Summer’s rising temperatures mean rising outdoor water use, especially during “peak season,” which typically occurs anywhere from July through early August, depending on your region of the country.

The average American home uses about 260 gallons of water per day; during peak season some homes can use 1,000 gallons per day. Some homes even use as much as 3,000 gallons per day, the equivalent of leaving a garden hose running for nearly 8 hours!

Check out these five simple tips from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense program to help you save money and water this summer.

…read more of Beat the Peak! Tips to Reduce Summer Water Use and Save Money from WaterSense here

Want a beautiful lawn and garden while using sustainable practices, saving money, saving hundreds of hours of work that will make you the envy of the neighborhood?  Well, do some of my lazy/green techniques that you’ll be singing about in your spare time.

To have the best lawn, we have been sold a bill of goods. Either by chemical companies, father-in-laws or others who just have not tried to do it the easy way. Many people believe that to have a great lawn, you have to do a lot of work. This is a myth, so save yourself some labor:

1. Don’t seed it
2. Don’t water it (unless you live in a desert climate)
3. Don’t fertilize it with chemicals

You don’t need to do any of those things. It will be beautiful if you simply take these steps.
…read more of Easy Green Lawn here

Annuals are for the birds… As I mentioned in my article on Easy Green Lawns, I love having one of the nicest landscapes in the area, but I also enjoy having the freedom to take shortcuts, which in turn, allows me to spend more time on enjoyable tasks.

In this post I would like to give you some tips on how to do a chore once, and not yearly.

Lets start with flowers. We want to have manicured, flower ridden beds as soon as it first hint of warm weather arrives. But why do more work than you need to? Work smarter, not harder. …read more of Lazy Gardener Flowers and Herbs here

From Pooh Bear’s obsession with honey to the popularity of the novel (and movie), The Secret Life of Bees, and the animated Bee Movie starring Jerry Seinfeld, you would think that these striped insects are living the high life.  In actuality, it’s been no picnic being a honey bee lately.

A couple of years ago the buzzword Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) surfaced to describe the unexplained disappearance of millions of bees from their hives. While CCD is turning out to have multiple causes and there’s still much to be figured out, one teensy insect, the varroa mite, is a major player.

Unfortunately, it looks like the destructive varroa mite is here to stay but researchers have found some strains of bees with partial resistance to this parasitic mite.

I wondered what I could do to help honey bees …read more of Helping Honey Bees here

Cattails are so prolific and the uses for this plant are curiously endless.

Native Americans have used them for food, clothing, shelter, medicines, arrows and for weaving baskets. The seed-down, which is very soft and doesn’t compress or mat, is used for padding and insulation.

They also made jelly and marmalade from the roots. The pollen, rich in vitamins and minerals, can also be used for baking and making bread. America had at least 140 thousand square miles of cattail swamps around the Second World War where we used millions of pounds to make insulation for wallboard and clothing. …read more of Cattails provide food, down, oil, reeds and so much more! here