Category: Gardening

Hydroponic Gardening -the Pros And The Cons

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When it comes to some of the problems we are facing in the world with regards to food production, hydroponic gardening offers some promising solutions. In the poorer countries where the terrain or climate is inhospitable to agriculture, hydroponics offers a means of growing healthy foods easily. Also, in those areas where the soil has lost its nutrients or fertile land is hard to come by, hydroponics can produce healthy foods using minimum space and resources.

As with all things though, it is not all good news. There are many pros and cons any grower should weigh before deciding to commit to hydroponic gardening.

First, the pros. In comparison to traditional farming, hydroponic growing can be more productive in two ways. For one, hydroponic gardening saves space. Plants can be placed much more closely together than in traditional fields because of the way nutrients are provided to them. As many as four times as many plants can be grown in same amount of space using hydroponic techniques! Secondly, hydroponics minimizes many of the problems associated with traditional farming which means less sickly, damaged, or wasted crops.

Because hydroponic growers customize their own nutrients mixes, it takes the guess work out of figuring out which field has the best soil and proper nutrition for which crop. The nutrient mix is the right one for the particular plant, in the right ratios, every time. Also, soil based diseases are virtually eliminated because there is no soil. These two factors alone make hydroponics an extremely efficient method for producing food.

Benefits accrue to the environment as well. The water consumption in hydroponic growing is significantly less than traditional methods. In many cases, hydroponic crops use just one tenth of the water! Also, the water that is used is used more effectively. For example weeds cannot come in and steal part of the crop’s water supply. And because the crops are in a controlled environment and not in a field, there is no pesticide run-off water to contaminate the surrounding ground.

The benefits are not without their costs however. The expense of hydroponic growing is an area where improvements need to be made. The nutrient mixtures and growing mediums used can be expensive.

Hydroponic growing also requires an increase in energy consumption. Much hydroponic growing happens in greenhouses, where significant amounts of electricity are used in order to give the hydroponic plants all the light they need.

While research is happening to try and bring the costs down (such as in the field of aquaponics), hydroponics can be financially prohibitive for those areas where it is most needed.

Research in the field of hydroponics is filled with promise and much research needs to be done. Many of the problems are being addressed however, and many farmers and amateur gardeners are eagerly awaiting new developments in this promising field.

Market Gardening On A Budget

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Market gardening is a great job. Bringing fresh healthy food to appreciative customers can be enjoyable and profitable. But if you are on a budget, how can you start market gardening without breaking the bank? Here’s some suggestions to get started growing for market on a budget.

Step 1: Finding land to start market gardening. Here’s the good news: you don’t have to own a farm to be a farmer! In most rural areas, there is good land that is underused. Put the word out to your neighbours that you are looking for a small plot for a market garden. You can also find land by driving around and looking for fields that appear un-worked, without animals grazing. Ask local farmers if they might be interested in renting you a small plot; they may even take a share of the vegetables you grow in exchange. A plot as small as 5000 square feet can produce an amazing amount of food for sale.

Step 2: Covering your start-up costs. Here’s a way to raise the start-up capital you will need for seeds and equipment. Approach your friends, family, co-workers, boy scout troop, hockey buddies, in short everybody, and tell them you will be raising delicious, fresh, naturally-grown vegetables, and if they hurry they can get on the list to get some. You can ask them for a deposit to secure their share of the bounty from your garden, or even get them to pay you in advance for veggies they will receive throughout the season. This model of market gardening is known as Community Supported Agriculture, and is a popular and successful model to start gardening for money.

Step 3: Getting your equipment. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on market gardening equipment to get started. You can hire a local farmer to plow and disc your garden space for you. A simple light stand for starting seeds indoors can be built with florescent shop lights and 2 by 2 lumber. Shop light usually come with chains that will let you adjust their height as your plants grow. A market garden of up to an acre can be managed with mostly hand tools, often available cheap at farm auctions. If necessary, you can buy a used rear-tine roto-tiller, or rent one as required. Other recommended supplies include drip or soaker hose for irrigation, and a roll of floating row cover to protect your plants from weather and insect damage.

Step 4: Ordering seed. This is one place where you don’t want to skimp too much. Check the seed catalogs from different suppliers, and find the best prices and sizes of seed packets that suit your growing needs. It’s better to order too much rather than too little seed; if you run out in the middle of the season, more seed may be hard to find. And most seeds will keep for several years, so anything you don’t plant can be used next season.

