Composting - it can save you money!

For many people, composting is just an alternative way of dealing with rubbish.  It prevents the garbage bin from getting full and smelly.  It's also a way of disposing of grass clippings and leaves, which saves many trips to the garbage depot.  Whilst these things are valid, they are not giving compost the full credibility it deserves.  Compost can be very valuable when used in the right way.

I have a completely different way of looking at compost.  To me, composting is a way of building valuable nutrients that will, one day, feed me and my family.  I only use compost on my vegetable gardens.  The way I manage my vegetable gardens means that composting is an integral part of the whole food production system.  I create compost as a way of collecting nutrients in one form (waste), and turning them into another form (food). 

The average person buys food from a shop, consumes it and then sends the waste away.  This is simply buying nutrients, taking what you need for that precise moment, and disregarding the remainder.  It's a nutrient flow that only flows in one direction, like a fancy car roaring down the road.  You admire the car for a moment, but after a second or two, it's gone.

My goal is to slow down the car and then get it to do a U-turn.  I want to keep the nutrients within my property where I can capitalize on them.  By doing this, I am able to use the nutrients again, so I don't have to buy them for a second time.  Surely, that's going to save me money.  It may seem strange to think of nutrients in this way when we can't even physically see them.  However, all organic materials contain nutrients.  My goal is to get those nutrients out of the form they are in and into a form that is useful to me and my family. 

To put it in a different way; composting is a vehicle in which we are able to create a nutrient cycle within our property.  We are part of that cycle because we consume the nutrients when they are, for a brief time, in a useful form.  Then they return to the compost and slowly make their way into another useful form where we consume them again.  This cycle can go on and on indefinitely.  Of course, there will be many lost nutrients that you will never see again, but with a little diligence, you will be surprised at how much compost you can create, and hence, how many valuable nutrients you can recycle. 

My composting system is large because I have a few large vegetable gardens.  I believe that the size of your vegetable garden should be determined by how much compost you can create, and not merely by the amount of space you have in your backyard.  To run a rich, high yielding vegetable garden you need to have some sort of soil conditioning plan, and the best thing for your soil is a generous layer of good compost on the surface a few times per year. 

If you can create your own compost from the organic waste that you generate in your everyday life, then you can have a vegetable garden that is self-sustainable.  Once it is set up, it will never need nutrients in the form of store-bought fertilizers.  You will have established a flow of nutrients, and your nutrient-store will grow bigger and bigger, year after year.  Applying compost to your garden will have a very positive effect on your soil structure and fertility.  With good soil structure and plenty of organic material, you will be able to release nutrients that have been locked up and unavailable to your plants.  You will be speeding up the flow of nutrients, thus increasing your yield significantly.  Your soil will become alive and healthy with micro-organisms and soil bacteria that are beneficial to creating the conditions for proper plant growth.  Your vegetables will contain all the essential nutrients in the correct proportions, giving your body the vitamins and minerals it needs to function at its best.

Composting is very easy once you make it part of your everyday life.  A small container on your kitchen bench to collect scraps and a daily trip to the compost bin is all it takes.  It's a small effort for huge rewards.  The golden rule in making compost is never to have large clumps of a single type of material.  Thin layers of hot and cold materials work best.  Cold materials include leaves, shredded newspaper and dried grass clippings.  Hot materials include fresh grass clippings, manures, weeds, discarded soft plants and kitchen scraps. 

If you make composting part of you daily routine, along with an effective method of growing food, you can literally save thousands of dollars per year.  This is possible simply because you won't have to keep buying nutrients over and over.  You will buy them once, hold onto them and then convert them into useful forms again and again.  It's that simple!

Jonathan White is an Environmental Scientist and the founder of the Food4Wealth Method, a high yielding, low-maintenance form of vegetable gardening.  For more information see Food4Wealth DOT com

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Ecological Gardening 2

When we think of organic gardening and permaculture we tend to conjure up images of leathery-skinned bearded warriors who dedicate their lives to working long days in their vegetable plots.  Whilst this may be a wonderful way to live your life, it doesn't suit the average suburbanite with a full-time job and a hefty mortgage. 

