I have never been a diehard conservationist. I let people with money to spare spend their time thinking of ways to save the world, while I just do my best to keep the bills paid and raise my family. But that doesn’t mean I can’t give a little insight to alternatives for heating your home that may actually save a little bit of the planet and some money over time.

Natural Heat: The sun’s rays are powerful and are skiing down on us throughout the day. It heats the planet, so why not let it heat your home, as well? Install skylights to let the sun rays filter into your home. Large windows on the side of the home where the sun hits regularly can go a long way to cutting heating costs.

Solar Panels: One of the most expensive ways to heat your home is electrically. The constant production of electricity from power plants depletes our environment of precious resources such as coal or creates hazardous radioactive waste from power plants. Installing solar panels on your home helps you create your own electricity, so you can heat your home for free. If you are lucky, you can even sell a little electricity back to the power company. You won’t make much, but every little bit helps to ease the burden on the environment.

Geothermal: Geothermal is a way to heat and cool your home using the temperatures of the Earth. Unlike standard forced-air heating systems that blow heated air into a home at intervals, a geothermal system expels a steady stream of lukewarm air to keep the house a constant temperature throughout the seasons. Pipes are laid underground below the frost line where the temperatures are constant regardless of the cold of winter or the heat of summer. Water is circulated through the pipes so it reaches a set temperature and then is sent back to the home where ambient heat or coolness is used to raise or lower the temperature of the air. The cost of a geothermal heating system is about twice that of a standard heating and cooling system, but the cost savings over time will more than make up for the cost.

I think that if we have it in out power to make a change that is better for the environment, then we should do it. I may not single-handedly save the brown otter from the ravages of the logging industry, but I can put my recycling out on the curb on time and help other people with the means to think of ways they can help the environment.

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/dominiqs/137546658

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These Pelargoniums have damage from too many sub-freezing nights. New growth can be seen emerging from the center of the plant. Image by Gardenipedia.

STEP 1:  CLEAN-UP YOUR ACT

The first step is to clean up the garden bed.  Remove any weeds that may already have emerged, throw out any rocks you see lying around (unless you want them there), clean-up debris, and use your trusty pruning shears to remove all dead growth from plants.  But hold on!  If you see any green on any of the “dead” growth you’re cutting, you may just be pruning dormant branches so be careful.   It is vital that you clean up all the dead growth as this can harbor diseases and insects that may affect the new, green growth emerging from plants.

The Pelargonium cleaned up. Notice I left the dead leaves in there. They will eventually break down and add much needed organic matter into the soil. Image by Gardenipedia.com

STEP 2: ADDING THE GOOD STUFF.

Whenever I work in a garden bed; whether its cleaning up or adding a plant or something else, I like to take the opportunity to add compost to the area.  You can add compost that you made yourself or go to your local garden center and buy the stuff in bags.  If your flowers all died in winter, till the compost into the soil to a depth of about one to two feet.  This will give a good growing medium to new plants.  If some of your perennials are still ticking, however, you may want to top dress instead, as tilling the compost into the soil is bound to damage the roots of the plants.  Compost helps add nutrients to the soil, but more importantly, it helps to give the soil a good structure (I’ll be going into this in a future post).

The flower bed with a compost top-dressing. Make sure not to cover new growth as this may suffocate the crown of the plant, killing it. Image by Gardenipedia.com

STEP 3: INDULGE IN A LITTLE SHOPPING SPREE.

This is the time to add the new flowers.  If you’re doing this when it is still cold outside, make sure that the plants you choose can withstand the wide temperature fluctuations of late-winter and early-spring.  I won’t be going into planting specifics in this post as each plant has its own requirements, but you can ask your local garden center for help when you buy the plants.  If your flower bed still has last year’s survivors and they are coming along slowly, you can still indulge in a little shopping by giving them some companions in the new year (assuming that there is still space in the garden bed, you don’t want to suffocate the plants).   The new companions will give a little show while last years plants come back to full force.

I added Osteospermum to the garden bed to grow in some of the bigger gaps between some of last year’s Pelargonium. Make sure not to harm the roots of the established plants. Image by Gardenipedia.com

STEP 4: MUCLH AWAY

Add landscape mulch to your beds for a clean look, to help retain moisture in the ground, to add nutrients over time to the ground, and to to control weeds.  Try to stay away from synthetic mulches, such as rubber, as it does not offer much nutritional benefits to plants.  Also, stay away from mulches like Cypress mulch which are made from slow growing trees, pick mulches from tree farms or fast growing tree varieties.  A 1-2″ layer of mulch is generally good.  Be carefull not to suffocate new growth under the mulch.  After your finish muclhing clean up your tools, put yard trash away, and enjoy your refurbished landscape bed.  They should look like winter was never here.

The finished mailbox flower bed. The Pelargoniums, still barely visible in between newer plants, will take over the show in a month or two. Image by Gardenipedia.com

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments.

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