Going solar? Good call. It’s the right choice for your pocketbook and for the climate. If everyone in Florida used solar power, it would take 251 billion pounds of carbon out of the atmosphere every year—according to the EPA’s greenhouse gas calculator, that’s the equivalent of planting a forest that would cover an area more […]
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Florida Law Makes Living Off The Grid Illegal
If you’re in Florida and hope to live a more sustainable lifestyle free from the influence of energy companies and massive agricultural conglomerates by adding solar panels to your home, harvesting rainwater, and planting an organic garden on your property- watch out. Citing the International Property Maintenance Code, city officials in Cape Coral, FL are […]
Cape Coral, Florida: Go Off the Grid, Go to Jail
Robin Speronis is a retired widow who happily lives off the grid in her Cape Coral, Florida home – the only problem is that it’s illegal to do so.
Toxins in Leather Shoes
Toxins in Leather Shoes
Types of Watermelon
Watermelon is a refreshing summer treat you can grow at home! From red to yellow watermelons, there’s a variety fir to your garden needs.
26 Affordable Shoe Rack Ideas To De-Clutter Your Space
The current shoe rack situation in my home is not ideal. We’ve struggled to find a way to store shoes in our tiny, awkward entryway. When my husband came home with plastic racks from the hardware store last year, I admitted defeat. The stackable plastic shelves are practical, but they’re so utilitarian that I’m itching
Homestead Stories: The Ghost Orchid
With Halloween around the corner and the thought of ghosts and goblins prowling the darkened nights, how about a real flower that looks like a ghost? Yes, that’s right. There is actually a flower called a ghost orchid, and its tiny, spindly flower with no leaves, looks eerily like a ghost clinging to the bark
Homes on Stilts
Homes on Stilts
California Passes Neighborhood Food Act
California gov. Jerry Brown signed the Neighborhood Food Act into law last week, asserting the rights of individuals to grown produce on their land.
Food Dyes Linked to Behavioral Problems
Food Dyes Linked to Behavioral Problems
Families Getting Fined for Growing Food Gardens
Want to grow vegetables in your garden? You’d better watch out – you may be facing some seriously heavy fines for growing food gardens on your own land.
20+ DIY Bat House Plans
If you’re considering adding a bat house to your property, you likely already know the benefits of inviting these furry friends to your yard. Among their many positive qualities, the top three are their excellent pollinating abilities, their beneficial guano, and the fact that they eat mosquitoes by the thousands per day. Just one bat
Earthbag Homes
Earthbag Construction, Sandbag Buildings
Gardening Resources For Kids
One of the best parts about gardening is building community. There’s something special about sharing the experience of planting and nurturing seeds, and watching them grow — especially when it’s with kids. Their innate curiosity and ability to see things with a set of fresh eyes makes gardening a wonderful physical, mental, and educational activity.
Pebble Mosaic Underfoot
Pebble Mosaics Underfoot
Sand Magnified
Sand grains magnified 110-250 times reveal each grain is unique. The tip of a spiral shell has broken off and become a grain of sand. After being repeatedly tumbled by action of the surf this spiral sand grain has become opalescent in character. It is surrounded by bits of coral, a pink shell fragment, a
Garden Planners
A vegetable garden can give you organic, fresh produce year-round. But, as vegetables vary greatly in size, spacing, harvest time and growing conditions, planning tools are an essential part of any garden strategy. Jump to a section: Paper Garden Planners | Garden Planning Software | Garden Planning Mobile Apps | Regional Garden Planning Resources Paper
Recent Plastic Bag Bans
Plastic bag bans have gone from a relatively new phenomenon in the United States, to a hot button topic where sides appear to be quite divided in recent years. When looking at the short history of bag bans, we remember San Francisco becoming the first American city to approve a plastic bag ban in 2007.
U.S. Nuclear Power in Decline
Nuclear power generation in the United States is falling. After increasing rapidly since the 1970s, electricity generation at U.S. nuclear plants began to grow more slowly in the early 2000s. It then plateaued between 2007 and 2010—before falling more than 4 percent over the last two years. Projections for 2013 show a further 1 percent drop. With reactors retiring early and proposed projects being abandoned, U.S. nuclear power’s days are numbered.
Weigela: A Flowering Shrub To Rival Your Rhododendrons
Moving to the country had its pros and cons. There were a lot of things to learn, especially in the garden. I tried to take my entire suburbia garden, one plant at a time, but some of my shrubs, sadly, had to be left behind. They were too big and the roots too deep to
Types of Eggplant
Belonging to the nightshade family, eggplants are versatile summer produce due to their meaty texture and subtle flavors. They are a staple ingredient in various dishes, especially in Indian and Middle Eastern cuisine. Technically speaking, an eggplant is not a vegetable, but a fruit that is botanically categorized as a berry. Eggplants are served as
Could You Make All Your Clothes For An Entire Year?
An artist from Vancouver challenged herself to just such a task, and discovered that sustainable clothing about more than just what you wear.
