Chris Dailey


One of the greatest nightmares in our modern times is what decades of chemical and pesticide use on our crops have done to our land and to the aquifers beneath the ground that supply the water for the food that we eat. Organic vegetable gardening, once thought to be only done by a handful of nature loving people has gone main stream due to the toxic after affects that people have seen on the mainstream news on vegetables that are sold in our local marketplace. Here are a few tips on how you can begin to start your own organic vegetable garden at home and provide yourself and your family with better vegetables to eat.

If you’re tired of wondering what kind of toxins may be in the vegetables that you are currently eating, and what kind of after effects it may have on you and your children after eating them, it is time for you to begin organic vegetable gardening. It is really not all that different from regular gardening except for a few differences that can make your food more healthy and tasty.

In fact, by eating organic vegetables, it is believed that the accumulated toxins within our body can slowly been removed by eating vegetables that are not tainted. This kind of natural healing occurs by eating chemical free food allowing the body to naturally remove the toxins that were once consistently imposed by our regular diets.

There is also an increase in antioxidants in the naturally grown vegetables that is not prevalent in local grocery store bought produce. Allowing organic vegetables into your diet will not only increase the antioxidants that flow through your body, but will also help your immune system and make you more healthy as you continue to eat these natural vegetables.

Like a trip to the past, this kind of mainstream thinking has not existed for several hundred years. In an industrialized world, yes more is better. However, better for what? Not the people. Possessions are not the focus. It is creating a food source in the organic vegetable gardening arena that is not only plentiful but tasty to almost everyone, even the die hard meat eaters.

One thing to remember is that eating these vegetables is a good move toward cleansing your body and making a conscious effort to make a difference in your own life. Too many people will go though life without realizing the consequences of their actions, especially on what they are eating and what it is actually doing to them. No more store bought produce would be the key, however, the amount of time and effort that it takes to make this right must be justified by the end result which is a healthier you and a healthy family.

Other studies have shown that organic vegetables not only tastes better but have higher mineral contents such as calcium, magnesium, and other essential vitamins that add to their ability to help prevent diseases such as allergies, heart attacks, and even hyper activity that is seen in many children today. If this is true, then what does that mean? If we are just the little guys and we have been given this information, what do the people who create laws know and why ar they not doing anything about it to protect the people that they are sworn to serve?

The bottom line is that you need to take control over your own life and not leave it up to the people that are supposed to be in charge. Take charge of your own life and make a positive move today by at least thinking about organic vegetable gardening.

Could you imagine just taking a few hours a week and seeing those kind of results? If anyone is truly serious about improving their health, and adding years to their lifespan with no other effort than to take charge of their life and start making a different with themselves and the ones that they love. Organic vegetable gardening is a fun activity that can be shared by all members of the household, and can make a family come closer together and healthier at the same time.

The key to organic vegetable gardening is to prepare a plot of land on your own property and begin to fertilize it in a natural way. A small plot is all that’s necessary and taking care of a small area is very easy. By simply removing weeds on a daily basis and adding certain insects that will protect your plants such as ladybugs and the praying mantis, you will have healthy organic vegetables in no time at all. Organic vegetable gardening is the wave of the future and is an insurance policy for you and your family’s health, not just today, but everyday of their lives.



Taylor

Michelle Bery


In the quest to get healthy, more and more people are turning to organic food. Free of chemical additives and pesticides, organic produce offers only pure and natural nutrients. But for those people who do not have ready access to organic produce at their local markets, or do not wish to pay the high prices associated with organic produce, starting their own organic garden allows them access at any time to fresh, wholesome produce at a fraction of the price it would cost to buy at the store. For those interested in beginning such a garden, an organic garden center can give you all the tools and education you need to start off right.

An organic garden is defined by produce that is grown without the addition of chemicals and pesticides normally used to ward off bugs and weeds, as well as stimulate growth in a traditional growing environment. In order to truly grow organically it is necessary to fully commit to using only products that are 100% certified organic. And in order to get those products you are best to visit an organic garden center.

