Green
Meet today’s organic shopper
The organics category is growing in just about every measurable way: in volume, dollars spent and even in conversations in the media. When consumers dabble in organic produce, they are more likely to purchase organic goods like organic snacks or organic cotton sheets. This means it is important for retailers that sell organic products across depart...
4 steps to safely recycle your household batteries
Do you have a pile of used household batteries hidden in your junk drawer or in a coffee can in the garage? You know you should be environmentally responsible and recycle them, but you aren’t sure where to start. So the pile grows larger. But did you also know that extra precautions are required when storing and recycling them? Some batteries...
Carbon Tax Takes Center Stage during Vote for Vermont Show
Pat McDonald and Ben Kinsley are co-hosts of the show “Vote for Vermont.” On a recent show, they interviewed Matt Cota, the Executive Director of the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association. The topic for the show was carbon tax. As many Vermonters know, there has been a strong movement to implement a carbon tax in Vermont. For years there has been testim...
Gardening With Amanda: Best Flowers to Grow for Bouquets
By Amanda Sessel Legare My father had a huge vegetable garden, but he planted flowers as well. During the warm months there was always a bouquet or two in our home. I love the look of fresh flowers, but many garden-grown flowers are not suitable as “cuts.” When choosing flowers to grow for bouquets I consider the vase life of the bloom and the colo...
Gardening With Amanda: Success with Hanging Baskets
By Amanda Sessel Legare Whether you buy finished hanging baskets or put together your own, it’s not easy to keep them looking good all summer. The plants are crowded together and typically exposed to the drying wind and the sun. Baskets have a tiny amount of soil compared to what would normally be required, like being planted in little outdoor oven...
Gardening With Amanda: Things I Learned the Hard Way
By Amanda Legare •Sharpie permanent markers are not permanent. Those plastic tags may last, but the writing on them doesn’t if you are using “Sharpies”. In terms of duration I have had the best luck writing with number-two lead pencils. Sharpie has come out with oil-based paint markers which should be much more permanent. I haven’t tried them yet....
Gardening With Amanda: Tomatoes — The Most Popular Garden Crop
By Amanda Legare According to the National Gardening Association web site, nine out of ten gardeners will grow tomatoes this summer, making them the most popular garden vegetable (although technically they are fruits). If I could give just one piece of advice for growing tomatoes, it would be to get LOTS of compost into the soil. Whether it is from...
Gardening with Amanda: Low Maintenance Perennials for Beginners
By Amanda Legare Gardeners who are just starting out with perennials often think it will be an easy solution to landscaping. It is not that simple. Some perennials are lovely for a few years and then fade away. Others are self-seeding maniacs or invasive garden thugs and crowd out neighboring plants in no time. Some are pretty when blooming, which...
Gardening With Amanda: Award-Winning Annuals — Best of the Best?
By Amanda Legare The best known award for new annual plants in the US is the All American Selections (AAS) program (http://all-americaselections.org). New flowers and vegetables are grown side-by-side with comparable available varieties and are evaluated by garden performance, size, taste, disease-resistance and any other characteristic important t...
It’s Seed Catalog Season! Let Me Help You Choose the Best
By Amanda Sessel Legare The arrival of seed catalogs helps us deal with cabin fever. In choosing my catalogs I consider the selection, the price, the descriptions and past experiences with germination and service from those companies. Some catalogs seem to be written by a PR company. I want to sense that the person writing the descriptions has actu...
