Spring has sprung and it’s time to get cracking on beautifying the garden! Our Charles and Hudson friends have two great DIY ideas that we wanted to point your attention to.

Did you know that you can make elegantly simple window boxes on your own? All you need are some simple tools (boards, sandpaper, screws and drill to name a few), the ability to measure and a little basic building know-how. Check out the post for detailed instructions on how to go about this. Oh, and if you do build your own window box, don’t forget to let Charles and Hudson know; they want to see!

Have some PVC gutter materials that you don’t know what to do with? How about a hanging garden? It’s a green way to use extra materials and creatively use space in your garden. Veggies and fruits such as chard, strawberries and carrots are suggested as some of the ideal plantings in your “gutter garden.” Intrigued? Then check out Charles and Hudson’s tips on building a hanging gutter garden.

What are your favorite DIY garden fix-ups?

Images courtesy of Charles and Hudson.

Crazy Rooms (That We’re Crazy About) From New York Magazine
Shelter Pop
“This week’s issue of New York focuses on extreme design…and we’re extremely excited. Check out our five favorite spaces.”

Do You Dance While You Iron?
DIY Life
“Everybody, at some point, has busted a move while cleaning. These people were kind enough to share their methods on YouTube. ”

America’s Most Decadent Kitchens
MSN Real Estate
“Forbes compiled a list of some of the most luxurious kitchens in homes now for sale, with help from Realtor.com, Trulia.com, Sotheby’s International and Coldwell Banker.”

How Much Can You Save with Green Remodeling Tax Credits?
Calfinder
“Happy Earth Day, folks! In honor of the 41st anniversary of this greenest of holidays, I’d like to share a breakdown on energy-saving home improvements, and the federal tax incentives that make them affordable.”

Concerned about the state of your lawn and garden after this hard winter? Looking for a way to go green? Oh boy, have we ever got a solution for you: goats! Yes, goats, the adorably mischievous ruminants.

According to The Wall Street Journal via MSN, goats are becoming the new way to keep your lawn in tip-top shape without having to fire up the lawnmower or the weed whacker. Goats will eat almost anything, will work tirelessly at clearing lawns and are a great conversation starter!

Unless you live on a farm, you probably don’t want to invest in a goat, let alone a herd (and local code probably wouldn’t allow city dwellers to), but there are rental options, such as www.rent-a-goat.com. And what about the “fertilization” the goats naturally provide? Reputable goat rental companies will clean up after their animals.

So if you are seeking a unique, green way to clear your yard, how about letting some adorable hard-working goats do it (homeowners should check their local codes to find out if livestock rental is permitted and for what purposes)? Would you rent some goats to spruce up your yard? Let us know in the comments!

Image courtesy of Michael Vincent Miller on Flickr.

April is Earth Month, an expansion of the more traditional Earth Day celebrations that take place in April. In the spirit of the holiday, here are some quick tips and ideas for things you can do at home to go green now.

A few tips from Re-Nest:

• Reduce vampire energy by plugging your electrical appliances into power strips and turning the strips off when not in use. Not only will this save energy, it will save you money (check out this chart for proof).
• Shop locally. Check out your area’s farmers market and try to buy items from local sources to reduce the environmental impact of transporting your goods from the other side of the world.
• Start a vegetable garden. A great way to start being mindful of your consumption is to watch your food grow. Need help starting? We have some tips here.

And some more from Top Green Products:

• Change air conditioner filters at least once a month.
• Start a compost bin.
• Water grass only when necessary, and do so in early morning.

The Green Living guide at About.com offers some somewhat less common advice:

• Don’t buy something today
• Tune up your car
• Buy organic food

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It might just be coincidence that Earth Month occurs at the same time most homeowners take on ambitious spring cleaning efforts. Regardless, spring cleaning provides the perfect impetus to think green and lessen your impact on the environment.  (Two birds with one stone, right?)

