Moving to a new city can be a daunting task. If you have recently moved to Cincinnati from another city or state and are unfamiliar with your surroundings, getting back into the groove of everyday life in your new home can be a major chore. You have to find the closest grocery store, fill out a change of address form to forward your mail from your old address, and even find new providers for services like plumbers, heating and air conditioning repair, and lawn care.
A quality service provider isn’t always found at the end of a Google search… unless perhaps you’re reading the reviews that people post online. Sometimes there’s just no substitute for good old word of mouth. You can trust your neighbors and friends who have had a good experience and recommend a good plumber or reliable lawn care service.
We found a great article on changeofaddress.org that gives you 10 Tips for Finding A Lawn Care Service. So, if you’re new to the Queen City, welcome! We hope these 10 tips help you find a quality lawn care service… and we hope that service is Keeping It Green!
Today was a good day. Why? I discovered an eco friendly way to fix an everyday problem: clogged drains. What makes this even more exciting is this is going to save me a ton of money on drain cleaner!
A common problem in our home, and probably yours too, is clogged drains. You would think we have a Sasquatch living here with the amount of hair that clogs the drain on a weekly basis. And buying those chemical drain cleaners was getting pretty expensive, not to mention making me feel horrible for dumping those nasty chemicals down the drain.
A friend mentioned once to try baking soda and vinegar, so I tried a few experiments:
Hot Water - Sometimes just good old fashioned boiling water will melt, dissolve, or knock loose what’s slowing your drain. If that doesn’t work… plan B - baking soda and hot water.
Baking Soda - Just dump about 1/2 a cup in the drain and run hot water. Sometimes the slipperiness of the baking soda in the water is enough to encourage that lump of hair to clear the way. I’m amazed at how nice the bathroom sink starts to drain after a little sprinkle of baking soda and running hot water. And if that doesn’t work…
Baking Soda and Vinegar - Dump 1/2 a cup of baking soda down the drain, then pour about 1/2 a cup of vinegar in the drain. It will start foaming and look like a science experiment. Resist the urge to stare at it like a kid making a volcano for the first time and shove a rag down the drain and let it marinate for a while. After a few hours, run some hot water.
I can’t believe all those years of dumping chemicals down the drain and I had a cheaper and more environmentally friendly solution sitting right in the fridge all along.
When the time came to upgrade my cell phone, the obvious option was the new Samsung Reclaim, an eco-friendly phone. Sure, it was pretty cool that it came in green, but the eco friendly perks are pretty cool too. What makes this phone eco friendly is that it’s made of 80% recyclable materials - kinda makes you wonder what happens to all those OTHER phones that some of us were replacing yearly! 40% of the phone casing was built using bio-plastic materials extracted from corn! Mmmm corn…
We also purchased the Solio Mono Hybrid Charger which is a solar charger for the phone. I figured all that working in the sun should give me plenty of time to recharge the phone using the sun’s energy. I especially liked the fact that the charger comes with multiple adapters and can charge any phone we own, plus a couple MP3 players, a digital camera… who knows what else we’ll find? The only downside is that it’s a little tricky to figure out at first. I’ll admit, it got frustrating that I wasn’t in direct sunlight for long enough, or that perhaps the pollution or the clouds were preventing a full charge. But the idea of saving energy keeps me motivated so one day I’ll figure this thing out. In the meantime, if any of our readers has used this device, please share your tips! We’d love to hear how you get it to work.
I’ve been a Sprint customer for years, which is the network that carries this phone. But while researching information on my new Reclaim I was pleasantly surprised to learn about Sprint’s commitment to being a socially and environmentally responsible company. Did you know that Sprint Headquarters purchases 80% of its power from a wind farm in Kansas? Now that’s pretty cool.
All in all, I like the new phone, and am excited that I found one more way to be Keeping It Green!
Going organic isn’t always the least expensive option. But in the case of organic mulch in Cincinnati, going eco-friendly with your mulch may save you a few bucks.
Keeping It Green supplies organic mulch to our current eco-conscious customers as well as our new customers who are considering choosing greener options.
The benefits of using organic mulch are simple:
Organic mulch provides rich nutrients to the soil.
