Over the past week I’ve been working on a tree house type of raised deck for my family.  Since my 6 year old is at a stage where she loves watching TV and playing on the computer the tree house is a way to get her out of the house to enjoy some fresh air.  You might be wondering how a tree house has anything to do with “green home improvements”?   Here are the benefits for our family so far and the tree house is not even done yet;

-No more “daddy, what’s on TV”, instead I hear “daddy can we play in the tree house”.

-No more “daddy, can I play on the computer”, instead I hear “daddy can I help you in the tree house”.

-No more “daddy, look at the the _____on the TV”, instead I hear “daddy look at the squirrels” or “daddy look at the swans”(we live on a lake).

The tree house gives our kids a reason to get out of the house and away from the TV/computer.  This saves a little electricity since we have a bunch of solar powered lights in our backyard that provide light for them to play long after dark.  The tree house provides us with a place to relax while we enjoy the fresh air with the birds, squirrels, and wildlife on our lake.

I will post some pictures once the project is completed but here are some pictures for the crowd over at Yahoo Answers.

This spring we started a vegetable garden in above ground planters for the first time.  We got the idea from a lady with a green thumb and went crazy on our green project.  Over the first few weeks it seemed like nothing wanted to grow, like a new mother, I checked my plants growth progress at least twice a day.  After the first few weeks I just grew used to the fact that I would have to water the plants and if they produced food I was just lucky.  The first signs of progress came when I noticed a couple of my tomato plants leaning over like they needed support.  To my surprise a bunch of little tomatoes caused the plants to lean over.

A quick trip to our local garden center provided the tomato plants with the ugly looking wire supports that they needed.  Now the only problem was that the supports that were 4′ tall caused my plants to look small again.  Oh well, at least they were producing food.  My 2 year old daughter now makes it a daily routine to inspect her “baby tomatoes”, she likes to show me everyone.  I can’t imagine how long this process will take once our pepper plants start to have their own little babies.

Today we moved our garden (remember everything is grown in portable containers) to the side of our home since it is getting more sun than the front of our home.  My neighbors will hopefully be pleased with the jungle missing from our front yard since they never believed me when I said that the plants were flowers.

If you are looking for a fun filled green project, it is not to late to start your own garden in a few planters.  For tips please check out the link in the first paragraph.  If you have already started a similar project, please leave a comment with a link to your website.