As Green As You Can Be

Here are just a few simple things that nearly everyone can do to be a little greener.

Make a Rain Barrel. Its actually very easy to make a rain barrel.  I got my 40 gallon plastic barrel from a local bottling plant for a few dollars and a flexible downspout extender from the home center.  That, combined with about 7 bucks worth of hardware and 1 hour made me a rocking rain barrel.  Now I am thinking about daisy-chaining multiple barrels together to collect more water.  I can water my lawn, garden and flowers with this water, and its FREE!  Its very simple check out my simple How-to on creating a Rain Barrel.

Composting. I have to admit that I haven’t done this yet.  My wife keeps saying we should and she is right, but I just imagined a big, stinky eyesore in our backyard.  With a little research we’ve found that they don’t have to look bad at all.  As soon as we get ours up and running Ill post a few pictures and a how-to. (Edit: check out my new article on Starting a Compost Bin.)

Recycle!!! If you aren’t recycling by now what are you waiting for?!  Our local municipality offers a recycling service. They supply us with a great big container on wheels and they pick it up every week.  The first thing we noticed is that our volume of trash was reduced dramatically.  So much in fact that we are contemplating canceling our trash pickup all together.  Especially once we get into composting! If your trash collection service doesn’t offer a recycling program, do it your self!  Get a couple plastic bins and start collecting glass in one, paper in another and so on.  Click here to find a recycling center in your area, and dump it off. This is easy stuff!

Replace your light bulbs. Come on now, you mean you haven’t done this yet?  That’s the first thing everyone recommends to save money as well as the environment.  Its the easiest way to be as green as you can be!  the bulbs are getting better all the time too.  The first one we bought was very harsh, but we just got some recently that have a nice soft white light. They have a couple different types at The Green Office, go check them out!

Grow your own veggies! I know I know, “but I only have a quarter acre lot, how can I have a garden“.  Its not that hard at all.  Look into raised beds, you be surprised how much you can get out of a small corner of your yard.  Tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, even corn can all be grown in a suburban development backyard, depending on your geographic location.  Its fun too, and your kids will love helping with the garden.

There are many others that Ill touch on in the future but these are just few that you could easily do this weekend.  After all, don’t you want to be as green as you can be?