Sustainable But really !

For the last year Ive become increasingly cross with hearing the word sustainable used in ways that really dont make sense. So after a little bit of thought, and the knowledge that its New Years Day and Im always promising myself Ill blog more here, I thought Id write a bit about what I think sustainable really means.

And maybe I need to explain what leads me to live what I hope is a fairly sustainable life and why.

In 1976, in the middle of that dreadful summer of drought, my mother said to me

"Youll be alive when the oil runs out".

I was 6. I didnt know what that meant but I knew I needed to find out, and so find out I did.

And in my mind that meant, at that age, no cars, no electricity and the need to find alternatives. I remember talking about solar power and wind and water being things that could be used to create power. And I remember thinking that resources were precious, whatever they were, and realising at that early age that Earth wasnt a finite resource if we carried on the way we were.

And then the 1980s happened. The world forgot about the problems and consumerism hit. Thát hard, cold consumerism which seemed so exciting but in actual fact set us on a completely ridiculous road.

Anyway, enough of me. Except to say that all of the above has led me to lead a life where Ive constantly had that tiny phrase in the back of my head, in every thing Ive ever done.

"Youll be alive when the oil runs out".

So what is sustainable?

And actually what is sustainability?

Are they the same?

For me they have to be. A sustainable life is one where you consider your every action, your every purchase. 

Food that travels half way around the world so we can have strawberries at Christmas.

Food distribution systems that mean food grown in the south of the UK, often travels to the Midlands or further, and back, before it lands in stores.

50% of fresh foods ending up in the bin before they even hit the shops.

Cheap clothing being made in sweat shops so we can have more.

Cotton being the crop that worldwide uses the most chemicals than any other.

Continual use of chemicals that have an adverse effect on our pollinators because the companies that make them claim theyre safe.

Monoculture.

Soil degradation

I could go on. 

The point is that none of these things are sustainable. And yet we carry on and ignore the issues. Its just the way it is.

Or is it? Is there another way? 

Well of course there is. And it doesnt have to be about becoming a yoghurt weaver!! 

Its about personal responsibilty and not being afraid to speak up for whats fair and right. Its about having a set of ethics and sticking to them, even when people think youre a bit odd.

But mainly its about having respect not just for the human species but for all the species on the earth and for the earth itself. Its about seeing worth in both people and things and being prepared to pay for that worth. Its about seeing things through, and not just seeing things as a project that probably wont last, but about making sure everything we do has legacy and makes a change. And, and heres the one most people squirm at, its about making sure we all are paid our worth in whatever we do, and not being afraid to state our worth.

And there I will stop.

Happy New Year to you all. And remember, together we can all make a change.

 

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How to Choose Plants for Container Gardening

Though you can grow any type of plant in containers (provided you have given the proper growing condition), it is always a good idea to start with the container friendly varieties. While choosing transplants ask for those which are container friendly. If you are growing from seeds; look out for words like bush type, dwarf, container friendly etc. In the seed packet.

Before choosing any plant you need to consider the placements of those containers. If you have planned it for indoor gardening then not all plants would be ideal. Here is a list of top indoor gardening plants which you might wanna try. Whereas if you are putting those in a place where they will receive ample sunlight the range is much broader. Here are some of the options which generally goes pretty well with the containers:

Growing vegetables is probably the most popular form of container gardening. It gives you fruits and veggies at your convenience. Veggies such as Tomato, Okra, Spinach or Onion can grow really well.

Herbs is a very good choice for planting in containers. They are good aesthetically and also easy to grow and can be a great substitute for vegetables. You can definitely try your hands on Oregano, Thyme, Cilantro etc.

The next choice can be Perennials. There are many reason to grow perennials in the first place. They can be like herbs or fruit bearing or can be just simply woody.

Last but not the least you can try your hands on bulbs and rhizomes like ginger.

