While most of us today are aware of the dangers of pesticides and artificial fertilizers, another problem with fruits and vegetables from the supermarket is that they probably only contain a fraction of the nutrients that they should and don’t taste like my home-grown veggies. Why is this happening?

Modern commercial agriculture is often more concerned with how well a vegetable can stand up to mechanical harvesting, or whether it will be able to resist herbicides than with how many vitamins and minerals it contains. If you are concerned not only about chemical residues, but also about getting the best nutrition possible for your family, the answer is to grow your own.

Size Doesn’t Always Matter

It is not necessary to have a huge garden or dozens of acres to grow a garden, even a small plot can provide a surprisingly large amount of tasty, fresh produce. Growing your garden organically means that you will be using nothing artificial or harmful – everything that goes on your garden soil or the plants in it will be completely natural and organic.

As someone who has grown organically for years, I can tell you that it is not hard to get away from chemicals and still get in a good harvest. Not only that, but you will not have to worry about bacterial contamination on vegetables that will be eaten raw, like lettuce. I was also astounded, after years of supermarket foods, to find out how delicious fresh organic vegetables actually are!

We Love Our Compost Bin

One of the first things most organic gardeners learn about is composting. Composting is a way to turn kitchen scraps such as parings from fruits and vegetables, tea bags, and eggshells into a nutrient rich addition for the soil. The most efficient way to produce compost is by using a compost bin.

These bins usually add a bacterial starter to get the process of breaking down the vegetative matter started. The leaves that clutter up our gardens in the autumn also can be tossed into the compost bin. Compost will not only add nutrients to the soil, it also prevents the soil from becoming compacted, making it easier for plant roots to grow.

Raised Bed Gardens

A very good space saving way to garden is to use intensive gardening. This calls for the use of raised beds which warm the soil up faster in spring, and this helps to extend your growing season.

When using intensive gardening, it is possible to control the quality of your soil more effectively than with a regular garden bed.

After making the framework, you will need to fill it in with soil. This is your chance to add manure, compost, and wood ashes to your basic soil to provide your plants with the best growing medium possible. Because the soil will be so rich, this method allows you to pack the plants in more closely, and also to grow plants on trellises above the main crop.

Pests can be a problem in any garden, but will not usually have a serious impact on your harvest. However, we have found that slugs can do an immense amount of damage – they can eat seedlings to the ground and can cause quite a loss.

There are organic solutions, that we have used, that do control slugs and other pest insects, while leaving the beneficial insects alone. Diatomaceous earth is truly the gardener’s best friend. This is made up of the skeletons of fossil diatoms and is very effective at getting rid of not only slugs, but flea beetles, potato bugs, and cabbage moth caterpillars. It is totally safe for humans and pets.

Another good product is one that relies on iron to disrupt the slug’s metabolism, and we have used this, too. Beneficial insects such as ladybugs, praying mantis, and lacewings also do a very good job at keeping your food plants safe.

Row covers are another way to keep pests off your vegetables, as well as being an excellent way to garden when early or late frosts can be a problem.

When deciding what to plant in your garden, stay with vegetables that your family enjoys most. It is also possible to get a head start on the planting season by starting some seeds indoors. Almost every vegetable that you will want to grow can be started inside. Tomatoes and eggplants, of course, will need the extra time, but we have found that summer and winter squash, lettuce, and even corn will be happy to start life in a peat pot. Not only will the strong seedlings be better able to resist pests and diseases, you will also be able to enjoy the fruits of your labour’s earlier.

Author Bio: Robert is an enthusiastic home & garden improvement writer for Bridgman where he enjoys writing about rattan garden furniture.

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I have been trying to get a good picture of a robin since we moved here 5 years ago. I see them in my gardens all the time during the spring, summer and early fall but just can’t get close enough to snap a good picture.

I work from home and today, just after returning to my office with a fresh coffee, I saw about a hundred birds fly by my window. They sure looked like robins to me but they shouldn’t be back in this neck of the woods until about April.

