Green Living

Grassroots gardening

Donna Balzer Leave a comment

Calgary’s Seedy Saturday offers unprecedented opportunity for local gardeners to try new things

What is the big green event for gardeners this month? If you guessed St. Paddy’s Day, you’ve got the right date, but the wrong activity.

The garden event in Calgary on March 17 involves green, but goes so much further than green beer or shamrocks. Seedy Saturday is a worldwide adventure for gardeners who want to grow their own organic food from locally sourced and selected seeds. Supporting Seedy Saturdays builds community and local habitat.

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The energy detective

David Dodge and Scott Rollans Leave a comment

Reducing power consumption is easier than you think

What if we told you that with a few simple changes, you could cut your household electricity consumption in half? It’s possible, and Ron Kube is living proof.

Kube recently installed a solar-power system on his St. Albert home. But before going solar, he checked to see how much electricity his home was using. He was shocked to discover his family was using 70 per cent more than the Alberta average of 7,200 kilowatt hours per year – they were energy hogs.

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Solar 101

David Dodge and Scott Rollans Leave a comment

Harnessing the sun for all your energy needs

St. Albert’s Ron and Carole Kube had never known anyone with a solar-powered home. Then, in 2014, Ron Kube read a story in the newspaper about a household that installed a solar array. He was surprised to learn they were his former neighbours.

“In fact, the guy was Craig Dickie – he used to live across the street from us,” said Kube. “And I was so excited that I called up Craig and I said, ‘can I come over to the house and see the solar system?’ And he said, ‘yeah, sure, come on over.’ ”

The moment Kube saw the system, he was hooked.

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