Author: timlester

Perennial herbs are wonderful additions to the garden. They’re easy to grow and cultivate, beautiful, and offer many uses- uses such as flavoring food, for making teas, making natural medicines, for cleaning and freshening, and even decorating. Perennial herbs offer beauty and function. Here are our 5 easiest perennial herbs to grow that deserve a spot in your garden or landscape.

• Thyme: Thyme comes in two forms- growing upright, or spreading. Both versions are wonderful plants to have in the garden. Creeping thyme specifically makes a beautiful dried or fresh herb for cooking, but it also makes a wonderful air freshener. In the garden, it grows very well in hot, dry places along paths, or can even take some treading on in between stepping stones. The purple or white flowers are long blooming and are a favorite of many pollinators, specifically for wonderfully helpful honey and native bees.

 

• Mint: Mint can be a bully, but in the right places it can spread happily and fill an area with useful, aromatic goodness. Use mint to take over a spot where other stuff won’t really grow well, and keep it contained by a deep, root-busting yearly trench around the perimeter you have your mint growing to keep it from spreading. Mint can be used in savory foods and sauces, in sweet foods and sauces, in drinks both cold (think about a refreshing mint julep in the middle of the summer!) or hot (a tea that soothes a sore throat in winter). Use mint to freshen air. You can mix it into natural cleaning products to add a wonderfully clean smell to your surface cleaners. Use it in homemade soap and shampoo recipes, as well as a breath freshener or in homemade toothpaste. Like thyme, the flowers are numerous, long blooming, and valued by pollinators.

 

• Lavender is an old herb that has as many uses as mint, and makes a stately and beautiful statement in the garden. Beautiful greyish blue foliage mounds and purple spikes of beautiful flowers are very welcome to pollinators. Long-lived, it also grows well in dry conditions in the hot sun. Lavender is a calming, restorative herb and can be used in household product accordingly. Satchels, cleaning products for the home and body, in medicinal tonics, and cooking are all basic uses of lavender. Wonderful fresh, it also dries very well and is an essential in the best potpourri recipes.

 

• Echinacea is a US native plant that has also been domesticated and changed for the garden, with big purple or white flowers, and now even additions of red and orange blooming Echinacea’s are easily found. Very hardy, long lived, tough, and an essential plant for wildlife (pollinators and birds alike!) cone flower is a standard perennial for every garden. As an herb, it’s incredibly healing. Usually made into teas or added into soaps, it possesses very powerful restorative qualities and also makes a great preventative herb.

 

• Sage is a standard herb in most red meat dishes, but is also an incredibly strong healing herb. Made into a tea, it works wonderfully for cold and flu symptoms in the face and throat, and has been shown to help ease menopausal symptoms. In the garden, many types of sage are available and all are very beautiful. Another long-lived plant, its toughness will astound you. The flowers are loved by butterflies and hummingbirds, as well as bees and other pollinators.

We hope you enjoy our 5 favorite easy perennial garden herbs!

I don’t know how many of these bubbles I have been through but greed is always at the heart. It doesn’t seem to matter if is make millions growing organic certified food or plant lemon myrtle plantations people get sucked into the greed and easy lifestyles touted as saviors. A honest business grows or declines with the market based on supply and demand. Simple economics 101 is if supply is high and demand in low the price will be low. Most of these niche systems do initially have low supply have high demand so prices are extremely high but the markets are so small that even modest increases in supply means the price drops considerable.

To give you a idea currently alpacas are currently selling at 70-90% reduction of there asking price a few years ago.

The best way to avoid these mistakes is completing a business plan. In there should be realistic expectations of market expansion and what competitors can enter the market. Building a brand will also help weather some of the downside.

Phrases to look out for:

– solid investments

– a perfect “phased retirement opportunity”

– retirement opportunity for empty nesters, especially those seeking an escape from the corporate rat race.

– minimal or no farming experience

– free 300 page guide

– turn $35,000 to $1,000,000 in ten years

– peace of mind

– tax advantages

Chickens have been domesticated for thousands of years, are kept on almost every continent around the world, and are a commodity and a mainstay of human civilization. Ducks are in a way as well, especially in certain areas- but their popularity is small in comparison. Why is that? Why do people seem to prefer chickens over ducks? Why do chickens get so much attention and ducks happen to be sort of a sideline? As a keeper of both, I ask myself this a lot- and for good reason. Here’s why.

