener Home’.
Nothing on your property will use more water, fertilizer, weed chemicals, and weekly maintenance.
A lawn is dependent on all those things.
No one is preaching a concrete front-covered yard. Consider native plants in the ground cover category, such as ivy or liriope.
If you want a lawn, consider some well-planned smaller areas with efficient in-ground, timer-regulated irrigation to help save on the watering.
Also, while discussing efficient watering, consider some rainwater catchment systems. And while that term might sound like a rather high-tech approach, it may be nothing more than a barrel under the gutter leader rather than a splash block that creates wasted runoff.
If you do want to look into the high-tech reasons, measure the size of your roof and multiply it by the average yearly rainfall per inch in the area to find out how much rainfall you can gain. Once you have calculated this, you will be pleasantly surprised by how much water you can feed your garden without ever having to turn that tap on.
And do not forget to add some home composting to reduce the chemicals that are getting into the groundwater.
Follow these landscaping tips, and you will not only help your wallet but also do your part in helping the environment.
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