With new growth and new flowers, there are many plants that can be used to create beautiful spring containers. Some of the best plants for pots and spring pots are the bulbs of spring flowers, such as daffodils, hyacinths and tulips. Container gardening is the perfect way to say hello to spring and goodbye to winter. At a time when the soil is still too cold to grow anything, soil potted in pots above the ground can absorb enough sun for growing plants. There are a number of plants that thrive in the cold temples of early spring, many even tolerating light frost or light snowfall. With potted plants, it’s easy to throw a protective cover on nights when stronger ice is possible. Here are a few ideas on which flowers to grow for your spring containers.
Imagine eating homegrown cabbage, beets, potatoes, onions, carrots, apples, and other produce on a winter evening, without the use of canning or refrigeration. Before home refrigerators, this scenario was commonplace thanks to the low-tech root cellar.
“Many women do not take notice of use-by dates on their cosmetics, which can lead to infections. ‘Natural and organic products containing fewer or no preservatives have a shorter shelf-life than conventional products and therefore potentially harbour higher levels of bacteria.’
Many manufacturers add a ‘Period After Opening’, or PAO symbols to packaging as advice on when they will expire. Customers can simply look for the jar symbol, along with a figure indicating how many months the product will last.” – Daily Mail
You may be a pro at squeezing out that final glob of conditioner, the last smear of mascara and the remaining drops of perfume, but do you have an environmentally responsible solution for trashing the empty container? TerraCycle® created the Personal Care and Beauty Brigade®, a free recycling program for hair care, skin care and cosmetic product packaging that makes tote bags, coin pouches or pencil cases out of waste like:
Hair care packaging such as shampoo bottles and caps, conditioner bottles and caps, hair gel tubes and caps, hair spray bottles and triggers, and hair paste plastic jars and caps
Skin care packaging such as lip balm tubes, face soap dispensers and tubes, face lotion bottles, tubes and plastic jars, body wash containers, soap tubes and dispensers, body lotion dispensers and bottles, shaving foam tubes (no cans), and hand lotion bottles and tubes
Cosmetics packaging such as lipstick cases, lip gloss tubes, mascara tubes, eye shadow cases, bronzer cases, foundation packaging and bottles, powder cases, eyeliner cases, eyeliner pencils, eye shadow tubes, concealer tubes, concealer sticks, and lip liner pencils.
Also, M·A·C Cosmetics accepts returns of its primary packaging through the Back to M·A·C Program. By returning six [6] M·A·C primary packaging containers to a M·A·C counter or M·A·C Cosmetics online, you’ll receive a free M·A·C lipstick of your choice.
See Store Locator here. *Lipsticks provided at no charge cannot be returned or exchanged.
On the other hand, if you see potential on how to repurpose the containers, find a few ideas here:
Urban Agriculture is a movement towards growing and raising more food within densely populated areas of major cities. Today, about 15% of the world’s food is now grown in urban areas. Since space is limited in big cities, you may have noticed city gardens sprouting up in smaller spaces (like rooftops or apartment balconies). Another green benefit to urban gardening is that you can re-purpose old recyclable milk jugs or woven baskets and use them as containers for new veggies. Vegetables that are ideally suited for growing in containers include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, green onions, beans, lettuce, squash, radishes and parsley.
Have you already been practicing urban agriculture and balcony or patio gardening? We would love to hear about it! What tips can you share on how to have the greenest thumb on the block?
The season for major gifts is coming, we are less than a month away from Christmas and New Year. Here are some ideas to wrap your presents in a unique way but also reusing materials we usually could throw away. Hope you find them inspirational, I bet you will not need to buy old common paper and ribbons to wrap your presents again!
Wraps • Ribbons and Tags • Containers Click on the images to go to the original source and/or tutorial (new window)
Don’t toss away all the wrapping paper and ribbon that once covered other gifts. Instead, run it through a shredder (cut to size first, if needed) and use it for lining gift boxes or bags.
You can always repurpose some cloth and wrap everything with the awesome Japanese Furoshiki style 😉
![Urban Agriculture [Infographic] | ecogreenlove](https://ecogreenlove.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/02102015_urbangardening.png?w=888&h=360&crop=1)
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