Growing food is typically seen as either an art form or damned hard work.  It's no wonder very few people do it on a serious level.  But what if a technique came along that was so easy and so prolific that even the busiest corporate executive could grow a significant portion of their family's food in less time than it takes to drive to the shops.  Ecological gardening just might be the answer.  In my experience, it's the ultimate modern-day convenience veggie plot.

I didn't have a light bulb moment that said, "Ah, so this is ecological gardening".  My vegetable garden was no different to anybody else's for many years until I made a few changes.  The first and probably most significant was squeezing far more plants into a given area.  The second change was to never dig the soil.  And thirdly, I upgraded my composting system.  Once these simple strategies were in place I noticed the garden taking on a life of its own.  Weeds virtually stopped growing in the beds and plants started living much longer.  The garden could endure longer periods without water, I was yielding far more than I ever had and I could harvest every day of the year.   I wanted to know what was happening at a scientific level and applied my university training as an environmental scientist to understand why I was getting such amazing results.  I had to completely let go of all my preconceived ideas as a gardener and look at the plot through the eyes of an ecologist.  After some time I realized that I had created an ecosystem made up of edible plants, and it behaved in exactly the same way as a natural habitat.  I became more of an observer than a gardener and the role of head gardener was pulled from under my feet as nature took up the reins. 

Employ Nature, she works for free
The wonderful thing about nature is that she works tirelessly, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Nature follows very simple laws and works in the same way, on any system, anywhere in the world.  When we create an ecological garden we are creating a living, breathing ecosystem.  By doing this we get nature working for us, and not against us, and her great stamina works in our favour.

Niche Spaces and why they are important
A pristine ecosystem is made up of thousands of living and non-living components all coexisting in a given area.  Each living component occupies its own niche space and the role of the niche space is very important to understand when creating an ecological garden.  Let's look at an example.  Imagine a giant rainforest tree crashing to the ground after standing tall for hundreds of years.  Such a large tree would have filled an enormous niche space.  Lying in the soil, hundreds of dormant seeds spring to life, desperately fighting for their opportunity to occupy the best real estate in the forest: the empty niche space.  The niche space is quickly filled and harmony is restored. 

When we look at a traditional vegetable garden with this type of insight, what we see is a very unnatural system.  There is very little diversity and a lot of empty niche spaces.  Nature enforces her will on vegetable gardens in exactly the same way she does a rainforest, and this means that empty niches spaces will be filled as quickly as possible.  However, in a traditional vegetable garden there are no desirable seeds waiting to fill the niches spaces, so weeds fill them instead. 

The solution is to create a garden that has tightly filled niche spaces so that weeds don't have any opportunities.  We can do this by planting the garden very tightly with a diverse range of plants of differing shapes and characteristics.  The result is a dense jungle-like planting arrangement that can yield an unbelievable amount.  The denseness also creates a highly protected micro-climate.  This ideal growing environment causes your plants to last much longer.  Greens don't bolt to seed as soon as a hot spell hits and cold sensitive plants are more protected as well.

How to manage an ecological garden
Managing an ecological garden is different to managing a traditional vegetable garden.  With an ecological garden, there is far less to do.  As you become the observer and allow nature to take over as head gardener, you will notice that the garden is in a continual state of gentle change, just like a natural ecosystem.  It can be difficult for the traditional gardener to stand back and observe as we, human beings, like to control things.  This style of gardening calls for a great deal of faith in natural laws. Sure, there will be times when you need to step in and direct the system in a certain way; however that is almost always because a certain plant species is getting too successful and the system is at risk of loosing diversity. 

Natural Pest Management
The dense mixed-up nature of the ecological garden creates a natural form of pest management.  Pests generally locate their target plant species using sight or smell.  Imagine how much more difficult it is to see your target plant when its outline is blurred by a sea of green.  And how on earth could you smell your target plant when there are so many conflicting smells. 

No More Need to Rotate Crops
Crop rotation is practiced by dedicated gardeners for a very good reason.  Different plants require different minerals from the soil, in different proportions.  After an area has been planted with a certain species, the soil can be left depleted of certain minerals.  To lessen the effects of this depletion a different crop will be planted in the area the following year.  In addition, many gardeners rest their garden beds periodically and grow a green manure crop, usually a legume such as Lucerne or field peas.  These plants add nitrogen from the atmosphere through a process called nitrogen-fixing.  However, crop rotation simply isn't necessary with ecological gardening because the mixed-up planting arrangement counteracts the effects of mineral depletion because a single species doesn't dominate a single area.  Likewise, green manure crops are not necessary as nitrogen is topped up in two ways.  Firstly, through planting edible legumes such as peas and beans within the jungle-like mass.  And secondly, by the addition of compost to the surface of any bare areas.