There are even more Cedar Waxwings, dozens and dozens of them, all munching down on yummy red berries. The image above has both a robin and Cedar Waxwing in it. Sorry for the poor quality. I was shooting through a screened window.

I Did Try Being Stealthy

I went outside a couple of times to get a better picture but wasn’t stealthy enough and they all took off immediately. I even tried hiding behind the garage until they came back but it was too cold for me to stay out. Of course as soon as I walked back in the house they all came flying back. Pretty smart birds.

I snapped a few shot through the window in my office and even tried an upstairs window for a better shot but no luck.

The shrubs along our property fence is covered with red berries and some rose hips from the big rose bushes growing in the corner near my office.

I haven’t been able to get any work done all day. I can’t take my eyes of them. They are eating their fill and then sitting in the pine trees along our driveway. Steve’s girlfriend had to move the car as they were kind of dumping on it.

I’ve never seen robins eating snow before as there is usually water around they can drink by the time they arrive in April. Looked pretty cool. I thought about warning them against eating any yellow snow Honey our pit bull may have left in the yard.

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However, it is not by concentrating on tummy tuck exercises that you can lose those extras, rather an exercise regime that involves the whole body movement which is the most reliable exercise.

This is for the simple reason that when you are using up a lot of energy during the entire body movement, reserves of fat will be burned up for the energy that is required by the body. In this case, home gardening is the most convenient and enjoyable form of exercise for reducing that tummy fat.

Whole Body Movement in Home Gardening

When you do gardening, you will naturally squat, stand, bend and kneel in the various process of weeding, planting, shearing, mulching and lifting. These activities are all energy burning although we may think that we are really not exerting ourselves much.

You can further enhance your exercise during gardening by foregoing all those power tools that makes gardening easier for you. You can take up basic hand tools like a shear for cutting and pruning, a hand saw for the stumps, and a grass clipper rather than the lawn mower. These traditional tools may not get the job done at the earliest but then, it involves every inch of movement in your body which is certainly beneficial for you.

Before you begin your gardening, you can start with a warm up by walking around the garden and slowly undergoing all the motions that will be involved once you start the actual work. Likewise, you can cool down by winding up with some simple after workout exercise movements. This will help you in minimizing the aches and pains, which normally accompanies any manual jobs at the end of the day.

Beneficial Beauty of Home Gardening

While you do gardening for the sake of tucking in your tummy fat, you must also understand that gardening is very therapeutic. As you do the repetitive task of weeding, planting and digging, your mind also will have time to sort out any problems that you might need a solution for. You will be surprised that during gardening, when you are working steadily, your mind will tick over many things which otherwise you may not have the time to ponder upon. When you do gardening, you are so involved in the minutes details and you can go for long hours, without communicating with others as in a meditation. Besides, in gardening you are directly in touch with nature and this is very soothing and calming for your inner self.

Anybody, young and old can do gardening but for those with certain health problems, you will need to consult your doctor, as to how long you can undertake gardening activity in a day. Otherwise, gardening exercise for tummy tuck can be performed for 30 minutes each day.

At the end of the day, your tummy tuck exercise may show improved result, but you also have other satisfactory results to show for. This is when you see your garden growing, in addition to being able to harvest your own organic food and the joys associated with eating these healthy produce. You can easily kill two birds with a stone in the gardening exercise for tummy fat, even if you happen to be an amateur gardener.

About the author: Kelly is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and luxury. Beside this she is fond of gadgets. Recently an article on Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on smart homes.

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Guest Post from: Nate Armstrong

Home gardening can be a very complex, as well as time consuming. And gardening can be a tricky hobby or skill.

There is so much that goes into creating and perfecting a successful garden. Having knowledge about ph and alkaline levels, seeds, feed, soil, and more are essential for every successful gardener.

However, to really understand the complexities of gardening, it is important to learn some of the gardening basics listed below.

Don’t Till More Than You Can Tend

Often times, with home gardening, people have a hard time knowing where to begin. The best place to start is not always a book or blog written by an inspiring gardener like Mr. Brown Thumb or The Whimsical Gardener.

