The Green Ninja

It’s been quite a while since I’ve published here and my summer garden has long since gone (except for my beautiful flourishing greens!), but I am writing today to let you guys know that today is the first day of my 10 day Real Food Challenge. I’m really tired of all the chemicals that I have been consuming via processed food, so here goes! Here’s the blog that started it all: 100 Days of Real Food.

I’m pretty excited to get started and since my poor husband has been sick for going on six days now, I decided to start off tonight with a yummy homemade tortilla soup recipe. I’ll try to remember to post tomorrow and let you guys know how it turned out.

Meantime, I’m looking for ideas for all these huge greens that are in my garden. What to do with them??!

Over the last 6 months I have been working SUPER hard to change my living habits. I have vowed to become a healthier, happier woman before I turn 40 in Novemeber. Lately, I have been eating a lot of fresh veggies from our garden – that’s my favorite part about this time of the year.

In addition to eating healthier foods, I have also been working out and watching the kinds of foods that I am eating every day. I have lost 17.4 pounds so far and I am in much better shape that I was before.  One thing that has happened over the past few months is that my kitchen has changed drastically.

If you look around my kitchen now, there are all sorts of healthy eating related gadgets. I now have a juicer and a food processor that I use to make my meals healthier and yummier. I also have a blender that I use every morning to make a green smoothie (spinach, banana, blueberries and soy milk – YUM!).

You might think that all these fancy gadget have been expensive, but really, they are not. Especially when you consider just how much I am enjoying them. You can find these kinds of healthy eating tools online at websites such as amorwares.com and they won’t cost you an arm and a leg. There are so many options between heavy duty appliances and nice little single serving blenders like the one I use for my smoothies that you’ll be able to find one that suits you for sure.

Don’t think that healthy eating has to be expensive. It does not! When I think about all the money that I have saved in doctor’s bills, it makes me smile. Besides, eating from my own garden has proven to be super cheap! What will you do in the next six months to improve your health and your life?

Well, we are right in the middle of peak gardening time, especially for you folks in the South, like me. My garden is in full swing and it’s exciting each and every morning to go and look at the new growth. However, as most of you know, this time of year is a LOT of work.  For us, this means spending the weekends working both in the garden and around the home. One thing we’ve had to invest in is a couple of excellent pairs of work gloves.  Actually, we have found that Professional Equipment is a fantastic source for all kinds of tools and storage devices.

So, this weekend, we will be working on weeding the garden and fixing up a few things around the house. Also, I’ve been on quite a health kick lately and it’s been great to spend some of my “exercise” time working in the garden instead of working out in the gym! Working in the garden seems less like work and more like fun to me, anyway. We’ve been enjoying the fresh outdoors (not the heat, though!) and really enjoying the “fruits” of our labor.

What projects will you be doing around the garden and the home this weekend? I want to hear all about it!

Whether you like buying your garden supplies from Home Depot, Lowes, or another hardware stores, most people have used a gift card at some point to buy their supplies. One of the inherent problems with gift cards, is that it’s hard to find out what your balance is. With so many numbers to call and things to look up, it can get quite confusing.
I came upon a website called giftcardbalancesearch.com, and boy has it changed the way I feel about gift cards. It’s a website that lists the gift card balance information for nearly every merchant in existence. All you need to do is go to the main page and select the store that issued your gift card. On the merchant page, you’ll see information on how to check your balance by phone, online and even in store. And if the merchant doesn’t have a way to check using one if these methods, they’ll tell you!
On top of consolidating this information into one place, they don’t try to sell you anything or trick you into buying a gift card—they simply provide great information on how to check your gift card balance. In addition to the balance information, there is a really neat FAQ page that answers common questions about when gift cards expire, and what to do if your gift card is stolen at some point.
All in all, it’s a great resource, and if you’ve got any gift cards sitting around, you should pop over there and see how much money is left on them! You never know, you could have money in the form of a gift card sitting on the bottom of your dresser drawer collecting dust!

Feng shui is about how the environments in which we live and work have a result on our substantial, emotional and spiritual health. Different places make us feel differently. In order to make a new prospect and make things turn out to what we most desire, we have to consider how those places might be represented in our homes now.

The most important goal in Feng Shui gardening is to elevate the level of chi in your garden and ensure that it flows well and without restraint throughout the space.

Garden design main principle:  “A sense of place”

This is the main idea to aim to instill in your home garden. It is the fundamental rule used by all top garden designers and the completed garden, a breathing space of attractiveness and design will tempt you to spend lots of hours there, an addition of your living area and to benefit from it with all your senses during the 4 seasons of the year.

Gardens are becoming more and more vital as urbanization increases and we struggle to make gardens which will be designed to please our lifestyle, preferences and necessities as well as transport a sense of peace and calm.

No garden is too little or big to be designed and turned into a paradise, sustainable and appropriate for any conditions, weather, or style.

About the author:

Monsart is a company devoted to interior and garden design in Cyprus. It specializes in garden design and interior design services for private and commercial property throughout the EU. It also provides an outstanding multi-disciplinary service that includes: architectural design, space planning, project management and building construction.

The following guest post is written by CRI Irrigation, an Atlanta Irrigation Company.

Home lawn sprinklers differ in terms of cost, size and complexity. Typically, most home owners only really need small sprinkles to cover the surface area of their grass patch, which can be easily purchased at any garden or hardware store.

