Green Tips

Suggestions for healthy and eco-friendly choices.

Today's tip:

There are many great reasons to use green house-cleaning products: reducing risk of poisoning children; eliminating dangerous fumes from conventional cleaning products; and flushing out (no pun here!) the harmful effects that bleached toilets will inflict on the environment.

Practicing green cleaning at home is easy and less expensive! Here are a few simple steps for healthier, clean living:

Vinegar, baking soda and hot water are amazing and multi-tasking. Baking soda cleans, deodorizes and scours. Vinegar cuts grease, removes mildew and odors, and is great diluted with hot water to mop tile floors. What you replace: Comet, bleach, harsh floor cleaners, Windex, toilet bowl cleaners.
Reuse containers. Reduce the packaging waste by reusing spray bottles and dish soap dispensers. Simply rinse and refill with a vinegar mix or other green cleaner. You eliminate both landfill waste and greenhouse gases created when making the containers.
Use washable cleaning rags, dish sponges and napkins. Throwing away paper products like napkins, paper towels and paper plates is a huge waste of landfill space and trees. Use old t-shirts and towels for cleaning rags.

Use only eco-friendly laundry detergents. We suggest Mrs. Meyers Clean Day or Seventh Generation detergents. Both use plant based ingredients and essentials oils and have a low impact on the environment.

Another tip:

Use ladybugs to control aphids on your roses and in your vegetable garden instead of using pesticides and chemicals.

You can buy live ladybugs at many nurseries, or order them online. To make sure your little garden helpers stay in your garden follow these instructions:

-Release ladybugs in evening after sun down. Ladybugs navigate by the sun and in the evenings they tend to stay put.
-Pre-water the area where you are releasing them.
-In the warm months, it helps to chill the ladybugs in the fridge before releasing them.
-On severely infested plants like roses, drape a floating row cover or thin sheet over the plant and release the ladybugs underneath. Within a day, the ladybugs will find the aphids and be happily munching away.