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Archive for March, 2011

What makes hydroponic gardening different from traditional in-ground gardening is a soilless growing medium. No dirt! All plants require support, to be held up. This basic requirement is dealt with by soilless growing mediums which are inert, mostly non-organic materials. Non-organic refers to the medium not being derived from living organisms, unlike soil, which is. There are a perplexing jumble of growing mediums available for hydroponic gardening. Generally speaking, these mediums are porous, light and coarse, allowing oxygen and nutrients to be easy accessible to the plants roots.

Some of the most common used in hydroponic gardening are:

Coconut Coir ~ This is produced from the husk that surrounds the coconut shell. Made up of millions of tiny micro-sponges, it can absorb and hold up to eight times its weight in water, perfect for hydroponic gardening. It lasting three times as long as peat moss so is fairly sturdy. It is also called palm peat, coco, or just coir. Some of the advantagesof this medium for hydroponic gardening are better water retention and aeration. The disadvantages of coconut coir are its breakdown after several uses and some drainage issues. It is often mixed with other media to improve drainage for hydroponic gardening.

L.E.C.A / Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate ~ This is clay which has been heated under high temperatures until it puffs up. It makes a very coarse medium as the clay balls are about 1/4″ across. Superb drainage, holds moisture, stays put and is reusable after sterilization to continue with your hydroponic gardening. These are just some of the advantages of this medium. On the downside, it doesn’t hold moisture as well as mediums like coconut coir and can be more costly.

Perlite ~ Glass flakes (Silica) are heated until it expands producing what we know as perlite. These tiny nodules hold water well and provide drainage. A common medium for hydroponic gardening due to its low density and somewhat lower cost. Its advantage is its re-usability. That being said, it cannot be used alone for ebb & flow hydroponic gardening because it will float away or move during flooding cycles.

Rockwool ~ These cubes are made of fibers spun from melted Basaltic rock. The density of this growing medium for hydroponic gardening can be adjusted by changes in the amount of pressure during production. Large slabs are cut into smaller slabs and propagation blocks for easy handling in hydroponic gardening. Advantages of this medium are the ease of handling, convenience, better control over nutrition, being able to plant seeds in it and allow the plants to be very stable.

So you see, soil is not necessary for growing plants and you have plenty of other choices for your hydroponic gardening. There are many other ways to germinate a seed and support a plant. What is vital is water, food, light, warm and oxygen. As long as you provide these things, plus the support, your plants will grow and flourish. Visit http://www.hydroponicgarden.net to find all these choices and supplies for successful hydroponic gardening.

Can going green actually save you money? Maybe you are not convinced of that. If so, that would be entirely understandable. Without a doubt, there are a number of consumer items promoted under the “Green Living” rubric that cost more than comparable “non green” items. Evidently, there are enough consumers who are willing to pay a premium for products labeled “green” that marketers can make a good living selling various items this way.

But you don’t have to follow that crowd. In fact, establishing a greener lifestyle can actually save you money if you go about it the right way.

My focus is very much on how consumers can save money as they go green. And it makes sense to create your green lifestyle this way. Cutting back on energy use, conserving water, driving your car less, and buying certain items second-hand are all actions that reduce your consumption of resources. Why should that cost you more?

In fact, it doesn’t. Here are 3 tips for living that greener lifestyle that are guaranteed to save you money.

1) Replace all incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). CFLs use only one-quarter of the energy of an incandescent and last up to 10 times longer. It is easy to understand why. Incandescent light bulbs convert only about 3-5% of the energy they consume into light. The rest is dissipated as heat. Incandescent bulbs are essentially little heaters that happen to generate some light. Because CFLs generate less heat, using them will reduce your cooling costs in the summer. Another advantage of CFLs is the following: although the earliest version of CFLs did not work with dimmers switches, the more recent versions will.

2) Buy power strips to switch off electronics when they are not in use.Most people probably do not remember the days when you switched on a television set and then waited 30 to 60 seconds for it to warm up and turn on. Nowadays, we have the instant-on feature, which become so much a part of our modern world but which costs us in so-called “vampire power.” Why? Because in order to deliver the immediate gratification of instant-on, the device (television, radio, computer, etc.) must stay in a constantly warmed-up mode, and it must continually draw a little bit of power to accomplish this. Electronics have become so pervasive that this vampire energy draw is estimated to account for around 10 percent of residential energy use in the United States. By plugging your electronics into a power strip that can be switched on and off, you can cut the power completely, saving all that energy drain. In addition to televisions and VCRs, computers and printers should be switched off at night or whenever you are not using them for an extended period of time.