Type of containers:
Depending upon your plants variety you need to choose the containers accordingly. For instance plants which are perennials or shrubs or some big plants like tomatoes you need to choose larger pots. There are various types of pots available in the market. A rule of thumb is that the container should not be less than 12 inch depth and 8 inch wide. Sometimes you have to switch to larger pots.

Make sure the containers have drainage hole at the bottom.

Potting mix:
You can buy them from any nursery store nearby or you can make your own. Here is a list of different growth media which you can try. It is always beneficial to add compost with the potting mix.

Type of compost: 
You can choose to prepare it by yourself or you can also opt for the commercial one. Once you have decided on the type one option is to mix a good amount of it with the soil mix at the time of planting or you can also plan to fertilize it once it starts growing rapidly.

Taking care of your plants:

you need to add slow-release fertilizer from time to time depending on the the type of plant you have planted. Fruit bearing plants require a lot more nutrients and water than the rest of the plants. So take that into consideration.

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Top Five Companion Plants For Tomatoes

Here in this article we will give you some of the best choices for companion plants of tomatoes. As a companion plant they provide one or more than one of the benefits to the tomato plants like:

1.    Reduce pests
2.    Improve health and flavor
3.    Reduce diseases
4.    Help in pollination

We have discussed about the basic of companion planting in our earlier article. So if you have missed that by any chance you can find it by clicking here. There are so many plants which can act as a companion to the tomato plants but here in this article we have chosen our top five.

Marigold:

These brightly colored flowered plants are known to everybody for their pungent smell. And surely you can use them to deter pests. It is a best controller for the nematodes (More on nematodes in this article).
They produce a substance called alpha-terthienyl

which reduces the root knot nematodes in the soil. The best way to do it is to first grow the plant and at the end of the season chop and till them into the soil. Apart from nematodes, slugs, worms and other garden pests can be reduced by planting Marigold plants along with
Tomatoes.

Spinach/Lettuce:
Planting Basil, Spinach or Lettuce along with tomatoes can greatly increase the taste of tomatoes. You can also save a lot of space by planting them in union. It increases the rate of pollination for both the plants. As a “cherry on the top of the cake”, it also saves your tomato plants from whiteflies, mosquitoes, aphids etc. Being larger in size tomato plants also provide shades for these leafy vegetables.

Carrots:
As they say: “Carrots love Tomatoes”. Carrots share the space well with tomatoes. The roots of the carrot break up the soil very well. So if you have planted it along with tomatoes, the tomato plant can take nutrients, water etc very easily. It is also helpful in harvesting. Plant the carrots when the tomatoes are very tiny and they will be ready to be harvested by the time tomato plants require more space to proliferate.

Onions/Garlic:
Onions and garlic are natural deterrent of pests. This is due to their pungent odor. Planting them along with tomatoes will definitely reduce your pest management cost. They are a good option if your tomatoes are infested with spider mites. Planting garlic cloves around tomato plants is like providing a natural insecticide to the plant. 

Borage:
Borage protects tomatoes from the hornworms. Growing borage along with tomatoes can help deterring the worms and keep your tomatoes healthy. Borage also has a fresh flavor to it so you can use the smaller leaves to salads or refreshing drinks. Besides tomatoes you can also use borage as a companion plant with Cabbage to deter cabbage worms.

For more ideas about companion plants of tomatoes see the video below.


We hope you have liked the article. We look forward to your comments regarding the article. Also feel free to share this along with your friends:

