Build a House for $8.33 per square foot

Cobb House

“You can build your own cob house with little money, but with lots of time and enthusiasm,” according to Kent at Tiny House Blog.   This is Ziggy’s cob (a mixture of straw, clay, and sand similar to adobe) with a footprint of 360 square feet built for under three thousand bucks. (Yes, that is $ 8.33 per square foot.)

Here’s what you need:

* sand (just over 30 tons total) – $507
* gravel (about 13 tons total) – $177
* straw (16 bales) – $36 (most straw I used was free)
* black walnut scrap lumber – $100
* misc. lumber – $20
* windows – $220 (two casement, one double hung window)
* electrical – $28
* galvanized wire – $30
* nails – $100 (I couldn’t believe how expensive nails are)
* raw linseed oil (for floor) – $72
* EPDM pond liner $622
* polycarbonate for skylight $400

Oh, yeah, and 9 months of full-time labor!

Cob interior

Read more about it at The Year of Mud:  Building a Cobb House.

No More Plastic Bags for Mexico City, San Francisco, Tanzania…

Bagbird

Hooray!  I saw on CNN that Mexico City went green Wednesday, August 19, as amended ordinances now outlaw businesses from giving out thin plastic bags that are not biodegradable.

I’ve written about the horrors of plastic bags twice now, first in my blog post No More Plastic Bags! and again in the post Once Again… Paper or Plastic? Reusable. If you do nothing else for the planet, please stop using plastic bags!

San Francisco enacted an ordinance in March 2007 to phase out the bags.  Los Angeles is set to impose a ban if the state of California does not impose a statewide 25-cent fee per bag by July of next year.

Read more…

Green Walls by Nature!

Green Walls

Green roofs have beautifully proven themselves to be a resource against global warming. There is one problem with the green roof in all its beauty and function… very few people can see it!

Green walls, however, allow us to raise living plants in a whole new way while providing some physical advantages. For one thing, what a wonderful position as a gardener to work standing up!

For the most part, the needs of the plants will be the same as if they were planted in any horizontal plane. More good news, weed seeds have a harder time rooting on a vertical plane.

Check out these green walls! Once again, they challenge us to think outside our own box. I love that!

Starbucks makes a lot of efforts to be “Green”. They are considered one of the most socially and environmentally responsible companies in the world. Now, at many stores, they’re sprucing up their drive-throughs with green features.

Green Walls - Starbucks

Green walls can be used indoors.
Indoor Landscaping

Green walls are found most often in urban environments where the plants reduce overall building temperatures which helps reduce energy consumption. Living walls are especially suitable for crowded cities as they allow good use of available vertical surface areas.

Oulu

How about this amazing building by Korean architect Minsuk Cho! It is the Ann Demeulemeester Shop in the Gangham district of Seoul.

Shop in Seoul

I hope these photos have inspired you like they have me! Another wonderful way to grow gardens! I, for sure, am going to try one.

Imagine raising an edible crop wall. For starters, I think I’ll try growing wheat grass. My husband loves energy shots of wheat grass from Jamba Juice. Wheat grass shots are pretty expensive so now I can try to grow my own. I’ve heard they’re pretty easy; don’t know about on the wall!

Greenwalls - wheatgrass

Whatever you try, good luck and let me know how it turns out!

Landscaping Adds Value!

landscaping

You’ve probably heard of the importance of curb appeal.   Yes,its VERY important.  You want prospective buyers to at least enter the house! Many times buyers decide NOT to buy just by exterior appearance. If the exterior looks bad, understandably they assume that the house itself was not well maintained.

The great news is that you actually increase the value of your home by improving the landscaping. Enjoy a beautiful yard and get paid for it when you sell!

A Money Magazine survey found that good landscaping can add 7%-14% to the value of your home. That’s one of the highest return-on-investment remodeling tips I’ve heard!

Read more…

Gateway Gardens in Greensboro

Gateway Gardens

Did you know about this?