3) Reduce hot water use by taking showers instead of baths. A bathtub will require 40-70 gallons of water to fill, and all of that water is heated. In contrast, a shower uses about 2 to 3 gallons of water per minute (less if you use a low-flow showerhead). A 7 minute shower, therefore, uses only 14 to 21 gallons of water. You get a double benefit, saving not just on water, but also on the energy required to heat that water.

These three simple steps are guaranteed to make your greener lifestyle cost you less, not more.

Hardwood flooring has become a popular flooring choice in Vancouver and adjoining regions in BC. It helps add value and elegance to the floors and inner dcor of offices and homes with their wide range of color and shades available for various moods, styles and corporate statement.

There are many people who actually identify themselves with specific hardwood flooring type. They select the best from the available hardwood flooring types based on their personal choice, wood percentage, resistance, durability and even luster. Some of the popular types of hardwood flooring include Solid hardwood flooring, engineered hardwood flooring, floating floor systems, Laminate flooring and environment-friendly sustainable flooring.

For making a selection for the right hardwood flooring type for your home or office, one needs to keep a few important points in mind:

Appearance

The overall appearance of the flooring with respect to the room is an important factor in selecting a hardwood flooring type. A particular type of flooring is chosen with respect to the ambience and the blend of wooden flooring with the furniture and other items in a room. Engineered hardwood flooring is a favorite in this regard.

Durability & Wear-Tear

A flooring type is also selected depending on its durability. There are many wear-tear resistant flooring types which are installed mostly for their rough usage like Solid wooden flooring etc. Whereas, there are some hardwood floors like Engineered and Laminate hardwood floors which offer luster and charm to the living room with their attractive look.

Water Resistance

In rainy areas and flood-prone areas, water-resistant wooden flooring is preferred over attractive types of flooring.

Budget.

Different types of Hardwood flooring are available and one can chose as per their needs well under their budget.

Maintenance

Most flooring types are low-maintenance but there are some which are classy though require excessive maintenance and cleaning. Hence, one can choose as per their need and convenience.

If you are looking for ways for you or your children to provide cheap presents for the extended family, or just like to give gifts that have a personal element to them, then here is a suggestion or two for you.

If you are looking to make a present for the gardener in the family or someone who has recently moved into their own home, someone in a flat or unit, or a person who can’t manage a full sized yard, or a family member who loves to cook with fresh ingredients, etc. Then why not consider giving them something from your own garden? Here I am talking about plants that you have divided off from your own garden plants.

There are many plants growing in the average garden that can be divided, or that have naturally self layered themselves. Where you could go along and take a rooted section, pot them up and with a bit of dressing up of the planting container, you could produce a really nice gift for someone you care about.

These plants include many herbs as well as perennials or shrubs and even some trees which manage to send out self-layering branches or suckers from the root system. Some perennials or bulbs will increase their size or number of bulbs over time. Chance seedlings coming up in the wrong place for you, can easily also be used. All of these provide you with an opportunity to cheaply create a wonderful present for someone else.

First things first you will need to obtain a number of pots either plastic ones left over from additions to the garden population, or from someone you know, or you can go out and purchase a pot plastic/ceramic/terracotta etc., to suit your needs. If the person you are giving the plant to is not a real gardener, then you might consider getting a pot with a waterwell in the base to increase the plants’ chances of surviving.

Next, you need to begin looking for your plant material, so take a careful look around your garden at the soil level. Check out which plants are showing multiple stalks growing out of the ground. Or those sprawling plants where a branch has leaned over on to the ground and taken root along the branch, maybe one where a branch has become buried under the mulch.

Or one where there is a sucker growing from the soil a short distance from the parent plant. Another possibility is seedlings growing in the garden a distance from the parent plant material. Maybe there is a clump of plants or a big patch of bulbs where you can do some dividing.

Many of these plants benefit from being divided up or being allowed some more growing room in the particular area where you have taken away some material.

Different parts of Australia will have a differing range of plant species, which lend themselves to this form of self-propagation. If you can’t find any plants that are doing this in your own garden, why not look at a friends or neighbours garden. Or you could maybe join forces and give a joint present using plants from another family member’s garden. Or another possibility is to buy a plant in a pot that has several plants already established in it.

Divide that up before you use half in your own garden, and still have half to repot and give away. Even if you are not confident about your gardening skills you can still pick up cheap plants at the local market, school/church fair, garage sale etc. Repot them into a bigger or nicer pot for a fairly cheap present.

Another possibility is to multiplant a few different plants into a long or large round tub. This will create an instant garden on the move. Some themes you might consider here is herbs, indoor foliage, bulbs, annuals, alpine/rock, cacti/succulent or even patio gardens mixing annuals and perennials.

It is best to moisten the ground around the plant that you are going to work on well before you do the dividing, as this allows you to remove the maximum amount of root mass during the dividing process.

