End the Lies

How far will he lies spread? On national news this morning there was a story about bacteria in the workplace. It was about how dangerous it is to interact with other people. The news story went so far as to say that it is dangerous to shake hands with other people, or use equipment that they may touch, or drink from the same water cooler.

When will this insanity end?

First I want you to notice the source of the study that named all the places with the most bacteria. It was a researcher paid by Clorox. Also understand that the news item was basically a disguised commercial for Clorox antibacterial wipes. Also notice that he would not say that the bacteria on these items caused disease. They said they could cause disease.

There is an important point there. The bacterial cause of disease has never been proven. It is only a THEORY. It is not a fact. The fact is that they have only been able to prove the opposite. Bacteria can complicate disease, but they don't cause disease. If bacteria get into a cut they can complicate the healing process and if they get into the blood they can cause problems. However touching bacteria will not cause disease.

Bacteria are our symbiotic partners in life. If you could destroy every bacteria there is on our planet, in an effort to stop disease, we would all die. We need bacteria on our bodies and in our digestive system. They aid in digestion. In our small intestines they create vitamin B12. They break down dead cell tissues.

Satan, the god of this world, would have us live in fear of what God has created for our good. Billions are spent eadch year, on the war on bacteria. Cleanliness is good to a point. However it has been proven that too much cleanliness is hazardous to our health. The chemicals used to fight bacteria are deadly to humans.

If you are made overly sensitive by eating a diet too high in protein these chemicals can contribute to cancer. This fact is overlooked because of the remote chance that bacteria might cause you to get sick, and the perceived risk of bacteria causing disease.

Don't be blinded to the truth. End the power of Satan to empty your wallet, and destroy your health, in a fight to eliminate bacteria. It has been proven that the common cold is a body instituted cleansing process. When we have too much toxic waste in our bodies, any stress can trigger the body's efforts to step up elimination of the toxins. The body is always in control of the symptoms associated with the common cold. When you fight the common cold you are fighting your own body, not bacteria.

Yes bacteria multiply in these situations. Bacteria are scavengers. They eat dead cell debris. Like earthworms are good for plants, bacteria are good for us. For instance take a look at the streptococcus bacteria. They are always present in our bodies. If our bodies start dumping toxins, through our mucus membranes, bacteria multiply. The food has to come first. If there is no food supply they do not multiply.

Experiments have been done in an attempt to cause the common cold or the flu or any other disease by deliberately introducing the bacteria once thought to cause the cold to healthy people.

Other studies have shown that the bacteria thought to cause the common cold are not always present during the cold. In fact a high percentage of people with a cold have none of the suspect bacteria. Even realitively large quantities of the bacteria did not cause the cold.

The perpetuation of this lie soothes the beast within. Human nature is to blame anything rather than accept responsibility for our own actions. We eat things that are outside of our design because someone says we should, or because we like it, or we just want to "have it your way". We cause our own health problems through ignorance, or by choice, and wonder why? It is so easy to blame the lowly bacteria.

We seek out those who will say anything for a buck, who will back up our choice to blame something outside of ourselves. We then get what we asked for, an innocent suspect, to use as a scapegoat.

It is much like sin. We have a tendency to blame anyone but ourselves when we do wrong. On the news this morning a man who murdered a young girl, blamed the drugs he took, and his emotional state, for his actions. He was begging for his life.

To end the Lies, we must take responsibility for what we do. Seek the truth about health, and the truth about health, will set you free from disease, and pain.

My ministry is about telling people the truth about health through both fiction books and non-fiction articles. We were designed to live in health. It is only when we live outside our design that we suffer with disease. God didn't make a mistake when He created us. God does not make junk. We are our own worst enemies. Our seemingly innocent choices kill more people every day, than all the terrorists in the world. But who is on the news?

My ministry is about telling people the truth about health through both fiction books and non-fiction articles. We were designed to live in health. It is only when we live outside our design that we suffer with disease. God didn't make a mistake when He created us. God does not make junk. We are our own worst enemies. Our seemingly innocent choices kill more people every day, than all the terrorists in the world. But who is on the news? There is a contact link at my website.

http://sixmonthstolive.com

I am constantly writing. Most of my articles can be accessed at my content site on Arthritis from the above link.

Six Months to Live is my first published work. If you were told that you had cancer and even if you get treatments for it you would not live more than 6 months, what would you do? The character is the book take a two week vacation that becomes the greatest adventure of their lives.

How To Win Friends

Great Lawns

This is a topic near and dear to my heart. Ask my wife and she will tell you I was obsessive over my lawn for the last two years... I can't disagree.

It all started with a new house. Typically a good thing right? Our first new house on a new cul-de-sac with 5 other new houses. We got the pick the colors and flooring and had some input in other things.

CONSTRUCTION TRAUMA

I came out to my front porch every morning and coached the little grasslings to grow up through the straw the contractors laid down. I looked through my bedroom window one morning and Woo Hoo, I could see green. Well the rest of that summer taught me that construction is hell on lawns and trees.

As I cleared away the straw, it revealed there were more bald spots than grass spots. And most of the bald spots had weeds already! The ground was terribly un-even and there were rocks everywhere! Big rocks, small rocks, medium rocks... lots of rocks!

Further investigation revealed that the construction crews took the fertile top layer of dirt for fill in other parts of the cul-de-sac. As we will discuss later, that top layer of dirt is very hard to replace and took decades to form. Now mine was probably under the black top of my neighbors' driveway.

We would learn later how much trees don't like the entire construction ruckus. They toughed it out for the first year and half like the tough five stories high pillars of rock you would expect. But then one by one, they made less leaves until it was obvious they were dead. We lost about ten trees. Of course every one of them directly around the house including the big majestic ones on the front lawn that defined the curb appeal of the house.

So here we are with a barren waste land of dead trees and a mange lawn filled with rocks and weeds.

THE MISTAKES

The first mistake I made was the classic, "try to do as little as possible until you realize its taking more time and money than if you just started from scratch in the first place".

Little by little

I brought in dump truck loads of dirt to try and level small sections. I bought little bags of lawn patch pellets for the bald spots. I bought tree spike nutrient things for the trees. I should have just hired a bulldozer to level the whole thing and then spread seed and straw.

So as I tried to patch and pick up rocks I started to do some research. My wife told me we had "clay soil". So I looked it up and found that Clay is like concrete. Its very dense, doesn't hold water, doesn't allow roots to breath or move.

Gypsum

The site said to add Gypsum. Little tiny pebbles that look like those volcanic rocks in your gas grill. The site said to put truck loads on your lawn with a spreader each year for about 3 years. The idea was they would work their way into the soil and create little pockets in the dense clay thus allowing the clay to breathe and hold moisture more like a sponge. Sounded great but most people I told what I was doing said it's a lie and the only thing you need is top soil (that stuff the contractors took away).

Earth Worms, Geese, and Sand

The opposite of clay soil is sand soil so I figured if I just added sand to my clay everything would be perfect. Nope... adding sand actually takes clay that may have some chance of being good soil some day and make it absolutely useless concrete.

I awoke one night with the perfect plan! Ill buy a couple wheel barrels full of earthworms! Their great right? They aerate the soil with little tunnels and they poop all over the place. That would surely make my soil good again and quick! Nope... further research told me that worms don't make the dirt good, good dirt makes the worms. Basically dropping worms on my lawn would be like putting them in the middle of a large empty parking lot.

That disappointment led me to think of geese. If I put a bunch of bread or whatever they eat on my lawn they would come and poop all over it. Nothing is better for grass than poop! My wife informed me that when geese do pick a spot to poop they come back to spot for ever. I wanted a little fertilizer, not a mine field for the rest of my life.

THE SAVIOR

My wife appreciates my obsessions because she knows they give me something to do. Hence keeping me out of trouble and out of her hair. But she doesn't like to see me in pain and losing is painful for me, especially when my opponent is dirt. So she bought me a book on lawns. Scotts Lawns Your Guide To A Beautiful Yard by Nick Christians.

Let me start by saying this is a great book and if you are obsessive like me, you should go buy it right away. With that said though... I was wary when I first opened the book as its very first piece of advice was to fertilize. Fertilize in the summer, fertilize in the fall, fertilize in the winter, fertilize in the spring, fertilize, fertilize, fertilize. Hmmm I thought, a book by Scotts lawn products telling me to fertilize. Great! Nobody actually cares about my lawn they just want me to buy gypsum and fertilizer and worms.

I was jumping to conclusions as you will see.

SOIL

The quality of your soil is the key if you haven't figured that out already. It's not the grass, or weeds, or watering. Good soil is the answer to 90% of your problems.

There are three main types of soil:

Clay soil - Clay is like concrete. Its very dense, doesn't hold water, doesn't allow roots to breath or move. Rain runs right over it eroding what ever blade of grass hasn't fought to grab hold yet. When it's hot and dry in the summer the clay soil dries out just like... well clay.

Sand soil - Sand is like mesh. It's very loose and airy. So loose and airy that it too does NOT hold water or nutrients. The water just runs right through it. It allows roots to breathe and move so much they can fall over. Rain can actually wash the soil away along with any grass that may have grown in it.

Loam - This is what you want! It even sounds good. Say it out loud... looooaam. This is the stuff that formed my top layer before it was scrapped away. This is the stuff that's under the leaves in the forest. That black soft dirt that been formed by decades of decaying leaves and plants. This soil takes the water from a rain storm and holds it like a sponge to slowly seep out over the dry days. This soil has nutrients and is firm enough to hold plants upright yet airy enough to let them breathe.

THE SECRETS

Okay so we determined that our soil is terrible. What now?

