How to Create Pickling Salt | eHow.com

How to Create Pickling Salt | eHow.com

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A Summer Garden for All Seasons

One thing that is often overlooked when planning and creating a beautiful summer garden for homeowners to enjoy is the fact that the garden exists throughout the year. Unfortunately in the vast majority of summer gardens there is a huge hole in the garden for the vast majority of the year. Carefully planning in order to avoid this process and planting flowering plants that bloom during various seasons of the year as well as plants that provide beautiful foliage and greenery even when the flowers may not be blooming can prevent this absence of life within your summer garden from occurring.

Plant continuously and groom your garden consistently throughout the year. Obviously the winter months are not great months for planting in the earth but this doesn't mean that you cannot use flowerpots filled with seasonal offerings to fill the gaps of green within your garden. There are all kinds of flowers that thrive in winter weather that would make a beautiful addition to your winter garden without taking anything away from the beauty of your summer garden. In fact, the ability to incorporate these flowers and plants into your garden without necessarily planting may be an excellent incentive to keep your garden up to date even in seasons that aren't traditionally thought of as gardening seasons.

Add features to your garden that aren't plant related to bring splashes of color to your garden during winter months while preserving the space needed for planting your summer garden when the appropriate time comes. Flowerpots are a great example of this but so are lawn ornaments and statues that may be either moved to a different location during summer months or removed all together. Keep the earth warm for the summer garden to come during those long cold winter months.

Use the winter months to plan your summer garden. The spring is often spent in preparation and the fall months are spent harvesting. The winter months would be put to excellent use planning the new additions and possible movements that need to occur in the coming months. Working on your garden and improving your garden does not necessarily require working in your garden. Once you have those gaps filled in and a little bit of green and color in your garden for the winter months you can focus your undivided attention on making the coming summer garden even better and more spectacular than ever before.

Be careful not to plant all of your seeds in one garden spot so to speak while you are making your plans. By this I mean you need to keep a certain willingness to make adjustments and corrections as you go and learn more about the growing process and the specific gardening needs of your yard. Every growing season will bring a season of new lessons to learn take the time to reflect upon the lessons learned during previous seasons when making plans for the coming seasons and make the adjustments that present themselves along the way.

By learning from the mistakes of the past and always looking to and anticipating the needs of the future you are insuring greater success each year for your summer garden not only during the dog days of summer but throughout all the seasons of the year.
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Is Organic Gardening Always Safe?

Every where you turn today people are talking about organic gardening and the healthy benefits of eating organically grown fruits and veggies. However, are organic grown vegetables and fruits as healthy and safe as people claim? The information contained in this article will provide you with food for thought.

In a recent study, done by United Kingdom scientist, revealed that almost 33% of the food being sold in the UK had measurable levels of pesticide and chemicals used in crop enhancement, which are dangerous to the human body. In addition the same study indicated that almost all developed countries, through out the world, had approximately the same levels of contamination. Unfortunately this included organically grown food as well.

The primary reason for this contamination was due to the ground water which the plants consume. This is from years and years of chemical pesticides and chemical fertilizer being dumped on the ground, to enhance the yield and speed the growth of the produce, then leeching into the ground water table. The only way your organic gardening can avoid this water is to use filtered water or distilled water. However using distilled water means your produce will be short on certain nutrients vital to the health of your body. In addition to the ground water the contamination is also caused by the wind currents.

Much of the pesticides and fertilizers applied to the crops are sprayed on. Consequently, the mist of chemicals is caught by the wind and can be carried a good distance before dropping to the earth. If your organic garden happens to be in the path of the wind your plants will become covered with the synthetic pesticides and fertilizer.

Other studies have shown that these same pesticides and other chemicals, over a period of years or even months can cause health problems in the human body. It is now believed that these chemicals can affect the brain development of unborn babies in the mother’s womb. In addition these chemicals have been linked to certain kinds of cancer, breakdown of the nervous system, weakening of the immune system and other diseases which can destroy the vital organs of the human body.

Perhaps you believe that washing of your veggies will protect you, but this is not necessarily the case. These same studies have also indicated that certain fruits and vegetables are susceptible to these same chemicals leeching into the meat of these veggies and fruits through the skin. An example of this kind or fruit would be lemons or grapefruit. In this case organic produce would really be much safer than the regular grown fruit.

As you can tell from reading the above information organic gardening may not be quite as safe as you thought it was. However, with the proper precautions, such as always washing the veggies and fruits prior to preparing or eating, will reduce the risk of ingesting dangerous chemicals.
Http://www.Greencertifier.com