The first step is to divide the clump or cut away the joining branch to make the separate plant available. Then using a spade, fork or gardening trowel, dig as far out from the potential plant as practicable, because this will give you the biggest root mass possible.

Go down as far you believe you need to, (this will depend on such circumstances as size of new plant, species of original plant material, type of soil, other plant or landscaping material around the area, etc.). As gently as you can dig out the new plant. Shake off any excess soil and refill the resulting hole in the ground if necessary.

Prune back the foliage of the new plant to roughly equal size of the root mass, trying to protect some of the new foliage growth. Repot as soon as practicable, so that the roots do not dry out and die.

Another thing to consider is what sort of pot you are gong to plant into; if it is only a plastic pot then you do not need to prepare it beforehand. However if you are looking at painting it, then do this before you get digging.

When painting up pots, you will need to do some preparation work for the paint to stick properly. Plastic pots should have their surface roughened up with a bit of sandpaper. While some terracotta pots should have a primer applied to the outer surface before you paint them. Try not to get primer or paint onto the inside of the planter, because while most wont, there are still some paints which contain chemicals that may affect or contaminate the soil and plant over time.

Other possibilities for decorating up pots include simply gluing on bits and pieces including stones, tiles, buttons, sticks, shells, ornaments, ribbon, stickers and decals, etc. Other ways of decorating up a pot for the initial presentation is to wrap up just the pot (not the actual plant), using either wrapping paper, cellophane, material, a cheap teatowel or even hessian. Hold these wrappers in place with string, ribbon, bandana, scarf, etc.

Other possibilities for adding value to the potplant is to provide some growing information and name tags for the plant/s included. Other little quirks you might add include a personalised name tag, (Hi, my name is David the Diffenbachia . . . ), or a little watering indicator, miniature hand tools, small amounts of fertiliser, pot ornaments, watering can etc.

So as you can see, creating a very personal gift for just about anyone can easily be within the grasp of anyone. Why not go out into your garden and start thinking about what presents you can be preparing for Christmas this weekend.

In today’s marketplace, Green Living Homes have taken on a different connotation and seem to inspire different emotions as well. In these economic times, it seems that you can’t do Green Living Homes without some sort of a major overhaul of your home , or so it seems. When a new administration enters the White House, somebody or some group seems to think they may have a voice. In America, the Green lovers are of the mindset that the next President will be so for them.

Granted, I am not coming at you from an environmentalist mindset. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. I am of the mindset that a lot of the Green thinking borders on the “Guilt” aspect that characterizes you as bad if you aren’t Green for some reason.

Quite honestly, the Green movement can be a bit radical in its propagation of their overall message and, from a design standpoint, the lens that I often gage things, the materials have not been there to justify a Green Living Home. That has begun to change with some great new design materials that has started to spark the interest of the design community, and, more importantly, become more reasonable from a price standpoint.

Now, here are some things you can do to be more Green just by making changes in the things you do everyday and in future design changes that you may be making in your home.

First, if you are about to do an Interior Design change, look at your electrical systems. There can be a tremendous waste in your electrical output systems. Even if you are not doing Interior Design changes , walk around your home and see it there are ways you can reduce some of you electrical waste. If you just did some minor changes in the way you used your electricity by making sure appliances are turned off when not in use, etc, you could probably realize a 6% to 20 % difference in you bill each month a recent study showed.

From a Design standpoint, it goes without saying to spend the extra money for the energy efficient appliances. An option that is not as difficult to do these days, but still needs to be thoughtfully considered.

There are some simple changes from a lighting standpoint by changing out some of the bulbs that are claiming to be more efficient. I am not talking about going crazy and just start changing them out, but when you need to make a change, do so then.

Also look at you filters in heating and air conditioning units. My Dad was a heating and air guy for years and was always shocked as to how people just wouldn’t take the time to change the filters which would cause countless dollars in repair bills yearly. There are some pretty decent filtration systems, but are still a little pricey compared to regular ole filters.

Finally, from a Kitchen Design standpoint, Bamboo and cork flooring should be considered in Interior Design, as they are dynamic looking. Kitchen cabinets can also be redone with similar alternatives to wood which can like just like exotic woods.

There are some great looking Metal and Stone alternatives which are also good for Kitchen counters and cabinets and a great product, IceStone, one brand of recycled glass used to create countertops for kitchens and bathrooms that generally ranges between 0 and 0 a square foot.

The point is that there is finally coming into the market place a great plethora of products that are Green focused to design and live in your Green house. With the changes you can make from a Design standpoint and just the changes you do by walking around the house, you can be Green. Just don’t let it be out of guilt.

It’s kind of like when I used to eat Twinkies that I loved so much and said that sooner or later there would be a low-fat version, and I was right.

Its the same with going Green. They’ll catch up.