Sustainable May Day Baskets

It's nearly May Day! Can you believe the year has gone so quickly already? This year change up your May Day basket by making it sustainable! There are lots of fun ways to do this!

Reuse for your Basket
Even the basket itself can be sustainable! Weave a basket out of old news paper or use an old tin can, both are a great way to reuse and still have some fun! Check out this tutorial to weave a newspaper basket!

Give the Gift of a Garden
What better way to incorporate a sustainable theme than to give the gift of growth? Either buy some potted flower or plants, rather than the traditional cut ones, or give seeds. We love this plantable paper as a seed gifting idea! 

Find an Upcycled Gift
Ever since sites like Etsy started popping up it's never been easier to find upcycled gifts. Give a fork ring or a bracelet made from old tires, it's a gift nobody will soon forget!

Go Homemade With Treats
Rather than sticking tons of wasteful wrapped candies in your basket, try a homemade good instead. Cookies, banana bread, and muffins all make great May Day goodies! 

Do you have any other ideas to make your May Day basket a little more green? Be sure to share in the comments!

Feature: Greenhouses made from old windows and doors

We love combining things we love- which is why we're loving all the reclaimed item Greenhouses we've seen popping up everywhere this year! Today we're featuring an article that has gathered some of our favorite ones made out of old windows and doors. 

These greenhouses keep materials out of landfills and give them a wonderful new life- helping grow new things! What do you think? Would you put one of these up in your backyard? We certainly would!

Read the full article here.

Feature: Preparing Onion and Leek Seedlings to Go Outdoors

Can you believe we had snow in Iowa today? Snow! In April! Good grief.  For today we're back to garden planning, and the article we found for you today should help if the weather goes back to normal in the coming days! It's all about transplanting Onion and Leek seedlings outdoors!

This process can be kind of tricky, as it's a big game of timing. We appreciate how the blogger on You Grow Girl explains it though, makes it easy to follow and low stress! Plus she puts a good reminder at the end- don't throw away the trimmings. She gives you a couple different ideas for ways you can use them now.

Don't take our word for it though, read the article and get prepared for your transplants.

Read the article here.

Feature: 3 Minutes To Your Best Garden Yet

Today we're featuring a helpful video guide- 3 minutes to your best garden yet. These videos, put together by Ben Gould, shows you a few different tips to helping your garden be better than ever.

We especially like the last one about how to properly add compost to your garden. We recommend all of you add compost to your garden for larger, more nutrient rich plants.

Which segment is your favorite? Did you learn something? What's your biggest takeaway? Share in our comments!



Read the full article here.

Feature: Wonderful Wallflowers: Vertical Gardening Supplies for Small Spaces

Vertical gardens are a great option available now for the urban gardener. Many of our customers are in rural areas and green thumbed, so we hope that this article will inspire you all the create your own vertical garden! With all these lush, green photos we definitely were inspired! 

We'd love to get your take on the recent vertical gardening craze! Leave us a comment and let us know what you think- are you in love or are you more into the classic approach?

Read the article here

Must-Haves to Start Your Garden This Year

We recognize that a lot of our readers come from varied planting background, therefore, for today's blog post we've put together a list of the top must-have tools to start your own garden this year!

Image found here

Gardening Gloves

Love it or hate it, gardening can be rough on your hands. Between thorns, blisters, and other hazards, you'll be happy you picked up a sturdy pair of gloves!

Image found here

Trowel

Don't let the size of this tool fool you- it's extremely useful! Your trowel will help you break up dirt and dig holes for planting. We recommend a comfortable grip- it will make it much easier to use!

Image found here

Hand Cultivator

For a starter garden you won't need anything bigger than this, but it will be a wonder tool for you. This tool helps you to break up the ground when first planting seeds, but it also helps you with your weeding when you're further into the process. 

Image found here

Pruners

When it comes to caring for your garden, pruners will be a necessity. Trimming away old foliage, shaping of plants, and deadheading all keep your plant healthy and in good condition.

These are just a couple of many tools that could have made our list. Do you have others that should be added? Tell us in the comments!

Don't forget that the most important thing for a healthy garden is healthy soil. For healthy soil we recommend adding compost! Let us know if you're in need of some compost and we'll put you in contact with one of our composting facilities.

Featured Vegetable: Rhubarb!

Leading up to Spring, we're going to be featuring vegetables that are great additions to any garden. We're starting with Rhubarb! Rhubarb is great because it looks great and it's stems are edible! If you're a fan of a classic Strawberry Rhubarb pie this would be a great plant for you- you'd never have to buy Rhubarb for your favorite summer sweet treat.

Image found here

Not only is this plant's stems edible, but it makes quite a showpiece for any garden! Look at the lovely one above! Although be careful if you have pets that like to nibble- the leaves of a Rhubarb plant are toxic!

Will you try growing Rhubarb this year? What are your tips to growing Rhubarb? Share them in the comments!

Feature: Upcycled Garden Spring 2013

Here at GreenRU we read a variety of blogs about gardening and green living. We loved this post from Friday of last week about creating a chic and upcycled look for your garden this year!

These ideas aren't new, but we love the traction they're getting with social media, especially Pinterest. These upcycled items all look like you could have purchased them from a high end store, but they're just made with something that may have been considered junk.

The idea of giving objects new life through new purpose is great for the green movement, and we hope to see it continue. After all, what is compost if not new life for soil from the old life that grew from it.

Have you seen any other great upcycling posts lately? Share them in our comments! We'd love to check them out.

Our Favorite Gardening Pins

We love garden planning, but we especially love the ability to stow away great ideas year round with Pinterest. We've been pinning for a little while now an have a fair amount of pins, especially on our "Love Your Garden" board. Here is a list of our favorites so far!

See this Pin Here

Everyone needs a little gardening inspiration every now and then. With this post we hoped to inspire every gardener to keep it up!

See this Pin Here

This pin went over how to save your fresh herbs for later use. It's great for preparing for winter time, when fresh grown is so much harder to accomplish.

See this Pin Here

We're a fan of all types of gardens, so is it any surprise that we loved this vertical garden, conveniently located next to the stove?

See this Pin Here

This pin was a fun idea during the warmer months. To be honest, we were surprised how quickly this pin got popular! It is a great how-to to bring beautiful butterflies into your garden!

See this Pin Here

We love the idea of getting your children involved in the gardening process. While that may not be happening until the spring, this Biosphere is a great way to get them excited for it!

See this Pin Here

While this may not look like much, it's actually a guide to a winter to spring bulb project, which is a great way to stay inspired during the cold months.

See this Pin Here

This pin was back during peak apple season. We love it's helpful hints for all of your apple eating!

See this Pin Here

This guide is great for buying local, but also if you're trying to grow these fruits and need to know when the peak seasons are!

See this Pin Here

These lovely flowers are gorgeous year round, however we were especially fond of them during the holiday season because they look like candy canes!

These are our favorite of our pins, do you have any favorite gardening pins? Which of these are your favorites? Let us know in the comments!