We have some great interviews planned for the next few months.
Our first is with Bill Sosinsky , CEO of Energime University. Bill has recently returned from a trip to China. He talks to us about how the Chinese are adapting, planning and coping with the enormous growth the country has seen over the past few years.
The interview is one of those must listen to events… we all have seen or heard of the Great Wall of China, a quite amazing feat of building, as seen here.
I wonder how many of us can comprehend the current building program? 100 million homes in the next 5- 10 years…!
Truly a monumental task of ingenuity, engineering and collaboration, Ann and I were just amazed talking to Bill about the growing issues they are trying to solve.
We will have two parts to this fascinating interview you can listen to the first part here – www.growingtrends.org
We would love to hear from you with ideas or suggestions on programs, either fill in the form below or just send us an email to info@grotrends.com
Our interview this week is with Bill Sosinsky and Joe Ravet, it’s all about the amazing properties of algae and the work being done today that could transform many areas of our lives. This fascinating interview is in two parts, with the second part coming next week.
Algae has some fascinating uses :-
As an Energy Source – a 737 plane flew from Houston to Chicago on fuel derived from algae, way back in 2011
As a Fertilizer – from as long ago as the 16th century, seaweed has been used a fertilizer.
As a source of Nutrition – China has been consuming Algae for over 2000 years, they harvest over 70 species as does Japan, Ireland, Chile, Wales, Korea, California, New Zealand, Hawaii, Scotland, Greenland and Iceland to name a few. It was an ingredient in Aztec foods.
Oils obtained from some algae have high levels of unsaturated fatty acids, others essential omega 3 fatty acids.
As a Pollution control – treating sewage with algae, reducing the use of toxic chemicals that would be used. They can absorb fertilizer run off from fields. Aquariums can be filtered by algae
As a Pigment – alternative to chemical dyes
As a Medicine – helping fight malnutrition, immune health, reducing cholesterol
Amazingly there could be more than 72000 algae species worldwide.
Hello again everyone, this is Ann & Chris from Growing Trends – you can listen to our podcasts at Growing Trends
Yesterday we started a new series of Growing Herbs & Veggies in a variety of easy ways at home, rather than the more traditional row crop method.
One of our Hort Cuisine Kits
Just to recap they are :
1. Introducing Herbs & Veggies to an existing flower or shrub bed.
Can you spot the herbs & veggies?
The Herbs & Veggies blend in and are almost invisible to the untrained eye.
2. Growing Herbs & Veggies in a container.
Stacked herb pot.
Growing in pots is great for those with restricted or small spaces. There are a few extra considerations you need to take for success, which we will explain.
3. Square Foot Garden
created by Mel Bartholomew, square foot gardens are one of the most efficient ways to grow your herbs & vegetables
4. Traditional ‘Allotment’ or ‘Community Gardens’
Allotment
Allotments are particularly European ,
in Denmark they date back to 1778, in 2001 there were around 62,000 !
Finland started around 1916,
France, Czech Republic, Germany, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Russia, Portugal, England, all have long traditions of ‘Allotments’
Community Gardens are more an American version, which often started as a ‘Victory Garden’ in the second world war, and has developed into a Community Garden.
So lets start today with.
1. Introducing Herbs & Veggies to an existing flower or shrub bed.
There are usually lots of different places where you could insert herbs and veggies in an established garden, the secret is to work with the design.
A good time to find those elusive spaces is now as you start your spring cleaning of beds.
Remember to think about the plants final height, most will require at least 6 hours of sunlight
How often you will need to get close to the plant to gather the crop.
Check regularly for pests and diseases and to feed & water.
Use low growing herbs, colourful cabbages instead of annuals for instance
Remember to add compost to the soil as they will still need nutrients
Place taller growing herbs and vegetables with taller shrubs towards the back of a border
With the lower growing herbs and vegetables towards the front of a border.
Remember flowers like Nasturtiums, Pansies,Orange blossom,Squash flowers and Marigolds are edible ( but not if they have pesticides sprayed on them) – take a look at Eat your Roses for more ideas
Now you can visually enjoy as well as enjoy eating.
You can listen to more great ideas on our Podcast at Growing Trends
Tomorrow we will talk about growing herbs & veggies in containers.
Chris & Ann are landscape designers, gardeners, inventors , radio show hosts, we live in the MidWest , are passionate about food, cooking, wine and love to interview people who share our passion for the environment.
Back in the 1950’s,60’s,70’s& 80’s in England we had daily fresh milk deliveries direct to your doorstep.
A ‘milk float’ as we called them ran on batteries – they were recharged overnight.
Homes were supplied with grass fed cows milk everyday, in glass bottles that were collected and reused, then when passed their usefulness sent back to the glass bottle plant as ‘cullet’ to be made back into new glass.
The milk was really ‘Fresh’ , being delivered in milk churns daily then pasteurized at the local dairy the day before, stored overnight in the refrigerator then delivered fresh the next day to your door step.
Today :
We have GMO corn fed cows milk, highly processed, long lasting, supplied in one time use plastic bottles that are difficult to recycle.
The ‘Milkman’ has long since lost his job…you have to make a trip to the supermarket to buy your milk.
Ann and I were very fortunate to interview Dr Charles Rawlings MD , he has an interesting passion, studying & photographing 'living shells', a scuba diver for the past thirty or so years Dr Rawlings has been observing, studying & … Continue reading →
Ann & I have something a little special for you today.
Ann and I were very fortunate to interview Dr Charles Rawlings MD , he has an interesting passion studying & photographing ‘living shells’, a scuba diver for the past thirty or so years Dr Rawlings has been observing, studying & photographing ‘living shells’ all over the world.
His knowledge of these creatures, their habits and habitats is extraordinary.
Recently he produced a beautiful coffee table book of pictures of these amazing creatures.
We caught up with Dr Rawlings as he was planning yet another trip.
Some of you may know that Ann & I have a new podcast as well as this blog.
Many years ago, whilst at school.I learned to write ‘joined up’ or ‘cursive’ style with a quill pen , you can imagine in my ripe old age, it takes me a little time to catch on to new methods of communicating.
That said Ann & I have made a quantum leap forward by using Internet Radio and Podcasting, we call the show Growing Trends.
Our latest podcast is all about Fracking.
This newish method of extracting oil and natural gas has caused quite a stir around the world.
Prices at the pumps have more than halved, there are stories of polluting and even earthquakes caused by this method. Then there are the stories of the huge drop in carbon emissions by countries using this oil production method.
We thought it would make a great interview for Growing Trends so we found, with the help of Bill Sosinsky, an expert, Rich Sapienza to talk to us about this oil extraction method, come and listen to the interview.. Growing Trends Podcast
Ann & Chris continue their fascinating talk with Rich Sapienza and Bill Sosinsky. Today we spend time talking about Fracking a relatively new industry with maybe a huge potential. Rich works with the 'Fracking' industry and has some interesting things … Continue reading →
Ann & Chris continue their talk with Rich Sapienza and Bill Sosinsky, starting with windmills and wind turbines. Rich is a believer in 'Small is beautiful' – the idea of making incremental savings of say 25% with smaller units being … Continue reading →
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