Step 5: Putting it all together. You now have your land, some customers, start-up capital, and market gardening equipment. Now you actually have to grow the delicious vegetables your customers are expecting. To start with, you need a production plan for your garden. You need to figure out how much of each crop you need to grow, when to start growing them, and when they need to be replanted to ensure a continuous harvest. Your planning will be based on such factors as the length of your growing season, your date for last frost in the spring and first frost in the fall, the number of customers you have, and the equipment you have available. For example, if you have ten customers that each want one head of cabbage from you each week, you will obviously need at least that many cabbages available for harvest on a weekly basis. And since not every seed germinates, and there will be some losses due to weather or insects or disease, you should allow for a ‘safety factor’ when determining how many plants to start. To be sure you will have 10 cabbages ready for harvest, you might start 15 seeds to allow for losses. Follow this kind of analysis for each crop you plan to grow.

Step 6: Maintaining your market garden. Market gardening is real work, requiring regular daily attention to be successful. You will spend time each day in watering, weeding and feeding; the gardener’s WWF. One key to this is, don’t start too big a garden the first year. Perhaps just grow vegetables for a few friends, then as your experience grows you can increase the size of your garden.

Shemya, The Black Pearl Of Th North Pacific

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Shemya Island, is also referred to as the Black Pearl of the North Pacific Ocean, because of it’s black sandy beaches. This is a result of millions of years of volcanic activity. Shemya is located at the far western edge of the aleutian chain of islands and is part of what is known as the ring of fire. An area of active seismic/volcanic area that stretches from South America northward to California into Alaska and along the Pacific Rim of asia. My time spent on this tiny 2 miles by 4 miles was a weatherman’s dream. The daily climate was harsh with few exceptions. Annual temperatures are moderate for that far north of a latitude. Winter storms were violent, frequently accompanied by gale to hurricane force winds. It was difficult to measure snow because high winds would constantly blow it horizontally.

Late spring to early fall was a constant pea soup fog. And the sun was a rarity. On a few clear winter nights, we were treated to the Aurora Borealis. If your interested in reading on, below you will find more information on this tiny little island called SHEMYA. Historical temperatures as well as climate data can be found Climatic Data Center.

The following excerpt is a historical account from the army air corp during world war 2. The Alaskan Air Force was activated on Elmendorf Field 15 January 1942 to manage the buildup of the Army Air Forces in Alaska. It was redesignated the Eleventh Air Force on 5 February 1942.

Following the Japanese bombing of Dutch Harbor in the eastern Aleutian Islands and the occupation of Attu and Kiska in the western Aleutians in early June 1942, the Eleventh Air Force launched an air offensive against the Japanese on the two islands.

Missions were flown initially from Cape Field on Umnak Island in the eastern Aleutians and later from fields built on Adak and Amchitka. Headquarters Eleventh Air Force was moved to Davis Field, Adak in early 1943. Attu was retaken in May 1943, and the Japanese withdrew their garrison from Kiska in late July.

The Aleutian Campaign ended with the reoccupation of Kiska on 15 August 1943. Primarily an air war, it was the only World War II campaign fought on North American soil. The Eleventh Air Force flew 297 missions and dropped 3,662.00 tons of bombs. One hundred and fourteen men were killed in action, another forty-two were reported missing in action and forty-six died as a result of accidents.

Thirty-five aircraft were lost to combat and another 150 to operational accidents. It was the highest American combat-to-operational loss ratio of the war. Weather was the prime culprit, especially the Winter Climate.

The Eleventh Air Force accounted for approximately 60 Japanese aircraft, one destroyer, one submarine and seven transport ships destroyed by air operations.

Following the occupation of Kiska, the Eleventh Air Force declined from peak strength of 16,526 in August 1943 to 6,849 by the end of the war. For the remainder of the war, it flew bombing and reconnaissance missions against Japanese military installations in the northern Kurile Islands from Attu and Shemya Islands. The first land based bombing mission of the World War II against the Japanese home islands was launched from Attu on 10 July 1943.

The Eleventh Air Force was redesignated the Alaskan Air Command on 18 December 1945, and its headquarters was moved from Adak to Elmendorf AFB on 1 October 1946 to better manage Alaska’s emerging air defense system.

Alaska’s air defenses were greatly expanded during 1945-1955 period. An extensive aircraft control and warning (AC&W) system was constructed along Alaska’s coast and interior. The Alaskan segment of the DEW Line was built, and later the DEW Line was extended to the eastern Aleutian Islands.

By 1957, AAC had reached the height of its strength with over 200 fighter interceptors assigned to six squadrons. Early warning and fighter direction were provided by 18 aircraft control and warning and 12 DEW (defense early warning)Line sites tied together by the White Alice Communications System. Its assigned strength was 20,687. The forces were organized into two air divisions providing “Top Cover for America.”