There are two fundamental issues with sand and clay soil. They don't have any nutrients and they don't hold things well (nutrients, roots, or water). So we simply need to build that layer of fertile soil back as quickly as possible and provide the soil with extra nutrients until that layer is built.

How? You guessed one of them. Fertilizer is the key to the nutrients. Organic material is the key to the fertile layer of soil.

GO NOW AND DO

Here is the step by step of what I eventually did to turn my lawn from a brown balding mess to the lush green envy of my neighbors. I have to give credit to the book (and my wife) for just about everything I am about to tell you.

Mulching Mower

This is absolutely imperative. Spend the most time and money on this one thing. I spent hours researching Consumer Reports to find the mower that mulches the best. It was a Toro push mower but may have changed since. You basically need to replace decades of missing organic material and the easiest material you have is grass clippings. A good mulcher will cut them up fine enough to decay much quicker.

Mow High and Often

Obviously the more grass you cut and mulch the quicker you will build up that layer. Cutting high encourages deep roots and healthy grass. It does NOT cause you to have to mow more often. Cutting grass short can actually do that.

Mulch The Leaves

Just like the grass clippings, chopped up leaves help to build that layer of organic material. I actually rake and blow leaves from the woods onto my lawn to mow over and chop up. If I could think of a way to have truck loads of leaves delivered to my lawn, I would. Think of leaves as free loam and fertilizer put together!

Soil Sample

Before you fertilize, you need to know what your soil is missing. Giving it a nutrient it already has too much of just sends you backwards.

Just about every community has a "Cooperative Extension" that does cheap soil samples. You fill a couple freezer bags with dirt from two different places in your lawn and bring them in with an application that says how big your lawn is, etc. If you don't have an Extension you can look on the web for soil samples.

What you get back is a map of what to give your soil. Soil needs three key ingredients, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium. The report should tell you exactly how much of each your soil needs. In addition it will tell you if your soil is too acidic or too alkali.

Fertilizer

Fertilizer is what provides the three key nutrients above. And if you lawn is like mine... the book was right, fertilize, fertilize, fertilize! But be sure to use the right mix!

All fertilizer has a ratio on the package that tells you how much Nitrogen,
Phosphorus and Potassium it has. For instance a ratio of 50-25-25 indicates that half the bag is Nitrogen, a quarter is Phosphorus and the remaining quarter is Potassium. Bring your calculator to the store though as the numbers are never easy as I just used in my example.

My soil sample said that for my size lawn I needed:

45 pounds of Nitrogen but I should only put 15 pounds down at a time.

0 Phosphorus as it already had too much.

42 pounds of Potassium but I should only put 30 pounds down at a time.

Armed with this information I went to the store to buy fertilizer with a ratio of 15-0-30 or as close to that as I could get to a bag that had no phosphorus and twice as much potassium as nitrogen.

You will have to do some math (hence the calculator) to figure out the pounds you are actually putting down. For instance a 40lb bag with a ratio of 22-0-11 means that half the bag is Nitrogen so approximately 20lbs. I needed 15lbs so close enough. One bag was good for my nitrogen but I needed twice as much potassium so I really need a bag with a ratio of 11-0-22. Like I said, bring the calculator and get as close as you can.

Lime

The forth important ingredient to a good lawn is proper PH level. Remember my soil report said I needed 42lbs of potassium. Well it also said my soil is VERY acidic and needed 3,150 lbs of lime! Yes you read it right 3,150 lbs of lime, 750lbs at a time. At 40lbs a bag, that's about 19 bags of lime each year for the next 4 years. It is what it is.

A huge word of advice on lime. Spend the extra money and get the pellets. I went cheap and bought 19 bags of powder. The powder got clogged in the spreader immediately so I ended up tossing it in the air out of my wheel barrel. It got on everything including my house, my car, my kid, and I still have the taste in my mouth today. It literally ate my wife's favorite gardening shovel that we used to scoop it out of the bags. Lime is the opposite of acid but does the same darn thing to metal believe it or not.

The pellets will work in the spreader, stay on the ground and not in the wind, and are usually time released to go into the soil instead of wash away.

CONCLUSION

The first year was wasted on my experiments. The second year I did all of the above and my lawn improved ten fold! I fertilized again this fall and expect my lawn to really shine this spring.

Ron Roberts is a webmaster of TrueBlueContractors.com allows contractors to spend less money advertising, give fewer estimates, and get more work.

Discovering Spirit And Sound

Sport Fishing Trips

Salt water fishing is preferred for its intensity and the big trophies. Obviously the most important equipment you need in this case is a boat that you will need to take at least 5 mile out into the water. Your choice for a boat depends on how often you usually fish and the kinds of trips you frequently take. The amateurs can buy old boats that can be restored and which are financially convenient and suit their fishing habits. The professionals will prefer the best of the best: secure, durable and practical. In their case, the passion they have for fishing is a lot more expensive. In a saltwater fishing trip you will need equipment to catch tuna, cod, swordfish, snapper, mackerel, flounder and many others. You will need a rod of approximately nine feet in length. The reel has to be very resistant to put up with the corrosiveness of salty waters. Materials like stainless steel, plated steel, titanium, resin and fiber are the best choices. The lines should match the type of fish you intend on catching: sharp teeth fish will require a thick lead; a longer lead and floating line are suitable for a weighted fly; conversely a shorter line is best for a sinking line.

Salt water fishing trips have different equipment requirements. You will be fishing in lakes, rivers and streams for species like bass, pickerel, sturgeon, pike sunfish, trout, salmon, catfish, muskellunge and walleye. The boat doesn't require advanced apparel - a motor boat will work just fine. Fishing lines range from 4 to 20 pound-test, hooks between number 6 and number 10. The baits work best if they re live ones such as earthworms, insects, insect larvae, frogs, minnows, chub, shad, crayfish. Small fish baits are also effective. Artificial baits are extremely varied - plastic worms, flies, insects, small jigs, spoons, streamers, spinners and many others. There are also baits that you can prepare yourself as long as you can preserve them in your fishing trip. The smell of fresh bait is very important for catching fresh water fish: kernel corn, bread balls, cheese balls, egg bags, liver, and cereal balls. Overall, going on a fresh water fishing trip can require merely knowing how to cast. Many regions destined for tourists will have shops nearby the fishing spots and you can ask for a guide. The most preferred are the lodges that allow you to prolong your fishing trips up to several weeks and you can easily bring your entire family.

The best locations around the world are all too many, but there are a few recommendations that need to be put into practice by the passionate fishermen: Cabo San Lucas in Mexico is famous for its sport fishing. You can catch tuna, snapper, marlin in abundance just to name a few. It is a perfect spot for deep sea fishing. For trophy-size tuna and marlin of 500 pounds, you can give it a try in the blue waters of Nassau, Bahamas. The resort is renowned to be as exciting as deep sea fishing. Dana Point in California can be explored in a 4 day fishing trip by charter. Here, you can practice both freshwater fishing in the inland lakes and saltwater fishing by renting boats. Costa Rica is also perfect for sport fishing tarpon, sailfish, marlin or Dorado. For fresh water fishing, popular spots are in the mountainous regions of Montana and Colorado.

If you'd like to see some new online games, take a look at these websites:

Play Online Games
Car Games
Racing Games

Chakras Book Review

Garden Mulch - Five Excellent Reasons For Mulching Your Garden Beds

The use of some sort of material to be spread on the ground to a certain height, which acts as an insulating layer between the soil's surface and the atmosphere, or mulching in short, is a technique being increasingly employed by professional horticulturalists. Some home gardeners may still be insufficiently aware of its importance, so in this article I'll tell you why a mulch layer is so important, then I'll go into the different types of mulch, their various qualities and how they should be used.

Amongst many benefits, a mulch on the soil -

* Significantly reduces weeds. This is true of annuals although mulching does not generally prevent the growth of perennial weeds

* Significantly reduces the evaporation of moisture from the soil surface and is therefore an essential part of water conserving gardening

* Reduces soil erosion caused by wind and rain. This is a fantastically important benefit

* Moderates the top-soil temperature. So in the winter a layer of mulch can prevent freezing, and in hot- summer climates, prevent the top soil reaching temperatures that inhibit plant growth

* Is aesthetically superior to the sight of bare soil and irrigation pipes

Taking aesthetic considerations into account, there are broadly speaking two types of mulch which are viable in a garden. Organic mulches such as wood chippings, and natural inorganic mulches such as pebbles. Which is preferable?

The use of decorative pebbles is often part of an overall design. They are particularly appropriate, associatively, in dry climate gardens. But there are a number of drawbacks involved. Some aggregates such as dark stones of volcanic origin have been found to actually increase the top-soil temperature. Furthermore, adding organic feeds to the soil, something that should be done once or twice a year, becomes difficult and tiresome. The use of a chemical fertilizer pump offers a way round this, but sets in train a number of problems. Relying on chemical fertilizers as the only method of feeding is dreadful gardening! For further discussion on the automatic fertilizer pumps, see a previous article of mine called "The truth about fertilizer pumps."

On the other hand, while wood chippings may in some cases be less attractive, they help to create a better habitat in which your garden plants grow. Organic mulches definitely moderate the soil's temperature, they provide raw material for essential organisms like earthworms, (see article called "The world's greatest gardener!") and as they break down they contribute humus to the soil. All these factors reduce pest and disease infestations, improve the soil's structure, and in the long run help to provide balanced nutriment for the plants

For organic mulches to be effective, they need to be spread to a depth of about 10 cm, after the initial quantity has settled. This means you need to spread about 15cm in order to end up with a layer of some 10 cm, and you'll need to add a bit each year as the chippings closest to the soil's surface break down. Be careful to keep the mulch away from tree trunks and shrub stems. It could cause rot to set in.

