-
-
- Pottery for Your Decorating Needs and How to Choose the Right Type
- 5 “Green” Gift Ideas
- 5 Activities to Do with Dad This Father’s Day
- 5 Gift Ideas for Mother’s Day
- 5 Reasons to Go Green With Bamboo
- 5 Things To Do On Memorial Day
- A New Year and a New Space
- Art Around Adams Showcases Local Artists and Businesses
- Artificial Rocks: A Realistic and Beautiful Solution
- Backyard X-Scapes and Harmonium Partner To Serve Our Children
-
-
Have a Hauntingly Happy Halloween
Happy Halloween Backyard X-Scapes readers! Today is the day when ghosts, goblins and ghouls break out of their usual haunts and roam the streets in search of a candy and an opportunity to cause a fright. So whether your dressing up as a frighteningly fantastic Furby, blending in with the pumpkins on your front porch waiting to scare trick or treaters or generously doling out candy to the princesses and pirates heading your way, we hope you have a one-of-a-kind and special holiday.
As usual, we remind you to be safe in your celebrations. Make sure your younger trick-or-treaters are supervised and stay in well lit areas. Always inspect your child’s candy for signs of tampering before they are allowed to eat it. This year, authorities are urging parents more strongly than ever to thoroughly inspect candy because of a new concern that some candies may be laced with marijuana. Though there have been no reported incidents of marijuana laced candy being “accidentally” distributed to children, police have seized many seemingly normal food products like candy, cookies and soda that contain the drug.
So take your kids trick-or-treating, go to that costume party and distribute candy on your porch, just remember that a great Halloween is a happy and healthy one.
Instituting REAL Change
In the past, this blog has covered multiple topics: everything from “going green” to planning parties, from the benefits of bamboo to leading a healthy lifestyle and from progress in international environmental political practices to rejuvenating yourself after a long weekend. But something occurred to me on the way to work this morning: every week, we discuss some way to save the environment, conserve natural resources or simply life happier, more fulfilling lives; but what are we REALLY doing to institute change?
Personally, I take care to recycle, unplug my computer and charging devices and reuse things beyond all possible value. However, I still drive my car hundreds of miles a week, buy a throwaway cup of coffee everyday and eat packaged, unnatural food that commutes from farther away than I do. The more I read about the way our world is changing for the worse, I have to wonder, how long before I get angry and make the big (albeit inconvenient) changes? And what’s more, how long before our country’s biggest institutions do the same?
So I ask you, Cyberspace, what have you done to change your lifestyle? How long will you go on polluting the air we breathe, the water we swim in and the earth from which all our food grows? Granted it may not matter to you personally or your generation, but it will, sure as the increasing price of gasoline, matter to your children and unborn grandchildren.
Dead zones in our oceans, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, global warming, deforestration, and rising levels of CO2 on land and in the water are not myths we can ignore any longer. At the rate we’re going, the death of the only home we have is not an abstract idea, it is a reality.
Marrying Carbon-Free Cars with Renewable Resources
Touting the benefits of bamboo is all in a day’s work here at Backyard X-Scapes. Although we were certainly not the first to exploit the benefits of bamboo with our eco-friendly, lightweight, durable and cost-effective bamboo products, the rate at which bamboo is achieving popularity is a-ok by us. As we have discussed before, bamboo is now considered one of the most versatile materials on the planet and now is even being tested for use in car construction.
An avid electric car builder, Greg “Gadget” Abbott, was one of the first to envisage replacing heavy fiberglass with bamboo in electric car frames. He rationalized that since bamboo has a strength-to-width ratio somewhere between carbon fiber and fiberglass and can compensate for the up to 200 pound battery used by electric cars, it would be far superior than traditional steel or fiberglass for car frame construction.
We know that bamboo is considered a “green material” because of its rapid growth rate, natural growing practices and clean harvesting methods. Bamboo is just as strong as its “dirty” counterparts and much more readily available and cost effective in the long run. With twice the strength of fiberglass and six times the strength of steel, bamboo seems the next logical step in “green” car construction.
With a lighter car frame, electric batteries may be expected to travel farther than usual 100 miles per charge. More efficient electric cars will be more appealing to car buyers as well as more economically realistic. Increased efficiency and viability will hopefully make bamboo-centric electric cars the next trend in the Green Revolution.
Posted in Going Green
Tagged Bamboo, car construction, electric cars, fiberglass, steel
Leave a comment
Brand New Backyard!
Check out our new look!!  We just launched our brand-spankin new website, complete with new products and an original design.  Don’t worry, we kept the same great savings you have come to expect on our diverse product line.  As you can see, the newly made-over Backyard X-Scapes is up and running better than ever.  As your one stop shop for everything outdoor, we strive to provide anything you may need on a convenient, easy-to-navigate and detailed platform.  Our new site is all that and more…Peruse BackyardXscapes.com tout de suite!
Even though BackyardXscapes.com got a face lift, the site is rife with savings as always.  However, today we are offering a special “New Site Launch” discount on orders of $100 or more.  Simply type in the promo code BACKYARD10 during checkout for an extra 10% off our already low prices.
As the carefree days of summer fade with the sun and with the holidays on the horizon, it’s time to get back to business.  Prepare your home for impending trick-or-treaters, holiday guests and picky family members by sprucing up your yard.  Hide those pesky outdoor eyesores with one of our artificial rocks.  With so many colors and sizes, you’re guaranteed to find one perfect for your needs and with our New Site Launch discount you can cover your flaws without breaking the bank.
To sum up:
“Your yard will be the subject of much neighborhood talk,
With the clever use of an artificial rock.
Find what you need with a scroll and a click,
Through our new site,
Recently redone and super slick.”
Product Spotlight: Method
You may have seen the sleek, modern bottles of Method cleaning supplies on the shelves at major retailers like Target and grocery stores like Albertson’s or Ralphs. However, aside from their eco-chic design, you may not know the difference between Method and other so-called “green cleaners.” While many companies simply typically paste the term “green” in front of their product name or splash “made from post-consumer waste” on their bottles, Method has married truly green cleaning supplies with an obsession with sustainable packaging. Their latest conquest has been the production of a bottle made entirely of post-consumer recycled polyethylene plastic. The kicker? 25% of which is plastic recovered from the Pacific Ocean.
Method announced its new triumph in packaging on September 15th with government officials Lisa P. Jackson or the EPA and Karen Mills of the Small Business Administration. The officials declared the date “Method Day” in San Francisco to honor Method’s commitment to providing consumers with non-toxic, quality cleaning supplies while utilizing inspirational business practices. While Method is a pioneer in sustainable cleaning products and packaging, it is still a small business whose ingenuity and integrity is essential to the recovery of the American economy.
Method’s latest packaging innovation was inspired by co-owner and founder Adam Lowry’s latest trip to Hawaii’s Kahuku Beach on the island of Oahu. The remote island was littered with colorful plastic and other tangible pollutants deposited there by the swirling tides that created the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Patch lies just north of Hawaii and is roughly the size of Texas. Garbage from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch washes up on the shores of Hawaii constantly, so much so that certain beaches have been dubbed “collection beaches” where trash from all over the world accumulates. Lowry deduced that the only way to put the lid on plastic waste was to change the way it was produced. There is so much plastic on the planet already, there is no need to produce more virgin plastic. Hence, Method’s new bottles.
Posted in Going Green
Tagged great pacific garbage patch, green cleaning supplies, method, packaging, plastic
Leave a comment