Ducks are Healthy

Given basic good care, ducks are healthy animals. They have excellent immune systems, and are hardier in cold and even hot weather than chickens. There are some breed specific exceptions to this rule but overall, a duck will give you a lot less to worry about in terms of sickness than a chicken will over its lifetime. There are so many terrible diseases that befall chickens compared to ducks- even some diseases that have vaccinations ready and waiting should you think you need them. There are no vaccinations for ducks, as they don’t need them.

Ducks are Hardy

Ducks take cold, wet, and snow in stride. They wait out hot weather without much fuss. They seem to ENJOY those cloudy, cold, wet, windy miserable days that make chickens (and humans!) sick with annoying upper respiratory infections and other such nonsense. They will play in the snow in temperatures well below zero. When chickens are hunkering against the house with the cold north winds tossing up their light and fluffy feathers each way, ducks are out in the thick of it rooting for worms and bugs in the middle of the field. When it’s hot, a small kiddy pool of hose water keeps them happy, and if you have a pond, even better. You won’t see a pant or a complaint from a duck.

Ducks Provide Really Well

Despite what many people think, there are breeds of duck that lay better than the best laying breeds of chicken, even in the cold and snow, such as the Khaki Campbell. A duck will also lay better and longer than a chicken will. Expect an egg a day with a well laying duck for 5 years or so. Chickens typically top out at a year, and then production suffers. Duck eggs are delicious, more nutritious, and more “gourmet” than chicken eggs. Duck eggs are excellent in cooking and baking, and they’re rich and beautiful eaten fried or scrambled. Square eggs are a great novelty for kids. Ducks also taste heavenly- their flesh is all dark meat and delicious, and easy to prepare. Processing duck is a lot like chicken, and with the right equipment is also just as easy.

Ducks Live Happily with People

Domestic breeds of duck are very friendly animals and often make loving, long lived pets. With a light in a coop, ducks reliably coop up at night in a secure space and enjoy nesting in clean straw and bedding. They make excellent and gentle garden pest eradicators- as they don’t scratch or eat new plant seedlings and destroy garden beds like chickens do. They’ll leave your tomatoes alone, eating the grubs and bugs that want to eat your tomatoes. They are quiet animals and don’t crow loudly, making them good choices for inner-city birds.

Ducks are wonderful birds to have on the homestead for food, and wonderful, healthy pets. They have many advantages over chickens. Consider adding some ducks to your flock!

Soil pH varies from area to area widely. Some areas have very acidic soil or low pH (usually represented as a value of under 7 on tests), and some areas have alkaline or high pH soils (above 7). Acid soils are known as “sour” soils, and alkaline soils are known as “sweet” soils. Plants generally do best in soils that’s a balance between the two, or neutral pH soil (around a value of 7). However, some plants prefer alkaline soil and some prefer acidic soil. Depending on the general quality of your soil or if you have certain types of plants you want to grow with specific needs, you may need to correct the pH of your soil. Here are some basic tips on how to correct soil pH.

Testing your soil to know where you soil generally lies on the pH scale is a good start. You can get inexpensive kits at any garden center to test. We have a simple to use soil pH meter if you want to give it a go. If you have soil that’s alkaline and you want to lower the pH, ferrous sulfate and aluminum sulfate are the two recommended soil amendments that will help make your soil more acidic. To raise the pH of your soil, lime, or ground limestone, is recommended.

Products for adjusting soil pH differ and it’s best to stick with the recommended application directions usually available on the bag of the product.

More natural methods of correcting soil pH to a more generally plant-friendly level involve simply adding plenty of well-rotted manures and compost to the soil that you plan to grow in- and top dress with plenty of mulches that break down into the soil easily in the spring and fall around landscape ornamentals and in production beds. If your soil remains very acidic and compost isn’t helping, try adding wood ash or oyster shell.

