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So you can have friends like these! Texas is losing habitat very, very quickly! We all know about the homeless pet population. What about homeless wildlife? Their homes are being scraped away every day. How would you feel if you were asleep in bed one night and a bulldozer came and scraped your and your kids and […] Continue reading → Flowers Yellow Bells– Esperanza: Be sure and get the actual native Texas variety of this plant Tecoma stans or better yet Tecoma stans var. angustata. Yes, it is great for pollinators. It will freeze back in the winter so you can cut it down to live wood in Spring. This one small maintenance act […] Continue reading → I just installed this wicking bed in my own yard. If you are not familiar with wicking beds they water plants from below rather than above. They’re basically containers with water at the base and they act like a giant self-watering pot. The moisture is drawn up through the soil via a process called capillary […] Continue reading → I recycle my household and home office paper at Pleasant Hill Elementary School in Leander. The Abitibi program from the Paper Retriever donates money to the local schools or nonprofit organizations who host their containers. Click Here to see a paper recycling bin near you. Stretchy plastic film and plastic bags can be recycled in […] Continue reading → Home Diagnosis is a new science-based TV series coming to your local PBS station in 2019! Home Performance Experts Grace and Corbett Lunsford produced this show to demonstrate the ability of building science to improve the quality of our lives. Green homes and even the typical residential home can benefit greatly from regular reviews of energy, […] Continue reading → Ecotourism is a booming industry in Texas. During this hot time of the year, it’s challenging to stay cool while outdoors. Many Central Texas go swimming and more. Living in the Austin Texas area, I carry on the tradition of heading to the coast for vacations. My grandparents, Oscar and Betty Sandstrom went to Rockport Texas […] Continue reading → In 1983, the Texas Legislature created the Veterans Land Board to administer the Veterans Housing Assistance Program also known as the VHAP, to assist Texas Veterans in purchasing a home. Eligible Texas Veterans are able to buy a home with a competitive, low-interest loan with little or no down-payment. Veterans, military members, and their spouses may receive up […] Continue reading → 
by Martin Byhower, native plant retailer, birding guide, educator MOSQUITOES! Welcome to what I hope will become a regular series of articles sharing what I have learned about Central Texas Gardening with Wildlife in Mind. It seems that perhaps the most relevant and helpful topic to start with is dealing with mosquitoes in your Texas […] Continue reading → Tesla Inc. is now accepting orders for its highly anticipated and aesthetically pleasing solar powered, electricity-generating roofs. The roofs are a mix of generating and non-generating solar tiles to maximize the cost efficiency each roof but both tiles look the same. The tiles are made to create an optical illusion. From street level, they appear […] Continue reading → We spend the majority of our adult lives at work. It makes sense to include your office in your health and wellness plan. Unhealthy employees are less productive, and that can hurt the bottom line, too. Here are five tips to maintaining a healthy office for yourself and employees. 1. Select Ergonomic Office Furniture Keeping […] Continue reading →