This recipe can help mange and other parasitic problems in dogs’ skins.

A very effective lemon-garlic rinse can be made up. Chop up around 30 to 40 cloves of garlic (skin and all) and place into a large pot with 6 or more lemon skins and one whole lemon, chopped. Fill pot with about four litres of water and bring to the boil, simmer just until peel is mushy. Remove from heat, cover and allow to cool. Apply cooled solution liberally to all affected areas and leave to dry. Use daily for up to ten days.

Source: Green Pet

Although line drying your clothes can save as much as 10% off your energy bill, this is not always easy to do (see laundrylist.org if you never knew that in some places line drying is prohibited…). The next best thing you can do if you can’t line dry is to cut down on the amount of time needed to dry the clothes. This is where these dryer balls come in. They reduce drying times by about 20% and soften the clothes at the same time. This means further savings and less chemicals. (Bean Sprout (the person who also did the eco-balls test) took them for a test drive here.)

Mum blogger Bean Sprouts reports that so far in her testing washing with plain water is doing equally as well as washing with laundry balls or washing powder. I personally have no problem with loads to which I have not added anything either but then again I don’t do this regularly enough. Washing with plain water sure is cheaper then any other alternative. Bean Sprout is continuing her experimenting and should have the results soon.

Found via Treehugger

Eco-balls are an environmentally friendly alternative to using washing powder in your washing machine. They produce ionized oxygen that activates the water molecules naturally and allows them to penetrate the clothing fibres and lift dirt. They have many benefits.

1) There are no harsh chemicals which is good in a number of ways. Obviously less chemicals going down the drain is always a good thing.

2) The other benefit is that people with sensitive skin and chemical sensetivities will not have a problem with these.

3) You can skip the rinse cycle of your wash which means water and power savings as well as prolonging the life of your machine from less use and less washing powder build up.

4) You can reuse the waste water on your garden.

The initial cost is high but these balls are supposed to last for hundreds of washes which means they work out to be very low cost per wash.