The late 1950s and the 1960s saw a major reduction in AAC’s forces as Air Force air defense doctrine began changing, and emphasis shifted to a defense against a mixed threat of missile and bomber attacks. The number of fighter interceptor squadrons shrunk to one, the air divisions were inactivated, and the aircraft control and warning sites reduced to 13. The assigned strength dropped to 9,987 by 1969. The Aleutian DEW Line segment was dismantled. Emphasis shifted towards supporting other commands.

The manpower intensive, 1950s era aircraft control and warning system radars were replaced with minimum attended AN/FPS-117 minimally attended, long range radars. The system achieved its operational capability in October 1985. The outdated, semi-automated Alaskan NORAD Control Center was replaced with the fully automated Regional Operations Control Center.

Further improvements were made to the force structure with the arrival of F-15As in 1982, upgraded to “C” models during 1987-86. On 1 July 1986, the 962nd Airborne Warning and Control System Squadron was activated at Elmendorf AFB to operate two E-3 Sentry aircraft on rotational duty to Alaska. (The aircraft were later assigned to the squadron.) A second F-15C squadron was added the next year. The modern radar system, the F-15s and the E-3 resulted in a greater capability to protect the air sovereignty of North America. The number of Soviet aircraft intercepts increased dramatically from an average of ten a year during the first half of the 1980s to a record of 31 in 1987, after which the numbers began to decline dramatically following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Four Russian aircraft were intercepted in 1993.

One of the most singular events affecting AAC was the disestablishment of the Alaskan Command on 1 July 1975. The Commander, AAC assumed the additional responsibility of Commander, Joint Task Force-Alaska, a provisional joint command that could be activated in the event of an emergency, such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill in March 1989.

The Alaskan Command was reestablished on 7 July 1989, as a subordinate unified command under the U.S. Pacific Command in recognition of Alaska’s strategic importance to the defense of the Pacific.

With the activation of the Alaskan Command, the next logical step was to place its air component (AAC) under the Pacific Air Forces. On 9 August 1990, the Alaskan Air Command was redesignated the Eleventh Air Force. Finally, in keeping with Air Force Chief of Staff guidance to retain the most illustrious units, the 343rd Wing, a veteran of the Aleutian Campaign, was inactivated in August 1993. The 354th Fighter Wing was activated in its place.

The mission of the Eleventh Air Force shifted during the early 1990s from defending Alaska against the Soviet Union bomber threat to committing its forces to worldwide deployment and providing training opportunities for others.

Petrol Hedge Cutters Are The Right Choice

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Petrol hedge cutters are quite popular and they come in different power variants to suit individual needs. What makes fuel equipments more useful is that they simply outperform their electric counterparts. An electric trimmer can never work so smoothly and neatly as a fuel trimmer can.

Problem with an electric trimmer is that you have to manage tailing wire that connects the trimmer to the mains switch. It is really a problem especially when you want to take the trimmer to inconvenient places like you want to operate above your height and in interior places where you fear that the tailing wire might get trapped in the bush. But you should buy an electric trimmer, if you dont have much work to do in your garden.

Electric trimmer is cost effective but you have to take care of it. First of all you have to prevent the trimmer from moisture. You cant operate it on moist ground as moisture can burn the electric wiring of the trimmer. Second precaution to be taken with an electric trimmer is that you cant use it for long hours. The electric motor in the trimmer has to be cooled and it is air cooled. You cant keep it running for hours. But it is just perfect for small job.

Greatest advantage of an electric trimmer is its light weight. It is so light that you dont need an accessory to hold the trimmer. You can carry it anywhere but you can use it only where there is electricity. It cant be used during power outages. On the contrary, petrol hedge cutters are simply superb gardening equipments. And since they come in a wide range of power variants, you can choose a fitting device in a hassle free manner.

Petrol hedge cutters are expensive than their electric variants but you can buy a fuel driven trimmer at affordable price. Visit an online store of a manufacturer and not of a supplier of gardening tools. You should know that suppliers sell products at high price because they add their profit to the cost of the product.

Manufacturers of petrol hedge cutters can provide these useful gardening equipments at surprisingly low price. Also you can get a replacement warranty on the product. If you are looking for a trimmer then you should buy a petrol cutter from a manufacturer. Also get accessories necessary for safe operation of the trimmer.

Outback Pizza Ovens – Australia’s Trusted And Favorite Wood Fired Pizza Oven Supplier

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There is nothing as exciting and refreshing as making your own Pizzas in Australia in lush green and spacious living space – The Backyard! When it comes to fairly different for your backyard outdoor kitchen and barbecue centers, another novel product that an expert landscaper can recommend you is a wood fired pizza oven.