As its name suggests, an organic garden center offers products for sale that are only certified organic. From soil to fertilizer, the organic garden center will ensure that you have all that you need to grow a delicious and beautiful organic garden. Best of all, most centers have knowledgeable employees on hand who are just as committed to organic gardening. They can be enormously helpful in showing you how to begin, as well as pointing out those products that will work best in your particular space.

Begin with the proper fertilizer and choose those sees that you want to plant in your garden. The organic garden center should be able to help you find those products that will thrive in your particular climate, as well as in the type of sun that your garden receives on a daily basis.

Be sure to do your research regarding the type of maintenance that your seeds will require. The organic garden center can also offer literature and other information about helping your garden grow successfully. Taking the time beforehand to determine what factors will most contribute to your success will help you realize your gardening dreams.



James

Dave Kettner


Many people know about the benefits of eating organic fruit and vegetables. However, not many people regularly eat organic food. The biggest disincentive is usually the price. Organic veggies are invariably a lot more expensive at the local supermarket. The good news is that anybody with even a modest vegetable garden can grow healthy organic vegetables for a much lower cost than they would buy off the shelf.

Nevertheless, some people avoid growing their own vegetables because they are running short on space, time and the know-how to tend a successful veggie patch. However, organic gardening isn’t as difficult as many people think.

Mulching is one of the main secrets. The regular incorporation of old organic matter helps keep the soil functioning well. Mulching helps the soil retain moisture, suppresses weeds, reduces temperature fluctuations, and can prevent soil crusting. Many organic gardeners find that plant disease problems decline as the health of the soil improves.

Of course, the main reason for growing organically is to avoid the use of chemicals and commercially produced fertilizers and pesticides. Again, this helps to maintain a healthy soil across numerous growing seasons. More importantly, you can be sure that the food your family is eating is free of pesticides and herbicides. While avoiding synthetic chemicals, many organic gardeners approve of and use sprays and other preparations containing naturally occurring materials. Other pest control methods include the use of mechanical devices such as traps. Another favorite is to encourage other animals, which like to eat the pests, to the garden.

For city dwellers who have more enthusiasm than space, container gardening may be the answer. Many herbs and vegetables can be grown quite successfully in containers. These include carrots, radishes and lettuce, as well as crops that bear fruit over a long period of time, such as tomatoes and peppers. No matter what you grow it is important to remember that drainage is extremely important. Another possibility if space is at a premium is to grow herbs and vegetables amongst your flower garden.

You never know, if the prices of organic produce remains high and concerns about food safety grow you might be able to convert that backyard vegetable patch into an income earner as well. For those less entrepreneurial, there is the opportunity to work on projects, such as neighborhood food growing, in order to benefit the whole community. At the very least, home grown vegetables definitely taste better.



Roy

Kolawole Olambiwonnu


Why does partial shade play an important role in organic vegetable gardening? And how can such shade be done? And is it really vital for your produce to grow?

For gardeners, they know that shade plays an important role in what they are doing as much as the sun. This is especially true if one is into organic gardening of vegetables. The exposure to sun and its need to be in shade still depends upon what plant you want as produce. But learning all about the plant and its needs first will lead a gardener for a better output.

Being one with nature, being in touched with your produce, is the main responsibility of an organic farmer, in the first place. So before you might want to delve into this, you must first be ready to be patient and hardworking because of the holistic approach being used in such type of gardening, everything depends on the farmer, they have no one to turn to except for themselves and the natural environment.

Organic Horticulture

The word horticulture comes from two Latin words, hortus that means garden plant and cultura or culture. It is both an art and science of planting and producing vegetables, flowers, fruits and even ornamental plants.

Horticulture has five parts of study; floriculture for floral plants, landscape horticulture for landscape ornaments, pomology for fruits, postharvest physiology is about keeping the harvested produce fresh and how to prevent these from rotting quickly.

The fifth area of study for horticulture is olericulture, which you might be interested in if you are into vegetable gardening because this tackles the process from producing the crops to marketing such.

Partial Shade

You may know that a plant needs soil, sun and water to be able to survive. But you must also be aware that it needs shade, especially the vegetables because not only one must protect it as a plant but must also care for it to produce a good harvest.