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Shoutyhalfhour

This blog post has been a long time coming but after I posted My Twitter Experience and was accused of being a troll by several people on Twitter, I thought now might be a good time to write it.
The whole thing began several years ago when I was sitting watching Gardeners World one Friday evening and getting exasperated at something and my dear husband posted to Twitter that it seemed #shoutyhalfhour was here again and it stuck. So before I go into the whys and wherefores I need to point a few things out!!
Firstly it is not a personal assault on the presenter. I do find Monty Don a tad patronising on the programme but he is only following a script and although it surprises me sometimes when things are shown that are so definitely wrong and I wonder why he hasnt picked up on it, he is a man doing a job.  Both his writing and his gardening programmes other than Gardeners World are fantastic as is the series on BBC Radio 4 that he is presenting at the moment.
Secondly much of the shouting is light hearted and positive. We all love to see Nigel and beautiful gardens such as Esther Rantzens which was shown on Friday evening. We all love to ooh and arr over the plants and really enjoy seeing what other gardeners and nurserymen are growing and producing.
However and here is the crux of #shoutyhalfhour, Gardeners World ought to be just that. A beautifully crafted programme which offers inspiration, tips, help and aspiration to gardeners young and old, ancient and modern, and whatever their skill base, and sadly this is rarely, if ever, achieved. Seeds are sown and rarely do we see them potted on or palnted out. Cuttings are taken but we never see the result, whether good or bad, and all of us that have ever worked in a nursery know that sometimes cuttings dont take and seeds dont germinate but that is never mentioned either. Every year we see a presenter planting seed potatoes and sweet peas and hear tales of blight and the horrors of not scarifying our lawns, but rarely do we see anything new, cutting edge or exciting. New plants and seeds come to the market every year so why not bring them to the fore?
Equally in the UK  we have a tradition of small nurseries, all of whom work really hard to produce beautiful plants, some of which would often be lost if it wasnt for a handful of people keeping them going. We have amazing bulb growers and companies working really hard to produce us blight resistant potatoes, and we never hear of these people. Occasionally a National Collection is shown, like the amazing Asters a few weeks ago, but there are a miriad of National Collections out there that could be shown and rarely are. Its been proven that a mention of a plant on Gardeners World means that on Saturday morning the garden centres are stripped bare of them, so why not look at what can be done for the British growers out there and support them?
Equally, and here is my personnal bug bear, make sure that the information given is correct and relevant. If you are showing how to take a hardwood rose cutting, make sure thats what it is. If you are discussing the Chelsea Chop, go into it properly and talk about the whole process or it makes no sense and it will go wrong. If you are showing how to put Dahlias to sleep over the winter, tell the viewer that youre doing it early for the sake of programming and that really its not necessary until after the first frosts have blackened the stems, or at all if you live in some areas. It is this sort of mis information that means people dont succeed and then feel that they cant do it or become too scared to even try. Sadly many are so far removed from the earth that they truly are fearful and so turn to Gardeners World for good, horticultural advice which often it just is not.
Gardening today is a whole mishmash of things. Often people have no gardens and become involved in community projects which are rarely, if ever, included. Our children ought to be inspired to garden too and yet I have yet to see a piece on gardening with children, although there are many great practitioners out there who do so and I can tell you, as one of them, that kids love to garden and are naturals as they dont worry it might not work. There are also some amazing gardeners up and down the country, many of whom open their gardens for the National Gardens Scheme, and many who dont, whose gardens would be an amazing inspiration to the viewer. There are awe inspiring allotments, school gardens, urban roadside projects, amenity landscapes and gardens, heritage landscapes, historic gardens, garden conservation projects, and many more, that are never mentioned and yet would inspire and offer not just help to folk who already garden, but to those who are also looking for ways to be able to garden.
As some of you are aware, The BBC are aware of some of these issues through viewers forums and I attended a meeting a few weeks ago where I was able to pass over 300 plus tweets I received from people saying what they thought was needed and they seemed to listen. Gardeners World is an institution to me and where I was inspired and excited by gardening from a very young age.. It horrifies me that there might be a generation who grow up without that and miss out on the wonders of working with the earth and learning all that there is to be learnt from the experience of gardening. Gardeners World is the only mainstream gardening programme that is available to us, although I have to say I have watched Beechgrove Garden this year and think a lot could be learnt from that, so it needs to be seen to be the best. We British are known as a nation of gardeners, so the presenter needs to be the Head Gardener for the nation as well as the patch being gardened on the show, so I beseech the BBC to up their game and improve the programme so that it becomes grea, aspirational TV.
And please never let any of us have to endure 6 minutes of how to jet wash a path ever again!!

