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After a long winter, warm weather makes us want to get out and do things. Home improvement projects are a favorite “to-do” in the spring, but it can be difficult to know where to start, especially if you don’t want to be wasteful. Here are three easy ways to create an eco-friendly home this spring that will create wonder and not waste.

Grow Something

Spring is the perfect time to start a garden or incorporate other kinds of plant growth into your home. While large gardens are ideal for maximum food growth, you may not have space for it. There are several great ways to increase your garden’s yield, even if it’s small, such as composting or stretching your growing season.

If you don’t have space for an outside garden, grow something inside. Leafy greens and root vegetables both grow well indoors, although some require more room than others. If your indoor growth space is limited, try herbs or “useless” plants. Plants that aren’t edible can still help clean your home’s air.

Eco-Friendly Building Materials

Taking on bigger home projects is a great way to take advantage of warmer spring weather. Sustainable building materials, such as high-density polyethylene sheets, are becoming more readily available, so your construction projects can keep your home eco-friendly.

Certain projects can even make use of materials you already have. Recycled windows make great greenhouses, which helps you reduce waste and provides an opportunity to get window treatments that will help regulate your home’s temperature. Additionally, you can make a chicken coop from almost any recycled material, from an old plastic playhouse to a rusted-out car.

Simple Swaps

Eco-friendliness comes down to the little things, too. In your kitchen, you can swap paper towels for reusable rags or use cloth totes for plastic bags. For your laundry, you can try dryer balls on wet days and line drying on clear days. Also, wash with cold water instead of hot—and only do so when the machine is full. The bathroom will benefit from a low-flow showerhead and homemade cleaning products in recycled containers. And the rest of your house will thank you for using LED lightbulbs, a smart thermostat, and power strips.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to make changes immediately. Use what you already have until it’s gone, even the less eco-friendly things. Throwing out half a box of dryer sheets because they’re not eco-friendly or letting your high-flow showerhead drip until you can afford a low-flow replacement doesn’t help the environment. Use or fix what you already have until you need a replacement, then choose an eco-friendly one.

As we welcome warm weather into our lives and use the new season to start home projects, remember to be as eco-friendly as possible. While these are three easy ways to create an eco-friendly home this spring, there are many more that will enhance your home and help the environment.

With rising inflation and rampant social unrest, many Americans are considering how to start living an off-grid lifestyle. For those who don’t know, an off-grid lifestyle means that your home doesn’t use public utilities such as the electric grid, gas lines, or running water. Instead, you will live off the land you own and typically grow your own food to sustain yourself.

Some of the reasons people might want to live off-grid include being self-reliant, increased privacy, and saving money. Regardless of your reasons, here are some helpful tips for beginning an off-grid lifestyle.

Pick the Best Location Possible

As with anything related to real estate, the most important thing is “location, location, location.” When you’re going off-grid, you want to make sure that the weather is tame, the soil is fertile, and you can handle any of the nearby wildlife.

If you live in an area that experiences droughts, you won’t be able to collect rain, so you will have to drive to a store to grab water. Although you can go off-grid anywhere, you may want to move to a more suitable area for this lifestyle.

Learn How To Grow Your Own Food

One of the main reasons people want to live off-grid is to quit their 9-to-5 jobs and live off the land. If this is the case for you, then you must learn how to grow your food so that you can support yourself.

As far as vegetables go, those will be the easiest crops to grow. But you should know about dwarf fruit trees as well because they can grow delicious fruit such as apples without taking up as much space in your garden. In addition, you might want to consider tending to livestock if you want to enjoy eggs, meat, and dairy. Otherwise, you might want to live near a body of water so you can go fishing once in a while.

Use Multiple Sources of Power

Going off-grid means that you will have to sacrifice some of the conveniences that come with an urban lifestyle. However, you can still use electricity in a limited capacity. You just have to get more creative with how you use it.

You will want to use multiple sources of power in your off-grid home, such as wind, solar, and hydropower, in case one of your power supplies fails. As a backup, you can use a generator that runs on gasoline, but you would need to drive to the store to replenish it after you use it. Nonetheless, solar power is generally a reliable power source, and issues related to reliability are one of the more common misconceptions about switching to solar energy.

Overall, switching to an off-grid lifestyle is a dream for many, but you must first learn how to do it properly. Now that you know a few tips for beginning an off-grid lifestyle, you can start living a life of wanderlust without a hitch.

The ability to consume homegrown food gives you a sense of pride. Therefore, if you’re looking to improve your egg game, it may be time to consider raising your own chickens. Here are the benefits of having a chicken coop in your backyard.

Fresh Eggs Are Nutritious & Delicious

You could begin getting your first eggs when your chickens turn four months old. The eggs may appear small at first, but the flavor will be exceptional. When it comes to taste, fresh eggs crush the ones you can purchase at the store, as the farm-to-store process can ruin the quality of the eggs. 

Fresh eggs are also often smoother and creamier in texture. These differences will be visible once you prepare a plate of scrambled eggs or fry the eggs in a skillet. Buying eggs from the store is always a gamble, considering you don’t know how long they’ve been sitting on the shelf. However, you’re fully aware of what to expect when you use your own chicken’s eggs. 

