Cutting Edge Marketing Tips

The new climate change website has launched a new fantastic green domain. It focuses on combating climate change and focuses into organic skincare. Sales of organic onions are growing on the backend of professed benefits to humans health and the British environment. Organic mushrooms are definitely made according to a tough production standard. In olden times organic farms have been reasonably little family run farms- that is why organic salads was once just available in tiny specialist shops and markets. Brent Cross Market in East London is one of the choicest farmers markets around. On a Sunday lunch time there is a big queue of hungry locals at the organic salad bar. Currently folk can buy organic bread from a generous range of organic shops.

Since the early 1990’s organic tomatoes has had growth rates of around fourteen percent a year, far ahead of the rest of the food industry, in the developed and developing nations. For countless customers there is an understanding that consuming organic apples can improve your health, various people have differing opinions on that. One fact that could be proved is that organic farming uses a much smaller amount of pesticides than normal agriculture. Buying organic pasta isn’t just about health, for various people it’s about helping to save the planet. Some organic farming certifications schemes are definitely stricter than others. The Soil Association are most rigid, particularly for chicken & ham. Soil Association certifies turkeys are held in smaller flocks, and appreciate more space indoors and out than others. The majority of other organic chicken standards are really closer to free- range. Discover Organic Foods with BBC Green, the new site for green issues.

Organic eye shadows is now something that is popularly used. With organic it means it is all natural ingredients. Organic skincare are definitely much more popular and more effective than some ingredients situated in normal day to day skin care. With naturally organic ingredients organic skincare will work in harmony with your body and skin to enhance your body’s natural healing and regenerative capabilities. Just like when you feed your body bad food, it will let you know its not happy- your skin is no different.

What are perennial bulbs? Bulb is a general term used by gardeners for plants which are highly condensed; their embryonic roots, stem, leaves and flower are all contained within them. Their resting period will end and growth begin when optimum moisture and temperature conditions exist. These conditions vary as different bulbs have different flowering and resting periods, but as perennials they will die down and produce new growth year on year.

Perennial bulbs are easily grown, and can provide wonderful color in the garden all year round. The vast range of perennial bulbs available means you can have dramatic, vibrant color or, if you prefer, more muted, restful shades. The garden has been described as a series of outdoor rooms. So, switch on the spotlight for bold splashes of tulips and daffodils in the spring; switch on the dimmer and, in the fall and winter, enjoy the tapestry of pastel shades created by a carpet of blue crocuses or pink cyclamens.

Before planting perennial bulbs it would be useful to consult the color wheel. Imagine a clock face divided into six, ten-minute sections. Starting at twelve o’clock, and turning clockwise, we move through.the color spectrum: green, blue, violet, red, orange and yellow. Colors from opposite segments of the circle will produce the most dramatic effects: violet tulips and golden daffodils, for example. Colors from adjacent segments produce a more muted effect: purple crocuses and the beautiful blue starry bells of scillas.

The hot colors are found mainly in perennial bulbs which flower in late spring and summer. Tulips, crocosmias and the stately cannas all offer dramatic color at this time. Crocosmias and cannas all offer dramatic color at this time. Crocosmias and cannas will have their vibrancy muted to an extent by their bold, architectual leaves. In a mixed border, you can turn on the spotlight by planting a large perennial bulb such as a canna: its foliage will create the drama as much as its color.

By contrast, using cool perennial bulbs of pale blue, blue pink and even pale primrose, can make a very restful display, particularly in an arrangement of patio containers or in sinuous drifts winding through a border. A truly breathtaking sight is a random planting of cool perennial bulbs in your garden, under a deciduous tree, for example, which copies, on a small scale, a woodland setting. Muscari, colchicums and bluebells will lend a quiet charm to your miniature woodland garden. The dimmer switch has been turned down low.

Of course, coolness is often associated with white. But the component colors of the color wheel, including the “hot” ones, together make white light. It is in this combination of “white-hot” that some of the most exquisite effects can be achieved with perennial bulbs. Scattered through spring and fall borders, when light levels are less intense, the vertical accents of the white snakes’ head fritillary, white tulips and the milky-white flowers of the cochicums help create a quiet drama. Both the spotlight and the dimmer are on together. Irresistible - plant perennial bulbs in the garden for stunningly beautiful, year-round color.