In organic vegetable gardening, by exposing the plants to a range of 30 to 50 percent of shade can actually lower the leaves’ temperature by about 10 percent or even more. For the northern and coastal climates, 30 percent shade is recommendable while 47 to 50 percent in hot and summer-like places.

By doing what’s stated above, vegetables like lettuce, arugula, mustard greens and mesclun mix would produce better qualities.

The shade also lessens the temperature of the soil by three to six degrees Fahrenheit. This will benefit vegetables such as cabbages, mustard greens, broccoli, chard, radishes, turnips and spinach that grow in the soil. It is because these produce will germinate better when the soil temperature is below 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

Shade Tent

You can also provide your plants with handmade tents. This will be most beneficial if you have a large produce and you can’t attend to each plant one-by-one, placing cloth as shade at top of each one.

To do a shade tent, you would need sturdy plastic tubing that are about 1/2 or 3/4-inch in diameter. Cut this tubing into 6-foot in length, just enough for it to arch a foot length above your crops. For each arch that you’ve made, place a bamboo or rebar stakes, each one at about 18 inches. Put these in the ground at the sides of the plants’ bed until about 10 inches of each of the stakes is visible. Now you can bow your tubing by sliding its ends at the stakes.

With the foundation ready, you can now place a shade cloth over the arches for it to cover the plants’ bed. Make sure to clip the cloth at the tubing so that it will remain in place.

Remember, if partial shade is not readily available when you are into organic vegetable gardening, make one by just doing the above mentioned procedure.



Dave

David Cowley


If there is one thing that Russia can offer to the world, it is a long and rich history full of excitement, political intrigue, colorful culture, and a people with an indomitable spirit.  All of these elements can be found in even the quickest lesson about the history of wines from Russia.

First off, remember that there is a difference between Russia and the Soviet Union, a fact that many people from outside of that area often forget, thinking that they’re the same thing.  In reality, the regulation of the making of Russian wines has had its own ups and downs, following the history of Russia’s being a part of the Soviet Union.  During the time of the Soviet Union, wines from Russia were often bottled and packaged under strict supervision of the government, causing many vineyard owners to send their product to other areas of the country for bottling.  This of course would interrupt the wine’s natural fermentation process; many wine connoisseurs know that a true winemaker looks over his product from the planting of the grapes until the filled bottles are sent away for others to enjoy.  There is no part of the winemaking process that is less important than another, and for a vineyard owner to have to send his product to someone else to bottle was just a slap in the face for many!

After the end of the Soviet era, this meant that many who produced Russian wines were without bottling equipment and the like.  Also, because supplies were so difficult to get, many winemakers made their product from imported concentrates and juices, and the end result was by far some of the most inferior wine that anyone could ever taste, if they could even be called wines!

However, today Russian wines are enjoying a newfound popularity.  As merchants are becoming more readily established, vineyard owners are once again finding their crops to be plentiful and bottling facilities readily available.  Also, because of the tough economic times in years past, many of the wines from Russia are made without chemical and pesticides.  As the growers could not afford these things, they learned how to care for their crops without them.  There are also virtually no chemicals or enzymes used in the fermentation or bottling process either; from start to finish, these wines are pretty much tended and harvested without any outside interference.  This means that many who are searching for true organic wines may find the answer to their situation in these fine Russian wines; by circumstance or by choice, they are typically some of the most natural, purest wines available in the world.



Roy

Dael Leathe


If you’re not a big fan of getting dirty in the outside garden, then fear not. Most of the vegetables grown at home can be grown equally well in containers. By finding the right container and filling it with the right potting mixture, you will be able to grow anything you want in it, even tomatoes.

First you need to find the right size container for your plants. If you want the little cherry tomatoes (which are excellent in salads) then you can use the regular size hanging baskets, but if you prefer the larger tomatoes you’d do best to purchase five gallon buckets, because your plants need plenty of room to grow, you don’t want them to be cramped. Next you need to go to a nursery and purchase your tomato plants. You don’t want to get too large of a plant, you can buy a determinate tomato plant, that stops growing after they reach a certain size, or indeterminate that will continue to grow and produce larger tomato plants. Two very popular indeterminate tomato plants are Big Beef and Better Boy, which are also very resistant to plant disease and will give you tomatoes for a longer period of time.

