Looking to live a more sustainable life for yourself, your family and the world? It's everyone’s responsibility to take care of the environment to make this planet a wonderful place to live. You don’t need to spend more money to go green but simple changes in your daily lifestyle are all that is required to reduce your carbon footprint on the earth. Here are some simple changes you and your family can use to help make a difference.

QUICK TIPS ON HOW YOU CAN MAKE AN IMPACT

• Grow something! Plants produce oxygen and help clean the air in your home.
• Bring reusable shopping bags when picking up groceries and keep a few in your car for last-minute shopping trips.
• Start a compost bin for kitchen and garden waste to reduce the amount of trash produced.
• Install programmable thermostats to help cut down on energy usage in your home.
• Borrow things you will only use once or twice instead of buying.
• Avoid bottled water, over 35 billion plastic water bottles are used each year.
• Go digital. Only print what you need and recycle what you do use when finished.
• Hold the straw when your order a beverage or carry a reusable one with you.
• Change up your light bulbs to more efficient LED bulbs that use less energy.

Climate change is a global issue that affects everyone and everything on the planet and it is only TOGETHER that we can enact the change needed. Over the last few years, the butterfly population has been on a steady decline due to shifts in climate, deforestation and the growth of herbicide-based agriculture. Butterflies are important pollinators. Approximately one-third of all plants need pollination to grow fruit, and bees and butterflies are major pollinators. Flower nectar is the food for adult butterflies and by flying from flower to flower sipping nectar, pollination occurs. Tepperman’s has created a pollinator garden at the London location and 2021 will be the first season of butterfly-friendly blooms.

With planting season just around the corner why not add some butterfly-friendly plants to your garden.

What you need for a butterfly-friendly garden:

• Full sun for about six hours a day
• Shelter from wind and traffic
• A few large rocks that provide warm places for basking in the sun
• A drinking spot of wet sand or soil
• Nectar-rich flowers for all-season flowering
• A pesticide-free yard

Butterfly Friendly Plants

So break out those gardening gloves and help create a new stop-off point for the pollination squad in your backyard!