This newest public garden project by Greensboro Beautiful, Gateway Gardens will be located between East Lee and Florida Street. This garden has been 10 years in the planning and will be added to our other outstanding Greensboro Gardens; Tanger Family Bicentennial Garden, the Greensboro Arboretum and the Bog Garden at Benjamin Park.

Phase 1 of this 11 acre garden is scheduled to open in late 2009.

To donate to this worthwhile project, call the Greensboro Beautiful office at 336-373-2199 or give online.

once again… paper or plastic? Reusable.

Paper or Plastic

Today’s Wall Street Journal ran a great article on the pro’s and con’s of paper versus plastic. They made the decision we all understand, pick reusable. Even reusing a paper or plastic bag at least 4 times saves energy and lessens the load on the environment.

The article includes 6 international studies on this issue. The studies that look specifically at grocery bags generally conclude that paper bags produce less of a litter problem, but that plastic bags consume less energy and water and produce less pollution, including greenhouse-gas emissions. Virtually all studies say the environmentally friendliest option is to choose a reusable grocery bag, and to reuse it many times, regardless of what that bag is made of.

Did you know:

Read more…

Duke Energy Plants Trees for Carbon Offset

Tree

Duke Energy plans to reforest 1 million acres to produce offsets for carbon emissions.

The energy company will begin by planting more than 1 million trees on 1,700 acres in Arkansas.

The program, called GreenTrees, will plant 302 hardwood and 302 cottonwood trees on each acre it reforests. The carbon absorbed by the trees can be calculated and used to offset the amount of carbon that utilities and other industries produce.

A big “Thank You” to Charlotte-based Duke Energy!

No More Plastic Bags!

Plastic Bag
photo by eflon

There is a great article today in the Greensboro News & Record. North Carolina Senate leader Marc Basnight, wants to ban plastic shopping bags in counties along the Outer Banks saying they are a trashy eyesore when blowing along the beaches. “Bags that get out of trash cans pollute the beauty that Outer Banks businesses are promoting to tourists”, he said.

Personally, I think plastic bags should be banned EVERYWHERE. They are devastating to our environment. Did you know:

600 bags are used PER SECOND in the state of California alone? Most are simply discarded and never go away.

It costs the state of California $25 million annually to landfill discarded plastic bags? Plastic bags are a huge pollutant of our environment and are killing birds, fish and wildlife every single day.

Bag Bird

Plastic bags, which are made from natural gas or oil, consume an energy equivalent of thousands of barrels of oil a day just to meet California’s consumption.

Before you shop next time think: “paper, plastic or reusable?” NO MORE PLASTIC, please.

***UPDATE*** The bill passed! North Carolina Senate approved it 47-1! Now lets hope it goes state wide, then nation wide!

What defines “Building Green”?

Building Green

I own a beautiful lot in the mountains of North Carolina, the Appalachian Mountains. If you want to sit and appreciate one spectacular wonder of Earth, visit the Appalachian Mountains.

My goal for 2010 is to build a home there and I plan to Build Green. In beginning my research, I’ve found that there’s no end to the research! So, I’ve started by asking what exactly is “Green”? What makes a product Green? How do you evaluate product Greenness? Can you make a product Greener? And, how do I find Green products?

Read more…

Don’t Buy Organic Produce

Don't Buy Organic

Really??? Well, organic should be your first choice when it’s locally grown, but consider that shipping a pound of organic apples across the country increases fuel and greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent – more than if they had been consumed at their point of harvest. And much of the organic produce on the market is now shipped across the planet. Meanwhile, many local farmers practice organic methods but don’t certify organic because it is expensive and labor-intensive administratively. Since each type of crop needs to be registered, for a smaller farm growing a variety of food it becomes a Herculean task. If you shop at a farmer’s market, talk to your vendors and see if they use eco-friendly agricultural methods–many of them do because they recognize the importance of keeping their land healthy. Consider buying non-organic locally grown produce over non-local organic produce, if you can determine that it was grown conscientiously.

Thanks for this article by Melissa Breyer and her 7 Tips for Green Eating posted at Care 2 Make a Difference