Raised bed gardening is also another way to ensure good soil pH without a lot of work. Simply fill containers and raised beds with plenty of rotted compost and potting soil and add more at the end of each season after growing is done.

PH adjustment and correction is very important for a lot of reasons. Most notably, the pH of soil determines what nutrients plants can use and how fast they can use them. Often, there are some nutrients that become bound in soils that aren’t well balanced and plants can’t take up the nutrients they need to grow well. For example, most vegetable crops need slightly more acid soil to grow well so that they have access to the nutrients they need to quickly produce large amounts of fruit.

Sometimes the reason for adjusting pH of soil may simply be a cosmetic preference, specifically when it comes to the bloom of hydrangeas. Some hydrangeas bloom pink in acid soil, and the same type of hydrangea will bloom blue in alkaline soil. Sometimes, crafty gardeners have gotten both colors, even purple, by playing with the pH of the soil that their hydrangeas grow in. There are specific products sold that you can apply to the soil of your hydrangea if you wish to try- commonly found in garden center stores.

Soil pH is important but not difficult to correct. We hope this article helps you understand the basics better so you can grow better plants!

Eggs have a long track record of being demonized as an unhealthy food due to their fat and cholesterol levels. One large egg contains 212 milligrams of cholesterol, which is indeed a lot when compared to most other foods. However, studies have proven many times that the dietary cholesterol in eggs do not adversely affect blood cholesterol levels.

 

Although many nutrition professionals advise individuals against consuming eggs, they can actually help to raise HDL good levels of cholesterol. In a 2013 meta-analysis, researchers studied 17 reports regarding egg consumption and health. The researchers discovered that eggs generally did not have an association with either stroke or heart disease in otherwise healthy people. This may sound groundbreaking; however, this is not new data. Several older studies have already proven this point.

 

High in unique antioxidants

Eggs are high in two unique antioxidants- zeaxanthine and lutein. Both of these antioxidants are known to build in the retina of the eye and help protect against diseases such as cataracts and macular degeneration. Research has proven that by supplementing your diet with an average of 1.5 egg yolks per day for 5 weeks, you can increase blood levels of lutein by 50 percent and zeaxanthine by 142 percent.

 

One of the most nutritious foods on the planet

Eggs contain high quality proteins and good fats, minerals, vitamins, and various trace nutrients. One large egg contains 5 grams of fat, 6 grams of protein, all 9 essential amino acids and only 77 calories. It is also rich in vitamins A,B12, B2, B5, selenium, phosphorus and iron. One large egg also contains 113 milligrams of choline, which is an important nutrient for brain development. When consuming eggs, make sure you can eat the yoke, which contain all the above listed nutrients.

 

A key component in healthy weight loss

Eggs score highly on a scale called the Satiety Index, which means they are capable of reducing your appetite and helping you to consume fewer calories. They also help to stabilize blood glucose levels due to their low levels of carbohydrates. A brief study that consisted of 30 obese women showed that those who ate eggs for breakfast consumed fewer calories during lunch and for the following 36 hours, compared to the study participants who consumed a bagel for breakfast.

 

In a separate study, a group of overweight women and men on calorie restricted diets were given a breakfast of 1 bagel or 2 eggs. After an 8 week period, the group who consumed eggs for breakfast experienced the following benefits:

• 16% greater reduction in body fat
• 65% more overall weight loss
• 34% reduction in waist circumference
• 61% greater reduction in body mass index

 

These benefits were experienced even though the breakfast of both groups contained the exact same number of calories. Due to their satiety factor and low calories, eggs played a major role in boosting the participants’ weight loss.

 

If any food can be classified as a true superfood, it should be eggs. Start your day off with two organically raised, free- range eggs to give your body a healthy boost of nutrients and maintain a healthy weight.

 

If you know/have children and want to increase their egg intake in a fun and interesting way try our egg cuber.

Good to see less regulation around the necks of the agriculture sector but just baby steps in reality.

 

We all know these regulations are never followed by a heap of the community but you can have your say to get them changed to more realistic and effective standards.

