How to Grow an Amazing Garden in Your Apartment

If you live in an apartment, you probably believe there is no way that you will ever be able to grow a garden of your own. This can be such a depressing thought that there are apartment dwellers who simply move into a house with a yard. For others it is merely a small disappointment and they try to make do with a few houseplants.

Don’t despair! You can have a garden in your apartment, no matter how small it is. Keep reading and follow our tips and you, too, will be the proud owner of a flourishing apartment garden.

Choosing Containers

Do you already have containers you would like to use, or specific ones you intend to buy? If you aren’t too choosy about which plants you want, buy some that go well with the containers on hand. Pay attention to the size of the plants as each one will have a specific size requirement for its container – from 1/2 wine barrels to antique tea cups. Choosing the containers you prefer lets you plan the ambiance you want to create with your indoors garden. Don’t just buy big containers and big plants. You can pick beautiful, delicate containers and grow smaller plants, such as African Violets in exquisite porcelain cups.

The Cost

It won’t take much searching to find all the data and facts you need to learn how to do container gardening. The containers you use for your indoor gardening do not have to be fancy or expensive. The type, or cost, of the containers you buy aren’t what’s important, and you already have enough day to day expenses to deal with. Just about any container will work. You can almost always find containers at discounted prices. Do you do garage sales? You can almost always find containers – and other gardening supplies – at garage sales for hardly any cost. With the money you save on containers, you can invest in organic or old-fashioned seeds that haven’t been “engineered” or maybe that special flower plant you’ve always loved.

 

Creating a Mini Greenhouse

Here’s an idea for you to think about – if there’s a spot in your house that’s big enough, why not install a mini greenhouse? A lot of the time you will find mini greenhouses that are already pre-assembled. They are small enough to fit into an unused corner with no problem. If you prefer, you can find plans for a mini greenhouse online and build your own with parts that can be picked up cheaply at second hand stores, garage sales, or Goodwill. You will be able to grow a bigger variety of plants in your apartment if you use a mini greenhouse.

A balcony, if you have one, is a great place to put a little greenhouse. The strategies you can use to create your apartment garden are unlimited. Many folks have beautiful gardens in their homes without the benefit of a balcony or patio. The trick is to do your homework, do your planning and practice some patience. You will be successful, but it may not happen instantly. Over time, however, if you work at it, a thriving and beautiful garden can be yours. So, what are you waiting for? Get busy!


Promoting Green Living in Your Home

Start Living Green

Converting your place to a green house has become less and less difficult and it also helps you reduce expenses. All people share the duty to clean up the planet by eliminating waste and pollution. There are many ways that this can be accomplished around our individual homes, and it is something that each of us should start doing. Lots of people’s income is wasted by having dwellings that are extremely inefficient.

Housing insulation standards were raised only a while ago, so virtually all dwellings are not insulated very well. You could thus make a huge improvement by taking on your house’s insulation, firstly in the attic and side walls, and then going for more efficient windows where necessary. As energy costs rise, it will take less time to replace the additional cost of upgrading your house.

Water Conservation

Paradoxically, people drink insufficient water but consume a lot of water in numerous ways also. Just changing our toilets to the water-saver type will stop a considerable amount of water being flushed down the sewer. The new, more efficient toilets use only one and a quarter gallons of water for each flush, while the older ones found in just about everyone’s home use a massive three and a half gallons. If you did nothing more than this, in making your dwelling earth-friendly, it would make lots of difference in your water bills. Standard light bulbs are very inefficient and are responsible for a lot of energy wastage in majority of homes.

Energy Saving Hacks

Compact fluorescent lights last ten times as long while using only 5% of the energy that standard bulbs do. The additional upfront cost of the compact fluorescent lightbulbs is dwarfed by the long term savings, so don’t hesitate to make your home earth-friendly in this manner. What’s more, you might be interested to switch to even more efficient LED lights. If your house’s insulation is sub-standard, it will leak heat in wintertime and allow the heat in in summertime, which means you will gain throughout the year by improving this aspect of your house. Your house can not be made properly green by improving only the insulation, you must put in more efficient doors and windows also.

Yet another drain on energy is heating water for washing dishes and doing the laundry. You can just use cold water for the laundry these days, given how much detergents have gotten better. Your washing machine’s energy consumption is for the most part from having to heat the water, which could be done away with by using cold water. Once more, this is a simple, effortless way to make your home green. Lastly, you may be astounded to find out that you can save a lot of water by using a dishwasher. So you see, each one of us can start living green.


Using Eco-friendly Cleaning Products

Becoming environmentally friendly is something which many folks are looking to do right now, however folks still invest in toxic chemicals for cleaning their houses. This is one aspect of green living that the majority of people do not pay much attention to mainly because they think that cleaning supplies they use aren’t affecting our planet. Of course you must recognize that many cleaning supplies not only contain harmful chemicals but they might also contain toxic ingredients. In The Following Paragraphs I will be discussing exactly what you can do to keep your home clean using natural and organic cleaning products.

Many people are unaware of this but these days just about any store will have organic cleaning items. If you have already seen these products you understand that they are higher priced than traditional cleaning products, but for the health of our planet, they’re worth the cost. Usually these products only cost a couple of dollars more than the items you may be purchasing already. Those few extra dollars you invest can keep those chemical compounds out of your home and also help our planet at the same time.

You need to also be thinking about the sponges or other type of cloth materials you’re using for cleaning your home. Many of these things that you purchase in a store aren’t only massed produced in factories, but they can also be made with harmful materials. As opposed to buying these products, you do have the option of using old tee shirts as well as other articles of clothing that you would usually consider to be garbage. With that said, if you feel you still want to purchase cleaning cloths and sponges you’ll find some that are made from recycled materials as well as natural materials.

When it comes to the cleansers themselves, you should also be aware that you can make your own organic cleaners using items you may possibly already have in your home. Although this is not a difficult task some people don’t know what items to mix with what to make cleaning products, and that is where the Internet would have the ability to help you find recipes. One of the best forms of cleaners you’ll find in your home is baking soda. All you really have to do with this is sprinkle the location that you need to clean, and use a wet cloth to scrub the area down. If you want something with a little bit more cleaning power you could also try mixing lemon juice with vinegar as this is ideal for removing various stains.

The toxins that you find in traditional cleaning supplies aren’t only hazardous to our planet, but also something that can be bad for your health. Therefore if you’d like to reduce these kinds of negative effects your best option will be organic cleaning supplies and materials. The Internet will be an invaluable resource for anybody trying to find recipes for making their own organic cleaning supplies as well as finding stores that sell them. Everything you do will be able to help our planet as well as little such things as using organic cleaning supplies can make a big difference.