Composting
Compost is an important part of the ecological garden and is a very valuable commodity.  To me, composting is a way of building valuable nutrients that will, one day, feed me and my family.  The average person buys food from a shop, consumes it and then sends the waste away.  This is simply buying nutrients, taking what you need for that precise moment, and disregarding the remainder.  It's a nutrient flow that only flows in one direction, like a fancy car roaring down the road.  You admire the car for a moment, but after a second or two, it's gone.

My goal is to slow down the car and then get it to do a U-turn.  I want to keep the nutrients within my property where I can capitalise on them.  By doing this, I am able to use the nutrients again, so I don't have to buy them for a second time.  In effect, I am creating a system that is self-sustainable.  Composting is a vehicle in which we are able to create a nutrient cycle within our property.  We are part of that cycle because we consume the nutrients when they are, for a brief time, in a useful form.  Then they return to the compost and slowly make their way into another useful form where we consume them again.  This cycle can go on and on indefinitely. 

Throw away the hoe
Natural ecosystems don't require gardeners with shovels and hoes to come along every season to turn their soil, and neither does an ecological garden.  However, it is best not to walk on the garden beds as this will cause unnecessary compaction.  Of course, this requires the installation of permanent pathways that are positioned in a way that the gardener can obtain access to the plot. 

Digging soil upsets the soil structure which, in turn, reduces the soil's ability to pass on valuable nutrients to plants.  The loss of soil structure also reduces the soil's ability to hold water.  Developing good soil structure is actually the best water conserving technique I know, and when practiced in conjunction with a dense planting arrangement creates a holistic soil ecology management plan.  A dense planting arrangement will shade the soils surface, stopping surface crusting which causes runoff and nutrient depletion.  Developing good deeper structure will allow soil organisms to do what they do best – turn organic matter into available plant nutrients.    

Self Seeding
If you are lucky enough to visit a pristine rainforest you will probably be awestruck by the towering canopy.  However, the future of the rainforest lies in the soil in the form of seeds – tiny cells of life waiting for their opportunity to prosper.  If we are going to create an ecological garden then we have to make sure it too, has a future.  By allowing some plants to go to seed, we can build up seed stores, just like the rainforest.  And like the rainforest, we should aim to have thousands of seeds of many varieties spread right across our plot.  Most of these seeds will never germinate because in the ecological garden the niche spaces are so tightly filled that opportunities for new life are limited.  However, eventually a plant will be eaten and an empty niche space will appear.  If we have thousands of seeds lying dormant, the chances of the niche space being filled with something desirable are pretty good

Who should set up an ecological garden?
Absolutely everyone from farmers to inner-city townhouse dwellers.  It may seem strange, but if you have never grown food before then you are, in some ways, at an advantage.  Experienced gardeners may like to see themselves as adopting some ecological gardening techniques, but find it difficult to let go of the need to control the system.  Like all industries, the gardening industry can get stuck in doing things a certain way and most seasoned gardeners will inevitably over-work the garden.  As a species, human beings prospered when we learnt to cultivate food using tilling and other traditional agricultural methods, so it's difficult to turn back to where we came from - nature.  It might even feel like a step in the wrong direction.  But if we can let go of our need to control every living thing on the planet, and start to work with nature, we actually gain more control by being able to grow food more efficiently than ever before.  It's a paradox - but it works!

Setting up an ecological garden
Any existing vegetable garden can be converted into an ecological garden.  Firstly, get your pathways laid out so that you never have to walk on your garden beds again.  After that, get a good composting system going and apply it to the soil surface.  Then plant densely and diversely. 

If you don't have a vegetable garden, my suggestion would be to create a classic Esther Deans 'no dig' garden to get you started.  Once erected, simply follow the ecological gardening method. 