Beautiful meadow planting this summer on a Bristol housing estate.

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Pruning Tomato plants How to prune tomato plants for maximum yield

Pruning tomato plants is one of the most important decisions you need to make if you want to grow tomatoes. And in this article we will give you an idea about pruning. If you are new to tomato gardening I suggest you read our earlier articles on tomato growing before reading further.

You can find the earlier article here.

Read Basic Tomato Growing Tips 

Now lets start with the basics. Pruning tomatoes can be a very simple process. Sometimes the process is also called "trimming tomato plants". You just need to find the suckers and snap them off with your two fingers (thumb and index finger).

Tomato suckers are easy to find. They grow in between the main stem and the branches. Though we call these “SUCKERS”, these are actually the branches of the plant in initial stage. If you leave them to grow they will soon become fully grown branches and grow fruits on them.

So you might be thinking if those are the branches and also give fruit why are we talking about removing them? The fact is the branches of the plant though will grow fruits; the number is far less compared to the main stem and main branches. Most of the energy which the suckers or these branches receive will go into making foliage and more branches. It will ultimately make the plant outgrow its space in the garden.

Why you should think about Pruning tomato plants :

The pruning is done so that the plant directs its energy towards producing larger fruit than to develop foliage. Though the foliage will also develop fruit also, but the overall size of the fruit through out the plant will be much smaller. Lesser foliage also reduces the pest problem and is easier to take care.

Pruning also helps the plant in receiving much more sunlight and better air circulation though out their body. Better sunlight and airflow also means more energy and lesser diseases for the plant.

Having said that, Though tomato pruning is an essential step in tomato plants care, it is not compulsory that you need to prune each tomato plant. Let us understand why:

There are basically two types of tomato plants: Determinate type and Indeterminate type. The first type will grow to a certain height and produce fruit at one go. So in that case if you remove the suckers, the fruit bearing capacity of the plant is greatly reduced. As it will not grow vertically the total fruit yield will be pretty low. In case your plant is of indeterminate type, pruning will actually help increasing the fruit quality. It will also help the plant not to get out of control and the supporting nets will be able to hold the plant.

It is best to pluck the suckers when they are very young. The younger they are, easier it is to prune. In case they got a little thicker and it becomes harder to prune with the fingers, you can use a sharp knife to cut them off. Sometimes the suckers grow so thick that it can be detrimental for the plant to remove those; in this condition it is wise to leave them as it is.

Please bear in mind that pruning tomato plants is NOT absolutely necessary. You can definitely choose not to prune and still enjoy an acceptable amount of yield. Pruning is a method of enhancing the production, resulting bigger and tastier tomatoes. it also increases the number of fruits.

What do you think about the article? Share it with your friends using the following sharing tools: 

Read more about tomatoes: 
Tomato Growing Tips
Top 8 pests of Tomatoes
Simple steps to save tomato seeds

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The Innocence of Childhood

The last few days have been a roller coaster of emotions, despair leading to optimism and back again, sometimes in the blink of an eye.

And then I heard a story. And a true one at that. A story that made me smile and made me cry all at the same time. Perhaps a story of naivety, of immature innocence but still one that warmed the cockles.

Many of you will be aware of Skipchen, and many of you will have seen Sam or one of his colleagues talking passionately about their Pay As You Like restaurants that are popping up UK wide, feeding people with food that would otherwise have gone to landfill, and asking people to pay what theyd like, or what they can, for the food. Any way, Sam spoke at an event I was at last night and heres the story he shared........

Bristol has a reasonably affluent area called Henleaze, which has the citys only full sized Waitrose, who regularly throw food into skips that go to landfill. There had obviously been some conversation around food waste at school, and Skipchen had obviously been discussed. So 25 children, as only children could do, wrote to the manager of Waitrose and asked him to give his food that normally went into the skip, to Skipchen.

And he agreed!!!

