a bit of green

Energy efficient heating is, in many countries, not as highly emphasized as it should be. The energy losses due to poor insulation and wrong heating choices can be huge. According to David MacKay’s excellent Sustainable Energy – without the hot air book, heating and cooling accounts for almost 20% of every developed country citizen’s energy consumption (37 kilowatt hours per day out of an estimated total of 195 kilowatt hours per day per person). Admittedly, this percentage is a mean number for the UK and in other areas more air conditioning would be needed, but in this areas less heating is also needed thus keeping things slightly balanced. As 20% is a rather big percentage and 37 kilowatt hours is a lot of energy, it is very reasonable to try to increase the efficiency of heating solutions (and air conditioning for warmer countries like the one I live in). This can be achieved by using more energy efficient heating devices, as well as improve insulation and using heating a bit more wisely.

As you know, when it’s hot, it helps if you eat light foods. Add to that the fact that we are both trying to lose some excess weight, and you will have two great reasons for eating lightly. So, last night we made a delicious open sandwich, which also enabled us to celebrate our little herb garden, as this was the first time we actually used one of the plants. It turned out great and it also adheres to the rules of Mediterranean diet, which is well-known for its health benefits.

Remember the post about window gardens? Well, we followed our advice and started our own window garden, our precious. Here are some preliminary results:

A glimpse of our tiny window garden; starring thyme and basil.

Package vertical garden installation.

The “Garden for a not too distant future” is an installation that is part vertical garden, part criticism about the lack of green space in cities and the growing hype of overpriced, difficult to maintain vertical walls. The installation consists of 110 transparent food packaging containers inside which were put leaves, branches found in the trees in the area and lights.

A green wall at São Paulo.

A green wall is a wall partially or completely covered with vegetation. Green walls can either be free-standing or part of a building. There are two main categories of green walls: green façades and living walls. The vegetation for a green façade is attached on outside walls, but there is also the case of indoor living walls where the vegetation lies on interior walls. Green walls are also referred to as living walls, biowalls, or vertical gardens.

For the vast majority of human history, agriculture could be described as organic, meaning there was no use of synthetic materials during food production. During the 20th century, however, new synthetic chemicals were intruduced to the food supply. Chemical fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides were used to increase the agricultural output, in order to satisfy the increasing demands of the western population. This more recent style of agricultural production is known as “conventional.”

House in harmony with nature.

We can almost see you sitting in your house, wondering how to make it more environmentally friendly. Going green will be good both for you and the environment, since you’ll get a healthier life style and long term savings while taking a little step in helping our planet. Supposing you’re not building your house from the ground up, you probably want to improve a house that’s already done: what you need is green interior design methods. Since green products are getting more mainstream attention lately, they have also become a lot cheaper. It is fairly easy and not very expensive to do some green remodeling to your home’s interior to improve its greenness. We will talk a little bit about little changes here, along with some major changes which require a bit more effort and money but they are really worth your while.

Water your plants like your grandmother did.

Speaking of gardens and the perfect amount of water your herb pots require, here’s an 1950′s vintage metal watering can I ran into on etsy.

Vintage items (as well as old houses) always give me a certain feeling of mystery, they make me want to know their story. So, there you go, a unique grandma-like watering can with rather old  chrome yellow and black paint with flower decal on one side.

You can buy it at keeelystreetvintage’s shop for $19.50 USD.

A bit of green at your window.

Spring time! The sunlight and the fresh breezes make this time of the year perfect for gardening activities. So there’s your chance to start your own garden! If, like us, you’re living in an apartment, you might think there isn’t much you can do to get your green finger in action.

Well, you might have a small (or, if you’re lucky, medium-sized) patio or balcony; but you definitely have at least one window: you can use every available space to grow your little Eden. The truth is, if you grow a garden at your window sill, the best description would be tiny Eden, but that won’t stop your garden from giving your home a touch of nature and beauty – and maybe handfuls of edible plants, depending on what you choose to grow.