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Compostablog compiles relevant stories and articles of interest about the healthy benefit of organic composting and gardening.
Park Seed Gardener's Supply Company

Baby Chicks Off the Lights

Baby Chicks Under Lights

Okay, the baby chicks are ‘weaned’ from the heating lamp! Yeah!! They are full of feathers, their necks have filled in from their ‘ugly duckling’ look, LOL. They are looking quite beautiful! It is going to rain this weekend. Now I can only hope they have the good sense to use their little ramp and come in out of the rain.

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The Magic of Leafy Greens

Green Leafy KaleHow much of my food can I grow in a small garden area? This is the question I receive most frequently from residents interested in starting vegetable gardens. Like all things in life, the answer is: “it depends.” In this case, it depends on the size of the garden, the amount of sun, and what you want to eat.

Since sun and garden space are difficult to change, the easiest way to eat more of your homegrown vegetables, is to start eating vegetables that are high yielding and easy to grow. Hence, we discover the magic of leafy greens.

Leafy greens are a backyard food gardener’s best friend. They are easy to grow, harvest, and cook. They produce an abundance of food even in low-light conditions. Moreover, they taste great, supply excellent nutrition, and look good in your garden. If you are a brown thumb, or a novice vegetable gardener, leafy greens are a great place to start.

While there are numerous varieties of leafy greens to try, I recommend chard, kale and collards. They grow productively all winter long, and even withstand summer heat. Space your plants 1 foot to 18 inches apart, both within and between rows. If you start from seed, sow every few inches in rows and then thin out to the recommended spacing. To allow each plant more room, offset planting between rows so that each plant sits between the two in the next row over, forming a zigzag pattern. Plants can be harvested as soon as they have a fair number of medium sized leaves. It’s better to take a few leaves from each plant, rather than lots of leaves from one plant, so that all of the plants can recover quickly. Harvest with two hands, or using cutters, to make sure you don’t tug on the plant while tearing off the leaves. And the best part is, after you harvest, the leaves grow right back!

There are many ways to integrate lots of leafy greens into your diet. In addition to salad, you can quickly cook leafy greens into any combination of vegetables. Start by steaming them, or stir-frying with olive oil, garlic, lemon and salt. Add them in at the end of your vegetable stir-fries, or boil them in stocks, soups, and stews. Leafy greens go well with meat or tofu, rice, noodles, and many legumes. I like to add leafy greens into my lentil soups. When I cook red beans, I scoop some of the broth into a frying pan and use it to boil the greens with other vegetables.

Adding lots of greens to your diet is an excellent way to improve your families’ nutrition. They are rich in beta carotene, vitamin C, and other anti-carcinogens. They provide excellent sources of fiber, iron, and calcium. In fact, collard greens have the same concentration of calcium as milk. Just 3.5 ounces of chard gives you all the vitamin A and half the vitamin C that you need each day.

Growing more of your fruits and vegetables means eating more of what you can grow. If you want to eat better and grow your own food, plant chard, kale and collards in your garden this year and watch the magic unfold.

Joshua Deutsch is the founder and manager of Backyard Food Gardens, providing food garden installation and complete landscaping services to the East Bay. He can be reached by Email: josh@backyardfoodgardens.com, phone: 510-289-8712, or on the web: www.backyardfoodgardens.com.

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    All About Photo voltaic Green Houses

    Greenhouses are available in a wide array of styles, sorts and materials. As we speak, people are turning into more environmentally pleasant, by investing extra in solar panels and energy. You will discover which you can minimize costs by investing in photo voltaic greenhouses. These generally is a worthwhile investment, since depend on a variety of crops you grow for food.

    What is a Photo voltaic Greenhouse?

    A photo voltaic greenhouse is described as a construction that houses crops and collects solar energy. Photo voltaic greenhouses have a selected purpose. It might probably store warmth, using this through the night time when the temperature is lower. The heat can work properly throughout winter, cloudy days and the cold season. You may offered the required temperature to the crops to maintain development even throughout the cold months. The benefit of solar greenhouse setups is that you’ve a number of choices that suit your specific needs.

    Photo voltaic greenhouses can stand independently. These are ideal for massive production setups. The freestanding ones are wonderful for industrial production. These can produce crops like herbs, vegetables, fruits and ornamental flowers. These usually seem in a few foremost designs namely the Quonset sort and the shed type.

