Therapeutic Gardening aims to support those individuals who may be
wheelchair users, have mobility or learning disabilities to get the
most from their garden environment.
Kanakas Total Gardens is now offering a Personal Growth Program for
those who would like to get more from their outdoor surroundings.
Whether in the Home, Day Care or Residential Centres, with the right
planning and easy access, the ever changing garden can be enjoyed all
year round whatever the weather.

If you want to know what to look for in an eco-friendly home, you can follow some general guidelines. One of the guidelines is that everything that is labeled green is not necessarily green, and a home is not eco-friendly simply because it is a bit more energy efficient than other homes.

When you are looking to go green, you have to remember that it could depend on the builder, the area, building codes, materials and other aspects. In some instances, there are builders making the claim that they construct eco-friendly homes because they increase a home’s energy efficiency by 5%. Any consumer can decrease monthly utility bills by that much or perhaps more by replacing current appliances with Energy Star appliances.

If you had wanted to get into an eco-friendly or environmentally-friendly home, you could have expected to pay anywhere from 11% to 25% as a premium. The greener you wanted to go, the more you had to pay, but things have changed as the real estate market has continued its readjustment. People want to go green today can pay as little as 3% to 5% as a premium, depending on how green they are looking to go, of course.

On the other hand, even though there is a premium to be paid, the extra cost is offset by savings in electricity and other utility bills in the long term. If you use an energy-efficient boiler or furnace in your home, for instance, you can save as much as $570, according the statistics from the Department of Energy.

Another point in favor of going green or eco-friendly is that even though average U.S. home prices are still at levels that have not been seen since 2003, environmentally-friendly homes actually held their value, and they even appreciated in some places.

In any event, a guideline that is worth following is that you should always be skeptical and wary of homes labeled green, eco-friendly and/or environmentally friendly. Anyone can say a home is green, eco-friendly or environmentally friendly, but the question would be, “What was used in the comparison or what is the label based on?” If your builder is really harping on the fact that the toilets that were installed are low-flow, you should remind him/her that you can only purchase low-flow toilets in this day and age.

Another guideline that is worth following is holding your builder to industry-leading standards. If your builder is touting eco-friendliness, then the builder should be able to hold up well when compared to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. LEED was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council to encourage sustainable building practices. If new homes want to be certified, they have to be built with minimal impact on natural resources and the environment. This means that less wasted building materials are produced, less energy is used, and fewer pollutants and toxins are released.

An important guideline to follow too is being very familiar with building codes because some local codes now require the incorporation of particular green features in new homes. Passive solar lighting, or windows that face south are one of the things that are required in some places. Other places require insulated heating pipes and even drought resistant landscaping, making familiarity with the building codes essential to going green.

Eco-friendly also means that you are closer to work, stores, restaurants, schools, parks, public transportation and other services so that you are less likely to use your car. This all comes into play when you want to know what to look for in an eco-friendly home.

The Party for the Planet will be the largest Earth Day celebration in the province. This is Surrey’s opportunity to showcase their key sustainable initiatives. The FREE event will be held at Central City Plaza.

For TravelSmart options and other general event information please visit the Party for the Planet website.Download the Festival Map and enjoy the fun!

Party for the Planet in Surrey!

In the ’60′s and ’70′s cabinets were constructed on-site typically with quality 3/4 inch plywood for the cases and solid wood 3/4 inch face frames and plywood or solid wood drawers and doors.  See the embedded pictures for a graphic showing face-frame and non-face-frame construction.  These old cabinets are good candidates for refacing when the cabinet construction is solid and they have solid wood face frames.

Cabinets in the ’80′s and ’90′s shifted to more mass-produced versus custom, and we saw the introduction of press board, MDF (medium-density fiber board) and particle board as a way to reduce construction costs.  All of these fiber and particle materials are much more likely to sag, blister or come apart than cabinets built from plywood.  These materials do not work well in humid environments or where water is present (like a kitchen).  Some particle board cabinets can be refaced if they have a solid-case construction, but they usually require additional items such as new drawer boxes and new shelves since the old particle board will be sagging.  On the other hand, many of these particle board cabinets are best put in a landfill.  I am speaking about the ones you see in the low to midrange apartment complexes around town.  Some of them look like they were part of a nuclear bomb test.

Late ’90′s and over the last ten years manufacturers improved the quality of the fiber board they used and they built sturdy cases mostly of pine or other softwood with particle board on the sides, back and base.  The shelves are still MDF, but they are less prone to sagging or blistering.  Still not as good of quality as cases and shelves built from plywood but much better than their predecessors.  Most all these new cabinets are very easy to reface, meaning it costs less to reface than other bathrooms and kitchens that need more help.

The other type of cabinet construction is “frameless.”  These are also called European style.  In these cabinets you only see the end of the boxes in the front without a face frame.  They are constructed of plywood or MDF, and typically they hold up very well.  The MDF used in these cabinets is sometimes called melamine.  Melamine is a protective finish put on both sides of the MDF to prevent moisture from deforming the panels.  Frameless cabinets are the easiest to reface since it is a snap to cover the old wood veneer, and the hinges are usually high-quality concealed hinges that can be reused, saving the cost of new hinges.

