Green Living | Going Green and Saving Green

Going green doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, if you do it right, going green can save you some green. There are some great  green ways of cutting down on expenses.

The economic times may be getting tough, so we decided to do our part for your personal economy by taking a little detour from our normally pest control oriented blog, to provide some tips on going green and saving money at the same time. There is some pest prevention related information here as well.

Reducing lawn expenses. Reduce your lawn space.

Lawns take up a lot of resources, and that costs a lot of money.

• Reduce your lawns size.

• Lawns eat up the majority of your home water resources, reducing the size of your lawn will reduce your water bill.

• Lawns Consume the majority of fertilizers used in home landscapes, reducing the size will reduce your fertilizer bill.

• Lawns are the major consumers of insecticides and herbicides, reducing the size will reduce the need for them and cost a lot less in the long run.

• The reduced lawn space will cost less, and be good for the environment.

• Make that extra space pay off.  Plant a garden! The garden will provide a source of safe nutritious food to cut down on the supermarket costs.

• Even if you don’t want to get rid of part of your lawn, you should consider using part of your landscape area as a garden space. Just get rid of some of those exotic plants, and replace them with edible plants. Even in the winter you can grow such things as salad greens and cole crops like kale. In the summer, you can use sweet potatoes, which have a natural insect and weed repelling quality to them. There are hundreds of other garden plants that do well as ornamental plants as well.

• Plant some native fruiting trees and vines instead of those care intensive, and resource hungry exotic ornamental plants. The plants you use will also require some care, but at least you get to eat the fruit of your labor!

• Consider composting lawn and kitchen waste for fertilization instead of buying expensive commercial fertilizers.

Going green and saving money in your home

• Replace worn weather striping.

• Replace worn door sweeps.

• Caulk around the door frames and windows of your home.

• Check and caulk all plumbing, electrical, and communications lines entering your home, both inside and outside.

This will make the home both more energy efficient, and pest resistant, requiring less energy, and less pesticide, both of which cost you money, and have environmental impact. going green by using pest prevention is not only the greenest form of pest control, it is also the most economical form of pest control.

I am sure that there are thousands of other ways you can think of to go green and save green. If you have some things in mind, don’t be stingy, share them with others. That’s what our comment section is for! You can find a comment box at the bottom of each post.

Green Living | Landscaping Landscape Pest Control

If you are already practicing green living, or just now going green, there is one singularly important aspect to creating and maintaining a green landscape, and practicing green landscape pest control. That is, the use of native plants in your landscape. Many people or moving away from the traditionally exotic laden landscaping practices of the recent past, and toward a more economical and earth friendly landscape using native plants in native habitats.

Environment and Economy

Why is it more economical and earth friendly? Well, it takes less water, fewer herbicides and insecticides, and less fertilizer, to keep native landscapes healthy, and that is better for everyone. It also requires less work!

Green native economics

There are a lot of other reasons that this is a great idea. On a practical level, your native habitat, or backyard habitat, as they are often called, if properly planted and maintained, will probably make your lawn space smaller, and lawns eat the lions share of your outdoor maintenance budget. Lawns consume more water, fertilizers, and require more pesticides than natural, native habitats. It saves you money.

Green native environment

With less fertilizer and pesticide needed, you will cut down the size of your carbon footprint, cause less environmental contamination, and preserve water, 3 things that are great for the health and safety of your family, and the health and safety of the environment.

Extra landscape pest control

By using plants native to your area in your landscape, you will also get an extra boost in pest control. You see, native wildlife, particularly native birds, love the plants of your area, and will want to spend more time in your new green living habitat, and the will want to eat a lot of unwanted insects while they are there.

These are just a few of the many reason that native plant landscaping is one of the best ways of going green in your outdoor environment. There are other green living tips on this site as well. Most of these tips deal with pest prevention which we consider to be the most environmentally correct way of dealing with pests. Our Main Directory is a great place to get started, we even have a complete, step by step Pest prevention Program for you, at no cost!

This is a list of tips, practices that will help you to keep pests out of your lawn, landscape, and house. The tips mentioned here are a small part of the much larger central focus and concept of this website, which is an overall pest prevention program. This is IPM, or Integrated Pest Management beginning where it should begin, by preventing the pests from the start. If these tips make sense to you, you should check out the rest of the site, starting with How To Use This Site, or our easy to follow Main Directory.