These individuals are experienced and do not always speak the same language as a beginner gardener. A big and most common problem is that first-time gardeners bite off more than they can chew by immediately planting an orchard then, soon after, become overwhelmed and give up entirely.

For those that want to start gardening, observe the old saying, “Don’t till more than you can tend. and maybe even, Don’t bite off more than you can chew.”

Use Containers, Plant Your First Garden in Pots

Consider starting small with a smaller plant such as tomatoes or a rose bush. And instead of rushing off to plough and till an entire field, start with nothing more than a few pots or buckets, with a container garden.

Add a few different variations of soil to a few different pots and do your best to tend a few shrubs, plants, or crops at a time.

One huge benefit to starting out with pots and buckets is the watering factor. Say, for instance, the overwhelming excitement to have a big garden leads to an expensive underground irrigation system. Then, after a few months of gardening, you become disappointed and frustrated with the lack of results so you give up completely. Now you’ve just wasted time and money on a hobby that was doomed from the beginning.

So, before you runoff and install an irrigation system such as Orbit Sprinklers, water your potted plants by hand and determine if an irrigated garden is a priority. Understand that gardening requires both time and money. From water to gardening tools, pruning and weeding, gardens are high maintenance.

Understanding Gardening Soil

Starting a container garden using pots or buckets makes the whole soil process manageable. There will be much less pressure to worry about the acid and alkaline levels and things of that nature. You won’t have to deal with sand or clay, and most soils contain all the proper organic matter and materials so you won’t have to stress about that, either.

Start With Nursery or Garden Centre Soil

Actually if you fill your containers, pots or buckets with quality soil from a local nursery or garden center you can be guaranteed healthy and nutrient-rich soil. However, don’t be afraid to ask questions, whether you think they’re silly or not. Nursery employees are there to help so take advantage of their experience and advice.

The soil used in gardening plays a huge roll in your success, which is why planting your first couple plants in pots can be so beneficial. We had a container garden for years before owning a home we where we could dig up the backyard for a garden.

When it comes to a home garden I feel like the plants are my babies and I don’t know about you but I like to know what’s best for my babies. I learned a lot about babies rather quickly so we wouldn’t mess up, well we did the same when we started our container garden.

Do What’s Best For Each Plant

Not everything works for every plant meaning different combinations of soil should be used with different plants. You could go the trial and error way by trying to grow some of your favourite vegetable, flowers or shrubs in different types of soil and see which works best.

However that kind of home gardening may lead to one giving up on the whole idea. I much prefer to use the Internet or my local nursery staff to learn before I plant anything. I’ve asked a lot of what I considered dumb questions yet I’ve never had a single person at a garden center make me look stupid for asking.

Once you know what soil works best for what plants you will be able to plant some things together using the same soil type.

Hey Give Me Some Elbow Room Please

Learning which plants require more elbow room to grow can produce a lot more beauty in your flower beds but will also produce a lot more produce in your vegetable gardens.

Knowing which plants you can put together can make for some interesting container gardens as well.

If you start planting in rows or flowerbeds before learning about the spacing plants require, you may end up with half your garden blocking the sunlight from the rest of your garden or having one plant completely take over, killing off the other other plants.

I have a rule for the things I do and that’s to have fun and gardening isn’t any different. Make it a fun project and don’t overwhelm yourself. It’s a growing experience so grow with it.

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DIY insulation projects make for a more comfortable home year round

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You accomplish simply by selecting a container that fits your landscaping décor and a type of flower that matches your personality, you can completely change the feeling of your yard and home. These different types of containers all require different types of care, but they are all unique and decorative in their own way. Some of the types of containers used are:

Clay Pots

Clay pots are great for the everyday landscape. They come in a variety of sizes, from small and appropriate for a window sill to a behemoth clay pot that can fit a small tree.

Clay pots are typically neutral in color meaning they go with anything, however with clay pots some precautions need to be made. Because they have a tendency to crack, clay pots do best in the shade to prevent them from drying out. Also, you’ll need to ensure the clay pot is frost proof to ensure it holds up during the winter months.