    The Quonset kind is described as a low-price greenhouse. It appears like a underground pit with a tunnel and a Quonset-formed frame. The setup has one or two layers of plastic film. This sort can prevent as a lot as 40% of heating fuel. The shed kind incorporates a really lengthy axis that runs from the east in the direction of the west. There’s a wall facing south glazed to gather the maximum level of power from the sun. The wall dealing with to the north is insulated to stop loss of heat. The features help you determine the difference between a photo voltaic greenhouse from a traditional version.

    Photo voltaic greenhouses could be connected to the house when you select the lean-to type. The attached solar greenhouse could be described because the buildings that create some room that stands out from the house. These are very good for rising herbs and transplants. The solar greenhouse might be classified as either passive or active. Either type makes use of varied resources, but serves a common purpose. Some locations have longer cold months, so individuals should depend on passive photo voltaic greenhouses, through an electrical heating system or gas.

    The plants can therefore be shielded from the cold longer. You can keep good production charges, whatever the climate conditions. Using heating methods of the setup may be very affordable and can be utilized optimally if there are crops of excessive value to be produced. The active setup uses supplemental power, by transferring the solar heated air from the storage space to the other regions of the greenhouse.

    Managing and retaining an everyday greenhouse doesn’t change a lot in comparison with the photo voltaic greenhouse. There are some features that matter, though. Photo voltaic greenhouses have oriented glazing to receive the highest photo voltaic warmth, especially during winter. The supplies are made to reduce heat loss. Heat storing materials are used. There’s extra insulation when daylight is absent. The photo voltaic greenhouse relies closely on natural air flow to cool the plants throughout extra hot days and the summer.

    The photo voltaic warmth storage is the main feature whenever you design the solar greenhouse. There needs to be enough photo voltaic heat saved to keep it heat even throughout chilly nights. The fundamental methodology used to keep the power is to position concrete and rocks straight in the sunlight to maintain the heat. Cinder block partitions positioned at the north end of the greenhouse can be utilized to retailer heat. Darkish-colored ceramic flooring can be used to keep the heat. Flooring and walls not used for heat absorption needs to be colored lightly. This is completed so that warmth is reflected and light is properly distributed to all of the plants.

    The quantity of heat stored might be decided by the correct administration of the greenhouse. The greenhouse filled with buildings and crops can maintain heat easily. Composts may help the heat storage targets, since these create carbon dioxide inside the atmosphere. The microorganisms within the compost give enhancements in plant production.

    Supplementary detailed details on the subject of, building, buying and having Photo voltaic Green Houses .

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    Make Eating Healthy Creative by Adding Fruits and Vegetables

    When it comes to a healthy diet, you absolutely must have some variety. Eating the same thing day in and day out is like torture for most, and it also works against the principles of a healthy diet as well.

    The good news is that there is a lot of variety you can sample when it comes to healthy foods. About all the supermarkets sustain a great deal of fruits and veggies and wide array of fish, meat, dairy products, nuts, beans, poultry, and lentils. If you’re trying to eat healthier and have a healthier lifestyle, you shouldn’t need to be bored while doing so!

    One important part of enjoying this wide variety of foods when trying to eat healthy is to plan your meals so that you know you’re using as many different options as possible. If you combine those items of meats, fruits and vegetables, and whole grains then you know you can have different and interesting meals every time and every day.

    As advised by doctors, having a lot of choices for foods is essential for good health and to avoid boredom. Remember that different foods contain different nutrients, so consuming those different foods is imperative for good healthy. One tends to go against their diet when one feels bored or deprived of their favorite foods.

    Consuming foods you like is not bad, it’s just that you should eat them in moderation and use balance. You might call good nutrition a trade off, like so many other things in life!

    And of course you should get foods from the five major food groups each and every day as well. The groups, as identified by the USDA, are as follows meat and beans, dairy products, fruit, veggies, and grains. Each item in these groups contains different nutrients, so if you have a combination of foods you can make sure you’re getting the right nutrition for your body.