Mini-ecological garden
If you live in a unit or townhouse with no soft ground you could create a mini-ecological garden using a series of containers.  Polystyrafoam boxes with drainage holes are ideal.  Fill them with good potting mixture and arrange them side by side using as many as you can fit onto your verandah or patio.  Rather than developing a large composting system, you could purchase a worm farm and add the worm casts to the soil surface as fertilizer.  Once the boxes are set up, simply adopt the ecological gardening method.

The Ecological Gardening Method – the key principles.

1. Plant densely
2. Plant a diversity of plants within a given area
3. Get a good composting system set up and use the compost as a surface mulch on bare patches
4. Allow some plants to go to seed
5. Only interfere with the system when a single species of plant over-dominates and simply scratch out excess plants when they are small. 

 

Growing food is not hard work, especially when you have nature helping you 24/7.  A small area can provide you with such a bounty of food, saving your family thousands of dollars per year.  Most of us don't have much time to spend in the garden, including me.  I only invest around eight hours of time per year to growing my food, and although I live on a small farm I only use a space of around 6 x 6m.  That's an area that could fit into many suburban backyards several times over.  The most wonderful thing about this method is that I know I can ignore my vegetable garden for months and it won't miss a beat.  So, if you believe growing food is only for tough bearded warriors with lots of land and time, think again.  Ecological gardening could be just the thing for you.

 

Jonathan White is a self-employed environmental consultant and landscape designer.  He is the author of Food4Wealth, an eBook and video package that shows the reader exactly how to set up and maintain an ecological garden.  It is available at food4wealth DOT com

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ECO-Organic Vegetable Gardening Is It Magic?

 

We all know how much hard work there is in growing vegetables - digging, weeding, crop rotation, watering, fertilizing, planting winter crops, resting beds, spraying pests and weeds - the list goes on and on.  So imagine a vegetable garden that didn't need any of these things.  Imagine a garden that never had pests, never needed digging, didn't need to be rested in winter, had no need for crop rotation, had virtually no weeds, needed very little water and virtually looked after itself.  But to top all that off, this garden produces many times more than a traditional vegetable garden and regenerates itself year after year, all by itself. 

Surely, that would be magic!

How could a vegetable garden like this exist?  Easily!  The answer is in nature.  Natural ecosystems are very healthy and diverse and don't require any human interference.  If we are able to take the same natural laws that are found in nature and apply them to our garden, we are able to reproduce the same results.  And that's exactly what the Food4Wealth method has done.

The Food4Wealth method is based on science.  It follows very sound ecological principles.  It's a way of setting up a natural ecosystem using edible plants, and it uses the types of plants we all like to eat.  The special planting arrangement mimics nature so the same interdependent relationships between the living components exist.  These relationships are mutually beneficial for the various components, so the vegetable garden actually runs all by itself. 

The people in the family who own the Food4Wealth plot are actually one of the important living components.  They perform a similar task to a grazing animal in a natural ecosystem.  The Food4Wealth plot actually benefits from regular harvesting, just as a natural ecosystem benefits from regular grazing.  These plots are so prolific, that they need almost daily harvesting.  Regular harvesting maintains the ideal vegetation balance required to run the garden like a natural ecosystem.  It's the ultimate win win situation.  Harvesting is good for the people, but it's also good for the garden.

The biggest challenge that faces modern agricultural practices is to incorporate pest ecology, plant ecology, soil ecology and crop management into a method that is reliable and efficient.  And until now, that has never been achieved.  The Food4Wealth method naturally combines all of these factors without any effort.  You see, nature has had these things under control for millions of years.  It's only humans who have made things more complicated.

But the path is now clear, because Food4Wealth has laid the foundations for a healthier, more efficient and reliable way to grow food.  It's a simple method that sets things up as nature intended, so that problems simply don't exist. 

So, to answer the question - is it magic? 

No, it isn't magic, but it sure feels like it. 

Jonathan White is a self-employed environmental consultant and landscape designer.  He is the author of Food4Wealth, an eBook and video package that shows the reader exactly how to set up and maintain an ecological garden.  It is available at food4wealth DOT com

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Candy Crafts: Bubble Gum Bouquet

 

Note: This craft project is only for your personal use. It is copyrighted.