This should require no explanation, it is just plain and simple. Stopping pests before they start makes more sense than having to control them when you have an infestation. Like house fires, or auto accidents, it is smarter to avoid them, than to deal with the consequences, no matter what kind of insurance you have!

When we talk about controlling pests, we are really starting somewhere about mid way through the process. Controlling them usually means we already have them. The best time to start, is long before the problem starts.

The best place to start is before we have the pest. Would you prefer to have good medical care after an accident, or the ability to avoid the accident?

Listed below are a few tips on keeping pests out of your environment. Some are for bugs, and some for weeds, and I am sure you can come up with some of your own.

• Don’t “over water” your lawn and landscape beds. Many weed pests, and bug pests enjoy excess water, and may decide to take up residence in the new sea side resort in your landscape. Over watering fuels fungus, and bacteria as well.

• Scalping your lawn, weakens the scalped areas turf, and allows weed invaders to take the place of the weakened grass.

• Waiting too long between mowing’s, can allow weeds time to reach seed head maturity, and plant themselves in your nice green lawn. Too much growth also provides cover for insects.

• When you have waited too long to mow, change your mowing height, so that you take off less leaf blade, and then mow again in a few days at a lower cutting height. Do this in increments until you reach your desired cutting height.

You should never remove more than one third of the top at a time. Taking too much off at once will leave your lawn in a weakened condition, inviting more bugs and weeds to take over.

• Don’t fertilize too late in the year. If you do, you may be fertilizing winter weeds instead of grass.

• Avoid aerifying late in the fall. Aerifying at that time, will plant the weed seeds that would have otherwise rotted on top of the ground.

• Use good cultural practices, like proper fertilization, mowing, and irrigating so that you avoid those bare spots that invite weeds to live in your lawn.

• Avoid mowing weedy outside areas before you mow your lawn. If you have to do this for some reason, stop and thoroughly clean your mower between the two areas.

• Don’t create low areas or places where water backs up and becomes a breading place for mosquitoes, if you have already done this, find a way to drain and fill the area, or find a better way of making a permanent drain.

• Mow away from your landscape beds and garden to avoid throwing grass, weed clippings, and seed into them.

• Don’t leave jagged or ragged cuts, or part of a limb sticking out beyond the callous of the joint when you prune a tree. If you do, you are doing the equivalent of hanging a sign on the tree that reads: “Insects and Disease Eat Free Here!”

• Use plants native to your area when you are landscaping. Native plants are already resistant to native pests, are comfortable with your climate and average rainfall, and they won’t break out into the environment and eat the forest.

• Avoid using manure that has not been composted as a fertilizer. Many weed Seed survive the animals digestive tract, and they have the manure to help them grow strong.

• Bird seed, usually contain some weed seeds. Don’t throw them where you don’t want weeds.

• Avoid anything that would weaken your plants, because weak plants invite disease and pests. Such practices as spraying water on the leaves of a plant in direct sunlight should be avoided.

• Remove any brush or debris which might provide a staging area for an insect invasion. Keep such piles as far away from your landscape as possible.

• As much as possible, keep areas adjacent to your property, such as right of ways, clean and free of brush weeds and debris. If it is someone else’s property, or a vacant lot, get permission from the owner first. Bugs love hiding places where they can congregate before an invasion.

• When building something, or adding on to your landscape take into account the effect of what you are about to do. Here are a couple of examples:

In some parts of the country, any concrete in full sun is a fire ant magnet.

Some types of lighting, directly on, or immediately adjacent to a lawn, may cause a June bug invasion. This invasion may be followed by a grub invasion, which may then be followed by an armadillo and mole invasion.

• Avoid lawn compaction. Areas with heavy foot traffic, are likely to have poor quality turf, and are subject to invasion by weeds that like compacted areas. If you have compaction, loosen it by aerifying.

If the area is getting traffic because it is convenient, you could make a paved foot path through the area, or you could plant or build something that would discourage people from walking that direction.

• Don’t build, or buy a home next door to a swamp!