 

Please find the proposed changes here
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There are plenty of organic techniques out there and many of them are proven to make ecological and economic sense such as crop rotation, cover cropping and beneficial insects. One such technique worth mentioning is the use of compost tea which has rather remained the subject for scientific research for many decades now.  Compost tea’s contribution in bio-balancing many plant diseases has long been recognised by organic growers. The liquid derived from the compost tea is known to have bio-balancing characteristics besides stimulating plant growth. Compost tea bio-balances disease by inoculating plants with beneficial organisms. These organisms can be bacteria, fungi or yeast. They form a physical barrier against pathogens by effectively bio-balancing plant pathogens. Best of all, it doesn’t burn crops as store brought fertilisers can do so you can’t over use it. It works by restoring beneficial organisms to your soil. The bacteria, fungi or yeast present in the compost tea enhances nutrient cycle and helps plant get the most of the nutrients from soil.

Before we dig any deeper into the subject, lets discuss what tea compost is. Compost tea is a liquid derived from compost. There are many ways of preparing it, like many people prepare it by suspending compost in a barrel of water for a brief amount of time in a burlap sack. The resulting liquid is applied either as a soil or foliar fertiliser. For many people it’s not a compost tea until the extract is fermented or brewed with some type of microbial nutrient source like molasses, fish byproducts or humic acid. Compost tea is prepared ether aerated or non-aerated techniques. In aerated technique, oxygen is introduced into the compost tea by injecting air or by showering re-circulated tea over an open tank. However non-aerated teas are made by simply mixing the compost, water and other ingredients and allowing them to ferment a little without disturbance. At the end of both the methods, filtration is required before it is used as fertiliser.

There are many factors contributing to the effectiveness of compost tea for biobalancing disease. The compost used for the compost tea is either made from animal manure or from quality compost feedstock. The compost should not be more than 9 to 12 months old. At least 5 to 8 days of fermentation time should be given to the non aerated compost tea, while 24 to 48 hours of fermentation is just fine for aerated compost tea. Once compost tea is brewed (prepared), it should be applied promptly since it has got a very short shelf life. Recently a two year study at Rodale Institute and Pennsylvania State University was concluded that studied performance of aerated compost tea in stimulating crops of grapes, potatoes and pumpkin. The analysis of the compost tea showed adequate amount of beneficial organism population and safe level of human pathogens. Approximately 50% bio-balancing of powdery mildew was observed in the first year alone in grape plantation. There wasn’t any significant bio-balancing of powdery mildew observed in the Howden pumpkins in the very first year. However decrease count and size of pathogen colonies was observed from year two onwards so back into balance. It also came out in the study that compost tea offered more measurable benefits in terms of stimulating crop growth than bio-balancing disease.

Conclusion: Compost teas are a great addition if they can be aerated and a quality compost starter can be used. We don’t recommend applying to editable parts of plants due to human pathogens. We prefer to brew Microbe Brews instead as we prefer the reduced liability of producing less human pathogens. We recommend using a clean inoculum for consistency and reduced human pathogens on commercial farms.  

Global population is anticipated to grow to reach over 9 billion by 2050. This means the agricultural production needs to increase by 70% at least to meets its growing food demands to feed the entire population. There is a limit to agricultural land and de-forestation is no more a viable option while excess use of fertilisers and pesticides have heavily polluted the land and gave rise to serious sociological and ecological problems. It is imperative that farmers now harness the power of sustainable agriculture for the sake of ecology, instead of only focusing on economic viability of the crop.

 

Sustainable agriculture is the way forward and offers farmers the way to transform their farms into giant recycling centres. It enables farmers to turn crop waste and animal manure into fertilisers. It not only does save them money but it also helps them conserve natural resources. Sustainable production also reduces the requirement for chemical and pesticides use, making the transition to organic and clean farming process much smoother and feasible.  We list down few things that you can easily do on your farm to turn your farming into sustainable one.

 

Crop Rotation

It is one of the oldest and the simplest of all the methods to maintain the health of the soil. Crop rotation has a logical order and if followed properly, crop grown today will help replenish the nutrients that got depleted from the soil by previous crops. For example like planting grains after legumes or row crops after grains or planting barley after wheat to maintain the soil fertility while reducing soil erosion and weather damage. Besides maintaining soil fertility, crop rotation prevents transmission of disease and pest.