Materials used: a flowerpot, Dubble Bubble Gum, blue cellophane, polka dot cellophane, floral foam, blue plastic grass or blue shredded paper, stem wire (16 or 18 ga), yellow curling ribbon, scotch tape, glue dots, and tools (scissors, serrated knife, and wire cutters).

Step 1. Take a flowerpot. It can be any flowerpot you like. I chose a yellow and blue ceramic flowerpot (5.5" in diameter), because it goes well with the yellow and blue wrappers of the bubble gum pieces.

Step 2. Cut the floral foam to the proper size so it will fit tightly in the flowerpot. Cut a piece of blue cellophane, and then put the piece of floral foam in the middle of this cellophane piece. Gather the cellophane up around the foam and insert it in the pot. The foam should be about 1" lower than the edge of the pot.

Step 3. Cover the foam with blue plastic decorative grass or shredded blue paper.

Step 4. Make several bubble gum flowers.

a) Take stem wire (16 or 18 ga) or bamboo skeweres, Dubble Bubble gum pieces, floral tape, scissors, and wire cutters.

b) Join 3 bubble gum pieces to each stem using green floral tape. First join a piece of candy to the end of the wire/bamboo skewer. One or two inches down the wire or skewer attach the second piece of candy. Go down another one or two inches and attach the third piece of candy on the opposite end of the second one.

If you use a bamboo skewer, wrap the rest of the skewer with floral tape so it is completely green. With green stem wire it is not necessary.

I made 10 bubble gum flowers. Three of them are taller than the others; they will be placed at the back of the bouquet.

Step 5. Wrap the bubble gum flowers in cellophane.

a) Cut a square piece of polka dot cellophane. In my case I used 7" x 7" pieces.

b) Carefully poke the bubble gum stem through the center of a cellophane piece, or fold the cellophane square in half and fold it in half again across the first fold and cut the tip off the corner. You will end up with a small hole in the center of your unfolded cellophane piece.

c) Pull the cellophane into a cone shape it should be just beneath the bubble gum pieces and tie it with a piece of yellow curling ribbon. Fluff the cellophane out.

Decorate all of the bubble gum flowers this way.

Step 6. Insert the bubble gum flowers into the pot. The tallest flowers go in the back. Arrange the flowers in a way you find attractive.

Step 7. You may want to add additional pieces of blue cellophane into the arrangement (in the back, in the middle, etc.) to create a fuller bouquet using floral picks.

Take cellophane and cut rectangular pieces. Take one of the rectangles and loosely fold it in half the short way and then in half the long way. Take a green floral pick, put about 1/2" of the closed corner of the cello piece against the blunt end of the pick, and wrap the wire tightly around it. Fluff the cellophane out. Now the cello or tissue paper piece is ready to be inserted into the floral foam.

Your bubble gum bouquet is ready!

If you want to quickly and easily learn how to make candy bouquets either to start your own business or just to be able to make amazing memorable gifts for any occasion, check out my valuable "illustrated" step-by-step guides "How to make beautiful candy bouquets for fun and profit" and "Candy bouquet designs".

Lana Glass

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Ecological Gardening

 

High yielding, low maintenance vegetable gardening that's perfect for our modern-day lifestyle

When we think of organic gardening and permaculture we tend to conjure up images of bearded warriors dressed in overalls who dedicate their lives to working long days in their vegetable plots.  Whilst this may be a wonderful way to live your life, it doesn't suit the average suburbanite with a full-time job and a hefty mortgage. 

Growing food is typically seen as either an art form or damned hard work.  It's no wonder that very few people produce enough food to feed their family.  But what if a technique came along that was so easy and so prolific that even the busiest corporate executive could grow a significant portion of their family's food in less time than it takes to drive to the shops.  Ecological gardening just might be the answer.  In my experience, it's the ultimate modern-day convenience vegetable plot.

An ecological garden is an ecosystem made up of edible plants, and it behaves in exactly the same way as a natural habitat.  Over time, you become more of an observer than a gardener as you watch Mother Nature do most of the work. 

The wonderful thing about nature is that she works tirelessly, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Nature follows very simple laws and works in the same way, on any system, anywhere in the world.  To understand ecological gardening, observing natural ecosystems can provide us with the answers we need.  A natural ecosystem is made up of thousands of living and non-living components all coexisting in a given area.  Each living component occupies its own niche space and the role of the niche space is very important to understand when creating an ecological garden. 

