Blog
SPRING STICKS. aka Bare Root Plants!
They often come in the mail. They’re cheaper to buy. They’re lighter to ship. They’re easier to plant. They require less plastic packaging. They’ll never be rootbound. They arrive with all of their stringy roots. They ARE in fact sticks. But they’re also dormant or...
Imbolc: a Celebration of Rebirth
Imbolc: The earth-centered holiday of Imbolc is a time of celebration and ritual of rebirth, often including Brighid, the goddess of the hearth. This also begins an annual time of purification and new beginnings — “the first stirring of seeds or spring flowers” in the...
Pollinator Winter Habitats – What do they look like?
2022 Winter Habitats "Do you know" -what winter landscape elements support pollinators and important insects for healthy landscapes and birds? PERENNIAL SEED HEADS: In the Northeast, perennial seed heads provide food for overwintering Black-capped Chickadee, Dark-eyed...
Wet Leaves -What are They Good For?!
Don’t want to drag wet leaves to the curb? Great, keep them! Wet Leaves contain fertilizer and humus -critical to healthy shrubs, flowers, trees and food gardens. And, oh yes, they are FREE! Dump them into a circle of chicken wire in a back corner of your yard to...
Favorite Environmental Actions at Home
Purple kale alongside the porch, Red Runner Beans and cucumbers hanging on the fence, pumpkins up a trellis and peach trees at the sidewalk, . I love that at least this food will not burn fossil fuel being shipped cross country to our table. I love that we grow them...
Six Surprises in the Lawn Spiral Adventure
I have stopped mowing a spiral-shaped strip of my fenced-in lawn. I started for “No Mow May” and just kept going. In addition to less time spent mowing, these are the changes I’ve noticed through August: More bugs; in particular grasshoppers. Remember them? It wasn’t...
Healthy Home Habitats & Revision Energy Join Forces!
https://www.revisionenergy.com/blogs/healthy-home-habitats/ Go Solar when the numbers work! My payback period for both the solar and the heat pumps is 15 years. Love that $14/mo. electric bill and the ½ tank of oil each winter. Efficiency is Key! And don't forget...
Mid-Summer Perennial Chop!
You know your TALL, top layer of pretty, blooming perennials that fall over every summer? Staking is a pain. Now is your last chance, the perfect time to cut them in half! Really. This is the last, best week to give your perennials a midsummer cut. Each stalk will...
Garden Layering: The Hot Colors are Starting!
I often feel a whole new garden begin in July at the Healthy Home Habitats house. The cool pink, blue and purple colors of most spring flowers fade to the hot oranges and many, striking, almost rhythmic versions of not-exactly-red that begin to sparkle along the...
Less Consumption, Less Damage, More Life!
I couldn’t agree more Lloyd Alter, in your recent Treehugger article “Why are there so many fist pumps for heat pumps these days?” Reducing demand is the challenge, the goal and so very achievable with daily decisions and choices that value the health of our planet...