Let me tell you why, Pizzas baked in wood fired ovens take hardly a minute or two, they are economical, saves money, fun, moreover no need to re-lit as the heat retained in it will be suitable to cook food for long period of time. In short they are just perfect for partying at home when you want to give your best shot at food. And while you are at it, trust me there is not anything like the smell of pizza being cooked in a fire wood oven. It wont be like those traditional pizzas you get from market or spend hours cooking indoor. These outdoor oven pizzas have been shaped to act as the pizza equivalent of a BBQ grill.

However there are still ways for you to build something as splendid as the pizza oven, how about saving your energy and get what you want off the rack just like that? We at Outback Pizza Ovens have carved such convection ovens which are according to the latest trends and techniques in outdoor home entertainment. For good reason; these attractive pizza ovens can cook anything and adds a totally new experience to cooking out of doors. Folks all over the suburb who enjoy cooking and entertaining outdoors are adding our sleek and sturdy beauties to their patios and back yards. Enjoying their most from cozy family dinners to large parties all centered around these latest trends in oven wood cooking.

Outdoor cooking using wood fire ovens have breathed a new life into the art of cooking. We at Outback Pizza Ovens give you just the type of Wood ovens you have in mind. You can select from a wide variety of styles, designs and conveniences we have integrated in these ovens for you.

Starting with our Little Italy, this lady bird shaped pizza oven has a refractory dome structure with a fire brick floor design. Looks great on a balcony or pool BBQ area and the pizzas produced from it gives you the most delicious taste you might not have had anywhere else. Surprisingly, this wood fire brick oven can produce food for a big crowd Can bake up to three loaded wood fire pizzas at one time. From appetizers to desserts, you can cook an entire meal in this attractive and special appliance. No need for DIY techniques as we have taken care of it already. Australia wide delivery!

Our second product Smoke and Fire is our top-of-the-line pizza cooker and it amazes and thrills folks with it’s cooking and smoking abilities. This oven and smoker is ideal for the serious home entertainer or the caterer who wants to offer something different and exciting to his or her guests. When you have this fully featured and special appliance at your disposal, you are sure to delight and excite your guests or customers. This is one special unit, as it features not only a pizza oven, but also a smoker. In this metal steel oven, you can create unique and delicious dishes, which can range from appetizers to main dishes and even desserts or bakery items. No DIY needed. This comes all ready to use. We show you pizza oven Brisbane-style cooking that you wont get anywhere else.

We like that this is a multi-purpose pizza cooker. If you like smoked meats, you can get it from this great wood-fired pizza oven and smoker. If you dream of wood-fired pizzas for Saturday night dinner, this will deliver. Imagine smoked peaches with homemade vanilla ice cream for dessert. We are sure that the Smoke & Fire cooker will delight and amaze you with its versatility and quality cooking abilities.

Then comes our third model named Workhorse because its designed to handle whatever you bring it. Its our largest and deepest oven, so it can cook a wide variety of foods. You might start with wood-fired bruschetta, then present a main dish of roasted chicken wrapped in pancetta and roasted mushrooms. Finish with wood-fired homemade biscotti. You will enjoy amazing meals like this year-round when you have this in your backyard. Besides the huge capacity and versatility of this pizza cooker, we like that this oven is all stainless steel constructed. This makes it durable, attractive and makes you feel like a professional cook. We are sure you will also get professional results from this amazing wood-fired pizza oven. This oven too comes assembled. So you can just get on to cooking as soon as you receive it

Our most Special Black Beauty has a classic and streamlined look that will work well in a variety of backyards and outdoor cook spaces. Like all our wood ovens, its ideal for roasting, cooking pizzas, or a variety of other wood-fired foods. Your friends and family will gather around with plates held high as they wait for food to come off this beautiful stove.

Cooking in a wood-fired oven is similar to cooking in a regular oven. Here, however, you use wood to fire your oven and you can heat the oven to up to 500C. These wood ovens also stay hot for a long time, proof that these oven pizzas are not only heat-tight but constructed with only the high quality craftsmanship that we are proud of.

Best of all, this oven (like all our wood-fire pizza ovens at Outback Pizza Ovens) comes to you assembled. Not everyone enjoys the DIY aspect of putting their wood-fired pizza oven together themselves, so we take care of that for you. You wont have to wait a minute to fire this oven up. Cook Perth pizzas and other goodies and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Our 2012 line of modern and traditional wood fired pizza ovens have been engineered for the ultimate cooking experience for amazing flavour. They are also designed to last a lifetime. Our pizza ovens heat up faster, hold heat for a longer period of time, more durable than ever before and are delivered anywhere within Australia.

In addition to that you can get Top Pizza Oven Recipes from our Website. Enjoy the ambiance of Oven Pizzas and turn eating into a real event. Relax and have a quiet drink after the guests leave for their home. What could be more peaceful than staring into those dying cinders as the stars dance above your head?