Let's look at an example.  Imagine a giant rainforest tree crashing to the ground after standing tall for hundreds of years.  Such a large tree would have filled an enormous niche space.  Lying in the soil, hundreds of dormant seeds spring to life, desperately fighting for their opportunity to occupy the best real estate in the forest - the empty niche space.  The niche space is quickly filled and harmony is restored. 

When we look at a traditional vegetable garden with this type of insight, what we see is a very unnatural system.  There is very little diversity and a lot of empty niche spaces.  Nature enforces her will on vegetable gardens in exactly the same way she does a rainforest, and this means that empty niches spaces will be filled as quickly as possible.  However, in a traditional vegetable garden there are no desirable seeds waiting to fill the niches spaces, so weeds fill them instead. 

The solution to this problem is to create a garden that has tightly filled niche spaces so that weeds don't have any opportunities.  We can achieve this by using a planting arrangement that mimics a natural ecosystem.  This type of planting arrangement also creates a range of highly protected micro-climates.  This ideal growing environment causes your plants to last much longer.  Greens don't bolt to seed as soon as a hot spell hits and cold sensitive plants are more protected as well.  The planting arrangement also creates a natural form of pest management. 

Managing an ecological garden is different to managing a traditional vegetable garden.  With an ecological garden, there is far less to do.  As you become the observer and allow nature to take over as head gardener, you will notice that the garden is in a continual state of gentle change, just like a natural ecosystem.  It can be difficult for the traditional gardener to stand back and observe, as many of us instinctively like to control things.  This style of gardening calls for a great deal of faith in natural laws.

Absolutely everyone from farmers to inner-city townhouse dwellers can create an ecological garden.  It may seem strange, but if you have never grown food before then you are, in some ways, at an advantage.  Like all industries, the gardening industry can get stuck in doing things a certain way and most seasoned gardeners will inevitably over-work the garden.  As a species, human beings prospered when we learnt to cultivate food using tilling and other traditional agricultural methods, so it's difficult to turn back to where we came from - nature.  It might even feel like a step in the wrong direction.  But if we can let go of our need to control every living thing on the planet, and start to work with nature, we actually gain more control by being able to grow food more efficiently than ever before.  It's a paradox - but it works!

Growing food is not hard work, especially when you have nature helping you 24/7.  A small area can provide you with a bounty of food, saving your family thousands of dollars per year.  Most of us don't have much time to spend in the garden, including me.  I only invest around eight hours per year to growing my food, and although I live on a small farm, I only use a space of around 6m x 6m.  That's an area that could fit into many suburban backyards several times over.  The most wonderful thing about this method is that I know I can ignore my vegetable garden for months and it won't miss a beat.  So, if you believe growing food is only for tough, bearded warriors with a lot of time - think again.  Ecological gardening could be just the thing for you.

 

Jonathan White is a self-employed environmental consultant and landscape designer.  He is the author of an eBook and video package that shows the reader exactly how to set up and maintain an ecological garden.  For more information about ecological gardening, go to: freshfoodgardenguru DOT com

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Ecological Gardening- what is it?

 

The term Ecological Gardening seems to be gaining popularity.  But what is it?  My experience with Ecological Gardening started many years ago.  You see, I have always been a fence sitter.  As a teenager I could never make my mind up whether I wanted to be a horticulturist or an environmental scientist.  And sometimes I'm still a little unsure!

Fortunately, I have been able to gain qualifications in both.  My specialty is in growing food using ecological principles.  But I'm not talking about some sort of alternative hippie technique.  I'm talking about sound scientific principles.

In my experience, the study of natural ecosystems will reveal everything we need to know about growing food.  Natural ecosystems are generally diverse and there are a number of intricate interdependent relationships occurring between the living and non-living components at any given time.  Put simply, each component relies and benefits from its interaction with other components.  They fuel up on each other, causing the system to be able to sustain itself.  If one part of the system gets 'out of whack', the whole system is affected.