For FREE hands-on, expert information on gardening click here

http://www.dryclimategardening.com

And this is especially for gardeners in a dry climate! Grab hold FOR FREE chapter 1 of my book

"HOW TO GARDEN IN A DRY CLIMATE"

Go to http://www.dryclimategardening.com/Products/tabid/55/Default.aspx

Jonathan Ya'akobi

Your Personal Gardening Coach

Bhagavad Gita

No-Till Gardening

No Till gardening isn't like your traditional gardening where you dig and turnover the soil to mix amendments.The process of having the amendments and nutrients mix into the soil is done by top dressing the garden beds with compost, organic fertilizer, lime, manure or other organic amendments. The amendments are then pulled down into the soil by organisms in the existing soil and by watering. It is a lot less labor intensive way of gardening and greatly benefits the soil structure of your garden. The key to no - till gardening is the same as any method of organic gardening, good soil structure.

With no-till gardening because there is no turning over or tilling the soil in your garden your raised beds, rows, hills or mounds stay the same year after year and organic matter is added by top dressing.This will help to prevent weeds and to improve the soil structure, keeping the life in your soil thriving.

Green manures, earthworms and micro-organisms do all the work to the soil to keep it healthy. The only thing that keeps them working hard for you to have a healthy garden soil is the organic matter that you feed them. Mulching your garden with a rich organic matter like compost will keep feeding the soil the nutrients that it needs and to keep a good healthy soil structure.

Weed control is minimal with no-till gardening. The continuous adding of layers of organic matter year after year also acts as a mulch and not turning over the soil prevents weed seeds that are buried to be brought to the surface to germinate.

If you have been organic gardening then changing over to no-till gardening is simple. Good soil structure with organic matter is the key to any organic garden. Let the earthworms and other organisms in the soil do the work for you.

http://www.organicheirloomgardening.com

Gregs Videos

Special Events and Corporate Meetings are Becoming Environmental

Planning for the Environment Changing the Way We do Business

At any given moment there are thousands of business meetings and special events going on with millions of guests traveling to and from different locations throughout the world. The event and hospitality industry is perfectly situated to have an extraordinary environmental and ecological impact by planning events with better awareness and by greening up their decision making process. Green planning is a responsible way of doing business that includes energy conservation, minimizing consumption of natural resources, reducing waste, reusing resources, recycling, and using earth-friendly products.

Green meetings and events are not main stream today but will be mandate before we know it. Times are evolving rapidly in that direction and event planners, venues, suppliers and participants are responding. They are beginning to follow ecological practices and implementing environmentally friendly processes and programs into the way they design their events. The more an event planner requests and ultimately hires green services, the more suppliers and vendors will begin to incorporate green practices as well. They will have to keep up with the times and the requests of their clients.

These suggestions listed below are for you if you gather people for any reason what-so-ever! It doesnt matter what type of event you plan. Whether you are coordinating a special event, planning a corporate event, are part of the team planning conventions, involved in conference planning or business meetings and seminars. Maybe your are in charge of planning a company party, a sporting event, grand openings, a reception, a charity event or a fundraiser, or have volunteered to do your daughters wedding or son's school play or bake sale. You might be planning festivals, rock concerts, reunions, retreats, or book signing events. Or perhaps you are just having the family and friends over for a holiday get-together. The list is endless - thousand of events are being planned as you read this! ALL of them could use environmental practices.

Listed below are a few simple choices you can make today as you plan your special event or corporate meeting that will make an immediate difference with little effort. Do just one or do them all. The more you integrate into your planning practices the easier they become.

10 Easy Steps to Put into Practice Today

Here are ten simple steps that you can take right now to lessen the impact of any event:

1. Create Standards. Establish environmental standards in writing and get buy-in from your clients, the organization's management and/or your clientele. Share your standards with suppliers, vendors, speakers, and participants.
2. Use Technology. Use new media and electronic technology to cut down your paper needs. Create an informational web site, offer electronic registration and confirmation, and advertise using the web and use various forms of email. Create podcasts, webcasting, and video streaming to alleviate travel for and accommodate those who cannot travel.
3. Choose a Local Destination. Picking a local or close venue will reduce distances traveled by speakers and participants. Choose the host city that is the closest to participants locale. Choose a venue and hotel that are near the airport and within walking distance of each other or close to public transportation.
4. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Ask your hotel or event venue to provide visible, accessible reduction, reuse, and recycling services for paper, metal, plastic, and glass. Also if food is involved in your event, ask them about their composting regime or give away programs.
5. Volume Up. Have the food and beverage provider serve sugar, salt, pepper, cream, and other condiments in bulk dispensers. Use volume serving verses individual packaging. If you are using hotel rooms, find a venue that does not use individual shampoo and lotion bottles rather large dispensers. Also one that that offers a linen reuse program.
6. Use Less. Be aware of what you use and how you use it whether it is food or product. When you order food or drinks for any occasion, try to order only what you will be using. And think about your give away items, are they really necessary. These are just a few areas where using less will help.
7. Eat Healthy and Locally. Plan meals using local, seasonal produce and free range meats. Include vegetarian meals and order only what you need. Also use local flora in your decorating and keep the flowers in pots verse cut so you can use them as gifts and prizes.
8. Use paper wisely. Published all printed materials on recycled paper using vegetable-based inks and print on both sides of the pages.
9. Save Energy. Coordinate with the event venue to ensure lights, audio visual equipment and air conditioning will be turned off when rooms are empty.
10. Spread the News! Tell participants, speakers, and the media about your success. You will be surprised. Green efforts are contagious.

Some of these suggestions may seem obvious and they are, however, if you were to make the changes listed above, you would be way ahead of the game in becoming an environmental planner. The bigger event you produce the more these suggestions matter. For more information on how you can become more environmental, the Chapter Planning for the Environment in my book, The Complete Guide to Successful Event Planning. Visit my web site at www.successfuleventplanning.com to purchase the book.

As an event planner for over 25 years I have seen it all. Throughout that time I was creating timelines and checklists so I wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel for each event. This eventually became my latest book The Complete Guide to Successful Event Planning, a 2007 release. Inside this book you will discover an extensive chapter on Planning for the Environment. We have a long way to go but this is a fabulous first step.

Visit my web site to learn more about me and my book. http://www.successfuleventplanning.com

Do You Love Flowers? Design a Cutting Garden and Grow Your Own

If you love flowers and enjoy having them in your home but cant afford buying cut flowers, flower gardening is for you. Too much work? Dont have time? Hate the weeding, watering and fertilizing? Well, take heart, cutting gardens are easy to establish and fun to care for. Think of all that beauty around you every time you set foot into that fantastic garden. Cutting gardens can be traced back to the sixteenth century. If you dont have space for a full sized cutting garden, grow a perennial or annual flower border around you vegetable garden or lawn.

There is nothing magic or complicated about planting a cutting garden. The same steps that apply to a flower garden apply to a vegetable garden. They're simple:

a) Location

b) Design

c) What to plant

d) Soil selection and preparation

e) Maintenance

A flower bed for a cutting garden should be placed in a spot that gets plenty of sunshine. Find an out of the way spot where you will be free to work without worrying about getting in the way of other plants. After all, this garden is for producing flowers that will be harvested for use in indoor spaces.
Since this garden is for production, dont worry too much about how it looks. Layout depends on how much space you have. Long rows are the easiest to plant and maintain. If the space limits you from planting in rows consider, planting in square plots or beds. Make sure you layout the beds with space around them for maintaining and cutting the flowers.

Flower gardens are no different that any other garden. The soil is the primary key to your success. The soil should be loose but not fall apart when you squeeze some in your hand. It should not form a solid ball either. The soil should hold moisture but also allow the moisture to drain away.

Once you have tested the soil you can go about bringing it up to your specifications by working in organic material such as compost and peat moss. Once this is accomplished, work in a slow release fertilizer. Apply enough fertilizer to last through the growing season. Always contact a specialist at your garden supply store or nursery for answers to questions about composting and fertilizing the soil.

Now the decision as to what to plant. Simple, plant the flowers you like and enjoy. Dont settle on annuals alone. Plant perennials, too. Bulbs and some foliage plants must also be considered. ear.

Your flower garden will require watering. Dont sprinkle the surface of the soil. Sprinkling only penetrates the soil and inch or two and will encourage shallow root systems on your plants. Plants should be watered weekly down to 5 to 6 inches to assure deep root systems and plenty of moisture.

You may want to consider a drip irrigation system. Drip irrigation systems assure an optimum supply of water is available. Most importantly, a drip irrigation system will allow for air to be available constantly. Heavy watering saturates the soil and causes extreme fluctuations in moisture and aeration. Drip irrigation systems are easy to install and relatively inexpensive for a small garden. These systems dont require the amount of time on site a hose watering system does. Also, if you wish you can set them up with a timing system.

Cutting flower gardens have been grown specifically for making flower arrangements for several centuries. Growing a cutting flower garden is as simple as following a few simple steps: location, design, soil preparation. If flowers help brighten your life, dont spend another growing season looking around your local supermarket or floral shop for some nice flowers to buy to brighten up your home. Grow your own and have whatever you want. Its just a matter of starting.

Copyright Larry Gildea, All Rights Reserved.

This article may be distributed freely on your website and in your ezines, as long as this entire article, copyright notice, links and the resource box are unchanged.

Dr. Larry Gildea has authored several articles on gardening. Dr. Gildea also created the Gardening Bonanza website, http://gardeningbonanza.com Gardening Bonanza.com covers many types of gardening, including, bonsai design and cultivation, container gardening, flower gardening, rose gardening, hydroponics gardening and several others.

