Many of us are welcoming spring today, so I thought it would be nice to go over some nature loving, tree hugging, eco-friendly ideas that will carry the entire family through the better part of spring and into summer.
1. Quit looking at nature through your frosty windows. It’s warming up, so get out there and enjoy nature in real time, in real life, in full blown color.
2. Throw open your windows wide and let in the fresh air. Natural ventilation is actually a really effective green home goal to aim for. Proper cross ventilation naturally helps to remove any indoor …read more

Knowing more means loving more. And loving more is good for the earth, right? But where can you go to get reliable info on the abundant bunch of plant and animal species on earth?
Right now, there’s not one single place, but Encyclopedia of Life is trying to change that.
Encyclopedia of Life is now available online as a work in progress. BBC’s article, First look at vast ‘book of life’, gives more details about this cooperative undertaking.
If all goes according to plan, the site will feature 1.8 million species of plants and wildlife by 2017.
The site is designed to be used …read more

Journey North is a year-long, free event for youth (or anyone really – but it’s kid-based). Much of the fun kicks off around each February and lasts through May.
Journey North allows kids to participate in a huge “Global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change.” It’s set up so that K-12 students can share their personal field observations with other students across North America.
However, anyone can participate; you don’t have to be a kid in school.
How it works is kids track spring coming by observing the migration patterns of animals, watching for plants starting to sprout, looking for sunlight changes, …read more

Since Jennifer is doing her audit on the great green that is your yard, I thought it would be very co-bloggy of me to add a post about how your plants can reuse a little something you might be throwing away everyday.
Coffee grounds can be even more useful to you after you drink your coffee:
Coffee grounds release nitrogen. Plants crazy love nitrogen.
You don’t even have to compost the grounds first. Just evenly spread used grounds directly over your plants just before watering. You can also till the grounds into the soil if you haven’t planted yet. If …read more

The Sugar Maple is the official state tree of Vermont and is lovely. Tall, winding, and spread out for shade with beautiful leaves.

The Sugar Maple is considered the best source for maple sugar — read more about specific Sugar Maple characteristics. Grow Native also has some great info for Sugar Maple huggers.
NPR recently offered an alarming, but great article on the future of the Sugar Maple as global warming continues to advance. Sugar Maple trees are delicate; or I should say sensitive and while global warming is not healthy for anyone or anything on the planet it could be very …read more

With Halloween quickly approaching I figured it’s time to hug us some Solanum Pumpkin Tree.

This is a bit of a cheat because the pumpkin tree is hardly a tree and more of a smallish plant. Solanum is simply the botanical name for a group of specific plants — many sub categories of Solanum exist. This sub category is known as; Pumpkin Tree, Pumpkin on a Stick, Hmong Eggplant, and many others.
In this case the adorable tiny pumpkin looking fruits make this tiny tree-like plant hug worthy.

Florists use this for fall arrangements and they’re also used in some …read more