As you can see from the image clay pots can be painted, just watch you don’t use toxic paints that could leech into the dirt and flowers.

Wooden Planters

Wooden logs being fit to make a planter are an eco-friendly way to bring the rustic feel of a log cabin into your yard. These are great for more exotic plants that would typically be found in wooded areas.

Not only that, but these planters tend to run larger making them ideal for housing both bigger or a large quantity of smaller plants. The one downside to wooden planters is that the dirt has a tendency to fall out of the spaces between the logs. To avoid this, simply line the planter with a thin sheet of plastic to keep what needs to be contained, in the container.

Stone Containers

Potting your plants in stone is an elegant way to dress up your landscaping. Although stone containers have a tendency to look morose if not done properly, you can brighten them up with some brightly coloured flowers or some “cuter” flowers such as daisies or carnations.

Like with the other two, there are some downsides to using stone as these containers are usually heavy, meaning you most likely will need to ensure you’re happy with their final place before you start using them.

It’s not uncommon for people to cement them in place to avoid having them stolen.

Wall Pots or Windowsill Holders

These smaller containers can liven up a wall or window ledge very easily and brighten up the area around the home. As you can see people love to take pictures of them if they’re done nicely. My aunt was so into geraniums.

These small boxes or pots are ideal to show off a wide variety of flowers and plants. Just remember to water these frequently because they typically are located in an area that doesn’t receive much water.

Also, secure them well because once the soil does get wet, it can get heavy and weigh the pots down.

Hanging Baskets

Hanging baskets are a fun accessory to add to any porch, gazebo, or other outdoor structure. They are extremely versatile and can be placed at shoulder height or even higher.

You can also change out the different flowers in the baskets to keep them blooming all year long. Just make sure to hang them where no one will hit their head. By choosing any of these containers, or combining several different ones, you can ensure your landscaping reflects you.

Have fun and remember gardening is a form of expression. Show off to your neighbours and the world how beautiful your home and yard can be.

Allison Brenner is a copywriter at an online career school. For more information visit PCDI’s landscape design school.

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What efficient fuel heats your home and saves you money?

(ARA) – Cold days are here to stay, and the lower the temperature goes, the higher the utility costs are to heat your home. What if there was a way to heat your house for significantly less? Biomass fuels – natural, clean-burning, inexpensive fuels – offer a smart solution that can lower your heating costs and reduce your carbon footprint.

Biomass fuel 101
Biomass fuels are natural fuels that are renewable and clean burning. Examples of biomass fuels include wood pellets, wood chips, paper and other agricultural byproducts. Wood pellets are the most common option. Most homeowners who use these types of fuels will install a pellet stove or insert to heat their home. Approximately 1 million homes and businesses in the U.S. use wood pellets for heat, according to the Pellet Fuels Institute.

Cost savings
The cost of heating by pellet is much less than oil, propane or electric, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Want to know how much you could save? Check out the pellet fuel cost-calculator from Hearth & Home Technologies. Heating with pellets also helps control heating costs since prices for pellets are more stable than propane, oil and natural gas.

Environmental impact
Much of the material used for wood pellets is unusable for other purposes. The material is considered second growth, and comes from the forest floor. This wood is no longer wasted – it is processed into tiny pellets that burn efficiently, with low CO2 and particulate emissions. By engineering crops and waste such as cornstalks, straw and forest waste, pellets can transform millions of tons of waste and put them to work, according to the Pellet Fuels Institute. Additionally, pellets are often locally derived, helping to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources.

Pellet stoves and inserts
Pellet stoves are compact, attractive metal or cast iron stoves that look similar to wood-burning stoves. Pellet inserts, which are also available in attractive metal or cast iron, are installed inside an existing masonry fireplace. Typically both options include a thermostat you can program to control the heat of your home. The heat is created by pellets that are slowly fed from a storage container called a hopper into the burn-pot, creating a steady flame that produces steady heat. The size of pellet stove or insert needed depends on the size of your home, so be sure to talk to a professional about what size is right for your needs. Visit www.fireplaces.com to browse stove and insert options as well as find a professional near you.