How to Start a Worm Farm

Getting started on a worm farm is not that complicated, all you'll need is a love for recycling and a little bit of worm trivia so here's some worm trivia that could help motivate and inspire you with your new venture. How much do worms usually eat? Mature worms capable of eating up to three times their own body weight every day and for those who are just starting in the world of worms and what to know how to make the worms eat more and have a lot more productivity.

The answer is simple - shred, mash or blend food scraps since these will make the food more digestible and is very easily eaten by the worms. Also maintain worm bed temperature at around 23-25 degrees Celsius, since it is at these temperatures that worms feel their best, but don't feed your worms foods high in acid content as it will screw up their digestive system. The following are a few things you'll want avoid feeding your worms, manure, onions, citrus fruits or peelings, garlic, garden waste sprayed with insecticides, dairy products like milk and cheese or meat.

Watering the farm will enhance the production of the fertilizer but take care not to add too much water in the farm or the worms will die. Take note that food wastes are actually eighty percent water content which is released as the worms begin to break it down. So, if you happen to pour water over the system every couple to few weeks be sure to just add sufficient water to make sure that the bed remains damp and cool, and you will have a constant supply of this fertilizer.

You will not be able to harvest the worms since they'll regulate themselves within any space and the amount of food made available to them. Here are a few other questions that you might find yourself inquiring.

Why is it common for worms to gather on the lid of the farm when it is raining? It's a perfectly normal response for these worms to act in this manner during the rainy season to avoid getting drowned.to avoid drowning. Just take the farm containers to an area where it won't be exposed to too much rain and drop the worms to the farm bedding.

Why don't the worms just relocate to the upper level of the tray? If could be the result of you putting in new food before the worms have completed the earlier batch. Worms have an instinct to stay with leftover food and won't seek out to find a new food source until it consumes what was left previously. Therefore, before adding new trays, halt the feeding of the worms for at least five days so you can be sure the old food has been eaten and make sure that the levels in the tray needs to be placed high enough for the worms to pass easily up to the next tray.

Do worms have the ability endure high temperatures? worms are able to stand a temperature ranging between ten to thirty degrees Celsius. so if it gets hotter than they can stand, place the farm in a nice shady cool place where it can regulate the moisture and humidity of the boxes. In colder temps make sure to cover the box with old clothes, blankets and wool shavings to sustain the warm temperature. It's also good to feed the worms at least a quarter more than you're supposed to since more food by the worms gives way for more heat to be generated within their bodies. So use these ideas and you can be on your way to create a great worm farm.

P Abbey owns and operates http://www.wormcompostingdiy.com - Worm Composting Troubleshooting

Starting Seeds for Your Garden Indoors

In much of the United States, the only way to take advantage of a full growing season is to start your plants from seeds indoors. In areas where the last frost can be as late as the end of May, and the first as early as the beginning of October, the abbreviated growing season can mean a short garden season and a severe limitation on plants and flowers that would otherwise flourish. One solution is to choose only native plants for your garden. A more workable solution is to cover your kitchen table with newspaper one day in March, pull out the potting soil, seeds and pots, and give your garden an early jump on the season.

What You Need to Start Plants Indoors

Location

Your best option is a room with south-facing windows that get direct sun at least 6-8 hours a day, but if adequate sunlit space is not available, grow lights are fairly inexpensive and very easy to set up. Set up your plants with enough space for you to move around and water the plants.

Equipment and Supplies

You can buy commercial flats at any department or home supply store for under $5. Theyre flat trays with individual compartments each meant to hold one seedling. An alternative that works quite well is cardboard egg cartons. Theyre biodegradable, provide drainage and can easily be cut apart when it is time to transplant your seedlings outside.

Purchased potting soil is a good growing medium, but if you want to really give your plants a great start, you can mix up a batch of potting soil with compost and peat moss, or leave the soil out entirely and grow in peat moss, vermiculite and compost. Basil, tomatoes, carrots, asters, marigolds, nasturtiums, petunias and pansies are all good candidates for starting indoors, but you can choose any garden plant that can be started from seed.

When to Plant

Most garden plants can be started indoors about six weeks before the anticipated last frost. In most northern states, thats mid-March. You can transplant the seedlings outside when theyve reached 4-6 inches in height, after the last frost.

How to Start Seeds

Loosely fill each compartment or egg cup with soil to just below the top. Do not pack down! Use your index finger to poke a hole about an inch into the soil. Drop seeds into the hole. For large seeds like beans, use one seed per cup. For tinier seeds, sprinkle a pinch into the hole. Lightly cover the seed by raking soil over it with your fingertips. Move trays to a sunny window (or beneath grow lights). Water well, but dont over-soak. Loosely cover each egg tray with a sheet of clear plastic wrap, and then leave them alone.

Check daily for signs of moisture, and when you dont see any, lift the plastic wrap and mist well with a mister, then re-cover. You can remove the wrap when seedlings have two leaves, or are touching the plastic.

When the seedlings are 1-2 inches tall, its time to thin them. In any container that holds more than two seedlings, pluck out all but the hardiest so that theyll have the best chance at setting root and growing. Water and mist frequently until the danger of frost is past, then transplant to your garden outside.

Ed Rooney is the creator of http://www.garden-helper.com - an online gardening resource for gardeners to learn, share, plan, and shop for their gardens. Gardening articles, garden forums, blog, plant fact sheets, horticultural zone maps, professionally designed garden and landscape plans, garden business directories, shopping recommendations, recipes and more can all be found at http://www.garden-helper.com

The Best Lawn Fertilizer

It is hard to determine one best lawn fertilizer because there are so many different kinds of grass. You also have to look at the soil of the area to determine what the needs will be in fertilizer. The amount of sun and shade that your lawn gets also has a direct influence on the way the grass grows and how green it gets. Walk on the lawn and see whether or not the grass remains down in your footstep. This could be a sign that you need to water the lawn or that the grass does not have the right nourishment for growing well.

When you use a fertilizer on your lawn, it will stimulate the growth of the grass. This will also mean you have to mow the lawn more often. Experts recommend that you do apply fertilizer at least 4 times a year. There are different fertilizers you should use at the different times of the year. In spring, choose a fertilizer just for that time of the year. As the grass begins to grow stronger in late spring, you should use a turf builder and during the summer, you need to use a summer guard that won't burn up your lawn. There is also a winter fertilizer you can use to help prepare the lawn for the coming spring.

While most of the commercial fertilizers do contain chemicals, if you want your lawn to be environmentally friendly, there are organic fertilizers for your needs. You can also leave small grass clippings on the lawn rather than raking them up. This is the most natural kind of fertilizer apart from animal manure. Although manure is one of the best fertilizers it is also unsightly and smelly.

For more information on the best fertilizer for a lawn, lawn sweepers and other lawn care and related topics visit TheLawnCareGuide.com

Composting Citywide

I always thought it would be cool if the cities we lived in picked up our composting right along with the recycling and the trash. Imagine the space it would save us in the landfills! Not only that, but we could replenish our community parks and gardens with usable soil, and create some new city jobs in the process. Sounds good, doesn't it?

Well, apparently I'm not the first person to think so. As it turns out, the City of San Francisco does just that with their newly improved "3-Cart Curbside Recycling Program."

The plan, under Mayor Gavin Newsom, seeks to divert 75% of the city's waste from landfills by the year 2010. More ambitiously, the hope is that by 2020, San Francisco will become 100% waste-free. Perhaps to the naysayer the plan sounds impossible. But consider this: already the city is successfully diverting an astonishing 70% of its waste from the landfills.

How do they do it, you ask? It's actually very simple: they recycle everything and they provide incentives to both private residences and business owners that reward folks who put less in the trash heap.

Under the program, people are given three bins: black for trash, blue for recyclables, and green for compost. The color-coded bins are free and come in a variety of sizes. Residents simply sort their waste into the three bins, and the city makes its pick up. Easy.

So far the program is a success. The city's recycling rate is higher than any other city in the US. Residents are encouraged to recycle a broad range of products that are normally thrown in the trash; city employees later hand sort the items for recycling.

As far as the composting component, everything that is biodegradable waste is accepted. This includes all food scraps - a practice most composters don't even resort to. In addition to food scraps, the green cart is also where San Franciscans toss their food soiled paper products (napkins, paper plates, milk cartons, etc.), and yard-trimmings. This aggressive method of composting has resulted in the city's pick up of over 300 tons of biodegradable waste daily. The compost generated by the city is later sold to Bay Area farms and the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma.

All things considered, the San Francisco should be commended for their composting and waste management program. Part of the goal of this program is to model a citywide composting and recycling program for other cities to emulate.

Given the emphasis and growing trends in green culture, we'll probably be hearing a lot more about citywide recycling and composting programs. If you're inspired to try it yourself, check out some books on composting. Get yourself a compost bin, and give composting a shot on a small scale. If San Francisco's innovating composting program is any indication, we'll probably all be doing it sooner or later!

Composters.com is an online retailer of eco-friendly compost bins, compost tumblers, rain barrel, and other composting supplies.

Composting For Sustainable Organic Gardening

SUSTAINABLE SOIL building for organic gardening begins after the initial garden soil testing and the addition of fertilizers and conditioners. It is very important to maintain and improve the soil when trying to garden organically. Sustaining the soil means that you have a means of replenishing the garden soil with what you have at hand - compost, beneficial microbes, enzymes, and earthworms. Ideally, once your organic garden is established it could be sustained with garden compost alone - by removing garden soil and layering it in your compost. This method uses the microbes in your soil to inoculate your compost, which in turn will feed your soil. SHREDDED ALFALFA HAY is one of the secrets of great compost. It is worth it to rent a shredder for the weekend, and shred up a few bales of alfalfa hay. Worms thrive on it, and it provides the best mulch and soil additive for your garden soil.

