Home & Garden

Environmentally conscious living leads to a happy and healthy lifestyle. Learn to keep your home and laundry chemical free, and spruce up your front yard by learning how to garden. Look to us for easy to use guides and a green thumb to help. From advice on recycling, to CFL lights and composting, there are endless things we can do in our everyday lives to protect our earth and keep ourselves healthy, fit, and happy.

Two lightbulbs

LED vs CFL vs Incandescent vs Fluorescent: Which Shines Cleanest?

The future looks dim for incandescent light bulbs, the world-changing invention introduced by Thomas Edison in 1879. Part of the blame goes to LED bulbs, also known as light-emitting diode light bulbs. However, the cost can sometimes deter buyers, so they turn to CFL bulbs, also known as compact fluorescent lamp bulbs. CFL bulbs also save consumers money and energy but not as much as LED bulbs over the long term. You may be saying, “But LED bulbs are more expensive than CFL bulbs.” That is true, but have you taken into consideration the lifespan and cost of energy? We’ll go over all the features of incandescent vs CFL vs LED light bulbs below…

Composting bin

3 Reasons Homemade Composting Is Awesome

If you have been thinking about making compost but think that it may be too difficult, complicated, or time-consuming, you have come to the right place. We aim to make it clear and simple. While composting can be an exact science, it certainly doesn’t need to be. After all, Mother Nature does composting all the time without the help of human effort. We can join her efforts without making it a big deal. We’re going to discuss composting methods and then show you how to make your own homemade composting bin…

Envelope with plastic window

Can You Recycle Envelopes With Window In Them?

We once heard that throwing just a small amount of unrecyclable material would screw up the recycling process and cause the entire portion of recycled material to go to waste. So for a long time, we would spend tedious hours cutting out the plastic windows from envelopes to make sure no non-recyclable materials got into our recycling bin. After a while we got fed up with all the time this process took, thinking – “why should we have to spend hours to make up for the credit card and other advertising companies’ neglect of the environment?” Well, after some research, it looks like some recycling facilities can process those little plastic windows. So are envelopes recyclable after all?…

Globe in plastic bag

Paper or Plastic? Tips to Reduce the Use of Plastic Bags

The average grocery store goes through thousands of plastic bags everyday. At home, consumers use hundreds of zip lock and sandwich plastic bags to bag lunches, store food in the refrigerator, etc. All this adds up to an unbelievable amount of plastic waste. In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal, the United States goes through 100 billion plastic grocery bags annually!

Toilet bowl

Best Low Flush Toilet

Think about how many times during a day you go to pee. The average person pees about 9 times each day. That’s 9 toilet flushes, not counting the occasional #2 😉 What does that mean in terms of water used per person per day just for going to the bathroom? If you take a look at your toilet, you may see behind the lid an indication of how many gallons per flush it uses. Toilets from the 1950s and earlier averaged 7 plus gallons per flush. Those from the 1960s were built to use 5.5 gallons, and the new 1980s toilets brought the water used in a single flush down to 3.5 gallons. Today, a new toilet is designed to use no more than 1.6 gallons per flush. Therefore, if you’re using an old toilet you may be flushing as much as 63 (7 gallons per flush times 9 flushes per day) gallons of water per day!

Monitor Lizard (caption: Monitor Lizards)

All About Monitor Lizards

Curious to learn more about monitor lizards? Earth’s Friends is pleased to be your go-to resource for monitor lizards. If you are curious about caring, grooming, or feeding you lizard, we have everything you ever wanted to know and all your questions answered below. Read on to learn more about these quiet creatures including monitor lizard facts…

Water monitor lizard in water

The Water Monitor Lizard

The water monitor is also known by its Latin root, Varanus Salvator. As one of the largest lizards in the world, it can grow to a length of nine feet and reach a weight of one hundred pounds! It is outsized by only two other lizards, the Komodo dragon and the crocodile monitor. The Komodo can gain more weight than the water monitor, while the crocodile can grow longer – up to twelve feet…

Buy Local Produce

“Why should I buy my produce locally? It’s usually more expensive and I have to go somewhere else to buy it. What’s the point?” I bet that’s what you sound like, but really there are more benefits than you think when it comes to buying your produce locally…

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