You’ll Get Premier Compost

Although discussing manure isn’t on the list of topics for making small talk, chicken droppings are valuable in various ways. An ordinary hen might generate nearly two cubic feet of waste annually. Compostable chicken dung may aid soil aeration and provide the ground with additional resources such as phosphate and potassium.

Even if you aren’t a gardener yourself, you can put these compost in containers for someone else to use. Of course, working with manure can lead to unfortunate byproducts such as ammonia, which is hazardous to your health. So make sure to clean your coop frequently, provide good ventilation, and use the right bedding.

It’s Humane

There’s no need to worry about inhumane practices when you raise your own chickens for their eggs. Unlike some poultry farms, which use methods for mass production, you can focus on providing a good quality of life for your hens. Some chickens know only a life of living in small cages with multiple other birds. Your chicken coop will act as a sanctuary compared to anything else.

You Can Earn Some Extra Cash

If you have enough hens, you may wind up with more eggs than you can consume. Some folks sell the leftover eggs and rake in supplementary income. This venture has many business hoops to jump through, so you’ll have to consider if the juice is worth the squeeze. 

The benefits of having a chicken coop in your backyardrange from providing a humane way to raise animals and creating fresh, valuable compost to aid any garden. The next time you ponder what your backyard needs, maybe a chicken coop should be on the agenda.

Honeybees are some of the first insects we ever interact with or learn about as children. However, plenty of common misconceptions about this insect exist. In this article, we’ll debunk some of these incorrect facts by sharing the most interesting myths about honeybees. To learn more, keep reading.

All Bees Die After Stinging

Contrary to popular belief, not all bees die after stinging. People widely believe this myth because most honeybees will die immediately after rupturing their stinger. This death is gruesome for honeybees, but it’s avoidable for other wild bee species.

All Bees Live Inside Beehives

Although it may be hard to imagine, the swarms of busy bees that live inside established beehives represent only a tiny percentage of the bees in your region. Only social bees work and live inside hives, which means that only 10 percent of honeybees stay inside hives. The rest of the honeybee population finds natural shelter in areas such as tree trunks and caves.

One of the best ways to protect the bee population is to attract pollinators to your home’s garden. The more wildflowers, plants, and trees you include in your backyard, the more space bees will have to live comfortably.

All Bees Have Long Life Spans

It might seem like the familiar bundle of bees you see pollinating your garden flowers are the same insects from the previous years. However, it’s almost impossible that these are the same critters from year to year. On average, honeybees have a life span of only five to six weeks. Even in ideal conditions, the healthiest honeybees still won’t live long past this average mark.

However, while bees may live short lives, the amount of pollinating and honey-producing they accomplish in their life spans is still critical, which is why bees are so essential to our ecosystem. 

All Bees Pollinate Plants

Although bees are the world’s largest pollinators, not all types of bees participate in pollination. Wild honeybees, specifically, are primarily responsible for the vast amount of pollination across the globe. Honeybees are the most common bee species to pollinate flowers, crops, and plants and build honey-filled beehives.

Surprised by our list of the most interesting myths about honeybees? The next time you spot a worker bee or buzzing insect, remember that bees live short but vital lives.

Flowers are beautiful, but taking care of them during the wintertime can be difficult. However, just because it’s cold outside doesn’t mean you have to forgo the pleasant aroma and appearance that flowers bring into your home.

If you follow the proper techniques, you can keep your flowers looking fresh for the whole season. Here are some tips for taking care of your flowers indoors during winter.

Keep Them Warm but Don’t Dry Them Out

Flowers are sensitive to the cold, so make sure your home is warm enough to keep them alive during winter. However, if they experience too much heat, flowers can dry out and receive just as much damage as they would from the cold.

To keep your flowers healthy, keep your home somewhere between 65 and 75-degrees Fahrenheit during the day and over 50 degrees at night. Sealing your windows and doors will also help, as it keeps cold air away from your flowers. Finally, if you keep them by a drafty windowsill, move them to a different area, so the cold doesn’t impact them.

Make Sure They Receive Enough Light

Growing your own flowers is tough during the winter because they won’t receive as much light, especially indoors. It’s your responsibility to make sure they receive light, and you can start by rotating your pots to maximize sunlight exposure for each flower.

Obtaining the perfect amount of sunlight is one of the most essential tips for healthy houseplants, but if your home doesn’t get enough sunlight, you might want to invest in a full-spectrum light bulb. You can use any desk lamp to shine light from a full-spectrum bulb onto your flowers for 12 to 14 hours per day. However, when decorating with cut flowers, keep them out of the sunlight to make your fresh flower bouquet last longer.

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The reason your nose gets stuffier during winter is that it dries out due to low humidity. Not enough moisture in the air is also a problem that affects your flowers, so try to keep your humidity at around 50 to 60 percent so your flowers can thrive. If you don’t have a humidifier, cluster your plants in the most humid room in your home or put them on a large baking sheet or tray with water. Whether you grow the flowers yourself or want to maintain your fresh bouquet, following the right tips will keep them smelling great during the colder months. After learning a few tips for taking care of your flowers indoors during winter, you can enjoy their presence in the months ahead.