Before you start pitching a winter’s worth of buildup and wiping down every interior and exterior surface of your home, here are some simple steps to make your home greener:

• Go paperless. If you find the majority of your trash is coming through the mail, switch to online payment options. As for junk mail, options range from returning to sender or using one of several services to block unwanted direct mail marketing. An added bonus: Checking the mail will be much more pleasant.
• Can I donate this? That’s something to ask yourself before tossing any item. From clothes and furniture down to magazines and house supplies, you can donate to thrift stores, local shelters or place items on the free goods section on craigslist.com or freecycle.org.
• Chemical-free cleaning. Depending on the surface, you can generally go a long way by adding a few tablespoons of lemon juice to water. This is also better for the overall health of your home, especially if you have younger children or pets.
• Towels – cloth, not paper. Ever notice how paper towels disappear  in a hurry? For the price of a dozen rolls, you can purchase reusable rags that will last for years and show much more durability and versatility than standard paper towels. There’s no need to add even more trash to your cleaning process.
• Baking soda – the miracle agent. No matter the surface, baking soda can get the job done. Cleaning the shower? Make a paste of water and baking soda and dab with a sponge. Scrub the surfaces of the shower and rinse to complete. Mopping? Add a cup of baking soda to a warm bucket of water (and add lemon juice for scent) and mop away. You can even sprinkle baking soda in the bottom of garbage cans to reduce odor. Baking soda is nothing new, but this miraculous cleaning agent is often overshadowed by newer products that can be full of chemicals and toxins.

Ice Castles Grown by a Minnesota Man Using Geothermal Heating System
Inhabitat
“Winters in Minnesota are cold and the best way to get through the bone-chilling season is to have fun with it, just like Roger Hanson does. For the last four years the ice builder has been growing ice castles in his front yard with the help of his geothermal heating system, some fancy sprayers and a computer program he created himself.”

The $200 Microhouse
New York Times
“For ingenuity, thrift and charm, Mr. Diedricksen’s tiny structures are hard to beat. Made of scavenged materials, they cost on average less than $200 to build. They often have transparent roofing, which allows a fine view of the treetops, particularly in the smallest ones, where the most comfortable position is supine. They have loads of imaginative and decorative details: a porthole-like window salvaged from a front-loading washing machine, a flip-down metal counter taken from the same deceased washer.”

How Many Recycled Cans Does It Take to Make an Airplane?
The Daily Green
“The good news is that my yearly office cleaning gives me a chance to sort out the hundreds of press releases and news clippings I’ve saved during the year for my annual Top Ten Shocking Eco-Facts blog post. Remember, being the Green Cheapskate, that’s “eco” as in ecological as well as economical.”

DIY Home Humidifiers: Humidify Your Home for Less
DIY Life
“The cold winter weather outside, coupled by indoor heating systems, easily sucks all the moisture out of your home. Low humidity levels can also lead to a host of problems including dry skin, sore throats, along with cracks in paint and wood furniture. Adding a humidifier is an easy way to replace this lost moisture in your home, but at times humidifiers can require high maintenance and more space and money than you would like to expend. Luckily, even on the tightest of budgets, there are inexpensive tricks to humidify your home.”

Recession Buster: DIY Wall Art
Calfinder
“There are some great things you can do in a weekend to revolutionize your living room—and installing affordable wall art is one of them. Check out how.”

diy project: homemade leprechaun spirits
Design*Sponge
“Saint Patrick’s Day is right around the corner; it will sneak up on you before you know it, so you might want to prepare! The tradition of drinking on the holiday comes from a legend called Patrick Pot. This project honors that tradition.”

With gas prices threatening the $4 mark this summer, who among us hasn’t considered purchasing a hybrid?

There’s never been more hybrid vehicle options on the market, and now, more automakers are unveiling plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) like the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt.  J.D. Power and Associates predicts nearly 750,000 PHEVs will be on the road by 2015, increasing the demand for off-board charging stations in garages.