©2006 Maureen P Cook
Maureen Cook shows you how the wonderful range of
colors found in perennial bulbs can light up your garden.
To find out more about Perennial
bulbs, Click Here

Do you ever worry about always having to rely on getting seeds and fertilizer from the store? What would you do in a survival situation, if you could not go to a store to purchase these things?

Let’s compare it to your food supply. What would you do about your store-purchased food? Many wise people buy more than they need of food items that store well, and create a “year’s supply” of the essentials in their basement or other cool, dry place. This is the biblical answer. As you may remember, Joseph in Egypt saved grain for 7 years and then fed the whole Egyptian nation, as well as his own family and others, during the next 7 years of famine.

The same approach will work even better for gardening - with both seeds and fertilizers. For about $25 you can buy the triple-sealed Garden In A Can from Mountain Valley Seeds, with enough non-hybrid seeds to grow a 1/2-acre garden! If these are stored in a cool dry place they will remain viable for a very long time. The website is www.mvseeds.com, and I highly recommend you get a can, or the smaller Garden in a Pouch for about $12.

And if natural mineral fertilizers are kept dry, they will store indefinitely while still maintaining their potency. Therefore I suggest you also buy and store enough Pre-Plant Mix and Weekly Feed to grow at least one year’s garden. The formulas for mixing your own are in the Learn section of the Food For Everyone Foundation’s website at www.growfood.com.

A rule of thumb for how much fertilizer you would need to store, in order to have your year’s supply, is 6# of Pre-Plant and 12# of Weekly Feed per 30′ soil-bed. Even though you will only feed some crops 4 or 5 times, remember that if you are really living out of your garden, you will be growing two or three crops, and doing it from March or April, right up until frost in October. Therefore, see the following chart for suggestions on how much to store, depending on the size of your garden.

GARDEN SIZE PRE-PLANT MIX WEEKLY FEED

20′ X 30′ (4 soil-beds) 25# 50#

40′ X 65′ (16 soil-beds) 100# 200#

50′ X 100′ (30 soil-beds) 200# 400#

Now, what can you do if the emergency goes beyond a year, and you’ve used up all your fertilizer? First off, don’t expect the same quantity of production as you obtained with balanced mineral nutrients, but you can grow a healthy garden using manure tea. Here’s how.

Get a large burlap bag and a 55-gallon barrel. Find cow or horse manure (chicken or turkey is twice as hot, so less will be needed), and fill the bag 2/3’s full. Place the bag in the barrel and fill it with water. Let the manure soak or “steep” for 24 hours, then use the “tea” to water your vegetable plants. Replace the bag of manure in the barrel and let steep for 48 hours. Again, water with the tea, then dump the spent manure out and till into an unused portion of the garden. It has very little nutrient value, but can improve your soil tilth. Remember to plant a little further apart when doing this, because plants will be competing for less available nutrition. And every watering should be with the manure tea for your plants to thrive. You should expect to grow a smaller garden, and spend some time finding manure and hand-watering.

If manure just isn’t available, save your kitchen scraps and human waste. Many countries do it all the time, so it’s not the end of the world. And all clean, healthy plant residue should be saved and properly composted for re-use in the garden - again preferably as manure tea.

By the way, even 4 soil-beds, when properly worked and cared for, especially if combined with good seedling production, could produce a large amount of food. As an example, if only one crop was grown, you could produce 2,000# or more of tomatoes, or even cabbage - if you grew 3 crops. So is this approach cost effective? You do the math. Suppose you invest $50 in your year’s supply of seeds and fertilizers. What will 2,000 pounds of vegetables be worth to your family during hard times? Think of Joseph in Egypt!

Jim Kennard

James B. (Jim) Kennard, the President of Food For Everyone Foundation, has a wealth of leadership, financial, business, teaching, and gardening training and experience upon which to draw in helping the Foundation to achieve its goals. He is a retired (CPA), practicing as managing partner in a Salt Lake City firm since 1972, and has also owned and successfully managed several different businesses, including hotels, shopping centers, apartments, and retail establishments during the past twenty five years.