BUILDING YOUR PILE

BUILD YOUR PILE about four feet in diameter, and four feet high, on a well-drained site. A ring of hog wire with a ring of chicken wire on the outside of it works well - providing air circulation, keeping the pile contained, is easily taken apart for turning or sifting, and, it is economical and very easy to maintain. We let our piles set for a year and then sift them in the spring when we are adding compost to our garden beds. No Turning! If you want to turn your pile, let it set 3-4 months, remove the wire and set it up next to your pile. Take the pile apart, mix it, and add it to the new pile, moistening it as you go. You may do this as often as you like. This will speed up your composting process.

FIRST LAYER on the bottom should be about three inches of roughage - corn stalks, brush, or other materials to provide air circulation.

SECOND LAYER is two to four inches of dry vegetation - carbon-rich "brown" materials, like fall leaves, straw, dead flowers shredded newspaper, shredded alfalfa hay or dry manure. Water well.

THIRD LAYER should be two to four inches of green vegetation - nitrogen-rich materials, like grass clippings, weeds, garden waste, vegetable peelings, tea leaves, coffee grounds, and crushed eggshells. Kitchen waste may be added but never use meat scraps, diseased plants, dog or cat manure, or poisonous plants, plant-based kitchen waste. Water until moistened. (Too much water will compact your pile and reduce available oxygen.)

FOURTH LAYER is garden soil, two inches thick. It is important to add garden soil because it contains a supply of microorganisms and nutrients, which will inoculate your compost pile. As microorganisms grow, they collect essential nutrients containing antibiotics, vitamins, and catalytic enzymes in their body tissues and release them slowly as they die and decompose.

REPEAT LAYERS of dry vegetation, green vegetation, and garden soil - moistening each layer - until the pile is three or four feet high. To insure enough green vegetation one can plant extra garden greens, or devote one of the garden beds to the growing of compost. Good composting greens are broccoli, cauliflower, kale, comfrey (grow it in an isolated spot, and do not disturb the roots, because it can be invasive), peas, beans, and all the rest of the garden weeds and greens.

COVER THE TOP of the pile with three to four inches of garden soil, making a ridge around the outside edge to prevent the water from running off. Use a broom handle or iron bar to make air holes from the top, deep into the pile every eight inches or so, for ventilation and water. Top off the pile with two inches of shredded alfalfa hay. Water regularly to keep moistened.

CURED COMPOST

CURED COMPOST has almost all the nutrients the crops contained, and so many beneficial microbes that it is one of the best things you can do for your garden. It also contains enough humus to replenish your soil's supply. Your compost is ready when it is dark, rich looking, broken down, crumbles in your hand and smells like clean earth. Parts of the compost pile along the outside edges that have not completely broken down will be removed when your pile is sifted and can be placed at the bottom, and between the layers of the next compost pile.

SIFTING COMPOST

SIFTING COMPOST is easily done by placing a 4 x 4 foot square of inch wire mesh over your wheelbarrow and bending the edges over the sides. Then a shovel full of compost may be placed on top of the wire mesh and rubbed. The siftings fall into the wheelbarrow and the lumps will remain on top. One side of the wire can be lifted from the wheelbarrow and these clumps will fall to the ground into a pile. When you are done, these can be shoveled into a new compost pile, and be layered accordingly.

COMPOST PROBLEMS

PROBLEMS can occur if conditions are unfavorable. Some of the problems are:

BAD ODORS indicate that there is not enough air in your pile make more air holes in your pile, or turn the pile, or start a new one.

CENTER OF PILE IS DRY means there is not enough water in your pile. Make more air holes, and fill them with water, and the water will disperse throughout the pile.

PILE IS DAMP BUT ONLY WARM IN THE MIDDLE indicates that your pile is too small. Increase the size of your pile to at least four feet high and four feet wide.

PILE IS DAMP AND SWEET SMELLING, BUT REMAINS COOL indicates a lack of nitrogen, not enough green matter or manure. Cover the pile with black plastic for a few days, but be careful not to cook all your microbes. The pile also may need more water.

SPEEDING UP COMPOSTING

TO SPEED UP THE COMPOSTING PROCESS and increase the decomposition rate you can add extra nitrogen, fishmeal or blood meal, to your layers. Using a metal rod to make holes in your pile will increase the amount of oxygen and stimulate aerobic activity. You can also shred your components fine, which causes faster decomposition. Compost innoculants can also be used to add nitrogen fixing, decomposing, and other soil bacteria, enzymes and hormones.

VERMI-COMPOSTING

VERMI-COMPOSTING is another organic gardening technique, which uses earthworms to make compost, which will be rich in organic matter and worm castings, and is one of the best soil builders available. Worms can eat their body weight daily in organic matter and convert it into dark, soil enriching castings full of live micro organisms, growth hormones, and nutrients, humic acids which condition the soil, and a neutral pH. Worm castings are free from disease pathogens, which are killed in the process. They prefer a temperature range of 60 to 70 degrees, but will tolerate 32 - 84 degrees. They require a moist, pesticide free environment with plenty of organic matter to eat. There are two types of Vermicomposting, indoor and outdoor.

OUTDOOR VERMI-COMPOSTING, ABOVE OR BELOW THE GROUND

ABOVE THE GROUND BIN: composting red worms are an excellent addition to a compost pile. The worms help to process the pile by eating the decayed matter and turn the waste into fine topsoil in approximately 2 to 3 months, depending on the quantity of worms introduced into the pile, the outside temperatures, and the time of year. A compost heap that is 4 x 4 x 4 should have a minimum of 3,000 to 10,000 worms introduced into the pile - about two pounds. Add them to your compost pile when it has broken down and is warm but not hot in the center. Dig down about a foot and add the worms. Keep the pile moistened, but not soggy wet. This pile will be your "breeding area".

WHEN YOU WANT TO REMOVE some of the worms for next compost pile, begin feeding the worms at one spot near the edge, and when the worms move to this area after a few days, add some of the worms to your other compost pile. At this time you can also remove some of the soil and worm castings for your garden lowering your pile a foot or so. Keep feeding the worms in the breeding area by adding greens and shredded alfalfa hay to the top of the pile every few weeks. Be sure to add four or five inches of shredded alfalfa hay for winter protection, and keep the pile moistened, but not wet.

BELOW THE GROUND BIN: Dig a 2x8 foot trench two or three feet deep into the ground below frost level. Place a six-inch layer of peat moss and shredded newspaper or cardboard on the bottom, and water until evenly moistened, but not soggy wet.

FILL THE BIN full with a mixture of 2/3 corrugated cardboard and 1/3 sphagnum peat moss, shredded newspaper, shredded leaves, or shredded alfalfa hay, add a little crumbled aged or composted manure, and a cup or so of fine sand mixed with equal parts of wood ashes, and ground limestone. Mix well, moisten, and add two to three inches of a mix of finely chopped vegetal kitchen wastes, garden waste, and aged manure to one end of the pit.

ADD ONE POUND of red compost worms, which can be ordered through the mail. (When your worms first arrive they may be dehydrated, you can feed them a light dusting of corn meal before you cover them.)

LOOSELY COVER worms/waste with a 2-inch layer with shredded alfalfa hay. Water and feed two or three times a week - adding vegetable waste under the alfalfa layer to keep the process going. Each time you feed your worms place the waste mix next to the previous feeding area, working your way toward the opposite end of the pit. When you get to the end of the pit, feed back towards the beginning. As you continue these layers and reach the top, leave a four-inch space between the cover and the mixture for ventilation.

COVER THE TOP of the pit with a sheet of plywood to keep out the elements and critters, and weight down with rocks.

IN A FEW MONTHS and under the alfalfa layer you will have worm castings, which can be transferred to your garden beds. To harvest your worm castings wait until the worms are being fed are at one end of the pit. You can remove the castings from the opposite end of the pit. Replace the castings with the mix of 2/3 corrugated cardboard and 1/3 sphagnum peat moss, shredded newspaper, shredded leaves, a little crumbled aged or composted manure, and a cup or so of fine sand mixed with equal parts of wood ashes, and ground limestone. Cover with the 2-inch layer of damp shredded newspaper or cardboard mixed with straw.

INDOOR WORM BINS

COMPOST CAN BE MADE INDOORS by using wood, metal or plastic bins with lids. Special worm composting bins may be ordered through the mail, or you can easily make your own. Special worms are used in Vermicomposting: Eisenia foetida or Lumbricus rubellas, which can be ordered from worm farms, or some nurseries. Start with about a pound or worms, around 1000. They can multiply quickly, and the surplus can just be added to your summer garden, or given to friends.

BUILD OR BUY A BOX:

FOR TWO PEOPLE, a box 2' x 2' x 8" deep, or so, wood, metal, or plastic, will suffice. For a larger family, make it 2' x 3' x 1' deep. There should be some small " holes in the bottom for drainage, and the box should be set on a tray with 1" spacers between the tray and the box, for aeration and drainage. A garden shed would be a useful to hold all of your extra supplies and gardening tools.

LINE THE BOTTOM with shredded 1-inch strips of newspaper, inch wide strips of cardboard boxes, and peat moss. A mix of 2/3 corrugated cardboard and 1/3 sphagnum peat moss, or newspaper, is a good bedding mixture. You can also add shredded leaves and a little aged or composted manure, and a cup or so of fine sand, ashes, and limestone. Moisten the bedding, mix it well, and add the worms. Let it set for a few days before kitchen waste is added. Your worms will happily feed and make castings.

