How to Bokashi, Part 2
Heather and Richard conclude their setting up of a Bokashi bin.
Duration : 0:7:54
Hypertufa – How It’s Made
What exactly is hypertufa? Well, it’s a man made tufa looking material that is used to create a variety of garden art objects. It’s a sort of artificial stone that was created to substitute the natural tufa rock. In this article we will take a look at how it’s made and what uses it has.
The materials needed to make hypertufa include Portland Cement, peat moss, sand or gravel, perlite, vermiculite and others. There are a lot of different recipes and combinations of the ingredients you can use. The most basic hypertufa mixture will contain Portland cement, peat moss, sand or perlite, and of course water.
It’s quite amazing what you can do with hypertufa. It’s great for plant containers, pots, planters, troughs, stepping stones, pedestals, columns, leaves, garden spheres, fake rocks and boulders, sculptures, totems, and so on. A great way to spruce up your garden.
Did you make mud pies as a child? Making hypertufa is quite similar. All you need is an adequate mixture and a mold. All kinds of items can be used as molds – from tupperware to wastebaskets. All sorts of containers can be used to make hypertufa pots and planters. For stepping stones pans can be an excellent choice. Just use your imagination and look around the house.
The process is simple. You apply the mixture to the outside of the mold, cover it with a garbage bag and seal tightly. If you’re making planters, don’t forget to add drainage holes. Put it under the sun for about 3-5 days, then carefully remove from the mold. Cover it up again with plastic bag and allow it to cure for about a month. That’s it.
A word of advice – start simple. Mixing and building hypertufa is a like mixing and baking a cake. You don’t start with a complicated cake recipe, you start easy and work your way up.
Hypertufa is certainly a wonderful way to spruce up your garden. It’s fun, easy and not expensive to make. And it gets your creative juices going.
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Outdoor Lighting Design Secrets
Classic lighting design is about identifying and blending four core lighting groups: ambient, accent, decorative and task lighting. And when it comes to the outdoor lighting very much the same principles to create successful interior lighting apply; but before we examine these further, there are a few key differences to take note of.
First there are significant differences in scale. Inside rooms have walls and ceilings that define their extent and they are actually quite compact when set against even the smallest garden. Outside the ceiling is literally sky high and such boundaries as there are tend to be quite low and pretty much disappear altogether at night.
This brings both opportunities and challenges for outdoor lighting design. Most indoor lighting is reflected from ceilings and walls and contributes to the overall ambient light. Outside however, lights appear to us as zones of brightness that, rather than spilling onto surrounding areas instead create a contrast, making then seem even darker.
This lack of reflected ambient light means that many common indoor lighting techniques won’t work in the garden; but it also means that you can use this darkness to create interesting effects and in extreme cases design a night time garden that apparently bears no relationship to the daylight version by emphasising certain features and concealing others.
There is also the matter of how you plan on using your outdoor spaces. A classic garden design theory is that you should regard your garden as an additional room (or set of rooms) and design accordingly, lighting included.
You most probably use quite different lighting for specific rooms largely to suit their functional purpose; bedroom lighting for example as compared to kitchen lighting. Accordingly, if you intended to designate your deck as an entertainment area then you would also expect to fit lighting designed to support that purpose. And looking at other zones in the garden, say a water feature or walkway, it is again likely you would adapt the lighting to the intended purpose.
Which leads us back to the four core lighting groups and their use outdoors.
Whereas ambient light is used indoors as a foundation for the other lighting types, outside it is difficult to use it this way due to the lack of reflective surfaces and so ambient light tends to be deployed as a lighting form in its own right. Ambient light in a garden is often used simply to create a pleasant indistinct background glow and solar powered garden lights are ideal for this application.
Accent lighting is concerned with drawing attention to and showing off detail and/or color in whatever garden features you want to emphasize. It can also be used to draw the eye in particular directions. Spotlights are commonly used for outdoor accent lighting and for a really contemporary look, LED spot lights that deliver sharp, vibrant light and also run cold and can thus go places where hot incandescent lamps can’t.