 

Crop Diversity

Crop diversity helps farmer protect their crop against pest and disease. Crop diversity can also be done by planting crop variation of the same species. Variations are good to ensure genetic diversity making crops stronger in return. Unfortunately crop diversity is on decline for past few decades.

 

Cover Crop

This is another natural way to fight insect while at the same time enhancing soil quality, fertility and water conservation. Many cover crops have no direct economic value. They are planted around edible crops. Clover is one such example of cover crop which protects soils during winter, filters water and suppresses weeds. Cover crops are also good way to replenish organic matter and promote good soil microorganisms.

 

Integrated Pest Management

This implies the use of various techniques to create an effective pest control system. The first step in the process involves identification of pest, since not pest all needs to be eliminated. Many pest don’t cause major damage and so it’s not a very clever idea to start a full fledge war against them. Leaving them would make better financial sense. Pests can also be prevented using pest resistant crops, crop rotation and using beneficial insects. IPM also makes use of specialised chemicals to fight insects and pests that targeted towards specific pests and not the beneficial insects or wildlife.

 

Soil Fertility

Some of the techniques farmers can employ to improve soil health includes soil tillage. In this practice farmers plough their fields and turn them to aid airing of the soil. Farmers can also leave some crop residue on the ground before they till to enhance the richness of the soil. One of the natural ways in which many farmers around the world are increasing their soil fertility is by adding organic matter such as manure or cover crops.

 

If you want to learn more about sustainable agriculture why not take our world renowned Certificate in Sustaianble Agriculture Course. Once completeing the course you get a certificate to place on your wall.

Humic acid and fulvic acid, also commonly referred to as “black gold of agriculture”, as they are a major component of organic matter and play an important role in soil fertility and plant nutrition. Plants grown on soil with adequate humate acid and fulvic acid face less stress and grow healthier and produce higher yield. Moreover foods grown on soil rich in humic/fulvic acid produce superior quality food and feeds.

There has been much hype about N P K fertilizers in agricultural communities from the time it is discovered that they stimulate plant growth. Prolonged use of these acidic fertilisers in the absence of adequate humic substance in the soil can result in serious sustainablility problems. Scientist and farmers are realising the need to reconsider their approach towards the use of fertilisation techniques that will place more priority on soil humus. The sense of urgency today in emphasising the importance of humic substances and their value as a fertilizer ingredient was never been seen before. Increasingly soil scientist and agronomist are recognising the importance of humic substance in healthy and fertile soil.

Humus is a brown to black complex variable of carbon containing compounds. Humic substances are component of humus and are high molecular weight compounds. They give the soil the structure, porosity, anion exchange, water holding capacity and cation. They also play an active role in chelation of mineral elements. Naturally occurring humic acid (HAs) readily forms a salt with inorganic trace mineral elements. There are over 60 different mineral elements bond to humic acid in a form that can be readily utilised by various living organisms. This helps humic acid function as an important ion exchange and chelating system. Uptake of major plant nutrients that is N, P and K is mediated by humic substances. Studies have shown that adequate presence of humic substance results in reduced requirement for N, P and K fertilizers.

Fulvic acids on the other hand are relatively smaller than humic acid and are mixture of weak aliphatic and aromatic organic acids readily soluble in water. Fulvates acids have twice oxygen content of humic acids and hence they are more chemically reactive. Because of the relatively smaller size of fulvic they can readily enter plant root, stem and leaves. This enables them to carry and transport trace minerals to plant tissues.

Humic substances commonly occur within soil water and compost etc. Most of the soil and water contains some humic substance. Over past several years, the concentration of humic substance in agricultural soil has reached low levels.

Solution: Purchasing fulvic acid and humic acid will never supply even a small percentage of the amount required so are a waste of money. They are also extremely expensive and often sold by snake oil salesman. Humic substance forms naturally if soil is managed properly by adopting certain production practices such as crop rotation, use of a balanced fertilisation program, growing legumes, using green manures, increased use of compost application (contains 60% humic acid and 20% fulvic acid (by dry weight), minimum tillage practice, etc are the only real honest ways to increase these important compounds in the soil.