Wow, July was a very dry month for us here in Missouri…although the total amount of rainfall was near normal…that 3 inches all came in the first few days of the month…and then nothing for the rest of the month. Things have struggled in the drought and heat this month…there were several weeks of very [...]
Posted in Growing Food 
Tags: backyard, eco, edible, food, garden, gardening, green, growing, home, home grown, July, landscape, landscaping, missouri, organic, photos, plants, produce, raised beds, St. Louis, suburban, sustainable, urban agriculture, vegetable, vegetables, victory garden 
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Here is a nice collection of Photos from June, although I am a little late getting these posted…Things looked good in June…had regular rain…maybe too much rain…and the vegetable garden was a few weeks behind what it was last year…but most things look healthy and the season in quite underway. I was on a garden [...]
Posted in Growing Food Tags: 2011, backyard, eco, flowers, fruit, garden, green, home grown, June, landscaping, missouri, native, organic, photos, plants, site, sites, sprawlstainable, suburban, sustainable, vegetables Comments Off
Tens of thousands of Cicada septendecim from the XIX Brood are making an >80 decibel racket in my St. Louis, Missouri backyard garden. Totally gross and loud. Can someone please tell me what they are shooting out of their butts? Yuck! I took these videos on June 2, 2011. Some people think they are locust, but [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Tags: 13, 13 year, 2011, Brood, brood XIX, Cicada, Cicada septendecim, disgusting, gross, insects, locust, Magicicadas, mating, missouri, Periodical, plague, septendecim, St. Louis, swarm, XIX, year Comments Off
Today I had the house to myself and I decided to embark on my first Jamalama (Jam making and canning) I’m doing Serviceberry and Strawberry. Of course the first thing you must do when jammin’ is turn the music mix up real loud…I hope you like Jammin’ too…we’re jammin’ he he
Posted in Growing Food, Simple Living Tags: canning, eco, edible, food, fruit, garden, gardening, growing, harvest, home grown, homemade, jam, jelly, missouri, organic, plants, preserves, serviceberries, serviceberry, simple living, strawberries, strawberry, suburban, sustainable Comments Off
Here is a time lapse video of my hill garden from April 1st 2011 to may 31st 2011. It begins with the forsythia in bloom in the pot, and some bulbs. Soon the serviceberry trees bloom white and everything starts turning green. The Siberian Iris in the pot are growing, and when they begin blooming [...]
Posted in Growing Food, Simple Living Tags: 2011, backyard, eco, garden, gardening, green, growing, hill, landscape, landscaping, missouri, photos, plant cam, plants, residential, serviceberry, spring, St. Louis, stop motion, suburban, sustainable, time-lapse, trees Comments Off
May was a great month for the garden! I spent a lot of time out there and am pleased that it looks as good as it does. It has rained quite a bit and everything is extremely green! I stepped back for some of these photos so you can see the design of the garden [...]
Posted in Growing Food Tags: 2011, arbor, backyard, blackberries, dogwood, ecological, edible, flowers, food, formal, fruit, garden, gardening, green, growing, hazelnut, hill, home, home grown, house, landscape, landscape architect, landscaping, lonicera sempervirens, May, missouri, native, organic, perennials, photos, plants, produce, raised beds, raspberries, spring, St. Louis, strawberries, sustainable, trees, trellis, trumpet honeysuckle, urban agriculture, vegetable, vegetables, wildlife Comments Off
Posted in Saving Energy, Saving Money, Uncategorized Tags: actual, alternative energy, bills, calculated, calculation, conservation, eco, eco friendly, economical, energy, energy star, energy use, estimate, estimated, federal, geo thermal, geothermal, graph, green, ground source, high efficiency, home, house, hvac, missouri, money, numbers, percent, residential, saving, savings, St. Louis, statistics, strategies, suburban, sustainable, tax credit, taxes Comments Off
The heating and cooling systems on our trusty suburban ranch was more than twenty years old when we decided it was time to replace them with new, high efficiency models. So Mary and I began our due diligence on the subject and started comparing available options. When I first learned about geothermal heating and cooling [...]
Posted in Saving Energy, Saving Money Tags: air conditioner, alternative energy, amount, conservation, cooling, cost, credit, data, earth, eco, ecological, economical, efficiency, efficient, electric, electricity, energy, energy use, expense, federal, gas, geo thermal, geothermal, green, ground, ground source, heating, home, hot water, house, loop, midwest, missouri, money, natural gas, photos, residential, saving, savings, St. Louis, suburban, sustainable, system, tax credit, taxes, technology, time-lapse, utilities, video, water No Comments »
If you want to attract birds to your backyard there are four things you should strive to provide…food, moisture, cover and housing. We enjoy watching a variety of birds all year long.
Posted in Uncategorized Tags: attract, attracting, backyard, bird, bird feeder, bird house, bird seed, birdbath, birds, cardinal, cedar waxwing, conservation, cover, dove, eco, edible, feeder, finch, gallery, garden, hawk, home, junco, list, missouri, owl, photography, photos, plants, sanctuary, seed, sparrow, St. Louis, suburban, water, wild, wildlife No Comments »
Last updated April 25, 2011 We are implementing energy saving strategies to attempt to reduce our energy use at our home by 50% In this post I am going to be updating graphs showing our total energy use for Electric and Gas showing the difference between the average energy usage of the last 5 years [...]
Posted in Saving Energy, Saving Money, Uncategorized Tags: alternative energy, amount, conservation, conserve, cost, data, eco, ecological, economical, electric, energy, energy consumption, energy use, existing, gas, geo thermal, geothermal, graph, green, ground source, home, house, missouri, money, natural gas, reduce, reduction, residential, save, saved, saving, smart, st. lous, strategies, strategy, suburban, sustainable, utilities 1 Comment »