Rest easy: garage charging systems are much smaller and sleeker than you’d expect. Here are some of the most stylish charging stations out there.

Blink by ECOtality

WattStation by GE

Some automakers have started producing their own stylish charging stations:

Consumers should think twice before buying a model-specific charging station, though. As Gas 2.0′s Christopher DeMorro notes, if an PHEV owner installs a Ford-branded charger in their garage and later puts the home up for sale, it may be turnoff to Chevy Volt or Nissan Leaf owners.

Have you considered purchasing a hybrid electric vehicle?

We at MLuxe often learn from and link to the popular green-design and sustainability blog Inhabitat. It’s a great resource for anyone looking to make his or her home a little more earth-friendly without sacrificing style or cutting-edge technology. Because Inhabitat is such a popular resource on the Web, Marvin Windows is excited to partner with the site to produce an upcoming series of interviews with a great lineup of green-home experts.

The series will include interviews with interior designer Zem Joaquin, architect and author Sarah Susanka, energy-efficiency expert David Johnston and Marvin Windows product planner Christine Marvin. Last week, the series kicked off with a great list of tips on “greening your home” from architect Eric Corey Freed. From the article:

Greening your home can provide numerous financial, health and environmental benefits; from making your air healthier, to cutting down your energy bill, to lowering your carbon footprint. Most people like the idea of “greening” their home, but many are daunted by complex technical information and don’t where to begin. Happily, eco architect and green building expert Eric Corey Freed has stepped in to distill the process of greening your home into 5 easy steps: increasing insulation, get a thermostat, conserve water through smart technology, overhaul your roof and upgrade your lighting. We sat down with this organicARCHITECT to take notes on his 5 steps to a greener home – read on for the full scoop!

image courtesy of Inhabitat

We live an a world with an astonishing amount of food choices. You can eat an apple, or pick up a ready-to-heat apple “pie” at the gas station, for example. As we get further and further from our food sources, and even from the simple act of home cooking, it gets harder to know what in your food is, well, food. Nutrition experts may argue over the healthiest things to eat, but one thing is pretty clear: overly processed food isn’t good for you or the planet.

For help in making healthy (and perhaps by extension, green) food choices, Darya Pino, Ph.D, made a humorous flow chart at Summer Tomato to help you figure out if what you’re shopping for is food. It’s tongue-in-cheek, but it does make you think. Take a look, have a chuckle and make healthy and green food shopping choices!

Last week we featured some of the smartest new gizmos in the world of home technology that were showcased at the massive Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Today we have a nice round-up of the newest “greener” gadgets. (“Green” would generally refer to items that are truly environmentally friendly, whereas “greener” refers to devices that, as a class, aren’t necessarily great for the environment but, as innovations take place, they become much easier on the environment, relatively speaking.)

Mike Chino, managing editor of Inhabitat, penned a piece for My Life Scoop about the top 5 greenest gadgets at CES. Among them is the nPower PEG Kinetic Energy Charger, which captures your body’s kinetic energy — the natural motion from walking around, climbing stairs and other regular activities — and stores it for charging other devices. “Simply toss this pint-sized power charger into your backpack or briefcase,” Chino writes, “and it will capture kinetic energy from your daily activities and transform it into electricity to juice your gadgets on the go.”

For those of you who are more style-minded, the Budget Fashonista has a round-up of some more nifty gadgets from CES, including the fancy bracelet shown here. According to the Budget Fashionista, “If you’re the kind who likes to wear your love of technology on your sleeve, the Asus Waveface Ultra is for you. The not-yet-available OLED wristband can be worn as a bracelet, but functions as a smartphone.” Maybe it’s not for everyone, but that’s just plain cool.

If you’re interested in more green gadgets from CES, you could spend hours pouring through Google search results, but a good starting point is Inhabitat’s coverage of the show.