ADD KITCHEN WASTE every day or so, by burying it a few inches or so in the bedding mix in one end of the box. Kitchen waste can include: vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds and the filters, tea bags, without the tags, any vegetable matter, bread scraps, dried and crushed eggshells, and small amounts of finely chopped meat scraps, garlic and onion.

COVER THE TOP of the compost bedding with a layer of damp newspapers, and a loosely fitting lid with holes for air. Every time you add waste, work your way to the other end of the box, so you will have about 8 or 9 different adding areas. When you get to the end of the box, start over at the other end. Worms will eat the bedding along with the scraps, and you may need to add more. Keep the bedding mix/scraps moistened, but not soggy wet. In a few months you will be ready to harvest your compost.

TO HARVEST COMPOST castings, follow the same procedures for gathering outdoor castings. Only add the castings to your garden beds, these special worms live indoors only.

"Worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it pervious to rains and the fibers of plants, by drawing straws and stalks of leaves and twigs into it, and, most of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth called worm-casts, which, being their excrement, is a fine manure for grain or grass." The Rev. Gilbert White of Selborne, 1777

Resources for compost supplies

Home of the Organic Gardener Planet Natural Peaceful Valley Farm Supply Fertile Garden Harmony Farm Supply All Natures Safeway Extremely Green Gardening Company

Frank and Vicky Giannangelo
Copyright (c) 2008 Giannangelo Farms Southwest

Everything Poolside - The Options Are Virtually Endless

Purchase statuettes, decorate with potted plants, experience the sweet dim light of lamps in your garden at night and much, much more. Purchase porch swings, purchase garden benches, and even reclining chairs and many kinds of patio furniture for your outdoor enjoyment and overall poolside dcor. There are virtually endless possibilities for your home outdoors. You may be surprised at the amount of accessories, furniture, heating and lighting that can enhance (and almost transform) your poolside ambiance significantly.

There are many different things to consider when you decide what kinds of poolside accessories to buy. Now, not all pools have them, however, I believe that a hot tub, reflecting pool, or a swimming pool is almost incomplete without an underwater light or two. Why? I think it is because you make it more uncomfortable to swim at night, debris in the pool may not be visible, and sometimes it just seems a bit primitive, or weird, to be swimming in the dark. And sometimes the reflecting pool is right there in your yard or garden, but only slightly visible at night because of the lack of any sort of lighting.

Some people prefer non submersible lighting, whether inside or outside of the reflecting pool, its luxury and allure is wasted without decent lighting. Its elegance seems to be diminishing as quickly as the sun goes down. This is because your reflecting pool is literally, as a matter of fact, becoming less and less impressive when you, friends and family members and /or other guests can not see it well. Therefore, you are taking away half of the relaxation, comfort and outdoor enjoyment potential of your pool, whatever kind of pool you might have.

We all know that your home dcor outdoors can be just as (if not more) important as your special home dcor within. Many people consider their yards and / or gardens as a sort of sanctuary . . . a place to relax and unwind in his or her spare time. Currently, especially in the United States of America most of us are under extreme stress and seem to have very little free time as it is. This is why many different people, under many different circumstances, want to get the most out of his or her free time outdoors in their own personal space.

Everything from high quality pool heaters to alluring waterfalls are options for you as pool accessories. Then there are poolside accessories to consider such as lamps, lanterns, speakers, pool sheds. In addition you want to have excellent furniture items such as elegant, decorative tables, chairs, and chaise lounges. You can consider as well that plants are beautiful additions to the ambiance for your swimming pools, reflecting pools, patio gardens, extra accessories, or garden ponds.

You do not want to waste your Saturday soaking up the sun in an uncomfortable lounging chair or on a towel by the pool. Of course you want to have the very best, most comfortable surface on which to relax by your pool. Who doesnt? You dont want your special, relaxation time combating with your ability to get in a comfortable position. Imagine, back pain on Monday from your weekend by the pool.

While we are discussing poolside reclining and relaxing, some of the safest ways to do that is to build your pool in a shady area. In case your pool is already pretty much consistently encased in the sunlight, you may want to build yourself a structure to provide shade. Anything from an awning to an enclosed patio area is a great idea for your garden, yard or poolside.

Nonetheless, many people simply enjoy soaking in the sun. If you prefer to rest while exposing your self to the sun light, be sure to use a high quality sunscreen for protection. Do not take this lightly, even if you are often in the shade. In addition, sometimes people like to wear sunglasses. Or, to avoid the goofy sunglasses tan-line many people will wear a brimmed hat, anything from a visor, to a baseball cap, to a stylish summer-wear hat brimmed all around. The latter of these, as a woman, is my personal favorite. Wearing one you will avoid tan lines and the many hats available for you are often very striking and stylish. Get one to match your bathing suit, your towel, your beach bag and other accessories!

Many different poolside items, without even exploring the summer styles for bathing suits, beach bags, sundresses, and other accessories, are available that can transform your outdoor ambiance completely. As a matter of fact, you can even increase the length of time throughout the year that you can enjoy a more comfortable temperature in your outdoor space as the chillier months approach.

Of course, there are not only many high quality pool heaters available on the market right now, but there are also patio or poolside table and / or area heaters that may be perfect for you. In addition, elegant outdoor fireplaces come in an enormous number of styles, shapes, designs and sizes to best suit your personal taste.

When you discover the possible ways to enhance the ambiance of your personal space, the private sanctuary in which you can relax and unwind. Find the most beautiful poolside furniture, lighting, and other accessories for your pool. Whether you have a reflecting pool, a swimming pool, or even a waterfall, or garden pond, there are great poolside accessories available to choose from.

There also exists, a thing I consider the latest miracle in outdoor furniture technology: plush yet weatherproof outdoor furniture. Purchase sets of these amazing new outdoor lounging and even dining furniture. High quality, and absolutely pleasing to the eye selections of chairs, sofas, chaise lounges and other furniture with cushions (that are virtually maintenance free) are now available on the market of outdoor furniture.

Anne Clarke writes numerous articles for websites on gardening, parenting, fashion, and home decor. Her background includes teaching, gardening, and fashion. For more of her articles on poolside decor, please visit outbackpatio.com, supplier of high quality Patio Fountains and Garden Furniture.

Rare Orchids - An Overview

Orchids are one of the most ancient plants still in existence. Their life began in primordial times, with the species being highly adaptable so that the orchid could grow and change as the Earth itself did. Rare orchids are being protected as different eco-systems collapse.

With their ingrown sense of survival, the orchid lives in every climate, excluding solid ice. They do not necessarily need soil, as they can grow symbiotically in nature. Orchids will live in trees, mountains, bogs, grasslands, rocks, and forests. The roots of orchids will grow in the air, as well as laterally. Today there are over 35,000 orchid species living in every corner of the world. If the orchid doesn't have what it needs, the plant is clever enough to make the world around it create certain living conditions. Ants have been coerced into living with the orchid so that the acidic content can be put to use within the plant. Since orchids have existed before the birds and the bees, they have found a way to mimic pollinators to trick them into propagating.

Sometimes living in such harmony can become difficult for rare orchids. Orchids have become rare due to the care they need to thrive subsiding or the care is overdone. Other reasons such as deforestation and/or imminent extinction allow orchids to be added to the rare list.

Following are some examples of rare orchids.

- Ladyslipper orchids grow wild in Britain and have been harvested so much they are now on the verge of extinction.
- Phal Amboinensis flava is an albino orchid discovered thirty years ago in Singapore and whose stems grown indefinitely.
- Maxilliara Mombarchoenis and Epidendrum are found only on the Nicaraguan Mombacho Mountaintops.
- Bulbophyllum Hamelini is suffering from Madagascar's deforestation.
- Fly Orchids disappear in the Netherlands every time their forests get thick.
- Habenaria Psycodes is located in the South Appalachians and is rarely seen.

More recently in 2007, in an ancient tropical forest in Vietnam's Green Corridor, a new orchid species was found. The specialty of this species is that they are leafless. Not only that, but they have absolutely no chlorophyll or green pigmentation. The forests of the Annamites breed many other rarities, as well. In 2003, it was reported that in dense evergreen forests of Similipal, Orissa there are housed 93 species of orchids. Among these lives the rare orchid Goodyera Hisipada.

On the other side of the globe, in Washington State, lives the Phantom Orchids. Leafless and completely white, the plant will stay dormant for up to seventeen years after blooming just once. Development and logging is destroying the Phantom Orchid's habitat and is a protected species in Canada.

More than 3,000 orchid hybrids are created annually. Sizes, shapes, and colors abound in the orchid families. There are certainly enough orchids to thrive on the planet. However, some rare orchid species will continue to dwindle and meet extinction if mankind continues to destroy their habitats. Some rare orchids are dying out not because of man, but due to low propagation. The smaller specie classes will need to grow to continue.

As you can see, the rare orchids are far outweighed by the sheer number of living orchids. Who knows - with the brain that these plants have, maybe the devolution of the rare orchids will stop and arise in evolution as the orchid yet again adapts to its ever-changing world.

Mel Beauchamp is an orchid enthusiast. For more great tips and advice on rare orchids, visit Easy Orchid Care Secrets

Tips on Basic Composting

Composting is is very easy method of recycling your household organic waste and turning it into a nutrient rich humus that is beneficial for your garden.

Choosing a bin for composting is the first thing you need to do. There are allot of different types to choose from. Homemade bins or commercially made. There are stationary bins and rotating tumbler bins. Each type has it's advantages and disadvantages. Pick one that fits you needs.