Now you’re ready to begin planting, make sure you put some holes in the bottom of your container for proper drainage. You don’t want your plant to become overwhelmed with excess water. Carefully remove the bottom few sets of leaves and place the plant in the container. Make sure you don’t use a flimsy, light weight container, because when your tomatoes are in bloom they may be top heavy and could cause the plant to topple. Tomatoes should be staked as early as possible, to prevent root disturbances caused by setting in the stake. Use a well mixed potting soil supplemented with plenty of organic matter to enrich the taste of your tomatoes. Ask at your neighborhood nursery for help in picking out the proper soil and fertilizer for in home planting.

Plants need plenty of sunlight, at least 6 to 8 hours a day. A grow light can be very beneficial in growing young plants, especially on cloudy days with limited sunlight. Be sure to water them daily, forgetting to water them for a couple of days and then starting to water them again, and then you once again forgetting; this rigorous process could delay the growth of your tomato plants. So please, be consistent with your care for them.



Anne-Marie

Organic Gardener


How to grow beautiful culinary herbs

You don’t have to be a chef or have a green thumb to grow an herb garden. Culinary herbs are extremely easy to grow. Once they get going, they add fragrance, texture and color to just about any garden or space. Harvest your culinary herbs to make everything from herbal teas, vinegars and flavorful recipes.

Herbs don’t require much space to grow. You can plant them in beds in a garden or you can grow them in a small container. Combining herbs can create a beautiful effect. Your bed or container is your canvas - and what you plant there can grow into a beautiful masterpiece.

Plenty of sun

Herbs love plenty of sunlight. When choosing a location for your herbs, look for an outdoor area or window that gets 5-7 hours of direct sunlight each day.

Well-drained soil

Whether you are planting your herbs in containers or a garden, start by testing your soil for nutrients and pH. It may be necessary to adjust your soil pH to the near-neutral pH of 6-7 that herbs grow best in. You will also want to add a layer of organic compost and minerals to the soil prior to planting.

Adequate water

Herbs like well-drained soil, but well drained soil needs to be watered more frequently. Don’t just water on a whim. Stick your finger down into your soil approximately 1″ to 1-1/2″. There is no need to water unless your soil feels almost dry to the touch.

Three rules of thumb for fertilizing your herbs

Fertilizer is often referred to as “plant food.” The most important thing to remember when feeding your herbs - use products that are organic. Remember, you are going to be consuming what you grow. If you don’t want to consume chemicals, don’t use them on your herbs.

Second rule of thumb - feed your herbs a balanced diet.

Fertilizer or “plant food” provides your herbs with the major elements they need to grow and thrive - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Your plants also need minor elements called micronutrients, which contain the minor elements required by your plants to grow.

Finally.

Feed your plants through their leaves (foliar feeding). Foliar feeding is 100-500% more effective than root feeding and offers quicker results. Look for organic foliar fertilizers and micronutrients. Spray all the leaves of your herbs every 1-4 weeks.

Harvesting and storage

Once your herbs are established it is important to cut them back on a regular basis. Never harvest more than 1/3 of each individual herb plant. The best time to harvest your herbs is in the morning, when the oils are still readily available in their leaves. Harvest your herbs before they flower. This will prevent them from putting forth seed and will encourage more vigorous green growth.

You can use your herbs right away, refrigerate them or put them in a plastic freezer bag and freeze them up to 6 months.

Whatever you do, enjoy growing your culinary herbs.

You will feel like a gourmet, each time you wander into your garden to clip a few herbs for your culinary productions. Even if you don’t cook much, snip a bit of fresh mint from your herb garden to transform a simple glass of ice tea into the most delectable treat. Or garnish a fruit plate, fresh vegetables and salads with your fresh herbs. Using them is as easy as growing them.