Theres a lesson to be learnt here. If a child says to you, but that doesnt make sense, listen to them. Ask them why. Enter into a meaningful discussion with them without using any adult rhetoric or economic figures. Just listen. 

Food that goes into skips to go to landfill?

Beans being brought from desert areas in Africa? 

Cutting down trees on our most fertile soil?

I could go on but you get my point. 

And well done Sam and the Skipchen crew. Youre awesome. As are all the other organisations out there putting food into mouths rather than bins and shouting about food waste and the horrors of it.

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Mulch A Basic Idea for The Beginners

In my past blogs I kept mentioning about Mulches. I know many of the gardeners are  totally aware of this term, but I can feel the confusion a beginner will face while others keep mentioning about mulching. So I have decided to demystify the whole term and make the word much more easy to understand and most importantly easy to apply.

Technically mulch refers to a layer of organic or inorganic material which is applied to the surface of any soil. The word mulch is very catchy and we can see a variety of things like straw, grass crippling, leaves are being used. Sometimes recycled rubbers or plastic sheets are also been used as mulch. Though there are variety of materials used in mulching the basic purpose more or less remains the same. 

1. Applying mulch can help the soil to retain its moisture. This are particularly helpful in dry climate like a summer season.
2. A considerable amount of mulch make a thick layer on the soil and make the air almost impossible to reach the soil layer. This principle is used in controlling weeds. Weeds die with the lack of oxygen.
3. In case you are using organic matters for mulching this in later stages decomposes and mixes with the soil thus helps in increasing the nutrient content of the soil. If applied properly it can increase the soil productivity many folds.
4. It also keeps the soil temperature fixed and not fluctuate according to the climate temperature. Thus leaving lesser stress on the plant to adopt to the outer climate.

There are two ways you can apply mulch. You can add the mulch directly to the soil or you can apply mulch around the existing plant. As per the content mulch can be of two types: Organic Mulch and Inorganic Mulch.

Organic Mulch:

When you use material such as leaves, straw, grass crippling, wood chips etc the mulch is called organic mulch. The best part of using organic mulch is that it decomposes slowly and release nutrient into the soil. It encourages earthworm activities and keep the weed seeds from germinating. Just remember two basic formula. Lay down the mulch where there are weeds already. And secondly make sure the layer is thick enough to prevent new weeds from coming up. A general recommendation is to apply a layer of 4-6 inches of mulch in the most weeded areas and 2-3 inches in case the area is shady and not much of weed is present. One word of caution is that organic mulch is generally acidic in nature. So add little bit of lime with the mulch to neutralize its acidic impact, in case the plant is more comfortable in neutral of slightly alkaline soil.

Inorganic Mulch:

Inorganic mulching product can include plastic sheets, rubber chips etc. I personally do not recommend any inorganic substance to use in mulch due to its negative impact on the environment. But in some cases you can use it if you are not that much comfortable using organic mulches. Applying a plastic sheet as a mulch can prevent the water for entering to soil from outside also. So in case you are having drip watering system which is embedded before applying the plastic sheets it can be used.

The best way to use the mulch is to keep the base of the plant mulch-free. It will help the plant to breath freely. If you are using cedar chips and other aesthetically superior products just stay away from coloring. Normal colors contains chemicals which can dampen the whole purpose of doing organic gardening.

Just keep one thing in mind whatever is your material and whatever is your reason, try to apply mulch. It is easy and it will make your garden look very beautiful and professional.

Did you liked the article. Please feel free to share with your fellow gardeners.

