Best Tip

My family and I use bulk tea daily and at the end of the day I fill the teapot with water and place the diluted tea leaves around my trees and plants, which acts as mulch and is also very nourishing for the garden.
-- Barbara Hickey
To get rid of aphids, put banana peels around the affected area of your plant. It worked for my gooseberry bushes and also on the branches of an apple tree. I do not have rose bushes, but I bet it would help there, too.
This year I am preventing the occurrence by placing the banana peels early, before the aphids come around.
-- Nicole Grant
For dandelions, I pull them out and place a bit of salt in the hole. It does not eliminate the spread, but the salted dandelion will not come back.
-- Nicole Grant
I used the paving circle that always comes on sale at lumberyards and modified it to be a kind of semi circle with the centre a couple feet from the front sidewalk. Then I ringed it with a low hedge (I used Alpine Current), filled the rest of the front yard with a few perennials--hosta and lady's mantle in the shade and junipers in the sun closer to the street. Add a small bistro set and you have a functional addition to the yard that really extends the outdoor area by allowing shade or sun when the back yard is too hot or cool. And no mowing!
-- Mary Drummond
My best eco-gardening tip is not to be so worried about what your lawn looks like. Your lawn doesn't have to look like the a fairway at a golf course.
I don't water my lawn and it looks just fine for my taste. Spring rains turn it green, it has the odd yellow flower in it and yes, if we don't get any rain in the summer it will turn brown in August, but let's be serious: so does a great deal of Calgary and the surrounding area. The fact is your lawn doesn't have to look perfect, and neither does the rest of your life . . . It's not only unrealistically expensive it's also completely unsustainable environmentally.