Making your home more "Green" - Simple Steps to Save Homeowners Money and Make Homes Environmentally Friendly

I know that in past issues of this newsletter, you have been reading about one of the fastest rising industries in this country; green design and construction. This month, I want to use the Out the Door column to speak about a supporting partner in the effort to save our fading natural resources and lower our quickly rising monthly bills; that of green landscaping.

Listed below are a few things that we can all do to help sustain and be more sensitive to our environment:

• Use trees and vegetation to cut your summertime air conditioning by shading all east and west facing windows. Shade windows from the outside with a covered pergola, strategically placed trees, or trellises with vines for a beautiful look inside and out. Create outdoor rooms for your family, such as cooking and dining areas. Spending more time and cooking outdoors reduces the need for air conditioning indoors.
• Replace exposed concrete and asphalt driveways and walkways with pavers, which stay cooler, look better and can even be placed to allow vegetation to grow through. Exposed concrete and pavement get heated by the sun, reradiating unwanted heat indoors.
• Use native plants common to your area to reduce watering and maintenance. Keep traditional lawn areas to a minimum or consider using ground-cover plants - many are sturdy enough to allow for play areas for children and pets. Use mulch in garden beds to reduce the need to water, and install a rainwater tank to collect stormwater for watering.
• Finally, recycle kitchen waste into garden compost. It's an effective and affordable way to keep your plants healthy and reduce garbage. Many good resources are on the web to help homeowners get started, including the U.S. Composting Council website www.compostingcouncil.org.

J'Nell Bryson Landscape Architecture provides the highest quality landscape architectural design and construction services for the discerning client. The goal of the firm is to go beyond basic problem-solving to offer innovative, artful ideas for the garden by offering a comprehensive suite of services including site design and programming, master planning and project administration. J'Nell can be reached via email at info@jbryson.com For more information, you can also visit her website at www.jbryson.com

Continuing from our previous Feng Shui conversations, I want to focus this month on Fire.

Fire is the third transforming element used in feng shui. Fire energy is represented by things that are in the red color range and with any shape that is spiky or pointed. Star shapes, cacti and roof peaks are all considered fire energy.

Red In the Dining Room:
In feng shui, it is believed that a red dining room may give a sensitive person indigestion, but it may make a quiet person more lively. Guests will have a tendency to eat fast and not linger at the table. A great example of this is fast food places that typically use bright reds in their color schemes. Because red is a highly expressive and motivating color, people tend not to linger in these restaurants for very long.

Red Throughout The Home:
Painting a bedroom red would make it difficult to get a good night's sleep, although it would bring in an element of passion! It's also not a good idea to paint a hyperactive child's room red because this would only exacerbate the condition. On the other hand, red would be a fine color for a goal-oriented sales office, helping to keep things motivated.

Fire Energy:
People who are outgoing and love to be "the life of the party" have a lot of fire energy in them, but people with too much fire tend to speak before they think and can be sarcastic and argumentative. People with too little fire in them are the ones who we often use the term "I'd like to light a fire under their behind!" People with lots of fire energy tend to get speeding tickets if they drive a red car; however, a water person loves the added energy of a red car.

Next month we will continue our study of Feng Shui. If you have any questions along our journey, please do not hesitate to contact me.

--Valerie DeLong combines her business sense and unique creative style, seeking to enrich people's lives and businesses on a more powerful and intimate level. She is a Reiki Master in the Usui tradition and has studied Kinesiology, Hellerwork, and other body-mind therapies. Valerie can be reached by email at valeriedelong@earthlink.net or by phone at 704-502- 8814. www.fengshuiconcepts.us

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