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Some Love for our Botanic Gardens

Botanic gardens, be they large or small, pull me towards them like a bee is drawn to nectar. These, often ancient, gardens with their collections of often rare, and always magical plants speak volumes not just about the British love of plants and gardens but also about the history of plants in the UK, the way they were collected and eventually planted out. Many a collector sent their finds back to Kew, or another of our world renowned botanic gardens, and those gardens would sow the seeds, nurture the plants and then offer out the propagation of these plants to nurserymen. The plants we take forgranted as being the backbone of our gardens began their life in the country being looked after by these incredible places.
Bristol has a wonderful botanic garden, that today sits just north of the Downs in the garden of one of the University of Bristols Halls of Residence. It has moved here quite recently from another site and it is proof of the brilliance of the team who work there, both paid and voluntarily, that it looks as though it has been there forever. The garden has 4 core collections, Evolution, Mediterranean, Local Flora and Rare Natives and Useful Plants and these can be seen used over a selection of gardens that include a herb garden, a Chinese Medicine Garden, beautiful herbaceous borders that are set out to show which plants are pollinated by which insects, or indeed small mammals in some cases, as well as sections based on the evolutionary collection and the collection of plants native to Bristol and its surrounding area.
It also has amazing glass houses with a National Collection of Lotus, which are beyond beautiful and offer an ethereal beauty to a glasshouse that also house the Victoria Amazonica waterlily and a huge collection of Nepenthes.
But, like every botanic garden in the UK and probably worldwide, it is being squeezed by budget cuts and constantly is having to fight to survive. Its well documented that Kews budget is always under threat but so are the budgets of the majority of these gardens, as few universities actually use them as a resource hence their constant fight for survivial.
So what can you do to help? Well make sure you know where your local botanic garden is and use it!! So many people I speak to about the Bristol Botanic Garden are completely unaware of its existence and I imagine the same is the case for many. Visit, become a member or a friend, go to their events or even volunteer to help in the garden or in some other way. An hour helping them once a week with marketing or admin releases someone else to raise precious funds or other do other vital roles that are less easy to find volunteers to cover.
Here are a few photos of Bristol Botanic Garden that I took at their recent Bee and Pollinators Festival.

 The Amazon waterlilies with the Lotus plants growing above them are quite beautiful in the tropical glasshouse.

 Always good to see a bee buzzing around at a Bee and Pollinator festival!!

 This is a custard apple and it was growing in the Native American Food Garden on which there will be a full post soon.

The wonderful bird of Paradise plants, which in their native countries are pollinated by sunbirds.

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Disaster System switched OFF for 7 hours!

On Sunday, my parents came over to stay... My mom, as usual, goes around the house looking for something to clean, arrange, or replace... Monday night, she noticed a power socket switched to ON in the living room... Without caring where the inserted plugs lead to, she flipped the switch...! :facepalm:

6am in the morning, after 7 hours have passed, I went outside to check my system and realized that it was silent... The pump wasnt pumping water!

25 to 30 guppies died that day... The tilapias were fine as they were saved by the aerators backup power but the water had a slight rotting odor probably due to accumulated ammonia...

Floating guppy carcasses sucked by the drainage pipe...

 The thick layer of gunk collected at the bottom of the guppy tank may have also contributed to their death as it contains loads of greedy bacteria competing against them for the remaining precious oxygen...

Some gunk netted out...

As for the plants, strong winds have been the main problem this few days... After being knocked over by the wind repeatedly, all my okras had given up and none could stand upright properly now... I got to think of a solution fast...

Monstrous Kang Kong...

 Thanks for reading... :-D

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Building a Muffler for a Drain Pipe

This system is in my friends bedroom, and he asked me to make the drain quieter.  Heres what I did, and it worked really well.  After building this muffler, you cant even tell when the water is draining unless youre watching the water level in the fish tank.

This was the sketch of my idea.  The drain pipe would point down into the fish tank, but would not be submerged in the water.  A larger diameter pipe would sit around the drain pipe, with the bottom end submerged.  The larger pipe would be held onto the drain pipe with a wooden dowel through both pipes.  The larger pipe will muffle the sound of the splashing water.  To reduce the noise further, you could plug the top of the larger diameter pipe with cloth, foam, saran wrap, etc.

