"Gardening"

Gardening / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

Exteriors

Why to NEVER put coffee grounds on plants or the garden...

...gardening, conflicting information begins to arise. You will find that coffee grounds are too acidic, then you will find that coffee grounds aren’t acidic at all. Coffee is terrible for your compost, but coffee is also excellent for your compost. Having fun yet? What coffee grounds really do for gardens and soil After...

Food production

Lasagna gardening: the pros & cons of a lasagna garden

...gardening; the ‘pros’ Opinions are subjective regarding the pros of lasagna gardening, and what one person may find as a labor-saving gardening trick may be viewed as ‘being lazy’ by someone else. If you’re of the opinion that easy is better as far as gardening is concerned – then a lasagna garden may be the perfect fi...

Food production

Lasagna gardening - the easiest vegetable garden at home?

...gardening gives quick results - prepare a bed in the early spring and have fresh vegetables all summer Secondly, the cons of lasagna gardening: The carbon sources in Lasagna gardening can be controversial - recyclable paper and cardboard might not be the best choices Poor execution in Lasagna gardens can slow nutr...

Food production

Food & greens can be grown easily indoors - here's how!

...gardening at home to produce food crops! As with any hobby, starting small and making a success of it encourages the whole family to get off the couch and their screens and into the garden. One of the easiest ways to make a succesful vegetable garden at home is by doing something called lasagna gardening, but what happ...

Greenhouses and Sunrooms / Solariums

How to build a greenhouse in a cold climate

...gardening. The other greenhouse and the fields do not have an automated irrigation system. Safrenière des Cantons cold climate Greenhouse © Laurent Teasdale Level of satisfaction: "We love it, because for us it's like an extension of the house since we used to prepare our seedlings in our small attached solarium.” s...

Greenhouses and Sunrooms / Solariums

Solariums in cold climates won't heat your home

Can you build a solarium in a cold climate? Solariums have been gaining in popularity over the last 20 years, as many homeowners have found them to be a very enticing solution to brightening up a long winter. They are made even more appealing by the many manufacturers who offer solariums at very attractive prices - esp...

Recycling and composting

Waste management: compost and recycling

Ideally, we would produce no waste. Unfortunately, that is an ideal that is hard to achieve for many of us. We can all strive to come as close as possible to a zero-waste lifestyle and incorporate simple lifestyle changes at home. In the meantime, here is some advice to responsibly dispose of waste. Curbside pickup of...

Landscaping

Which are the best bee-friendly & eco-friendly alternatives to grass lawns in backyards?

...gardening co-op or club, or find a native plant society in your area for recommendations on which native flowers and shrubs will perform well in your garden. For ease of maintenance, you should go with plants that don’t need to be pruned and don’t require staking as they grow. While the upside of perennials is that the...

Landscaping

Urban farming turns beautiful gardens into a grocery store!

How to grow vegetables & fruits in a garden Plants survived long before humans were around to water them, so we aren't talking about reinventing the wheel here, but rather a sensible choice of plants and basic water management. Native species of plants in a given region have adapted to their own climate and can usu...

Greenhouses and Sunrooms / Solariums

7 key principles for an abundant greenhouse

...gardening advice in the Ecohome Building Guide and in these pages : DIY recipe to make your own natural non toxic paint How to grow microgreens in your home DIY recipe to make your own horse chestnut laundry soap at home How to make a greenhouse in a cold climate Find out more about the benefits of a free...

Food production

Flow frames: How to make your own honey

How to make your own honey at home Can you imagine having honey on tap straight from your beehive? That is exactly what father and son team Stuart and Cedar Anderson aim to bring to market with an Indiegogo campaign they are launching later this month. Update: It launched yesterday! Don't miss out, one day into the c...