Aug 2

Plastic is a non organic substance which adds nothing to the soil. Plastics cause a lot of trouble if you try to grow crops were they have been buried. In fact some believe that plastics can interfere with plant growth. I have seen where plastic has actually killed the soil by cutting off the air exchange of the soil. One thing is for sure the organic gardener can do extremely nicely without plastic. When you think about it what could be more unnatural than plastic material mulch? Plastic keeps the soil untouched by sunshine, air, dew, or rainfall. Plastic does nothing to enrich the soil. With an organic mulch it breaks down into compost, humus and minerals. It also lets the air rainfall, dew and sunshine seep through it to the soil beneath.

Of course you will have more work with an organic mulch. It will have to be replaced at least once a year as it breaks down and nourishes the soil. Plastic will set on the soil for years and do nothing for the soil. It will most most likely damage it nearly beyond repair. Hay, straw and leaves make good organic mulches, old newspapers, brown grocery bags and waste paper make an great underlayment for organic mulch. They provide a barrier to prevent light from reaching weed seeds and stimulating germination. When you work the soil you bring weed seeds to the surface where the the light will stimulate them to germination. A layer of paper with a thick organic mulch on top will stop this from happening and greatly loose time spent pulling weeds. Thus freeing you for the much more pleasurable aspects of gardening. Organic mulch can be laid in thick layers to mulch almost anything. From a box hedge, expensive evergreen border, a perennial bed, or a row of rhododendrons. These are all garden spots that respond well to a paper mulch. If you use a permanent mulch on your vegetable garden, you will be pleasantly surprised at the absence of weeds. The paper can be covered with something attractive and organic. Such as hay, straw, compost, wooden chips, sawdust or anything else organic. You must cover the paper with something or the wind will scatter them all over the neighborhood.

The plastic material industry has been with us for about 35 years now. During that time they have made it the good objective of their research to develop more and more indestructible material and much more uses of this material. They’re good success, causes an ever growing burden on the sanitation department. This causes extra burden on the tax payers. You can garden just as well or better without plastic. Even if that were not true. Organic gardeners that are really worried with environmental contaminants must make up their minds to avoid using as much plastic material as possible. It is one of the fastest-growing pollutants of all. A biodegradable plastic material has required the industry to spend a sizable portion of its income on serious research and development. The biodegradable plastics are heavily expensive for anyone to use.

The reports regarding plastic have been extremely disturbing, for one thing plastic is practically indestructible, unless you burn it. Which causes air pollution. It cannot be composted or digested. It is non degradable and incapable of being assimilated into the organic cycle. Our societies obsession with plastic has caused a blight on our land that time will not erase. We need to increase our efforts to improve plastic or decrease the use of it. How much nicer a reflection on our society it would be, if an archaeologist ten thousand years from now would insert a shovel into fresh rich soil, breathe fresh air, drink pure water. Then name our present society for those characteristics, instead of the litter of plastic material that is quick over burdening us.

Thanks for reading and I hope you had learned something from this article.

You can learn much more regarding this subject by visiting my sites below. Just click the links and you will be redirected to my site.

See you there!

The author has written more about plastic organizer bins and plastic organizer on his site, check them out: http://www.plasticorganizer.net/ and plastic organizer bins.


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Jul 26

Composting is really just a way of giving back to the earth or mother nature as it were what it has given you. There is a cycle that things go through in order to grow. Making sure that the soil is healthy is the beginning of a good garden.

A compost program is good for the planet because it cuts down on the amount of waste that is sent off to the landfill. It is amazing to watch things that were once considered refuse to be recycled and put to good use.

Compost has many other functions besides just being good fertilizer for the earth. It also acts as a soil conditioner, a mulching agent Soil that has the proper amount of compost retains moisture better and that is beneficial for the plants.

Composting is a very old strategy and is practiced all over the globe. It is used on a large scale for farms but backyard gardeners can benefit from the effects also.

Every day materials that you gather together from your home and parts of your yard will be converted into a black substance, somewhat fragrant, and crumbly. This will become the compost material.

Arrange the materials so that the soil bacteria and fungi can survive and multiply as they break down. The bacteria is the key to a successful compost. The bacteria will act as a converter for all the other materials so they need to be in a proper environment.

To begin a compost program gather as much of the green and dry elements as you can from around your garden. Collect grass clippings and green weeds, they are high in sugar elements and protein and will decompose very fast.

Leaves should be added to the greens when they are decomposing. This type of material takes a long time to break down as they contain very little nitrogen.

You do not need to be a expert to start a compost program. All you really need is a love of nature and a desire to learn.

http://www.kitchencomposterblog.com/ This guide is to help start a compost pile for beginners and hopefully it will give you the facts you require to start composting. For more information about how to have a successful compost pile go to Kitchen Composter Blog and learn about starting a compost pile.

categories: compost,garden,outdoors,family,recreation

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Jul 18

Composting is a way of getting in touch with nature. Stay away from the chemically enhanced fertilizers at the stores. You can make your own fertilizer through a process known as composting. In the process you will probable have the opportunity to get down on your knees and get your hands a dirty, and nothing is dirtier than compost.

Compost is the process where biodegradable materials are turned into a soil like substance. The material is mixed with air, water, nitrogen in the correct proportions. The result is a compost material that will serve as a soil conditioner, mulch, and fertilizers. It will feed your garden soil the microorganism that plants need to grow healthy and strong.