 I ended up using saran wrap, and the larger diameter pvc pipe wanted to float, so it started leaning to the side.  This may help the muffler, because the water runs down the side of the pvc pipe rather than splashing into the tank.  Im planning on replacing the saran wrap with something better looking, but I want to test some options.

Our tilapia Zeus seems to miss the splashing water, though.  He used to like being splashed with the draining water.  Oh well, it needed to be quieter.

And the garden is looking good.  The growth has been slow, because the water was pretty dirty.  I did a partial water change, and cleaned the filter and plumbing.  I hope that helps the plants a bit.  After the water change, the nitrates are still high, and the pH is about 7.5.  I added a little pH down to get the pH closer to 6.8.

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HAPPY EASTER

HAPPY EASTER

May your Easter be blessed with health, longevity, love and a lot of happiness!

CCRES Team

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New Tank for the Guppies!

The old circular guppy tank is actually a plastic kitchen basin/tub that had been under the sun for about 4 years now. Its upper surface is turning to powder and should be very fragile by now. What Im worried about is the amount of plastic chemicals that had been leaching into the system for all these years. In fact, there is a strong plastic smell when I sniff the basins rim.

Plastic surface turning into powder... The effects of 4 years of sun damage...

White patches are 4 year old stains from adhesive paper tape... Those lighter colored scratch marks are my attempts at removing the tape... Scratching the surface releases a lot of dust particles and smell...

And so, I decided to get them a new tank today. Its smaller than the growbed but much bigger than the previous circular tank. After adding the new tank to the system, I realized that quite a significant amount of water was drawn up to the new tank lowering the water depth in the tilapia tank. I worry that the shallower water will now cause the water to heat up quicker during noon. And so I proceeded to add 3 more pails (39 litres) of water salted to 3ppt into the system.

This photo was taken at 8:15 pm. It was already pretty dark during that time, but the cameras flash made it seems like it was taken during noon.

Just to be safe, I will conduct further water changes in the future to remove any more lingering chemicals in the systems water. I wont be consuming any vegetables (the mint, pegaga, and kangkong) that was planted or will be planted before completing the future water change in case they had absorbed some chemicals in them. I wont be culling my guppies and pleco as I wont be eating them, but they might continue pooping out plastic tainted poo for some time which may go in to my plants or find a way into tilapia blood stream. I will ignore those minute traces of plastic chemicals and only seek to minimize instead of a total removal. Im sure I should be worrying more about other pollutants such as vehicle exhaust and cigarette smoke than plastic chemicals leaching in to water.

Thanks for reading...

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Landscaping for Beginners

Landscaping and Gardening fit one another like hand in gloves. If you are a gardener, you will enjoy the the process of landscaping. Believe it or not we are one way or the other doing our own landscaping in our backyards. To make it look much more like a professional we just need to follow some simple steps. I hope this article will give you enough motivation to start of your own landscaping project.

For a landscaping project planning is the key. You need to plan in advance. Consider your needs and customize accordingly. Beauty and functionality are generally the main reason people do landscaping. Do you want to grow vegetables or will it be a strictly flowery thing? Make a rough sketch of the things you have planned, like how you want the space to be utilized.

First select the area which you want to use for landscaping. Plan your lawn, Fence, Vegetable growing area in advance. Now the next thing you want to do is weeding. You can use various techniques of weeding which we have discussed earlier.

Next, separate the different areas and mark the edges. Though it may sound cumbersome it is also the step when you can use your creativity and can make different patterns.

After weeding is done your area is ready for planting. Which type of plants should you choose? Well, It is always better to start with perennials. It will be much of a permanent design with little bit of tuning from time to time. A list of perennials will help you decide the plants. Generally plants like shrubs do well in landscaping. Wild flowers can be a great inclusion to your landscaping project. They are colourful, vibrant and also inexpensive.

To avoid getting monotonous add a few seasonal plants that will add different flavour in different season and also keep you interested in the process. If you are adding annuals to your design, remember the seasonality before choosing the plants.