Decorative lighting serves much the same overall purpose as accent lighting in that it is there simply to look attractive and catch your eye; the principal difference is that decorative lighting doesn’t illuminate anything else – it is itself the focal point. And like accent lighting, most modern decorative lighting is in fact LED based.
Garden task lighting is not really concerned with being able to read a book and such like but simply providing enough light for people to move around in safety. So path lighting, those LED deck lights that seem to get installed everywhere (and not just in decks) and lighting around areas where people might want to have some vague idea what they’re drinking or eating.
The key to effective garden lighting is the same as with interior lighting design, which is to combine all four of the basic lighting types (it also helps if you can arrange to be able to operate task lighting separately). Like indoor lighting, reliance on just ambient light will result in a drab and indistinct look, while using only accent lighting is likely to come across as harsh and over dramatic, and if you over rely on decorative lighting it will almost certainly come across as disconnected and frankly cheesy.
A really simple way to get a rich combination of the main lighting types is to just buy an assortment of varied light fittings. So pick up some spot lights that cover a range of beam angle and luminosity plus the standard lanterns and path markers. Introduce a few coloured lights to the collection and also aim to use both solar powered and mains low voltage powered lights. As you might expect, contemporary examples of both formats are now LED based.
Kitchen Composting— E A S Y — Q U I C K — CLEAN & CONTAMINATION FREE
Easy to use Auto Opening Kitchen Compost Catcher.
A retro fit kit – that makes a under sink door hung Kitchen Compost Catcher Auto-Opening.
An easy and quick homeowner do-it-yourself installation. The Auto Opening feature makes doing the right thing with kitchen compost quick, easy and clean. Hands free for dish clearing reduces the possibility of cross contamination; no-touch access to the container while tossing compostables.
Greater Adoption of good ideas is readily accepted when the end user is kept in mind. When doing the right thing is easy to fit the idea into our lifestyle. We get on board… we ‘pitch in’ …we make waste diversion and composting part of our lifestyle.
For more information please call toll free: 1-877-283-3535
Copyright©2009 Colin KNAUF/ SynCOGENT Design & Direction Inc.
Duration : 0:0:7
4 Great Tips for Lawn Water Conservation
With the hot summer months fast approaching it’s time to talk a little bit about water conservation. The fact is that you can still have a green lawn and not waste a ton of extra water. Too many of us waste extra water each summer, so let’s go over a few tips you can use to avoid this common problem.
#1 – Fix Broken Sprinklers
If you have any lawn sprinklers that are broken and just shooting water straight up into the air you should get them fixed as soon as possible. This is a great way to stop from wasting a lot of extra water. Sprinkler heads are pretty cheap, so get it fixed quickly!
#2 – Water in the Morning
The most optimal time to water your lawn is in the morning. Watering in the afternoon is no good because you’ll just lose a lot of water to evaporation. If you water in the evening you’ll have fungus problems because your lawn will stay wet too long. So shoot for between the hours of 5 and 10 am.
#3 – Water Infrequently
If you want to have a stronger lawn you need to water infrequently. If you water all of the time on a set schedule your lawn will develop a shallow root system. Instead, water infrequently to give the grass a chance to grow stronger roots.
#4 – Let Rain Do Its Thing
How many times have you seen someone watering their lawn when it’s raining? Talk about wasting water! If it rains consider that your lawn watering for the week. Don’t worry about your regular schedule, just let the rain do what it’s going to do.
You really can have a nice looking lawn without using a ton of extra water. Use these tips and you’ll not only have a nice looking lawn; you’ll also save money doing it!
Compost Stinks? What to do.
http://compostinstructions.com
Is there a smell to your compost that is bothering you? Many begenner composters notice an ammonia smell or a bad smell to their compost. The issue to this is typically related to too much nitrogen rich materials in your compost (kitchen scraps for instance), and don’t worry – it’s an easy fix! Just add some more carbon rich materials!