Kylie

Ben


Until recently, English wines, especially sparkling, were just known and consumed in Britain. It begins to change! Everyone is speaking about the climate change… The Champagne Climate arriving to the South of England with rumours of Champagne houses buying or looking for vinelands in the Sussex.

English wines (still or sparkling) really improved over the past few years. English sparkling are now competing with Champagne. The most recent blind tasting took place the 10th March 2008 (so few days ago!) organised by Decanter.

The tasters were Stephen Skelton MW, wine expert, Tom Stevenson, Champagne specialist, Oz Clarke, Benoit Gouez, Chef de Caves at Moet & Chandon, Waitrose’s Dee Blackstock MW, Andrew Jefford, award-winning wine writer and Decanter columnist and Steven Spurrier, Decanter’s contributing editor.

Over 60 sparkling wines from England, Wales and the Channel Islands, 3 Champagnes and one sparkling wine from Napa Valley in California were tasted. The Top 3 Sparkling wines were Theale Vineyard Founder’s Reserve 2003. Meopham Valley rose and Plumpton Estate’s The Dean.

The first Champagne, Duval-Leroy, ranked seventh. It was beaten by UK offerings from Camel Valley, Ridgeview, Nytimber, Denbies and Balfour Vineyards.

The tasters agreed on some aspects:

-The elite of English sparkling can face in blind tasting Champagnes without blushing

-Except with exceptional vintage, English sparkling have some problems with acidity even (too present even for the best producers) ‘Acidity was always a problem with English sparkling wines and I don’t see that improving,’ said Skelton. ‘That was the real problem with the good wines.’ Others agreed, citing winemaking faults and a lack of elegance in some wines.

-Traditional grapes of Champagne (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) give better results than autochthones grapes as Seyval Blanc or Huxelrebe, to reserve for still wines. ‘Some from the non-champagne varieties would have been better without the bubbles,’ said Stevenson.

-Pink sparkling category showed ‘certainly some horrors’, despite a rose wine coming second.

‘I was hoping we’d got over this,’ said Jefford. ‘There were some quite good wines,’ he added. ‘We should keep trying. If we had done this 10 years ago, it would have be a lot worse.’

A new phenomenon

UK supermarket chain Waitrose has announced they will plant vines to make their own sparkling wine. They hope to plant 4 or 5 hectares of Champagne grapes, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on their 1,600ha farm in Hampshire in Southern England this year.

We know that chalk hills and clay loam soils are the best to grow Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier as in Champagne or Chablis. That’s on that kind of soil Waitrose will plant their vines.

The Waitrose sparkling will be ready for sell in 2014.

The United Kingdom has currently 300 vineyards and produces around 3.3 million bottles per year, but both planting and production are set to increase in coming years to an exemption from the European Union vine planting ban.

According to a Decanter’s journalist,’Land in southern England, especially Sussex, Dorset and Hampshire, is considered ideal for growing grapes for sparkling wine. French producers including Duval Leroy and Boisset are known to be - or to have been - actively looking for vineland in the region. ‘

Still according to Decanter, ’Other producers as diverse as Chateau Pape Clement proprietor Bernard Magrez, and Randall Grahm, owner of Bonny Doon in Santa Cruz, have expressed varying degrees of interest in southern England, which has the great advantage of costing a fraction of continental vineland.’



Sean

Phillip Wainwright


To keep wine from becoming spoiled winemakers sometimes add preservatives. In fact, if preservatives are not added to wine it will only last six months to a year. Preservatives are added to keep wine from turning to vinegar and several types of preservatives are used in the winemaking process.

Two natural preservatives result from the grapes and the fermenting process – alcohol and tannins. These preservatives are excellent for extending the life of wine and kill off most organisms as very few can live in alcohol.

The most popular added preservative is sulphur dioxide. This is an anti-oxidant and a sterilizing agent that prevents organisms from growing in wine. It also prevents wine from turning into vinegar. This occurs by forming a barrier between oxygen and the wine, not allowing them to interact.

If the Romans Can Do It…

Sulphur has long been used as a preservative. In ancient times the Romans broke sulphur into small pieces and burned it before adding the pieces to wine. It also has a long history as a food preservative since the early 18th century.