The bottom line is that if your cases and your frames are in good shape, your cabinets are a good candidate for refacing.  If your cabinets have the raw particle board showing and they are sagging, it is best to buy new cabinets.

I created Austin Cabinet Refacing and now Houston Cabinet Refacing out of my own passion for contemporary design and a desire to provide customers the option of modern cabinets at very reasonable prices without time-consuming and unpleasant reconstruction.  If you observe how quickly the few available contemporary homes are snapped up, you can see the wave is coming.  Houston Cabinet Refacing is there for those who are ahead of the curve in their appetite for contemporary design.  And we make it so easy for you.  We work with your existing cabinet cases, refacing the face frames with premium hardwood veneer.  We build modern style drawer fronts and doors that you choose from a great variety of gorgeous natural woods.  Once the new design is installed, our customers are delighted with the transformation.  We are very proud to be able to offer this unique product.  Contact us soon for a consultation.

You can see pictures on the internet or on the news but it is not the same as seeing the expansive areas we take up to dispose of our unwanted goods.  I am not against landfills, they are a necessity, at least with our current technology that I know of.  If you see in person the magnitude of the materials already in our landfills and the massive amounts that arrive to be buried each day, you may have the same experience I have when I visit the landfill.  The sheer magnitude of the landfill brings a whole new perspective.   I start to think of ways I can make a difference personally and in my business to limit the amounts of materials added to the landfills.    I take many less trips than most cabinet makers since I primarily do refacing and not replacing of kitchens and baths.  I am usually there once a month or less.

Next time a friend or neighbor is taking a truckload of refuse to the landfill, ask if you can go along.  I do not think they do any tours.  Take a trip to the landfill and see if it changes your perspective.

Kanakas Total Gardens had the challenge to brighten up the customer entrance way, so we removed the front section of fence, an old rotten flower box, lots of rubble and some ivy.

We planted 2 new flower beds, a tree and installed a selection of 4 wall hanging felt panels and filled them up..

You can see pictures on the internet or on the news but it is not the same as seeing the expansive areas we take up to dispose of our unwanted goods.  I am not against landfills, they are a necessity, at least with our current technology that I know of.  If you see in person the magnitude of the materials already in our landfills and the massive amounts that arrive to be buried each day, you may have the same experience I have when I visit the landfill.  The sheer magnitude of the landfill brings a whole new perspective.   I start to think of ways I can make a difference personally and in my business to limit the amounts of materials added to the landfills.    I take many less trips than most cabinet makers since I primarily do refacing and not replacing of kitchens and baths.  I am usually there once a month or less.

Next time a friend or neighbor is taking a truckload of refuse to the landfill, ask if you can go along.  I do not think they do any tours.  The Travis County landfill just southeast of Austin has the added bonus of being just at the end of the airport runway so you can see the jets landing and taking off.  Take a trip to the landfill and see if it changes your perspective.

believes that the best way for a garden to be maintained and structured is with eco-friendly, hands on work.It is very important to be able to get to know the soil, plants and trees intimately while designing the garden of your dreams.

Eco gardener, property services, land management, Arboriculture and landscape design

Vancouver Island, Victoria, British Columbia

250 507 3003      kanakas@live.ca

Plants like to naturally regenerate from the inside out, and we have listened to what our shrubs have been saying.

Reasons not to sheer a shrub  are, better health with lessening diseases, longer life and greatly improving the plant  ascetics for its entire life.

Know your cuts:

Before you cut a tree, we think why does it need to be cut and how will it be effected.

Location of cuts are as critical as surgery on our own arms and legs, that’s why we believe that the trees have points of scar tissue and wound areas to be cut back to  for its healing process to begin.

Many many trees still today are pruned incorrectly which reflects on the community responsible for them.

This is a great new image for Moleskine, and a neat way to bridge the physical/digital divide.  The new site says Moleskine’s Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification is pending and that all their paper is acid-free.  But where’s the recycled line of notebooks, Moleskine?

Does anyone know of a Moleskine-like notebook (hard cover, envelope in back) that is 100% recycled?

I love letterpressed papergoods.  Check out these cute, tiny recycled letterpress notebooks!  You can buy them online at www.9spotmonk.com, which is 100% wind powered!

Their cards are fantastic, too, with great sayings like “Mom says there’s still hope for you” and “Let’s enjoy this financial meltdown together.”

The boxes are so cool.  Not only are they made of recycled materials, but they are embedded with seeds.  So when you are about ready to throw away the box…STOP!  You can plant it and watch it grow.

The first one is Pangea Organics Malagasy Ylang Ylang & Linden Flower Facial Cream.  It is only $29 and the box becomes Italian Basil.

The other one is Cargo’s PlantLove lipstick in Sagarmatha.  This one is only $20 and it sprouts wildflowers.  I just think this is such a great way to take the pain out of the packaging.  You can’t beat wildflowers from a box.