Happy Earth Day!

This coming Sunday is Earth Day. So go ahead and get the ball rolling in your own backyard by starting a compost pile! Whether you decide to use it as a mulch or mix it into your  soil, you can never have too much compost for the garden. Here’s a few helpful hints and tricks to keep your pile really cookin’:

• Never use meat, fish scraps, or cooking fats in your compost pile. They’ll attract varmints and insects, cause bad odors, and slow down decomposition of the pile. 
• Whether it comes from a human or any other kind of animal, hair is full of iron, manganese, and sulfur—all good stuff for your garden. Work it into the soil or toss it onto the compost pile, and watch your plants eat it up! 
• Give your compost pile the air it needs for speedy decomposition—without having to turn the pile with a pitchfork every few weeks! Just drill holes along the length of a large PVC pipe, place the pipe upright in the center of the pile, and add your compost materials around it.
• If you don’t have the time or space to for a full-scale compost pile, try this trick instead: Save your non-meat table scraps—citrus rinds, potato peelings, eggshells, coffee grounds, and so on. Every few days, liquefy the scraps in a blender along with enough water to cover them and a tablespoon of Epsom salts. Pour the resulting cocktail onto the soil in your garden, lightly hoe it in, and your plants will jump for joy! 

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Happy Earth Day!

Tomorrow is Earth Day, and even though we only celebrate our planet once a year, it’s important to think green every day! Maybe your home is filled with stuff you’d normally throw away or toss in the recycling bin. Well, it’s time to change that way of thinking, and take a fresh look at your cast-offs to see how they could be reinvented in useful ways around your home.

For example, many first aid and health supplies come equipped with packaging that’s every bit as useful as the product itself (though in different ways, of course). Here are some examples of potential trash you can turn into treasure:

Boxes from bandages and gauze. Save these boxes until Christmas rolls around, then wrap them like tiny presents and hang them from the tree. You’ll have one-of-a-kind ornaments for free!

Cardboard rolls from gauze. Dismantle the nests of rubber bands in your junk drawer, and snap them around the empty roll. 

Plastic and metal boxes from throat lozenges. Use them to corral all kinds of tiny odds and ends, like buttons, nails, needles, paperclips, stamps…the list goes on and on. 

Reels from adhesive tape. Or any other kind of tape, for that matter. Wrap aluminum foil around the reels, attach a string to each one, and hang them in your fruit trees and berry bushes to discourage fruit-eating birds.

Any of the above. Turn it into dollhouse furniture. Just cover the box, reel, or roll with fabric or decorative paper, and presto! Depending on the size and shape of the object, you’ve got a bed, coffee table, dining table—or whatever your little interior designer desires.