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Posts with tag bulbs

Avant Yard: 75 tricks to get your kids outdoors

Two-year-old girl wearing floral halter-neck dress crouches in a garden to examine plants
Summer vacation keeps rolling along. How long until your kids go back to school? Are they spending too much time lounging on the couch? Here are a bunch of summer projects to trick your kids away from their air-conditioned sanctuary and out into the great outdoors of, er, your backyard.

Okay, okay. So the backyard is not the great outdoors. True. But the main thing is to get the kiddos out in the fresh air, learning about nature, and learning about the noble pursuit of maintaining a garden.

Getting their hands dirty
1. Ask them to help with the weeding. Pay them a small amount of pocket money for their time.

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LED invades your home

We have all seen LEDs become more and more prevalent in our daily lives. They are as common as traffic signals in major cities (after the whole energy rate fiasco a few years ago) and power indicators on most items. They are also as frivolous as LED hats to support your favorite team.

Manufacturers and retailers are starting to see the future in LED items as well, as they realize that a lot of people are looking to save energy. People want to support being "greener," sure, but they also want to keep a few more dollars and cents in their bank accounts.

Here are a few items I have come across that demonstrate how LED products will continue to make inroads in new categories of retail.

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Avant Yard: poisonous plants 101


When it comes to protecting our families from poisonous plants, we go about things wrong, all wrong. Backwards, in fact.

Yes, you are probably already aware that a great many common garden and container plants are poisonous to humans and/or family pets. But if I asked you to identify the ones posing the greatest risk to you and your family, chances are you'd be stumped, or perhaps hard pressed to name more than one or two.

Why? Because we learn about poisonous plants from our teachers at school, from books, and from television. We see pages and pages of photographs of toxic leaves and berries. We scan ultra-long lists of poisonous plant names. The nerdier among us (Ooh! Me! Me!) have tried and failed to memorize some of this mass of information.

Silly thing is, your own yard is the best starting point for learning. Once you feel confident in your own landscape, it will be much easier to branch out and learn about less well-known species, which I'll discuss after the jump. And check out my gallery below if you'd like to see some of the common poisonous plants growing in my yard.

Gallery: Poisonous Plants 101

LantanaGeraniumPhilodendronOleanderAsparagus Fern

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Grow this gigantic flower for only $5


Go ahead. Admire this gorgeous flower I grew last Spring. Just let me confess upfront, however, that growing it required zero green thumbs. Okay, I provided water, but that's it. In fact, I found the plant abandoned (still in its pot) on the side of the road. True! That was last winter and maybe the owners thought it was dead. But, no, it was just sleeping.

What you're seeing is an Amaryllis (Hippeastrum). The Amaryllis is a bulb that's easy for beginner gardeners to grow, producing enormous blooms like this one. Each bulb typically costs around $5, which is a steal when you think about it. You can expect to get two super giganto-flowers per bulb. Bear in mind that different varieties produce differently-sized blooms.

Plant your Amaryllis bulbs in a container filled with quality potting soil, leaving the top third exposed. Not sure it's pointing the right way up? Click here for an illustration. Basically, the heavier and hairier side points down. Water your bulb well, place it in a sunny spot, and leave it alone. After around three weeks, you should see it sprout. If you live in the South, your Amaryllis can live outdoors year-round. Those in northern states will have to grow their Amaryllis indoors unless Spring has truly sprung, because warm, sunny weather is essential. A final tip: store unplanted bulbs in the crisper of your refrigerator so that they remain dormant 'till you're ready for planting.
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How to fix your Christmas lights

tangled string of Christmas lightsIf you haven't already put up your Christmas lights, now is the time to do it. Christmas is less than three weeks away, and by the time you get the lights up, it will be time to take them down again, storing them away for another winter.

If you have come across a string of lights that has some burned out bulbs, don't throw the lights away. Read up on how to fix those Christmas lights. Maybe you just have a bad fuse, maybe you stapled through the electrical wire, or maybe the entire string is bad. If you have had that string of lights for 10 years, then maybe it is time to replace it, and start from scratch.

My lights are so tangled up, not to mention old, that if I start checking them now, I just might have them ready to hang up by next Christmas! In the meantime, I'll be checking my properly stored lights and fixing them for another season of Christmas cheer. Make sure to check yours too, and please be careful!
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DIY home energy audit

furnaceHow energy efficient is your home? If your heating bills are out of control and your environmental impact is worsening then it's time to do a self check on your energy usage. This DIY home energy audit is a detailed, 9 step approach to evaluating and improving upon your energy consumption.

Getting to know your energy bills is the first step. You can't notice patterns and set goals if you don't know what you're spending and why. Once you know your bills you can start to work to bring them down. The full instructions explain how to examine your heating and cooling equipment along with your appliances. Looking for and repairing air leaks and energy sucks will make a big difference. You'll also want to replace your bulbs, and be mindful of light usage. Lastly, gauge your results. How have the changes impacted your energy bills? What changes can you continue to make? If you want added information or a more in-depth energy audit, this web based audit tool will be perfect.

Review the 9 step audit process and make changes around the house. You'll notice a savings on your energy bills and you'll lessen your environmental impact.
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Use a candle in that light bulb socket

If you're like me, you prefer the natural warmth of a candle's glow over the eerie dullness of a long fluorescent light bulb. Although I'm a fan of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), I regularly light candles around my home all seasons of the year. It just creates a feeling of extreme coziness, you know?

Anyway, talk about a neat idea. The "Candull" is a candle series that features wax-base 'screw grooves' that allow you to use normal candles in any light socket that takes a medium-based light bulb.

Want to save quite a bit of electricity with the lights you normally use all over your home? Think about buying a 10-pack of normal, vertical candles and using them for much of your in-home lighting needs. No electricity required, no wattage wasted.

I may be picking up some of these myself if I can order them over the web. Although, with a little ingenuity, we can all probably make these ourselves with an older socket and some melted wax (and patience). See where I am going here?
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How to make salt and pepper shakers from recycled light bulbs


The Problem: You're hungry. (Again.) And, of course, you can't find your salt and pepper shakers.

The Solution: Make your own. Honestly, I'm not so sure about this one ... but I found it at Ready Made. For those of you ambitious enough to try it, please let me know how it goes.

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