Have You Thought Of Growing Your Own Garden?

Organic gardening is the easiest way to lessen your environmental footprint and provide your body with nutritious food. If you are already making changes like switching to a high efficiency showerhead, then you should also consider gardening. It’s entirely possible to get all of the nutritious benefits from organic food straight from your backyard. You will be helping the soil on your property, fueling your body and lessening your grocery impact. If you are ready to save tons on your grocery bill and get healthier, then read on.

Prepare Your Soil

Healthy soil will create healthy plants. Organic fertilizers and composts will nurture the soil. A home-testing kit will give you a good idea for where to start with your soil. This will tell you what plants will thrive and what you need to add to your dirt. Everything should be prepared in the fall for the best results. When spring comes, the soil will be healthy and ready for your plants.

Start Composting

A good compost is the key to a lively organic garden. There are dozens of ways to start a compost. You will essentially collect food scraps and biodegradable materials to put into the heap. Special worms can also be added. You will incorporate saw dust and soil to help everything biodegrade. This creates a high-nutrient mix that your plants will love. Starting a compost in late summer is recommended.

Choose Your Plants

Designing your garden will take a bit of effort. You should first know your region and what plants thrive there. Your soil-test results will also help you determine what plants are best. If you purchase seeds, always buy organic and non-gmo seeds. If you buy plants, make sure they are also organic. Non-organic seeds still produce non-organic food even if you grow them organically.

Weed Regularly

Weeds grow everywhere. They are an unavoidable part of gardening. You will need to go into your garden to pull out weeds. Herbicides can kill weeds quickly, but they are also full of toxic chemicals that damage the soil, the environment and can harm your health. Weeding is great exercise and allows you to get closer to nature.

Control Insects Naturally

Pesticides are the biggest culprit of toxic chemicals in the soil and on your food. You want to avoid these at the supermarket, and avoiding them at home is highly recommended. Having a diverse garden will keep most pests away. Encouraging bats, lizards and spiders to make your garden their home is also a good way to keep the pests out. If your garden still succumbs to pestilent invaders, then you can whip up some natural sprays that will get rid of them.

Creating an organic garden is a great experience. Anyone can grow organic food to save on their grocery bill. If you are concerned about the chemicals on your produce, then now is a great time to start growing your own. Your own food always tastes better, and you will be proud of your efforts in the end.

Guest Post by Rebecca Wilcox.

Bioreplication – Mother Nature’s Way Of Helping Us Help Her

Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State University, working with Professor Carlo G. Pantano, graduate student Drew Patrick Pulsifer, and Professor Raúl José Martín-Palma of the Universidad Autónomia de Madrid, Spain, found that corneas of the blowfly was ideal for increasing power production for the next generation of solar cells. Blowflies have compound eyes that are roughly hemispherical, within each half sphere the surface is covered by macroscale hexagonal eyes with nanoscale features that allows the flies a 270° field of view. Mimicking this would allow solar cells to collect vast amounts of sunlight from a lot of different angles. This amounts to an extremely larger area and maximized efficiency while occupying the same footprint as a flat surfaced solar cell. (more…)

The stylings of Jack Johnson who is a singer and songwriter. He is not one
of the musicians who wreck hotel rooms, smash their guitar to smithereens,
or the normal shenanigans. He is just the opposite. He is setting an example
of using a completely carbon neutral platform for his tours or commonly known
as “going green”.

He refuses to tour in the winter as that is when the best waves hit his native
Hawaii islands. He is a low keyed individual of the likes of Paul Simon. (more…)