Study sun and wind pattern in your area. It is critical for your success. Most of the plants you planned might require more than six hours of direct sunlight (Know more about impact of sunlight in gardening in this article) so plan accordingly. Also not every plant is self supportive you might need to provide support in the form of cage or sticks.

Start small. Landscaping is a continuous process you can keep adding your ideas and see how it goes. Dont plant too tightly. At first it might look lush and green but as the time goes on some of plant will grow faster and will look clumsy.

It is not only about growing grass or trees add some creativity by adding extra elements such as wooden or metal structures that suits with the surroundings. It is all about creating your unique signature. You can always take advice from professionals in case things go little out of hand.


If you really want to get serious about landscaping I will recommend you get Helen Whitfields Ideas 4 Landscaping. It is one of the best resources for landscaping ideas available over the internet.

Do you have any suggestion? Please feel free to share with us.

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Nutrient data for Spirulina

CCRES Spirulina, raw

Nutrient	Unit	Value per 100.0g
Proximates
Water	g	90.67
Energy	kcal	26
Protein	g	5.92
Total lipid (fat)	g	0.39
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	2.42
Fiber, total dietary	g	0.4
Sugars, total	g	0.30
Minerals
Calcium, Ca	mg	12
Iron, Fe	mg	2.79
Magnesium, Mg	mg	19
Phosphorus, P	mg	11
Potassium, K	mg	127
Sodium, Na	mg	98
Zinc, Zn	mg	0.20
Vitamins
Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid	mg	0.9
Thiamin	mg	0.222
Riboflavin	mg	0.342
Niacin	mg	1.196
Vitamin B-6	mg	0.034
Folate, DFE	µg	9
Vitamin B-12	µg	0.00
Vitamin A, RAE	µg	3
Vitamin A, IU	IU	56
Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)	mg	0.49
Vitamin D (D2 + D3)	µg	0.0
Vitamin D	IU	0
Vitamin K (phylloquinone)	µg	2.5
Lipids
Fatty acids, total saturated	g	0.135
Fatty acids, total monounsaturated	g	0.034
Fatty acids, total polyunsaturated	g	0.106

CCRES Spirulina, dried

Nutrient	Unit	Value per 100.0g	cup 112g	tablespoon 7g
Proximates
Water	g	4.68	5.24	0.33
Energy	kcal	290	325	20
Protein	g	57.47	64.37	4.02
Total lipid (fat)	g	7.72	8.65	0.54
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	23.90	26.77	1.67
Fiber, total dietary	g	3.6	4.0	0.3
Sugars, total	g	3.10	3.47	0.22
Minerals
Calcium, Ca	mg	120	134	8
Iron, Fe	mg	28.50	31.92	2.00
Magnesium, Mg	mg	195	218	14
Phosphorus, P	mg	118	132	8
Potassium, K	mg	1363	1527	95
Sodium, Na	mg	1048	1174	73
Zinc, Zn	mg	2.00	2.24	0.14
Vitamins
Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid	mg	10.1	11.3	0.7
Thiamin	mg	2.380	2.666	0.167
Riboflavin	mg	3.670	4.110	0.257
Niacin	mg	12.820	14.358	0.897
Vitamin B-6	mg	0.364	0.408	0.025
Folate, DFE	µg	94	105	7
Vitamin B-12	µg	0.00	0.00	0.00
Vitamin A, RAE	µg	29	32	2
Vitamin A, IU	IU	570	638	40
Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)	mg	5.00	5.60	0.35
Vitamin D (D2 + D3)	µg	0.0	0.0	0.0
Vitamin D	IU	0	0	0
Vitamin K (phylloquinone)	µg	25.5	28.6	1.8
Lipids
Fatty acids, total saturated	g	2.650	2.968	0.186
Fatty acids, total monounsaturated	g	0.675	0.756	0.047
Fatty acids, total polyunsaturated	g	2.080	2.330	0.146
Cholesterol	mg	0	0	0

CCRES special thanks to US National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference

CCRES ALGAE PROJECT
part of
Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES)

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