Choose a location that is level, well drained.and easy to access year around. Choose an area that there is soil and not concrete or pavement so worms and beneficial organisms can get to the pile. Building a compost pile on existing grass isn't the best practice. It is best to remove the grass and turn the soil first before starting your pile.

Collecting material needed to start your compost pile are divided in two parts. Brown material (carbon-rich) and green material ( nitrogen-rich). Brown material such as leaves, hay, straw, paper, cardboard, eggshells, coffee grounds, tea bags and sawdust. Green materials such as grass clippings, plant trimmings, annual weeds, fresh manure, fruit and vegetable peelings.

Don't use meat, fatty food waste, dairy products, treated wood or human, cat, or dog feces.

Too start making compost first place a 4" to 6" layer of twigs, straw or corn stalks on the bottom. Then place a 4" to 6" layer of brown material followed by a 4" to 6" layer of green material. Continue these layers until the bin is full. Once you have filled the bin turn the pile every 2 to 3 weeks watching the moisture content of the pile. Add water by sprinkling layers as you turn the pile as needed. DO NOT SOAK THE PILE.

The time varies to getting a finished compost. It can take from 3 to 4 weeks to a year depending on the material and method used in making your compost. When finished compost has a sweet earthly smell. It is dark in color and crumbly still with small pieces of leaves or straw in it. They can be screened out or left to finish decomposing in the garden.

A environment friendly and healthy way of gardening. Organic Gardening is away of gardening in harmony with nature. Growing a healthy and productive crop in a way that is healthier for both you and the environment.

John Yazo

http://www.organicheirloomgardening.com

Certified Organic Gardening Nurseries - Getting It All at One Stop

For a variety reasons that often include environmental and health concerns, many people are choosing to make their vegetable gardens organic gardens. Even though a newcomer to the world of organic gardening may feel more than slightly overwhelmed with the concept of, there is no reason to be worried; organic gardening does not have to be hard. In fact, it can be incredibly rewarding to watch your family enjoy vegetables and fruits that you know are completely free from harsh, potentially dangerous chemicals.

Many people do not know that there are certified nurseries where you can purchase all organic products in a way very similar to health food stores. When you go to a certified organic nursery you can be confident that whatever items you purchase will be one hundred percent organic, something you cannot say of traditional nurseries.

What Is Available at Organic Nurseries

Organic gardeners face challenges that normal gardeners simply do not have to deal with. In order to get assistance with these difficulties, you can visit a certified nursery where a wide variety of products that will help you to successfully grow organic fruits and vegetables. These nurseries are the best places to find and purchase certified organic seeds and pest control products. Most of these nurseries carry live insects that can be used in your garden to keep plant destroying pests under control. Using live insects is good way to save money on organic pest control.

Since compost is a very important part of any successful organic garden, obtaining nutrients from a local nursery can help you make your compost of more benefit for your garden. Phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium can be released into your compost pile by adding worms to it, which can also be bought at a certified nursery. Fortunately, you will not have to purchase many worms because they reproduce quickly.

The Importance of Knowledge and Experience

The people who work at certified nurseries are quite knowledgeable about all things related to organic gardening. You can get lots of great advice simply by visiting such a nursery and asking questions. Since success is so related to experience, you can get some great tips from experienced gardeners who work at organic nurseries.

Do not forget that the way in which you care for an organic garden has much to do with where you are located, so suggestions from local farmers are best.

Are you looking for living green tips you can use but are afraid it's going to be more expensive? Get some environmental tips that will not only help save the world, they'll also help you spend less. Stop by the How Can We Go Green website for more information.

Compost Tea - the Gardener's Tea Bag

One of the things that has come to the forefront of gardening knowledge in the last few years has been the realization of the effectiveness of liquid fertilizers. Organic gardeners have known this for a long time. After all, for a plant to absorb nutrients they must first be dissolved in water for the roots to take them up. An additional boost is present if the dissolving has already taken place so that food is already prepared for the plant. Some of the nutrients may be absorbed by other plant tissue such as stems and leaves for an additional surge of growth.

Compost is known to be a good source of readily available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, the big three of fertilizer nutrients. However, the nature of compost as it comes from a vast array of plant materials determines that it is a fantastic source of the micronutrients that are needed for optimal growth. Plants fed on compost tend to be healthier, tastier and better looking. So how is one to get the benefits of compost coupled with the benefits of liquid fertilizers? Quite simply, make tea.

The easiest thing to do is consider your nearest teapot and kettle around tea time. While you may throw in loose leaves to strain them later through your mustache or at least a tea strainer, generally one uses a tea egg to hold the leaves or takes a ready made tea bag from the box. In it goes into the pot and boiling water from the kettle goes in to start the dissolving process of part of the tea and a mass of soluble chemicals from the leaves. After a brief wait the tea is ready to be used and then the residue goes into the compost pile. For compost tea, we do the same.

1. Make a teabag. Get a burlap sack or similar and shovel in some compost. The amount is not critical but be generous. There will be no waste. Tie the bag shut.
2. Get a tea pot. Five gallon buckets work fine. If you happen to have a dark one, so much the better. Black garbage cans are great.
3. Place the tea bag in the tea pot.
4. Add water. It does not have to be hot but if you have a hose sitting in the hot sun, it helps.
5. Let it sit for a couple of days or longer. That dark can will absorb heat and make the tea stronger and faster. No matter how strong, I have never heard of compost tea made this way hurt plants.
6. Remove the "tea bag" and water plants with the tea.
7. Put the spent compost on the pile that is accumulating material (remember, there is no waste)
8. Refill the bag and start more tea.

Now all you have to do is stand back to watch the plants grow with their great boost. You might even get a cup of orange pekoe and sit back while both you and the garden enjoy your tea.

Darrell Feltmate is an avid gardener who has been composting and gardening for over 25 years with gardens up to 1/2 acre and compost piles for each. His composting site may be found at Compost Central. You can be a master composter in no time at all.

Much of his compost uses wood shavings from his wood turning hobby. The site for wood turning may be found at Around the Woods.

Why Go Green - More to the Point, Why Not?

The new Obama administration has indicated a strong focus on developing America's renewable energy resources. So whether you believe global warming is man-made, or purely a result of the earth's natural cycles of warming and cooling, now is a perfect time to adopt an individual green lifestyle that will conserve energy, save water and result in a cleaner, sustainable environment. The availability of eco-friendly products and services is becoming a great green wave that will make it easier for everybody to become more environmentally friendly. And it doesn't take a major change in lifestyle to contribute to a cleaner and greener world.

Historically there has been a high cost barrier to moving to green products, but that is becoming much less of a hurdle as more companies compete to offer better, greener products. While certain high-end goods remain out of reach of all but the most well off, the energy saving benefits of many green products quickly offset any higher up-front cost. Green cleaning products are often more concentrated than the regular chemical products and therefore offer good cost comparison for their total use.

In most areas of the country recycling programs are the first introduction to helping protect the environment we live in. Unfortunately, the incredible variety of different collection programs leaves much to be desired and there is much to be done in the future to improve the effectiveness of this process. Maybe this is one area where sensible State or Federal regulation could create common recycling procedures and improve the efficiency of collection and re-use. Back yard composting can reduce the disposal of yard and food waste which is estimated to make up around 30% of the waste stream going to landfills.

With the increasing pressure on energy costs around the world and the improving technology developments in solar and wind power, we can expect to see greater utilization of these natural resources in the future. Solar technology is developing very quickly and becoming more usable and cost effective. Solar lighting and water features are now very efficient and an attractive, clean addition to any garden landscaping. While solar leasing programs are making solar power more available for individual homes. Wind power is a very hot topic right now with the Pickens Plan receiving a great deal of publicity. If we are able to capture the tremendous wind energy resources in the US, and then develop an environmentally friendly means of distributing it around the country, it could make a significant contribution to the greening of America.

Along with the growth in the availability of green products has come the problem of identifying what is truly green and "how green is it?" As with any product for sale, the claims of the best and the greenest can often be somewhat exaggerated. However, this need not be too big a distraction. It is not necessary to choose the most energy efficient, or the most natural cleaner, to contribute to a greener world. A higher efficiency rating in a replacement appliance, or a natural cleaning product that gives the best results, enhances the green footprint but should also fit in to the personal choices of a modern lifestyle.

The decision to go green can be as dramatic or as gradual as each individual or family wish to make it. Once the "green light" goes on however, it does appear to take on a life of its own. Each green choice, small or large, contributes to the growing movement towards a more eco-friendly world.

If the choices are there and the barriers to their use are coming down, who wouldn't want to reduce their use of the earth's finite resources and convert to a cleaner, less polluting, healthier, green lifestyle.

Peter O'Grady is the owner of It's Eco Time.com and writes on a variety of subjects involving our impact on the environment and the options available for living a healthy and sustainable green lifestyle. To find products to save money, energy and water and for other green topics visit http://itsecotime.com and share your comments and questions.

Flower Gardening: Have Your Flower Garden Bursting With Color All Year Round

Flower gardening need not be restricted to just summertime. Planning carefully and planting ahead of time, will have the garden filled with an array of flowers for all of the year round.

Let's plan the seasons, then for spring flowers, the best thing would be to plant bulbs. Any nursery will supply them, and if you're more disposed towards the exotic, and rare flower bulbs, there's a good chance that they will need to be ordered specially.

The most popular amongst bulb lovers are early springtime Crocuses, and cheerful Snowdrops. Tulips though, have shown to be the most famous of bulbs in demand by flower gardeners, and are available in a variety of colors, including a black-colored one, which is really more of a dark maroon.