Organic mulch is free of inorganic compounds or chemical dies.
Organic mulch will even save you a few bucks.
Give us a call at 513-544-8610 for a free estimate. We look forward to hearing from you.
Rain barrels are becoming more popular and more widely used as homeowners learn to conserve water and help protect their environment. They are efficient because not only are you able to harvest and conserve water, but reducing the cost of your water bill doesn’t hurt either!
If you do it right, you can actually store up enough water in one year to last you an entire summer! And you can use that water to wash your car, or even water your plants or garden. Rain water is good for washing your car because it’s soft water and contains less harmful minerals than regular tap water. And it’s great for your garden and plants too!
So now that you’re convinced that you need some rain barrels (I’ve convinced you… right?) how do you go about getting some of these barrels? Well, you have tons of options. You can go to a site that sells rain barrels pre-made, set them up and you’re ready to go. Or, if you’re a do-it-yourselfer, there are tons of great instructional videos and information online.
If you’re one of our neighbors here in Cincinnati Ohio, the Civic Garden Center has a lot of great information on their site at www.civicgardencenter.org, including a Rain Barrel Handbook. And this Saturday, March 20th 2010 at 1:00, they have a Rain Barrels for Everyone class to teach you how to construct your own rain barrel.
So get out there and start harvesting your own rain! Your plants will love you and you’ll love your lower water bills!
The summer of 2007 brought a nasty drought to the Cincinnati area, which resulted in a lot of dead trees. We were sad to see so many of them die, and then the Hurricane force winds of Ike in September 2008 swept through and “helped” bring some of those trees down.
It’s hard to watch a tree die when you think of all those years spent growing tall and providing beauty and shade. And the refreshing smell of pine wafting through the air on a summer day reminds me of camping in the mountains and sleeping among the pines as a kid. And a little part of me just wishes that it would come back to life, but I know better. And looking around the neighborhood, we all come to the realization that it’s time to clean up those dead trees and make room for new life.
So today, in Springfield Township, some neighbors joined together and hired Keeping It Green to take down those dead trees. Aside from the fact that it’s kind of fun getting together with the neighbors on a beautiful sunny afternoon, this type of community tree service saves us all a little green in the process.
Keeping It Green is happy to offer multi-family discounts for tree services, and other similar services. It saves us money to rent the equipment for multiple jobs, so we’re happy to pass that savings along to our customers. After all, who doesn’t want to save a few bucks these days?
You might be looking at your trees and wondering how the heck you’re going to get that thing down. And after last year, you’re probably more scared than usual that some high winds will blow that sucker on to your home and cause some damage. That’s where we come in. We’ve got the equipment and the skills to get to some pretty high trees and bring them down without damaging your property. And once the tree is down, we can remove the stump too.
Now let’s talk about how we can work together to “Keep It Green”. First of all, removing that dead tree is sad, but it’s necessary. That dead tree isn’t doing anyone any good. It’s an eye sore and it’s a hazard because it’s just standing there, waiting for a wind or some soft soil to loosen its roots and fall. But look at it like this: it’s free firewood, drying and curing and waiting to be cut up! So we’ll take down that tree and cut up some nice firewood to keep you warm this winter and help you save on your heating bill. But we don’t stop there. What about that big open space? Well, plant another tree! We like Fast Growing Trees Nursery as a great option to plant something that will grow fast and fill up that space with a lush, beautiful tree.
So if you’re looking around your neighborhood and notice some dead trees, knock on your neighbor’s door, or holler across the fence, and ask them if they want a discount on taking down those dead trees. We’ll be happy to help!
So I’ve started a garden this year and the first sunny day, the birds were out there, perched on my neatly piled rows of dirt, picking away at the seeds I had just planted. Obviously standing watch 24-7 is not an option. As much as I love that garden, I do have a life and somehow being a real live scarecrow wasn’t sounding like my life’s calling.
Next thought? Ooh! Let’s make a scarecrow! But that was quickly thwarted by thoughts of finding clothes to stuff, something to stuff them with… this was starting to sound like more trouble than I was willing to deal with. So what did I do? I Googled “how to keep birds out of my garden.” And I might have slipped in a keyword or two about an eco friendly option. Hey, that’s what I do.
