So, this has me on the look out for new products to use. I’ll be heading down to New Living to pick up some cleaning supplies but I’m also on the look out for Makeup, shampoo, soaps, etc.

Do you have a product that I should try? I’m thinking about doing a series on Turning Houston Green about it if the products can be purchased locally.

What do you recommend? I would like for a full list of ingredients prior to using it though.

Try me at Steph@TurningHoustonGreen.com or just leave a comment. Interested in hearing what kind of alternatives are out there for beauty products in Houston!!

However, the past year or two I have been curious to know exactly to what extent people really care if their Real Estate Professional even has a Designation.

As of March, I will have had the Certified EcoBroker designation/certification for 4 years.  To be perfectly honest, I don’t really care if I have it anymore.  In the beginning I wanted to take the courses to learn more about Green Building.  Since then I have also taken other courses and even a builder designation (CGP) to learn more than the average Real Estate Course will allow you to learn. 

My question and ‘poll’ that I would like to pose – To what point do home buyers and sellers really care about designations and would you choose your Real Estate Professional solely on designation?

But while you can build the healthiest home on the Planet, we also need to consider not only what products we put in our home from Furniture to Cleaning Supplies – But also the food and nutrition that we feed our Body.

Starting this month the New Construction and Remodeling aspect of the Turning Houston Green newsletter will be going over a 4 part Series on how to create a healthier environment inside the home – And while that is great we realize that there are also people wanting to find out how to have a healthier body to go along with that.

In the end, it all seems to come together.  This is why I am putting together some educational sessions for next year on various topics, including being healthy along with green building/buying and selling so that we can all try to find the answers to these together.

The first confirmed Presentation for 2010 is on February 18th at 6:30 pm with Dr. Chris Zaino.   I have had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Zaino speak on a couple of different topics – One of those being how to maximize your Central Nervous System along with integrating diet to stay healthy.  Here is a short bio for him:

Dr. Chris Zaino has a healthy respect for his body, as testified by his past accomplishments as Mr. America, a National level body building title.  His Chiropractic practice is located in The Woodlands, Texas and has devoted much of his energy and life to the education of Health and Exercise Science, which has lead him to his dedication to educate others in the Maximized Living program.  His practice has a wide variety of methods that go beyond the traditional chiropractic care.  Maximized living Christopher Zaino in The Woodlands offers services for people experiencing Fibromyalgia, Herniated Discs, Arch and Foot pain, and Sports Injuries just to name a few.  He is highly skilled in Dietary Counseling, Pain Relief, Musculoskeletal Manipulation and Rehabilitation treatments.  His ultimate goal is to help all people to reach their “God-given health potential through natural chiropractic care”. 

Here is a link to sign up for the Presentation or you can sign up via Facebook.

For now, a presentation is below by Dr. Zaino on how to stay healthy during the Holidays and maybe even lose weight!  Also, the 2010 Turning Houston Green Survey will be going out on December 8th.  We will be giving away a few items in return for feedback including an Energy Audit and Dr. Zaino’s Alive By Design DVD – A 3 hour discussion on how to be healthier by body, diet and fitness.  If you would like to listen to some of his past presentations, I recommend checking out his Vimeo page.

I put together a short video below to tell you what I have going on here but I was wondering if you had about 5 seconds to vote?  These are a couple of questions I have for anyone in the Real Estate Industry.  Can you help?

What are your thoughts regarding Green building?

While this may seem a little harsh, it is the same thing. You only have one shot to win the game that year – Rebuilding or remodeling a house because it was not done right the first time can not only Expensive but not practical if you specifically chose the land for one reason or another, and not Sustainable considering the amount of building material sent to a Dumpsite.

Why spend good money hiring a professional architect and then go with a low bid builder (and yes, folks do that every day). Why buy blueprints off the internet to “save money” and then spend those savings and a lot more money, time and grief making corrections to them once work in underway. Assuming you do not want to build a home to yesterday’s obsolete standards but prefer a home with the highest quality performing materials, products and design consideration available on the market (think Green, not expensive) then be sure to get a licensed EcoBroker Realtor on your team as well. That’s right, a licensed Realtor with the additional designation of an EcoBroker understands that preceding good design and good build comes selecting the right lot and location that will make it all possible.