Pellets needed
Wood pellets are widely available and can be found anywhere from local hardware supply stores to big box outlet stores. They can also be ordered online and delivered in bulk to most locations. Wood pellets are typically sold in 40-pound bags for between $ 4 and $ 7 depending on the type of wood used and availability. When burned in a high efficiency pellet stove, a 40-lb bag of pellets can provide about 24 hours of steady heat for 1500 square feet of living space.

Pellets vs. wood
You might be wondering why not just burn regular wood rather than pellets. Burning raw biomass fuel, like logs of wood, will not provide you with the heat efficiency of pellets. Pellets have significantly lower moisture content so they have a higher BTU value, meaning they burn more efficiently. They are also smaller, so you don’t need to have a large area to keep many cords of raw wood. Pellet stoves and inserts burn much cleaner than wood – up to 50 times lower particulate emissions than older, non-EPA certified wood stoves or inserts, and up to five times lower than newer EPA-certified wood stoves and inserts.

Most American homeowners who switch to pellet heat will enjoy lower heating costs and a more environmentally-friendly home. Isn’t it time to see if this option is right for you?

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How to avoid scary heating bills this winter

The only thing scarier than this picture is the heating bill the homeowner can expect this winter

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The No. 1 countertop secret for 2012

(ARA) – Everyone loves granite for kitchen and bath countertops, but many homeowners find this option for adding value to their home, too pricey. When considering a kitchen update I found that granite typically costs $ 50 to $ 100 per square foot (including installation).

Gail Turner, a top real estate agent in Chicago, agrees that, “While there’s nothing functionally wrong with laminate, it’s not what buyers are looking for. Her advice is to install granite countertops in your kitchen and bath if you really want to sell your home in this economy.

So if you are looking for the beauty of granite without the price tag, consider paint. Giani Granite Paint kits allow you to give outdated countertops a granite look for about $ 70 a kitchen.

Giani’s parent company, located in St. Louis, Mo., began in 1959 and now sells to paint retailers nationally and internationally. Each kit comes with the primer, mineral paints, applicators and a demo DVD to help you update your Formica, laminate, wood, tile and Corian countertops. Gianigranite.com has several before and after photos along with customer testimonials.

One kit can transform an average L-shaped kitchen countertop (which has about 30 to 33 square feet of countertop) in a weekend. I’m a savvy homeowner, but not an expert at remodeling projects and found this process to be easy enough for a first time painter. The finish has the same functionality as your old countertops as well as general care instructions; use cutting board and warming pads.

“Our product’s durability has one advantage,” says Tim Haas, Vice President of Sales for Giani. “If you scratch it or burn it, you can easily repair it by reapplying the minerals and topcoat. So unlike other countertop surfaces, wear and tear is never permanent.”

Before you begin, thoroughly clean the area with a scouring pad and then rinse with water. Use painter’s tape to protect walls and cabinets. Look for any nicks and seams and apply a fast-drying wood fill, and then lightly sand the area with a fine grit piece of sandpaper or sanding block.

For consumers who are willing to try this low priced alternative before throwing out your old counters (like I was), you will find the results well worth it. You can choose from a variety of styles and kit colors.

I selected the Chocolate Brown kit, which contains three colors: brown feldspar, Inca gold and chocolate brown. This look will achieve a natural granite style.

Although it was fun having everyone think I had granite installed, I had to reveal my new countertop secret.

How to apply:

1. Roll on the black primer and allow eight hours of drying time.

2. Lightly sponge on all the mineral colors in the order specified on the packaging. Let dry for a minimum of four hours. A simple artists brush helped me complete a veining pattern.

3. Next, apply the first clear top coat and dry for four hours. Then, apply the second top coat and wait four hours.

For more information, visit gianigranite.com or call 1-800-650-5699.

For a standard L-shaped kitchen (about 30 to 33 square feet of countertop) the cost is $ 69.95

The product is also available at select Lowe’s Home Improvement Centers – Check Gianigranite.com for location details.

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