Carbon Cutter

If you have a small lot, trash your gas and electric mowers. Push mowers have advanced in the last few years and are remarkably easy to push. The walk will do you good.

Waterwise

Water your lawn only when it needs it. You'll know when your lawn needs watering by the colour of the grass. The blades turn a bluish green when they need water.

Herbicide Alternative

Use hot vinegar to get rid of the weeds in your pavers. Boil the vinegar in your kettle (to clean the kettle), add a tiny bit of salt and dish soap.

Take the kettle outside and pour the almost boiling vinegar on the weeds in your pavers.

Voila! In minutes, your weeds are toast.

Ants Hate Cinnamon

Sprinkle cinnamon along their path. You can also mix the cinnamon with some dishwashing liquid to make a sticky paste that can be spread along entryways.

40 Million Acres

40 million: acres of lawn exist in the United States, and are the single most irrigated crop, according to NASA. Don't forget to weigh in the fact that it takes 238 gallons of fresh, usually drinking-quality water per person, per day, to keep our lawns pert and verdant.

Mulch, Mulch, Mulch

Mulch does many things:

It controls weeds in your garden by blocking out the sun needed by weed seeds to germinatre
It insulates the soil keeping the root zone cool in hot weather.
It looks neat and tidy.
It reduces water loss from the garden
It improves your soil as it decomposes.
It protects the soil keeping it from becoming hard and dry.

Green in the Garden
We generate our own environment. We get exactly what we deserve. (Richard Bach)

Overuse of Fertilizer Can Acidify Soil

Check out the impending problems in China from fertilizer overuse.

Do Canadians also use too much fertilizer? Be sure to check the application instructions on the bag and then, maybe, use a little bit less.

Instant Compost

Dig a hole approximately 18-inches across with as straight sides as you can. Plant around the hole. Fill the hole with kitchen green waste such as vegetable peelings (that refuse holds a lot of water) and alternate green waste with a thin layer of soil. The water and waste will quickly be colonized by worms and roots so you'll have an instant compost bin and small water reservoir around this hole.

Community Supported Agriculture

Not ready to grow your own veggies but would like to have fresh produce from your local area? Consider contracting with a local veggie grower who will grow your veggies for you and have them ready for use in your kitchen.

In Ontario, you can find a grower near you on this web site.

Seeds of Diversity offers you a resource list for heirloom and organic seeds.

This spring consider using heirloom or organic seeds for your veggie garden, your flower bed or your herb patch. This is a feel-good-about-yourself item for sure.

If you are what you eat, it's worth the effort to grow your own and grow organic.

Woodpiles for Insects

Insects, including many butterflies, don't go South for the winter. Some, like the Mourning Cloak butterfly, hibernate as adults. Butterflies and other insects may hibernate as caterpillers or pupas.

A woodpile offers refuge from wind and snow. It offers lots of nooks and crannies in which to pass the winter days

For a really interesting invertebrate habitat, check out this site from England:

Building an Invertebrate Habitat

Sequestration of carbon

Plant trees and plants and shrub clumps instead of lawn. You will sequester 5 times more carbon and invite life back into that patch of earth you call “yours.” Using a gas lawn mower negates most of the sequestration benefits of turf on lawns making lawns sequester neutral.