Green Ideas

4 sustainable strategies for green living at home

Most homeowners are in the know when it comes to eco-friendly practices. You can recycle aluminum, glass and paper goods. Turn off lights when leaving a room. Use fewer paper towels and take shorter showers.

However, as technology advances, there are even more opportunities for sustainability. Your friends at Dave Perry-Miller & Associates have a few helpful hints to share on going green.

Give your shirts the cold shoulder
Laundering clothing in cold water is equally as effective as using hot water. In fact, cold water enables you to conserve about 90 percent of the energy used for warming the water, according to the experts at Real Simple.

Taking it a step further, advances in washing machines, dryers, detergents and softeners encourage the use of cold water, so consider keeping clothes cool the next time you do laundry.

For landscaping, go native
Plants, trees, shrubs and flowers native to Texas are, by design, acclimated to the area’s temperatures and soil. By using native, drought-tolerant landscaping, homeowners conserve water and promote the home’s outdoor beauty and aesthetics.

For more information on native landscaping, including names of native trees and plants, read “Natural Beauties” from the City of Dallas.

Give up the bottle
Drinking water is a health and wellness staple. Although water varieties have become more flavorful and vitamin-infused, it still comes to you in plastic bottles.

Strive to drink filtered water from a re-usable BPA-free plastic or stainless steel bottle. Experts at House Beautiful recommend installing an under-sink water filter, which is known to remove impurities.

Electrical issues
What do you do with powerless or non-working electronics? Rather than trash them, the City of Dallas requests that you recycle these gadgets to help keep the environment clean. (You can also visit Earth911 to find recycling facilities for electronics and just about anything else.)

Dallas is one of the greenest cities in the nation. Learn more about our city’s efforts for sustainable living here. And, for a list of items you can recycle that you may not have realized, visit Green America.

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Dave Perry Miller & Associates is a premiere residential real estate firm with five locations that specialize in marketing the key areas of the Park Cities, Preston Hollow, Uptown, Lakewood, East Dallas and Kessler Park. Dave Perry-Miller & Associates is a member of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World and Luxury Portfolio International. For more information on luxury living, please contact Dave Perry Miller & Associates at 214-369-6000. Also visit daveperrymiller.com/blog for the latest news in Dallas real estate.

An easy — and beautiful — way to go green is to use native plants like this Texas sage in your landscaping.

Clinton and Charles Robertson Wikimedia Commons

An easy — and beautiful — way to go green is to use native plants like this Texas sage in your landscaping.

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greener grass in tx

Texas blossoms as No. 1 best state for gardening and homesteading

Photo by Laura Ohlman on Unsplash

Texas is an ideal place to homestead, the study found.

If social media is any indicator, homesteading has been one of the hottest trends of 2024. And Texas is leading the charge as the No. 1 best state for homesteading and gardening, according to a new report by First Saturday Lime.

Analysts at First Saturday Lime, an insect repellant company featured on Shark Tank, evaluated the "suitability for sustainable living" across all 50 states based on six factors: Climate, community interest (a.k.a online search trends), gardening resources, farmland costs, and others.

The Lone Star State led the nation with the most farms and ranches on the market and the highest total acreage for sale. As of the study's publication, there were 7,520 total properties for sale, spanning more than 2.19 million acres of land.

Texas also ranked favorably for its farmland affordability. The state came in at No. 9 nationally with its average farmland price coming out to $2,800 per acre, the report said.

For comparison, New Mexico (which ranked No. 11 overall) had the most affordable average price per acre of farmland at just $700 per acre. Massachusetts (No. 48) and Connecticut (No. 42), however, tied for the most expensive price per acre, at $14,300.

Among the three remaining categories in the study, Texas performed the worst for its "gardens on Yelp per capita" rank. The study calculated Texas has 0.30 gardening and community garden establishments on Yelp per capita, placing Texas at No. 49.

Meanwhile, Texas' historically hot weather meant it ranked No. 43 out of all 50 states in the "favorable climate" rank, and the state earned a middle-of-the-road No. 35 rank in the "search interest per capita" category.

"Homesteading and gardening are growing in popularity, but some states provide better opportunities than others," the report's author wrote. "Whether you're after fresh produce or the freedom of self-sufficiency, choosing the right state can make all the difference."

Following behind Texas to complete the top three best states for homesteading and gardening are Oregon (No. 2) and Washington (No. 3), two notoriously rainy West Coast states.

Meanwhile, three East Coast states ranked at the bottom of the list as the worst states for homesteading and gardening: Rhode Island (No. 50), New Jersey (No. 49), and Massachusetts (No. 48).

The top 10 best states for homesteading and gardening are:

No. 1 – Texas
No. 2 – Oregon
No. 3 – Washington
No. 4 – Vermont
No. 5 – Delaware
No. 6 – Arizona
No. 7 – Wyoming
No. 8 – Montana
No. 9 – Hawaii
No. 10 – Colorado

The study sourced its data from Yelp, Google Trends, and the UDSA to determine each state's ranking.

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