5 green tips for winterizing your home and garden

As the first cold fronts of the season, armed with their accompanying storms and winds shake the brightly colored orange and fall foliage from many northern yards and forests, it’s time to take stock and prep for winter.

Here are five simple tips for making your seasonal transition a smoother, greener, and more economical endeavor:

• Gather all ye leaves and compost. Don’t bag the piles of fall leaves that are covering your lawn and haul them to your already-overloaded local landfill. All that organic material is valuable stuff. Invest the time, energy or funds in building or purchasing a composter

(you may need more than one). There are online plans for building a designer composter, or you can just go DIY and create one out of heavy duty fencing wire, or cut the bottom off an old trash barrels. The nutrient rich soil that will be created in just a few months of composting can be used to revitalize your lawn, gardens or planters.

If you’re a gardener, or have valuable trees and shrubs on your property, fall/winter is a great time to give them a trim, and to wrap and protect any shrubs and plants susceptible to winter kill or frost damage. Cut back dead plant material in your flower gardens and add a layer of mulch to protect plants and root systems from the cold winter to come.

Check all your windows and doors for drafts and leaks and invest in repairs or weatherstripping. Weatherstripping is a great way to dramatically reduce your winter fuel bill. Also, make sure you’ve closed and installed your storm windows.

Clean those eaves and gutters. A leaf-filled gutter can cause you all manner of problems if left unattended. Ice and water built up in a clogged gutter can damage your roof, shingles and interior walls, not to mention creating the potential problem of falling ice.

• Invest in a programmable thermostat. What you save on your yearly energy expenses will more than cover the investment in new thermostats. Control the temperature for the different zones and/or rooms of your home and the times at which your want them at a specific temperature. The latest generation of programmable thermostats

boasts all kinds of features, including: smartphone apps, touch screen operation, remote programming, wi-fi capability and sophisticated scheduling capabilities. Keep the rooms you’re using at a comfortable temperature while unused rooms can be kept at a reduced temp. You can also lower your home’s overall temperature during the day when you’re at work and program the thermostat to raise the temp to comfortable levels just before you get home.

related: more green tips from The Alternative Consumer