Creating a Fairy Garden in the Landscape - Pahl's Market - Apple Valley, MN Start by selecting a site for your garden. It is best to put it in an area where you can view it up close. Many fairy gardens have small accessories and small details that are best enjoyed up close. Once a location is chosen you can begin the fun. The easiest is to place your largest feature first. Many times that is the fairy house. Once you have placed the house you can work on sculpting the other areas of your garden. Now you are ready for plantings and accents. The most important part of fairy gardening is to have fun. View Some Fairy Gardening Products: See All Fairy Gardening Products Available Online
How Can We Recycle A/C Water? During the hottest months of the year, high water rates and mandatory water conservation rules can restrict household water usage to the bare necessities. Taking advantage of alternative water sources can provide water for a variety of uses and reduce fresh water usage. One such source is graywater. Graywater is household wastewater from washing machines, sinks and baths. One of the easiest sources of household graywater to access and use is condensate from an air conditioner. As warm air is cooled by an air conditioning system, humidity in the air forms condensation. Water from air conditioner condensation can be used to water indoor and outdoor plants. Air conditioner condensate does not contain soaps, chlorine or other chemicals that may be found in fresh water or other graywater sources. Air conditioner condensate can be used for decorative water features, such as water fountains. Air conditioner condensate may contain contaminants, such as algae. Lose Weight.
Make Biochar to Improve Your Soil Last year, I committed one of the great sins of gardening: I let weeds go to seed. Cleaning up in fall, I faced down a ton of seed-bearing foxtail, burdock and crabgrass. Sure, I could compost it hot to steam the weed seeds to death, but instead I decided to try something different. I dug a ditch, added the weeds and lots of woody prunings, and burned it, thus making biochar. It was my new way to improve soil—except the technique is at least 3,000 years old. What’s biochar? Amazonian Dark Earths The idea of biochar comes from the Amazonian rain forests of Brazil, where a civilization thrived for 2,000 years, from about 500 B.C. until Spanish and Portuguese explorers introduced devastating European diseases in the mid-1500s. Amazingly, these “dark earths” persist today as a testament to an ancient soil-building method you can use in your garden. Finding Free Biochar Biochar’s soil building talents may change the way you clean your woodstove. How to Make Biochar The Bigger Picture
Is waste water from an air conditioner safe to drink? - Quora 10 Homemade Organic Pesticides Ever wonder what farmers did hundreds of years ago to fight off crop pests? Long before the invention of harmful chemical pesticides (yes, the kind that is linked to cancerous cellular activity), farmers and householders came up with multiple remedies for removing insect infestations from their garden plants. The following list will offer some of our favorite, all-natural, inexpensive, organic methods for making bug-busting pesticides for your home garden. 1. Ancient Indians highly revered neem oil as a powerful, all-natural plant for warding off pests. To make your own neem oil spray, simply add 1/2 an ounce of high quality organic neem oil and ½ teaspoon of a mild organic liquid soap (I use Dr. 2. For treating plants infested with spider mites, mix 2 tablespoons of Himalayan Crystal Salt into one gallon of warm water and spray on infected areas. 3. Mix 10-30 ml of high-grade oil with one liter of water. 4. This is another great organic pesticide that works well on ants. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
How to Recycle Air Conditioning Water Condensation | Sciencing The condensation produced by most air conditioning systems is drained into the sewer, and the water is lost. Many people do not realize that this water, known as condensate, can be recycled for uses that do not involve human consumption. The most common household use is for watering house and garden plants. Recently, businesses and public buildings have been reducing their consumption of potable water by harvesting condensate on a large scale for uses other than drinking. Condensate Central air conditioning systems pull humid, warm air from a space and turn it into cool air that is blown back into the space. Collection Barrel Virtually all air conditioning systems that produce condensate have some sort of drain line. Condensate Pump Sometimes a condensate pump is needed to drain the water to a particular location if the condensate water needs to flow uphill. Commercial Condensate Harvesting Some businesses and public buildings are recycling condensate on a large scale.
10 Must Have Medicinal Herbs With a strong drive towards a return to a more natural way of living, medicinal herbs are growing in popularity as gardeners come to recognize the true benefits of growing their own medicinal treatments versus relying on over-the-counter or prescription concerns for something that can easily be remedied naturally. For thousands of years medicinal herbs were all that humans had to cure their ailments, which often led to a fair amount of trial and error. The result of all of these years of trial and error is that we now have a solid idea as to what types of medicinal herbs we can take for particular health concerns. Some herbs, such as peppermint, have long been known for their abilities to soothe aching bellies and of course help to freshen breath. You may just be surprised at some of the other types of benefits that can be garnered by growing your own herbs. The History Of Medicinal Herbs New “Survival Herb Bank” Gives You Access to God’s Amazing Medicine Chest
How to Set Up Grey Water Recycling | Sciencing With water in short supply in many locales in the United States, recycling grey water can help reduce water consumption. While you need clean water for kitchen use, laundry and personal hygiene, you can recycle water with some soap and other impurities. Such grey water is safe for outdoor use such as irrigating gardens and lawns, and for indoor use such as flushing toilets. Simple grey water recycling systems are easy and inexpensive to install. Collection Identify the pipes coming from the drains of your showers, baths, bathroom sinks and washing machine. Cut or unscrew the drain pipes, depending on your installation. Link all the pipes to a common drain pipe in the basement or crawl space. Storage Install a storage tank if you want your irrigation to extend over longer periods of time. Place the storage tank indoors if you are in an area with frost in the winter. Use Run a hose or pipe from the pump outlet up to where you need the grey water. Warning
Black Beans and their Sprouts Show Anticancer Activity Photo by Sandi Barr By Case Adams, Naturopath Researchers from Mexico’s prestigious Monterrey Institute of Technology have determined that black bean sprouts are anticarcinogenic against breast cancer, liver cancer and colon cancer cells. The researchers sprouted black beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and then tested them and their constituents against cancer cell lines of various types of cancers. The researchers found that after three days and five days of germination, the phytonutrient extracts isolated from the sprouts were able to inhibit the growth of all the cancer cells tested. They also tested the same sprout isolates against non-cancerous (healthy) cells as controls, and found no negative impact upon healthy cells. The researchers then isolated some of the constituents of the sprouted beans, and found that the saponins and flavonoids had the greatest inhibition against liver and colon cancer cells. Learn about the scientifically perfect diet. Ranilla LG, Genovese MI, Lajolo FM.
Recycling A/C water? | ScienceBits The other day I found out to my dismay that the balcony underneath my air conditioner at home leaks water into the living room below it. Instead of sealing the balcony (as I should...) I temporarily solved the problem by placing a baby bath tub underneath. Yep, I'm lazy. Two days later, I noticed that the baby bath tub is almost full. So, I took it down and watered the lawn with it. Living near Jerusalem, I actually don't need too much A/C, perhaps two weeks over the summer. What about someone living along the coast, such as in Tel-Aviv? If you're a private person in a humid place like Tel-Aviv or Houston, you would be operating an A/C. What about the national level?