I read all sorts of home remedies from hanging aluminum pie plates to windchimes, to something shiny in the trees. I reminded myself that not everything you read on the internet is true, and decided to conduct a little experiment of my own. This could be interesting.
I gathered from the things I had read that some sort of unexpected or unexplained motion is what keeps the birds at bay. But even then, my little feathered friends are apparently quite smart and can eventually learn that the object is not harmful and they come back for more. Add to that my penchant for being environmentally concious, and what did I come up with? Hang CD’s in the trees.
Just about everyone has a stack of CDs laying around the house that are in need of some repurposing. Whether it’s those AOL CDs, a video game that you defeated, or driver installation CDs (you know you can always download the most recent drivers for anything online), you’ve probably got a few laying around the house. Tie some string on them and hang them in a nearby tree. If there are no trees around your garden, hang them from a stick perched on the corner of two fence posts. Or get creative and construct yourself something to hang a CD from. The idea is to get it into a location where the CD can sway and twirl freely in the breeze. The reflection from the sun and the random motion from the shifting wind casts random shadows and reflections on the garden.
Shown above: a perfect example of a CD wonderfully repurposed as a Bird Scarer. Courtesy of Flickr photostream by Gilgongo.
I have a magnolia tree close to my garden. I put three CD’s in the tree and it actually looked kind of decorative as well. Better than a tin pie plate that’s for sure. I haven’t seen a bird in my garden yet, and I’ve got a few things sprouting so I count this one as a success! I haven’t had to move the CD’s yet either because the wind seems to keep them swinging randomly enough that the birds haven’t figured it out yet.
So for now, I’m keeping the birds away and repurposing some old garbage. It’s a win-win! Well, for everyone except the birds. Do you have any eco-friendly home remedies that have worked for keeping the birds away? If so, share with us! I might need a back up plan if they get wise to my CD tricks.
We headed out to the Cincinnati Home and Garden Show last Sunday and came away with some great new ideas in landscape design as well as an abundance of information on eco-friendly products and services.
One of my favorites was the Dixie Chopper propane powered lawn mower. Aside from the fact that this thing just looks cool with it’s two giant propane tanks strapped to the side of the mower, the benefits are amazing. Propane burns cleaner, so not only is it better for the environment, but it also means less oil changes, cleaner engine, less maintenance costs. I was told that the two tanks of propane will last for about 9 hours and this machine cuts about 9.2 acres per hour.
The price tag was a little steep at a whopping $11,000, so of course I suggested the opportunity of a sponsorship. Well, it got a good laugh. And it doesn’t hurt to ask, right? So the Dixie Chopper guy gave me his card and suggested I call the 800 number and give it a try. Maybe I’ll do that. Not sure if they want to donate an $11,000 mower to little old Keeping It Green in Cincinnati Ohio, but maybe business will be good to me this year.
This whole thing started me thinking about propane conversion kits. So I Googled it. And they’re out there… with a slightly lower price tag, and an excuse to go build something new in the garage. And if that doesn’t work out, there’s always the diesel powered engines which will take bio-diesel. And just my luck… I know how to make bio-diesel.
So, the saga of the greener mower continues. We’ll keep you updated as we find a way to make our mowers greener! Where’s that can of green spray paint? I have an idea…
Thanks for stopping by the site and checking out my blog. Subscribe to our blog and we’ll send you an email when we post something new. Here’s what you can look forward to:
Coupons and specials for lawn care and landscaping and other services in the Cincinnati Ohio area.
News and updates about Keeping It Green and how we’re doing our part to reduce our carbon footprint.
Exciting announcement when we purchase our new hybrid / fuel efficient vehicle, or when one of the big manufacturers decides to sponsor us and let us drive their vehicles for advertisement. Hey we can dream, can’t we?
Great information on eco-friendly and affordable lawn care, landscaping, and home improvement / maintenance products and services.
News and information about everything concerning our environment and how we can all do our part - be it big or small - to be kind to our planet.
So thanks for checking us out and if you are one of our customers, then thank you for your business! Feel free to leave comments here about, well, anything! We’re happy to do what we can to meet your lawn care and landscaping needs, while being kind to your wallet, and kind to our environment.