You see, the concept behind Green Building goes way beyond helping the Environment. The standards and the way it is built is primarily for the Homeowner, You. Make sure that the players on your team are well qualified in the style of construction that you desire starting with who you use to choose the parcel of land, the architect or designer you use can help to maximize energy efficiency all the way down to the builder. Carefully selecting your team can ensure that you are happy with the outcome of the game and potentially save you thousands in the long run.

If you would like to know what GreenHaus Builders can bring to the playing field – I can be contacted at Michael@GreenHausBuilders.com

Michael Strong CGP, GMB, CAPS, CGR
President, GreenHaus Builders
Builder of Houston’’s 1st LEED Certified Home

Here it is in case you missed. They discussed some fantastic information.

Greening The Housing Industry

Whether you are building or remodeling your home – I suggest you attend.  Personally, I recommend the class to the following people:

• Builders/Remodelers
• Marketing Professionals in the Green World
• Homeowners
• Potential Homeowners
• Anyone considering building Green
• Professionals wanting to dip their feet in to Green Jobs
• Green Professionals wanting to network maybe?

Here is a snipit from the course description:

Topics will include the following:

• Design and performance analysis of attics and crawlspaces
• Evaluating cost and benefit in construction materials and methods
• Making sustainability an affordable option
• New and promising technologies for your home
• Incorporating healthy living into your building project
• Making an old house green
• Green manufacturers, programs and associations

If you sign up, let me know!

Here is a link

With a container garden, you can grow something even where space is limited, add instant “curb appeal” to your landscape, or just ease into gardening cautiously.  And, of course, every container garden can also be a small contribution to the environment.

Drying

Size matters when picking out the container.  A large pot for several plants is a better investment than several small pots with one plant each.  Small pots dry out quickly, but larger ones seem stabilize by creating their own ecosystem.  The material of the container affects its drying rate, too.  A plastic, wooden (with liner), or glazed ceramic container will keep the soil moist longer than a terra cotta or concrete container, unless a liner is available.

Drainage

If your chosen container does not have a hole in the bottom, some nurseries will drill one for you.  The container will drain best if it is not sitting directly on a surface. Place it on smooth flat stones for elegant ‘legs’, on a tray holding pea gravel, or on a dolly with casters.  Inside the container, add a sheet of porous landscape fabric, or an inch or so gravel or pot shards to keep the soil from leaking through the hole.  Fill the container with good potting soil. Soil directly from the garden is too heavy.

Plan for the top of the soil to be an inch below the rim of the container after the plants are in.

Planting

Gardeners used to be concerned primarily with what looked pretty and survived in Houston, but now we also consider whether it supports wildlife, can be eaten by humans, and is not an invasive species. In warm weather and a sunny location, try basil, mint, perilla, lemon grass, or lemon verbena together with insect-attracting plants like pentas, salvias, black-eyed susan and coreopsis. In cool weather, you can plant chard, cilantro, parsley, arugula or dill together with poppies, calendula, nasturtiums, and paperwhites. Some of the herbs have varieties with showy purple or striped leaves. Thyme and oregano look nice draping over the side of a pot, and varieties of eggplant, chili peppers, and leaf lettuces are as attractive as any ornamental plant.

If you don’t want to change plants by season or prefer simplicity, consider planting a small or dwarf variety of citrus, apple, or fig in your container. Urban Harvest list ideal fruit tree varieties for Houston at http://www.urbanharvest.org/advice/fruitgardening.html. A selection of perennial Texas natives in a large container could include salvias, manfreda, Lindheimer muhly grass, coreopsis, winecup, switchgrass, and lazy daisy.

Maintenance

Synthetic fertilizers, among their other faults, cause a buildup of salts in the soil of the container.  It’s another reason to use organics.  Save some rainwater for your container garden. It will help flush out minerals left behind by tap water.

Mulch will protect the plant roots, just as in a garden bed. Look for hardwood mulch made here in Houston from local tree waste. For style points, you might try a layer of tumbled recycled glass in a container where plants are not changed often.

Now that the burn of summer is easing, a container garden is a good way to kick off the next planting season.

Enjoy!

Mary Carol Edwards is a landscape designer and owner of Luminous Ground Design. She specializes in landscapes which unite the environment and architecture, and support natural ecology. She considers a landscape a success if it can do all that and be fun, elegant, and creative, too.