Tag: Home & Gardening

Wild Bird ‘Toys’ That Keep Birds Coming Back

A dome-shaped, UFO-look-alike object sends gentle ripples through the water in a birdbath located on the side yard of the nature shop Wild Birds Unlimited at busy MacArthur Boulevard in Springfield, Illinois. The solar powered “water wiggler,” as the water feature in the middle of the birdbath is called, aims to agitate the water just…


Tips for a Thriving Organic Garden

These days more and more people are taking their health into their own hands. One way they are doing this is by growing their own herbs, veggies and plants. and making sure there are no pesticides, or unwanted chemicals in their gardens and food. But its very difficult to maintain a clean and chemical free…


Eggs belong in more places than just your kitchen

Eggs, eggs and more eggs. We all know the “Incredible edible egg” jingle from the seventies? People have been eating eggs for thousands of years. Most of us can cook eggs many different ways, and nearly all of us have cooked or baked with eggs at some point. There are other ways to use eggs…


How to earn money and travel by working on farms

Like travel? Love gardening or have a special affinity for critters? Enjoy using your hands and learning new things? Well- there are farms, ranches and orchards of all kinds looking for YOU. Everywhere. Organic farms, fish or shrimp farms (aquaculture), flower farms, orchards, cattle and horse ranches, apiaries (bees), turkey farms, llama farms, goats, rice…


Transforming Flowers into Food – Animal Pollinators Populations Essential for Food Production and Much More

Have you ever stopped to think about how much of our food begins as a flower? Most of our fruits, nuts, and vegetables start with a flower. Flowers can’t produce seeds and grow into food without pollination. That means we rely on bees, butterflies, beetles, birds, and bats for much of our food and many…


Fido and Fireworks

We can’t wait until dazzling colors burst forth from a blackened canvas of the night sky. Our anticipation builds with each ssssss and whizzzz heard as firecrackers rocket higher exploding in loud bangs and pops a moment before sparkling colors rain down. July 4th is the first big celebration of summer. We look forward to…


Is there really a seed shortage?

Do you garden? Enjoy going to local markets or shopping stores that carry locally raised products? Have you noticed a decline in available fruits, vegetables and some varieties of florals in the markets- especially the farmers markets? The lack of readily available seed is very real. It has stopped many avid home gardeners in their…


Minding your own beeswax: How to make eco-friendly beeswax food wraps

Central Illinois Beekeeper Tressa Hoffman has taken from her beehives an ingredient for preserving food in an eco-friendly way, and she’s happy to share what she’s learned with others. A beekeeper for about eight years on her residential farm called “Honey Creek Farm” near Springfield, Illinois, Hoffman has made beeswax wraps for two years. Beeswax…


You go, goats: Using goats for lawn grooming

Syndy Clark’s cleanup crew munched on brush on an early morning in June at a residence in rural Pekin, Illinois. Clark’s goats were clearing brush on 2 acres. They already had eaten their way through 1 acre of the 2 acres they were tasked with in the previous week and had perhaps another week to…


Saving the Monarch Butterfly—Jeff and Roxanne Stelle’s butterfly sanctuary

Monarch butterflies have a friend in Jeff and Roxanne Stelle of Springfield, Illinois, who have set up “butterfly gardens” throughout their back and front yards that will help the insects survive. A chief nursing officer at an Illinois hospital, Roxanne Stelle began last summer working in the garden when she returned home from long hours…