When starting a compost program it is best to find a spot near your garden, but somewhat concealed from plain site. When you show people your beautiful garden you do not want the first thing they see to be your compost heap. They are practical but not very pretty.

After you decide on a suitable area you will want to start the pile with green and brown organic materials. Green materials have lots of nitrogen while the brown material contain lots of carbon. These two elements form the basic foundation of a compost pile.

A properly formed compost pile will not give off odors. When the ratio of green and brown materials are correct the pile will not emit any odors. Compost should have an earthy smell and not that of rotting material. If the latter is present then something may be in the pile that should not be there or the ratio of green and brown material is wrong.

Adding some finished compost to the mix helps to kick start the composting program. This will help start the microbial activities in a compost pile.

Make sure that the pile is moist also. Keeping the compost pile damp will help to quicken the breakdown of the organic materials. Add water to the pile it should be damp like a sponge.

Producing compost is really a pretty simple matter. It just takes a little know how and time.

http://www.kitchencomposterblog.com/ This introduction to composting for beginners is meant to give you the knowledge you require to start composting. If you would desire to learn more visit the Kitchen composter Blog. This article, The Secrets To A Successful Compost Program has free reprint rights.

categories: compost,garden,outdoor,recreation,outdoor,recreation

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Jun 28

It’s hard to believe, but the average American family produces over twelve hundred pounds of organic waste in a single year. Most of it ends up in the landfills. That’s a real shame when you consider it could be going to work in your garden.

Duration : 0:1:34

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Jun 17

We coated a cardboard box with polyurea and filled it with water immediately afterwords to show how fast it dries. We also tried filling a regular cardboard box with water and it fell apart. The polyurea coated cardboard box also had the ability to keep its shape when filled with a heavy substance, due to the added structural integrity from the polyurea.

Duration : 0:4:29

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Jun 17

Before you bag up your leaves and send them away, you may want to consider recycling them for your garden.

Duration : 0:1:39

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May 3

Check out this composting toilet system. Fairly simple to set up and run with so many benefits to be gained for your garden.

Makes you wonder why we spend millions pumping this great resource into ponds, landfill and out to sea.

Duration : 0:5:44

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Apr 28

Getting a homemade compost tumbler to tumble.

Duration : 10 sec

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Apr 9

LED grow lights came on the market a few years ago to the tune of rejection and controversy. How can they possibly compare to the HID grow light standard and are they able to produce the same results as outlined in all the hype? By doing my homework and some basic comparison, I found that the best LED grow lights are more than capable of outperforming the standard.

The most important concept to understand about LED grow lights is that you are swapping the brute-force tactics used by metal halide and high pressure sodium grow lights for the gentle strength and simplicity of the technological break-through of LED grow lights.

With a typical HID light setup – replete with expensive accessories like fans, ducting, ballasts, etc. – the full spectrum of white light is emitted. From red to blue and all wavelengths between, your plants are bombarded with light and a tremendous amount of heat without regard for its actual effectiveness. HID grow lights have an average of 15% efficiency, the lion’s-share of energy is thrown away in the form of wasted light (un-absorbable) and unnecessary heat. Do you like throwing away money?

Top LED grow lights on the market get 95% efficiency meaning that almost all light emitted is easily absorbed by growing plants for photosynthesis. The lights produce a small amount of heat (remain warm to the touch) and almost none of the light is wasted. To accomplish this, years of research and development goes into determining what specific wavelengths of light to target that will give the biggest boost to the photosynthesis process. Blue, red, and to some extent orange light are the most beneficial colors for growing plants indoors. Logically, this makes complete sense as plants are green. This means they reflect all green light and most yellow light. For a plant, green and yellow light is basically useless for growing – so there is no need to waste electricity on a light that produces these wavelengths.

To choose the best LED grow light for your indoor garden, you need to take some things into account. First, like nearly any product available, there is a large range of quality depending on the manufacturer. From very basic set-ups to the BMW of LED grow lights, models range in shape, the color of light emitted, price, and power output. All of these factors can determine your overall success as an indoor gardener. Like many other things in life, you get what you pay for.

I am not telling you that you must buy the most expensive model you can find because cost is not the sole factor that determines quality. It is the composition of the LED grow light and the quality of the components used in its construction that is the real factor.

Although it is common to find 225 LED grow light panels for sale very cheap – under $100 – what you really need to look at is the power of each individual LED bulb in the panel. In this example, each bulb in the array comes in at 0.06 Watts. Unless you only wish to grow a 4 inch tall, spindly plant, you are wasting your money on this severely underpowered grow light. With this lack of power comes very poor results, little to no canopy penetration, leggy plants, and even no growth or flowering at all. In my experience, the lowest output per bulb should be no less than 1 Watt or about 16 times more output than the example. Even still, power LED grow lights can save you tons of money in electricity costs.

With the powerful, highly-targeted light from a high-quality LED grow light, you will experience thick, stocky vegetative growth with massive blooms and the biggest yields possible when growing indoors.

For more details and an LED Grow Light Review, visit Cora Ladd’s site on how to choose the best LED Grow Lights for your garden.


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Mar 15

http://www.howdini.com/howdini-video-7560688.html

How to compost How to make compost

How does your garden grow? A lot better if the soil is enriched with compost from your own compost pile. Scott Meyer, editor of Organic Gardening magazine, shows how to make and use compost.

Keywords:
how to compost
how to make compost
making compost
making a compost pile

Duration : 0:5:26

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