Remember that all spring flowering bulbs should be planted in mid autumn, as this is the best time for them. Come any closer to winter and you're in danger of losing your whole crop of bulbs completely.

Moving through to summer, perennials are the firm favorite for flower gardening as they bare blooms almost continuously throughout the summer season, and on occasion longer. With a little luck and care, the perennials will last through to next year, and the following year. It's also found that as the years and the seasons roll on, your perennials will become fuller, and generally will become more abundant than the first year you planted them.

As autumn approaches most flower gardens are left with only few small hardy plants to choose from. For those more dedicated to flower gardening, that need not be the case. Hardy, drought resistant plants like Asters number among the many types of fall flowers available, and will look stunning in late summer/early fall, Generally, autumn plants will grow to a good 3-4 feet in height, and have vivid colors, as well as the more genteel pastel colors to choose from. Ornamental grasses are another favorite and will nicely complement your fall flowers.

So, take heart, take plenty of notes, plan, and buy to your heart's content. By the end of it all you truly will have a flower for every season, and your flower gardening efforts will be rewarded most bountifully

Ron is the webmaster and owner of http://www.gardeningmoments.com and would like to share his passion and ideas for creating a fantastic garden. Flower Gardening is not restricted to certain times of the year have flowers bursting with color all year round.

Efficiency Equals Reduction

Imagine that if at the grocery store the person bagging your purchases left empty, unused spaces in each bag causing you to carry 10 instead of 5 bags out to your car then into your home. You would be investing some extra time, energy and space when it was unnecessary. Now transfer that thought to the waste and recycling industry. Instead of filling a trash bag or bin with large empty spaces, we can all do some simple acts to help keep transportation costs down while reducing fossil fuel consumption and saving ourselves some time and money.

The flattening of boxes greatly increases space efficiency in a bin. This does not just apply to cardboard boxes, but also includes any paperboard (cereal or pet food) ones as well. Crushing cans before recycling is much more easily done if it is possible to remove both the top and bottom lids first. Foil products are easily flattened by hand.

Periodically crush your garbage bag down to its true size -you will find that it does not need to be placed on the curb as often. Fewer trips to the dump means less fossil fuel consumed and reduced curbside idling - idling is known to be terribly inefficient and more polluting than vehicles on the move. Garbage collection fees are more easily maintained by the company due to reduced costs per bag, and some companies even offer a discount for those who produce less waste. Also worth noting is that the household will go through fewer plastic garbage bags.

Some kitchen waste disposal units tend to put unnecessary pressure on overtaxed sewage plants. A much better option is to practice composting or vermiculture methods instead. Composting organic waste reduces household trash by approximately 30%. Go one step further by reusing various plastic bags to isolate smelly meat, bones and pet waste. By controlling odors in the garbage, the bag will not have to be put out on the curb as often.

So, imagine that if your waste and recycling was now half the size that it typically was before. That means in theory the waste pickup service would decrease costs by 50%, the landfill would be receiving half of what it used to, fewer trips to the recycling depot, less pollution...

Well you get the picture. It is easy to make a difference and we can all start at home. Right where we are.

~ Dave & Lillian Brummet:Authors of the books Trash Talk, Purple Snowflake Marketing and Towards Understanding; co-host of the Conscious Discussions radio show (http://www.brummet.ca)

Chickens - A Delightful and Valuable Part of Organic Gardening and Homesteading

Adding chickens to your backyard farm is the fastest way to a healthy, organic garden, and a delightful way to make your homestead more self-sufficient.

Why Chickens are Invaluable To Self-Reliance

In the thirties, during the Great Depression, horror stories abounded about soup lines and folks facing starvation. But those who owned their own land along with a dozen or more hens and roosters never went hungry. That's because in a bad economy, those who can raise their own food are way ahead of the game. With a dozen or so hens and a rooster you'll have a steady supply of eggs and meat.

Live in the city? You probably won't be able to keep a rooster, but most city ordinances will allow you to have up to six hens. Those lovely birds will supply you with two and a half dozen eggs per week.

Your Organic Garden Will Thank You

The manure from your hens or rooster is one of the most fertile substances in nature. While you should never add the manure directly to your soil - the nitrogen is too strong and can burn your plants - it does marvelous things when added to your compost pile.

Better yet, if you keep goats and some of your hay has gone moldy, add it to your chickens' roosting box or to the brooder. The chickens won't care, and when they're done with it, that wonderful moldy, manure-laden hay will jump-start your composting.

Great With Children

Save for the occasional ornery rooster, these birds are gentle and safe around children. Your little ones will love holding the baby chicks.

Easy to Raise

Although they do require some special care those first two to three weeks of their life, chickens are - on the whole - easy to care for. All they require is a little shelter, fresh water and food every day. Gallon water feeders are available. Use those and you'll only need to provide water for your birds once a day.

On hot days, be sure to check their water at least twice a day. Chickens need plenty of water and won't drink warm water.

Raise Your Own Eggs, Improve Your Health

A survey done by Mother Earth News revealed that chickens - particularly those who live in chicken tractors moved daily - have up to one third less cholesterol and a fourth less saturated fat than commercially raised eggs. They also have more vitamin A and a lot more omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E and beta carotene than their commercial counterparts.

Free range birds eat more of the diet they are supposed to have - lots of leafy greens, bugs and worms. They enjoy their lives; my birds love it when I move their tractor about. Everyday they get a new supply of grass to scratch in! Commercially raised birds, on the other hand, spend their entire lives cramped in the same small, dark, dirty space. They consume a diet of cottonseed, soy and corn with additives thrown in.

This stressful environment can make them sick, so they're also given antibiotics to keep them from dying too soon. You and your family ingest those antibiotics when you eat their eggs. Plus, you're eating eggs from stressed-out, potentially sick birds.

With your own free-range birds, you're providing a kinder environment for your brood and better nutrition for your family.

Fresh, clean meat

Naturally, the same goes for the birds you raise for meat. Less stress and no antibiotics. Plus, the meat will be cleaner. Chickens that are commercially processed and killed are plucked and then thrown into a large vat of hot water until they are ready to be cut up. A lot of fecal matter collects in the vat. The chickens are literally cooking in "fecal soup". The feces soaks into the flesh of the bird and is in the liquid that comes in the packaging. When you butcher your own birds, you eliminate the "fecal soup." Hence, cleaner meat.

Eggs Are An Easy Income

Everybody loves fresh eggs, so they are easy to sell. Keep a few extra hens to produce more eggs than you and your family can eat. Sell the surplus, and within a year you'll recoup your startup and feed costs. Keep selling your extra eggs, and the following year, you'll have free eggs and earn a little income besides.

Sue Merriam is author of the website, Organic Gardening and Homesteading. http://www.organic-gardening-and-homesteading.com

Design Your Garden With Permaculture Principles

It seems there are two big reasons people are reluctant to do more with their yards: money and time. But you can save a lot of both if you take a little time to consider how your yard fits into the environment around it and you can let Mother Nature do some of your gardening for you.

The fancy word for thinking about and organizing intelligent ecological design is permaculture, coined in the late 1970s. It was first intended as an alternative to destructive industrial agriculture, but its principles make absolute sense for the home gardener as well.

The first and most important step (yet also free) is to observe the effect of the elements and how they interact on your property. So get out a pencil and paper, and draw a bird's-eye view of your lot and buildings. You can get a great overhead photo of your property from Google Earth. Trace the outline of your roof and all other surfaces and buildings where water runs onto your property, and use it as your master. You can then use tracing paper to draw the water flows to see where you have a natural water harvesting opportunity.

You can also observe and plot sun/shade patterns. Did you know that the sun doesn't really rise in the east and set in the west? Okay, yes, technically it does, but it differs dramatically from summer to winter, moving far to the north in the summer, and south in the winter. How does that actually affect your yard? Track the sun patterns at the fall and summer solstice on the diagram you made earlier. Knowing where the shade is thrown is important for choosing the placement of garden plots, trees and plants. How do the buildings on and around your property provide shade? What about your trees or your neighbor's trees? Maybe you don't have much shade. That may dictate how you design your new space, and most importantly, what you plant.

Here in the desert, we've got to make the most of our water. Soil built with plenty of compost and other organic materials actually retains water best. You can also design your garden in a way to maximize retention as well: every drop that flows down a storm drain is a drop that could have raised the water table on your own property. The best way is to build a system of berms and swales, either on contour, or as is the case on most urban lots, as a path system with sunken beds. You'll eventually use less municipal water and create a cooling effect with more moisture around your home. Think about using barrels or cisterns to collect rainwater and help with day-to-day watering. Arizona rainwater harvesting expert Brad Lancaster has a great website filled with resources.

So now you're ready to start digging, but what's the best type of bed? Surprisingly, sunken beds have some advantages in the desert that are worth considering. They're cooler, hold water better, and give plants a little extra shade. Raised beds allow you more control over the content of your soil, but they may also limit the depth of your garden, and they dry out faster. Most plants have roots that grow down, so if your raised bed is not at least two to three feet high, your plants will grow through your wonderfully amended soil and only to hit our Arizona clay. If you must use a raised bed, be sure to also turn the soil under the bed before you build it. If you're concerned about the content of your soil, or want to know what it might be lacking, you can get a soil test at one of the agencies listed at the your local extension office

Google the word permaculture to learn more and find on origanization in your area.

Doreen Pollack is the Garden Goddess and owner of Down 2 Earth Gardens. Join her newsletter for free gardening tips on monthly What to Do in Your Garden this Month. She also holds garden consultations and gardening classes in Phoenix AZ. To find a workshop near you, visit http://www.down2earthgardens.com