White wines normally have more sulphur dioxide because they are sweeter. Sweet wines contain more sugar and ferment at a higher rate, resulting in a need for more sulphites.

Other common preservatives include 220 sodium dioxide, 220 sodium bisulphite, and 223 sodium meta- bisulphite. As with sulphur dioxide, these sulphites are regulated as to the amount that can be added to wine.

Why the Aging Process Needs Preserving

Preservatives added to wine depend on several factors. There are many things that can take place at the winery or during harvesting that lessen the amount of preservatives needed. For example, careful harvesting of grapes will keep them from being damaged. That is why some of the best vineyards pick grapes by hand.

It is very important to time the harvest process correctly. The time between the harvesting of the grapes and the time the grapes arrive at the winery is critical. Less of a time interval at this stage means less opportunity for bacteria growth and less need for pesticides.

Cooling processes are necessary. All wineries must have temperature sensitive cooling equipment in order to keep grapes at the proper temperature during the winemaking process. This is especially important when the grapes are being crushed.

Winemakers use a special filter to remove organisms from the wine. This filter acts as a screening device. The filtration system is used before the wine is boiled during the winemaking process.

Cleanliness is Next to…Great Wine!

A clean winery is important for preserving wine. Winemakers strive to keep their facilities as clean as possible in order to keep bacteria to a minimum. This keeps other harmful items from entering the wine at anytime during the winemaking process. Common logic says that the cleaner the winery, the less preservatives needed to keep harmful microbes at bay.

The cleanliness of winemaking facilities has lead to the theory that overall, cheaper wines have a higher sulphur count than higher quality wines. This is due to the clean conditions of high end wineries and the high expectations of their customers.

A preservative free wine does not exist. Many people are confused over terminology and feel that a wine must be preservative free in order to be organic. The preservatives added to wine have nothing to do with its organic status.

An organic wine is produced using harvesting methods that are eco-friendly. In addition, certain of the winemaking processes may also be eco-friendly but the adding of preservatives does not make a wine non-organic.

Do not concern yourself with the safety of sulphites in wine. The preservatives are not harmful and even allergies to sulphites are extremely rare. As mentioned before, no wine is entirely sulphite free. Even if sulphite is not added during the winemaking process the grapes themselves produce a small natural amount.



Thomas

Garden Lodges


Garden offices are specially designed offices set up in a person’s garden. It provides a very convenient work atmosphere for people who want to work from home. With your home just a stone’s throw away you get to experience the same comfort as working from home without the usual distractions. New mothers, a person suffering from disability, a person whose main office is very far away or even a person who just wants to work from home would be benefited from having a garden studio at home. A Garden office or lodge blends in beautifully with the garden and actually makes it more attractive. Even the materials used are eco-friendly. Not only can you use the garden office for work, but can also convert it into a guest room or an extra bedroom as and when required.

The dazzling range of garden offices offered by gardenlodges.co.uk is one of the most comprehensive available in the market. The flexible modular design of the structures allows you to customize the office according to your needs and also get it attuned to your beautifully manicured garden; thus solving adequately all your garden designing needs. The garden offices of gardenlodges.co.uk are built is such a way that you can stay and work in them throughout the year without any problems. A very negligible amount of heating is required and the same goes with air conditioning. Consumption of electricity is also minimal. Eco-friendliness is highlighted during the construction of the garden offices. The materials used and the technique, both put stress on that fact. Provisions to add a bathroom or even a kitchen allow you to use your garden office as a mini-home.

The garden offices available at gardenlodges.co.uk are constructed keeping with the standards of the British Building Regulations. Each garden office built by gardenlodges.co.uk is done following a careful study of the site conditions, and after taking into consideration other aspects like garden fencing. They are also carefully insulated and double-gazed. Environmental factors are also considered during construction and eco-friendly larch cladding is used to finish the construction. Cedar roofing shingles are used not only for protection but they also mellow as the years pass. Excellent soundproofing is provided that allows you to not worry about sound escaping out and extra care is taken to provide unrestricted passage of natural light.



Roy