To install your very own home lawn sprinkler unit, all you need to do is attach the sprinkler to an outdoor water faucet. The faucet is then turned on and the sprinkler unit will then be activated, thereby interspersing water liberally over the lawn. For home owners who would prefer a more sophisticated and permanent approach to watering their lawns, there are lawn sprinkler professionals experienced in permanently installing sprinklers on the ground of the lawn which is then permanently linked to the home’s plumbing system.

The beauty of this permanent fixture is that it allows home owners to set timers on the sprinkler, which also makes the chore of keeping your lawn green practically painless. The modern day version of this sprinkler also features retractable heads for aesthetic and practical reasons. For one thing, the lawn will not only looked better without sprinkler heads jutting out but this will also save the sprinkler heads from surface injuries during other lawn activities.

Interesting enough, the grass on lawns should be sparingly watered as frequent watering will maintain the growth of the root only at a surface level whereas infrequent watering encourages the roots of the grass to grow deeper. As Atlanta experiences a humid subtropical climate with really hot, humid summers that can reach up to a maximum temperature of 100 degrees in July, it is recommended that you water your lawn once a week until approximately 1 inch of water is achieved. It stands to reason that more watering is needed during hot seasons as water gets evaporated faster but once temperatures cool below 80 degrees it is safe to cut back or halt the sprinkling process entirely.

During the irrigation season, it is also encouraged that all home owners perform preventive maintenance at least once a month to ensure smooth operations. Standard checking should include timer settings and the inspection of the filter, rotors, sprays and shrub bed drip lines as well.

With the arrival of spring comes a new set of plans, hopes, and dreams for your home’s garden. It’s the season to start over and refresh the look of your landscaping. The 8z team has compiled a few ideas to help you get on your way to a new bright and healthy yard.

If you are planning on starting your garden from seeds, consider starting early and planting them indoors or in cold boxes. In Colorado, we all know that a deep freeze is possible all the way through late April, so you want to give your little plants a fighting chance to survive. Plant them in containers that will allow plenty of room for them to grow so that they don’t get overcrowded. Use a rich soil, and keep them close to a window so that they can get plenty of sunlight. Keep an eye on the water level in the soil, as too dry will cause the seedlings to wither, and too damp will either stunt their growth or drown them. As they get closer to being moved outside, gradually expose them to more intense sunlight, and slowly transition them to the outdoors to avoid shock.

If you already have a strong spring perennial garden going, keep an eye on your flowerbeds now, to decide the changes you want to make in the fall. At that time you may expand and distribute the colors more evenly. By dividing the plant at the bulb, your larger plants can multiply into many more. If you have a mature healthy patch ofIf you have a mature healthy patch of bulb perennials consider spreading them out around your property for even more flowers when spring 2013 comes around.

Lastly, focus on weed control. It’s important to keep these pesky intruders away from the plants you lovingly put so much time into. While the old fashioned pulling, digging, and clearing of weeds works the best, there are also many options of weed sprays you can apply to your garden. However, some of those sprays are incredibly toxic, so pay attention to the label. Or you can go green and make a non-toxic organic weed killer out of ingredients found right in your kitchen!non-toxic organic weed killer out of ingredients found right in your kitchen!

Whichever route you decide to take this spring, make your garden exactly what you want it to be! Whether that’s starting from scratch, optimizing what you currently have, or just focusing on keeping it free of weeds, enjoy your gardening experience!

Summer in the South can be excruciating. If you live in Texas, Louisiana or Mississippi, you already know that 30 plus consecutive days of 3 digit temperatures is, indeed, possible. Instead of sweating it out, you need to take some time now to get your home air system ready for summer.

There are a few things you can do to get your home ready for 100+ degree weather. You can start with the basics. Make sure that your windows are well shaded and put your ceiling fans to good use during the evening.

If you are building a new home, make sure that you plant some shade trees around your house. This can greatly decrease your electric bill during the summer. Also, make sure that you install an energy efficient air conditioner. When you are choosing an air conditioning unit, make sure that it is the correct size. Many homes have air conditioning units that are 50% larger than they really need to be. This means that they use more energy than is needed and their electric bills are higher.

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I was talking with a professional landscaper the other day about redoing the landscaping in front of my home. I have taken a number of measures over the last ten years to improve the appearance of my home as viewed from the street. I have been trying to give it more curb appeal.

My home was built in the traditional American colonial style where everything is relatively symmetrical. Prior to me owning it, some of the windows had been replaced with ones that didn’t really fit the colonial architecture. Replacing them was high on my to do list. That task alone made a substantial improvement in the overall look of the home.

Another thing I did recently was to replace the front door with a classic colonial style door. The new one has twelve window lites on the door which give it that classic look. Replacing that door made a huge difference.

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One of the most refreshing and beautiful things to behold is a garden filled with different flowers and plants. If you would like to have a garden of your own but you feel you do not have the knowledge and skill in planting, the good news is beginners can create their own backyard garden with proper planning and the right tips. As long as you have an area where there is soil filled with good aeration and organic matter, you are sure to grow different kinds of plants.

The first thing to do is to have a rough sketch of your garden. Know where you shall place your flowers, vegetables, herbs, bench and other elements. Go to the spot where you intend to build your garden and mark the areas where you shall place the above-mentioned things.

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