    Just choosing food items from the five food groups isn’t going to ensure good health on its own. You can’t have bacon, ice cream, avocados, sweet potatoes, and a big slice of cake and expect to be healthy even though each item is from those food groups! Obviously no one would say that those are healthy food choices even though all five food groups are represented. When you are opting from these five groups be sure to choose the healthy choices from each of the groups.

    As an example of this, think of choosing lean meats to get the protein you want without the extra fat and calories of fattier portions of meat. Trimming fat from roast beef or even removing the skin from chicken can aid you with this issue.

    As for grains, meaning breads and cereals, you typically want to choose whole grain options rather than refined products. Refined products tend to have their nutrients taken from them when they are refined.

    Many bread and cereal products have also been fortified with vitamins and minerals as well. Having fortified products can help your nutritional needs but of course they should never be used in place of a proper diet overall. These products provide great source of calcium to help you bones, teeth, and folic acid that helps women when they are pregnant.

    One of the main ways to have a progressing diet is to opt for healthier foods. It is advised that you choose leaner cuts of meat because that is the healthier option. Doing this you will gain the most nutrients and yet still have great tasting foods.

    Whatever your reasons for wanting to be healthy and to have a healthy diet, and whatever your goals are as far as fitness is concerned, make sure you understand the basic principles of nutrition. When you completely understand the food groups you will have no problem with staying with your diet. If you want to train for a marathon or boxing match, lose a few pounds or just have more energy, remember that you can use what you know about nutrition to help you for the rest of your life.

    If you are looking for workouts to lose weight author and personal trainer Anu Morgan has excellent information for you. Get a copy of her free report, “The Seven Personal Trainer Secrets to Weight Loss” by visiting AnuMorgan.com.

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    Buying And Managing An Organic Farm Property

    Organic farming has been with us since farming began but it has taken on new meaning. The demand for organic farms has increased over the years so much that almost part of the country has them. Organic farms were the way farmers planted and looked after tier crops till fertilizer were discovered. Up to a point, these chemicals which were originally created to help in the control of soil fertility had rather become man’s enemies. The poisonous substances were the cause of many diseases. Food from these farms therefore became unwholesome. Compounding the problem was the discovery that chemicals used to control weeds were equally poisonous. It could be said that these developments created the need for a new kind of farm – one which the farmer had taken steps to ensure that no chemical has been used in either tending the crops or soil.

    Organic farms have therefore become a much needed property for many. As this need grows, real estate investors began to look at that area for profits. They can buy organic farms or possibly create one from scratch and make money from them.

    If you intend to buy an organic farm, you will as a matter of importance of soil test to determine the extent to which chemicals have been applied o the farm. This is needed because the whole idea of an organic farm is to avoid chemicals. The presence of chemicals, especially in high levels, will not make your products attractive. So you will require an expert to carry out an assessment of the place to determine the status of the soil.

    Again, you will have to know the fertility of the soil and its ability to support the type of crops you will be growing on the farm. You will have to be very careful here because each area has its type of soil. As an organic farm, you will not be applying fertilizers to improve the soil so you need to get and that basically supports the crop you want to grow without.

    One thing you may want practice on your organic farm is biodiversity. This is an option that organic farmers would want to practise. It is just the system of ensuing that both plants and animals on your far are able to coexist. The animals will not destroy the crops and the crops would not prevent the animals from producing their optimum. This type of agricultural practice provides the owner with big returns. He is able to protect both animal and crop resources.

    Many farms are going green. Going green means they are able to able to apply methods that will ensure that they provide minimal destruction to the environment. In rural settings, this involves using various means to minimize the use of water, conserving the environment and sometimes even apportioning some part of the land for afforestation. You will not develop this part nor put up any residential structures. The government is rewarding this type of development with tax incentives. You can have a much as 30% in tax rebates if you practice a green farm.

    You can be able to enjoy your past time of an organic farm management and earn income as well with your organic farm. You would only have to pay attention to soil erosion that tends to take way much of land’s beauty and quality. Once you are able to contain that, you can always count on a beautiful organic farm that will produce quality produce for higher prices. In the event of a resale you will derive high gains and be positioned to invest in other properties. Like with all businesses, you need to consider all aspects of the organic farm to make it work for you.

    Ian Burmistroff writes for http://www.RuralListings.com, classifieds of rural real estate such as land for sale, Farms for sale, ranches for sale , etc.

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    • Recent Comment

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