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Vine Maple Trees - iStock

The Surprising Things Trees Can Do For Your Garden

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In honour of Earth Day, we look at a few of the magic tricks trees can perform in your garden.


Vine Maple Trees - iStock

 

MONEY WELL SPENT | In the landscape of memory, trees define the countryside. As the most prominent and long-lived of all vegetation (think giant sequoia), they are the one green symbol guaranteed to represent place. Mention Italy and Italian cypress come to mind. Images of southern France always include olive trees. The English landscape, that great affectation, is symbolized by large-scale deciduous varieties planted in “clumps” (by Capability Brown) that look from a distance like a single stylized tree. In the Pacific Northwest, iconic evergreens—Douglas fir, Western red cedar and hemlock—colour much of the landscape black-green, a situation that both pleases and perturbs me. Read more

Old windows collage

An Easy Way To Insulate Single-Pane Windows

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Replacing single-glazed windows with new double-panes used to be the energy-wise solution. Now there’s a less expensive alternative.

Old windows collage

 

WASTE NOT | When it comes to improving the energy efficiency of older buildings, one of the major things we tend to think of is replacing single-glazed windows with double-glazed models. A CMHC report on energy savings proves otherwise. In 2004, their case-study research found that replacing doors and windows averaged just 12 percent energy savings compared to 34 percent from insulating the foundation and ceiling plus draftproofing the rest of the house, 14 percent from insulating exterior walls and 39 percent from upgrading the furnace. Read more

Pink Lemonade blueberry

Why You Need To Grow Blueberries Right Now

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Blueberry shrubs are easy to grow, attractive year round—and, of course, produce delicious berries.

Blueberries On The Bush - 123rf

GROW YOUR OWN | Blueberries thrive in our little corner of the planet—they love our climate and generally acidic soil—so if you want to grow something both good to eat and attractive to look at (what can I say, I’m married to a garden designer), you might want to leave room for a blueberry bush or three in your garden or grow this yummy fruit in tubs on your balcony. Read more

Toms-The Row Fall 2011

Shoe In: TOMS New Euro Shoes By The Row

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Last week TOMS introduced its new pricy classics by The Row. Does this mean a Three For One program will follow?

Toms-The Row Fall 2011SHOPPING AROUND | I’ve been wearing the same pair of classic TOMS shoes for three years now, and I love them. I don’t know whether the alpargata, the Argentinean farmer/polo player’s shoe (a variation on the Spanish espadrille) that is the basis for the TOMS design has any arch support, but TOMS shoes have some, which makes them particularly comfortable—and a foot-healthy alternative to that other ubiquitous casual shoe, the flip flop. Read more

Batteries - iStock

Yes You Can! Recharge Your Alkaline Batteries

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Don’t even think about recycling: used AA and AAA disposable batteries can now be given new life.

Batteries - iStockIf you’re like me, you probably have a bunch of dead AA and AAA batteries rattling around in a drawer—possibly scattered among several drawers. You can’t throw them in the trash or even in the blue box. And even though since July 1 all household batteries (alkaline and rechargeable) can be recycled at almost 1,500 collection locations across B.C., you still have to take them there. Read more

Drinking Tap Water

Stop Drinking Bottled Water This Instant

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Why you need to stop drinking expensive bottled water this instant—and something amazing to do with the money you’ll save.

Drinking Tap Water

 

JUST SAY NO | Since this is Drinking Water Week (May 1-7), we’d like to point out that anyone in Vancouver who continues to drink bottled water at home or in restaurants is choosing to waste their money, simple as that. Also, there’s every reason to believe that by purchasing packaged water, which is so effectively hawked by celebrities like Jennifer Aniston, they’re actually saying yes to a seriously inferior product. Read more

Grass Fed Cows iStock

Have You Tried Non-Medicated Meat?

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Beef, pork and chicken from “naturally” raised animals are purer than conventionally produced meats—and way less expensive than organic.

Grass Fed Cows iStockMONEY WELL SPENT | We’re fast coming up on barbecue season when everyone eats more beef burgers, lamb chops and chicken parts than usual. It’s no lie that meat is expensive and that organic meats, much as I would prefer to eat them, are even more so. So I was happy to learn about a less-expensive but solid alternative to the hormone-laden conventional meats in most grocery stores and many butcher shops. Read more

A No-Fail Way To Get Kids To Turn Off Lights

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There is a NO-FAIL way to get your kids (or anyone else in your house) to douse the lights when they leave a room.

 

WASTE NOT Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the times were desperate around my house. After what seemed like eons of continual nagging by me and my husband, our children, lovely individuals all, continued to leave the lights on when they exited their rooms, or any of the other spaces in our home they frequented with regularity.

“Turn off the light when you leave a room” is one of our basic house rules, along with “Do not take hour-long showers” and “Avoid drinks in disposable containers” if at all possible. But where wasting water and steering clear of junk plastic seemed to click with my tribe, remembering to douse the lights remained an issue. Read more

Live, Potted Christmas Tree - Clinton Hussey

Super Sources For Eco- Friendly Christmas Trees

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A symbol of life after winter, the greenest tree is real, fresh, local and even organic.

Live, Potted Christmas Tree - Clinton HusseyLast year in an effort to simplify my life, I looked into buying an artificial Christmas tree, preferably one that came predecorated and opened and shut like an umbrella: I could pop it up before Christmas, then collapse and store it till next year. Then I discovered that the whole point of a Christmas tree is to bring evergreen trees or branches indoors as reminder that winter will eventually end and the world will turn green again.

Real Christmas trees are green in more than colour as they are a renewable crop and often grown on land unsuitable for growing much else. And like any crop, there are different shades of green.

3 Ways To Get A Real Green Christmas Tree Read more
Clothes line with colourful pegs

Why You Need A Clothesline In Your Life

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Save your clothes, cash and the environment with an indoor or outdoor clothesline.

Clothes line with colourful pegsWhat is it with us? We can’t wait to air our dirty laundry in public but scorn hanging clean laundry outdoors to dry. Years ago I lived in the heart of Montreal’s Latin Quarter yet had a clothesline running from my back balcony to a post on the lane—and so did everyone else. Here in Vancouver, I can’t remember the last time I saw laundry flapping in the wind. A 2007 StatsCan Environment Survey shows the percentage of B.C. residents drying clothes on a line or rack at just 54 percent; in P.E.I. it was 75 percent. Read more