In this video we explain how to get rid of that annoying compost smell and how to offset everything so you can be well on your way to rich, wonderful compost.
If you desire any compost information at all, please visit us on the web at the URL provided at the top of this description.
Duration : 0:1:41
Jora Composter Compost Tumbler Review
http://www.goodcompost Looking for a great backyard compost tumbler, the Jora Composter is most definitely it. The Jora Composter is an extremely well-made and efficient compost tumbler. Turn your kitchen and garden waste into rich, nutrient laden compost. For composting equipment, check us out at http://www.goodcompost.com
Duration : 0:2:34
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Our Biogas Kitchen
In Germany it was our common practice to compost all of our kitchen waste. Now that we have built an ARTI India style biogas digestor on the porch, however, we only compost the tissue paper, napkins, cardboard, tea-bags and fibrous, cellulosic material that our household generates as garbage. All the food waste (including flower petals and banana peels) go into the blender with warm water and then into the biogas digestor. What we get out is liquid fertilizer for our rooftop herb, berry and vegetable garden, and biogas. We are still experimenting with the yields of gas, but are so far averaging 10 minutes a day for the small size of our digestor and the small quantities of food waste our family of 2 (with a baby) generates. Two days worth of kitchen waste gives us enough gas to usefully cook for 20 or 30 minutes.
Duration : 0:5:18
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Urban Composting with Bokashi
The kitchen composter is a fermentation container that turns food scraps into valuable compost! Just add your food scraps, sprinkle with Bokashi, and seal tight. Since it ferments — as opposed to decomposes — there are no malodors, just a light fermentation smell. Harvest the tea after a few weeks and bury the fermented compost in the garden whn full. Your garden will thrive !!
Duration : 0:7:41
Garden Lighting Is A Big Part Of Any Outdoor Space And Will Emphasise The Best Features.
If you want a nice relaxing garden then you should consider buying some garden lighting to ensure your garden is stylish and enjoyable all year round. You can find lighting in a variety of shapes and sizes so you shouldn’t have a problem finding some that’ll suit your needs and tastes.
You can choose from lighting, tables, chairs, loungers and benches – whatever you want for your garden your easily be able to find it. Even if you have a small garden you will be able to find options that are right for the space you have and the look you want.
Relaxing in your garden is easy when you buy furniture and lighting – a lot of people who have purchased things for their garden are very appreciative during the summer months.
Tables and chairs are the centre of entertainment in your garden so are an ideal place to put your lighting arrangements. You can usually find lighting that’ll work with tables and chairs easily.
Garden lighting is easy to find and you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting what you need. Just make sure that you consider doing some research so that you can set yourself a good and realistic budget.
When you are choosing the lighting for your garden it’s always a good idea to perform some research. Do some price comparison to help your selection process further.
Garden lighting is a great way to accentuate your gardens best bits and if you buy some solar lighting you’ll find that there’s little work involved on your part. Solar lights work on their own and don’t require any wiring.
Finding solar lights is easy. Most large garden stores sell them in many shapes and sizes. Make sure you have a budget plan before you buy any garden lighting. Stick to your budget so you can enjoy your garden without worrying.
Make sure you choose a store that has a good selection of options. There are tons of places you could go. Homebase and B&Q, among others, are probably the most popular places to buy in the UK.
After you have chosen a place to buy your garden lighting and settled on a budget then you should be able to head to the shops. Remember that you’re buying lighting for a reason – to enjoy your garden, so it could be worth buying some other items as well.
If you have a lot of parties or BBQs then garden lighting is a must for your home even if you only have limited space. Items are available for all sizes of garden so you should be able to find what you’re looking for no problem.
It doesn’t matter how big or small your garden is, if you can sit outside and enjoy the sun as well as the evenings you’ll be happy. Even if you don’t have a huge budget you can still buy garden lighting that’ll help you enjoy your outside space.
