Brett Tryon

1 week ago | chatelaine.com | Brett Tryon

The snow has finally melted, the robins are back, and the trees are starting to bud—and your garden awaits. Maybe you want to grow your own food, or you have visions of beautiful perennials. Perhaps you want to create a thriving habitat for birds and pollinators. The spring garden is like a blank canvas—and just as intimidating. Where to start? What goes where? Not to worry—with some imagination and the right gardening essentials, you will soon turn that canvas into a work of art.

2 weeks ago | greenergood.news | Brett Tryon

Since today is May 1, this week’s edition of Good Ideas is all about the No Mow May campaign. As the name implies, No Mow May urges people to forego mowing their lawns until June, giving wildflowers a chance to bloom and support pollinators like butterflies and bees. It’s a buzzy term, but is it a good idea? Lawns do not exist in nature.

2 weeks ago | greenergood.news | Brett Tryon

I took this photo of magnolia blossoms last evening when I was walking my girls home from swimming lessons. I had brought my camera and macro lens with me, knowing we’d be out during golden hour. Now that spring is finally here, I don’t want to miss an opportunity to capture the fleeting beauty of these early blooms. Macro photography invites me to slow down and look for beauty wherever I happen to be. In some places, beauty is everywhere around you; in others, you have to search for it.

Feb 4, 2025 | chatelaine.com | Brett Tryon

Ryan and Tammy Jarymy knew for years they wanted to electrify their Calgary home. Both scuba divers, they worry about the impact of climate change on the oceans, and they wanted to shrink their carbon footprint. They had already reduced their fossil fuel consumption by driving electric vehicles, and they wanted to get their home off gas as well. Their vision was to replace their gas appliances with electric ones, disconnect from the gas line and install solar panels to generate clean electricity.

Sep 24, 2024 | chatelaine.com | Brett Tryon

Laundry piles up so fast, it seems to have a life of its own. A towel here, an outfit there, and suddenly your hampers are overflowing. A 2008 Ipsos poll found  that Canadians wash at least four loads of laundry each week. That’s 208 loads of laundry every year. And with approximately 15 million households in Canada, that’s more than 3 billion loads of laundry per year.