Mother And Baby Dolphin
Tribute to Dolphin mothers and calves
Chemical Fertilizer Issues
The Issues with Chemical Fertilizers
Vertical Herb Garden: What Is It, DIY Plans, And Photos
What can you possibly do for your ailing green thumb when all that is allotted to you is a patio, a balcony, or a postage stamp of an urban backyard with little room to roam? Don’t grow out…grow UP! With a vertical herb and vegetable garden, you can make a mountain of your molehill and
Styrofoam Art
Expanded/Extruded Polystyrene Inspiration – (C8H8)n Styrofoam is a trademark name of Dow Chemical and is ‘extruded’ polystyrene (hard insulation). The white stuff used for packing and coolers is ‘expanded’ polystyrene, but often mistakenly referred to as styrofoam as well. Nurdle Beach. A nurdle is a pre-production plastic pellet or ground down particles which were formerly
Tiny House Builders
With so many individuals and companies building tiny houses, how are you supposed to know who to choose? Some tiny house builders can build and ship homes nationwide or send their design plans across the world. Other, smaller builders, focus on their region and work primarily with locals. Choosing a Tiny House Builder The thing
Geckos In The Garden
Do geckos call your homestead home? Household geckos are said to bring harmony, good luck, and good fortune to the household. Killing a gecko invokes an unhappy chain of bad luck events of long duration. If you have geckos in your garden, celebrate their presence but try not to invite them indoors. A small to
Off-Grid Living
9 Flowering Trees To Consider
Flowering trees are available in a variety of sizes and shapes for almost any landscape application. Not only do deciduous flowering trees bring visual impact and beauty to your homestead, but they also provide habitat and food for birds and other wildlife. These types of trees also provide cooling shade for people, pets, and plants.
Homestead Stories: The Rainbow Tree
I love my trees, and I’m always looking for something unusual or different from forests around the world. Imagine my delight to discover a tree that grows in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. It is cleverly called the rainbow tree. Actually, rainbow eucalyptus or Eucalyptus deglupta, to be more accurate. It’s also known
Organic Farming in the Everglades
Have you ever tried to cultivate land on bedrock? Or grow food in extremely alkaline soil? How about converting bedrock into workable soil? Tried organic farming in the midst of traditional farmers who are creating superbugs? Ever dealt with pesky and elusive species like green iguanas and black and white tegus? What do you think
Swimming Ponds: A More Natural Approach to Swimming Pools
Natural Pools or Natural Swimming Ponds
Hoop Houses
The earth may be giving, but the winds and the snows often conspire to take away that which the earth gives. So, for thousands of years people have been trying to protect a patch of earth from the vagaries of the weather. Enclosing an area and letting light in as a solution first appeared in
Solar Power
The United States is a world leader in solar power generation. A Bell Labs scientist patented the first solar cell, and, for decades the U.S. was the solar installations leader. According to a report by the International Energy Agency, at the end of 2015 the U.S. had 11% of the world’s solar photovoltaic capacity. Only
Reduce Water Waste by Installing a Rainwater Harvesting System
Got a roof? Get a tank! Harvesting rainwater is a great way to conserve this one of the scarcest natural resources and save your dollars in the bargain. An average family uses about 107,000 gallons of fresh water every year. Much of this is flushed down the toilet or poured into the garden. If you
Floating Homes
AMPHIBIOUS ARCHITECTURE, Floating Homes
Steam Bent Shingles
Steam Bent Shingles
Air Pollution Organizations
Air Pollution Organizations, Clean Air Organizations, Regional Air Pollution Organizations, Children’s Air Organizations
How to Attract Butterflies to Your Garden
Unbeknownst to many butterflies do not live on nectar alone, some species prefer, even require, overripe fruit to feed on. Decaying fruits have carbohydrates and minerals, necessary to most butterflies. Supply them with flowers, fruit, water, and plants for their caterpillar stage, and you will hopefully have a large and happy, diverse population.
Upcycled Fashion
Reuse, Crafty and Ingenious Clothes
15 Earth Homes
Some earth homes take advantage of something called thermal mass, which basically means that the mass of a structure has some capacity to store heat. So the mass of a home can stay at a more constant temperature than temperatures outside the home due to the presence and absence of sunlight in a 24-hour period. Obviously,
Keyhole Gardens: What Are They, The History Behind Them, And Photos
Drought. Nutrient depletion. Bending over with a bad back or dealing with mobility issues. Have you ever had to battle with any of these gardening-impeding troubles? Don’t you wish there was an accessible method for growing your own food that eliminated these problems and more? Maybe keyhole gardens are the answer you’ve been looking for.
Cell Phone Radiation in Images
Cell Phone Radiation in Images
BP Oil Spill
BP oil spill and Gulf wildlife
Insteading Giveaway – December 2019
Regardless of whether you had a large harvest of food from the garden this year, or simply found a lot of cucumbers on sale at the grocery store, preserving food is an excellent way to provide yourself with a little more self-sufficiency in the winter months. While canning and dehydrating are common methods of food
Bike Rack Art Installations
With an increase in urban cyclists, and limited public space, city officials and Universities are taking creative measures to provide bike facilities while beautifying open areas. One way this is being accomplished is by creating functional bike rack art that serves as bike parking as well as unique art installations. Many departments and Universities are taking
Upcycled Junk Portraits By Zac Freeman
From Zac’s website: “I started making assemblage artworks of this type in 1999. The artworks are made entirely out of collected junk, found objects, and general trash. I glue the bits of junk to a wooden substrate to form an image, usually faces, which only can be seen at a distance. I was interested in
Best Dehydrator Recipes
If you’re lucky enough to have an overabundance of fruit, veggies, or meat, you also have a problem. How to preserve this bounty? Refrigeration may only keep the stuff fresh for a few days. Freezing? Maybe a few months—less if your power happens to go out. Dehydration is the best way to store food for
The Brave Chickens Who Protect Us From Viral Epidemics
A slightly battered chicken coop underneath a shade tree a few miles south of the Columbia River is a barracks for soldiers in the war against communicable disease. The coop houses the Western Umatilla Mosquito Control District’s sentinel chickens, the area’s first line of defense against West Nile Virus, St. Louis Encephalitis, and Western Equine