Jim has been a Mittleider gardener for the past twenty-eight years, he is a Master Mittleider Gardening Instructor, and has taught classes and worked one-on-one with Dr. Jacob Mittleider on several gardening projects in the USA and abroad, in addition to conducting projects himself in Armenia, Madagascar, and Turkey. He grows a demonstration garden at Utah’s Hogle Zoo, and assists gardeners around the world on the Foundation’s website and the free Gardening Group. http://www.foodforeveryone.org

Garden Accessories can be functional; but most often, they are placed in gardens for their charm and whimsy. From cheap mechanical croaking frogs to expensive gazebos, we just can’t get enough of them. For instance, a garden cart can hold a watering can, hand tools, and gloves; or it can be used as a garden end table, or placed in an outdoor setting for visual appeal only.

Garden accessories don’t have to be functional. Statues give style to a garden, while fountains and waterfalls create mist and water sounds. Garden structures such as arches and gates create entry ways or exits. Windmills and water wheels add movement. Yet, tables, chairs, and umbrellas are functional and are physically inviting and add comfort.

The beauty about garden accessories is that they don’t have to meet the same standards as home decor. What’s good about this situation for artists is that artists and designers alike can drop their guard when stylizing and designing for their gardens. If you feel anxious about painting a design on an outdoor piece or putting together a mosaic table top, make it for outdoor use! If your artwork is not exactly as you want it, it’s not as intimidating as long as you know it is going to be outdoors. It seems that outdoor art is a bit more forgiving.
For my garden, I placed a metal watering can inside an outdoor cart. I painted the watering can with white house paint. Then, I painted a horizontal line with green acrylic paint around the watering can. Next, I sprayed the can with a clear coat of matte lacquer and threw sand onto the lacquer before it had a chance to dry. Once again, I repeated the process. Finally, I sprayed a final coat of clear matte lacquer for the finishing touch.

Today, the watering can looks pretty close to how I originally painted it―and it’s been outside in approximately the same spot for about four years now with plants growing in it. This may seem unimportant and insignificant to some, but it is a rewarding experience to the person who took the time to add that special, personal touch to a manufactured garden accent. So, don’t be afraid to get creative with your garden accents. You just might surprise yourself! (revised 2/12/2006)

Debbie Jensen, Graphic Designer and Photographer http://www.debjensendesigns.com

You can make your garden of flowers the attraction of the neighborhood. As a gardener, knowing how to improve it can make the difference. The healthier your garden the better it will look. Usually a good looking garden will be a healthy garden.

Here are simple ways to make your garden of flowers bloom more for your gardening heart’s content:

1. The essentials must always be given major consideration.

Just like with any gardening endeavor, a garden of flowers must have its adequate supply of water, light, and fertile soil. To lack one of these gardening necessities is almost preparing the death bed of your garden flower.

Water the garden of flowers more frequently during dry spells. Also, make sure that you plant the flower bulbs deep enough to provide sufficient room for the rooting.

2. Mix and match perennials with annuals.

Perennial flower bulbs need not to be replanted since they grow and bloom for several years while annuals grow and bloom for only one season. Mixing a few perennials with annuals ensures that the show goes on with your garden.

3. Deadhead to encourage more blossoms.

Deadheading is simply snipping off the flower head after it wilts. This will make the plant grow more and produce more flowers. Just make sure that you don’t discard the deadhead on the garden or mildew and other plant disease will attack your plants.

4. Know the good bugs from the bad bugs.

Do you know that most garden insects do more good than harm? Butterflies, flies, beetles and bees are known as pollinators. They fertilize plants through unintentional transfer of pollen from one plant to another. And 80% of flowering plants rely on them for survival.

Why do you think flowers are that colorful and pretty? I’ll bet you thought it was to make humans more fond of them? It’s actually to lure more insects.

Sowbugs and dung beetles together with fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms make the soil friendlier to plants. This is because they subsist on dead materials, breaking them into simpler molecules that fertilize the soil. These bugs are known as the ever trusty decomposers.

Now you don’t just shoo away bugs whenever you see any. Choose your enemies.

With loads of information in mind and practiced, your garden of flowers will surely thank you with a breath taking view when it’s time for them to bloom again.