When studying a natural ecosystem, such as a diverse pristine rainforest we find that there are many living components co-existing in a given area.  Each of these components occupies a niche space.  If a component, let's say a plant, is removed by an animal eating it, we are left with an empty niche.  An empty niche provides an opportunity for another life form to fill the space.  In natural ecosystems, nature does not tolerate empty niche spaces.  Once the niche becomes available, there will be a whole host of willing opportunists ready to fill that space.  Dormant seeds, sometimes decades old, will spring to life and quickly try to occupy it. 

The same thing happens when we are trying to grow food.  In any agricultural practice, such as a vegetable garden, there are always empty niche spaces.  And remember, nature doesn't tolerate empty niche spaces.  So weeds will try to fill the empty niche spaces.  Weeds are very good niche space fillers.  They are the ultimate colonizing plants.  So as we can see there is no difference in the way nature works, whether it is in a pristine natural ecosystem or a vegetable garden.

Ecological Gardening aims to create a system where nature works for us, and not against us.  It is actually quite easy to have a weed-free vegetable garden.  You simply do one of two things.  Firstly, you avoid having empty niche spaces.  And secondly, you make sure there is something desirable to fill niche spaces, should they become available.  That's just one simple example, but Ecological Gardening can easily prevent a number of problems from ever arising. 

My experience with Ecological Gardening has been phenomenal.  I have been able to combine natural weed management, soil ecology, pest ecology and crop management into a very simple and easy method.  In fact, I have been able to create a garden that requires very little attention and produces far more than a traditional vegetable garden, simply by applying sound scientific principles.  And from the incredible results that I have achieved, I can say, with absolute certainty, that Ecological Gardening is the way we will be producing food in the future.

Jonathan White is a self-employed environmental consultant and landscape designer.  He is the author of Food4Wealth, an eBook and video package that shows the reader exactly how to set up and maintain an ecological garden.  It is available at food4wealth DOT com

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How to restore our basic life-supporting systems; water, air and soil

 

How to restore our basic life-supporting systems; water, air and soil

The breakdown of our food growing systems poses one of the biggest threats to our survival.  Our existence depends upon our agricultural systems, but what do our agricultural systems depend on?  The answer: water, air and soil.  These basic elements support all life-forms and without them, life as we know it cannot be sustained.  

In nature, food grows as part of an ecosystem.  An ecosystem is an ecological system that is made up of many biological parts, or components, that all interact with one another.  These components are mostly made up of organisms such as plants and animals.  They feed on each other and depend on each others' presence to survive.

Just as plant and animal components are dependent on each other, basic life-supporting systems - water, air and soil - are also dependent on each another.  For example, the flow of air affects rainfall and rainfall affects the flow of air.  In addition, life-supporting systems are dependent on the components and vice versa.  For example, soil is created by plants and plants are created by soil.  In summary, components are dependent on life-supporting systems and the life-supporting systems are dependent on components.  However, it gets even more complicated than that.

Within the basic life-supporting systems - water, air and soil - there are sub-systems.  If we take a look at water, it can be broken up into many sub-systems, including: rainfall, surface water, ground water, humidity and transpiration.  It is not necessary (or even possible) to understand everything that's going on within an ecosystem, however it is very important to understand this:

Each and every component, system and sub-system is important in running the overall ecosystem.  When you disturb one, the others start to fall apart.

Humans once lived as part of ecosystems.  We were just one of many ecological components within an ecosystem.  We were also part of the food chain; sometimes preyed upon, but mostly a predator.  When we discovered cultivation we discovered many advantages, such as being able to grow staple crops in relative density.  By clearing an area of its natural components we have been able to increase the quantity of a single, useful component such as a commercial crop. 

A typical farming operation strives to eliminate as many ecological components as possible so that a predetermined yield of a specific crop can be obtained.  For example, a farmer sows 10 acres of wheat and expects to achieve a yield within a certain range.  If it's a good year he will achieve the upper end of the range and if it's a bad year he will achieve the lower end of the range.  This offers him a relatively secure livelihood and he can live his life in accordance to the money he makes from his predetermined yield.  It makes perfect sense from an economic point of view.

However, this only works when the basic life-supporting systems are working, hence, adequate water, air and soil.  The problem is that these basic systems are part of an ancient ecosystem that is long gone.  The soils that we now grow crops in were part of a natural ecosystem and the millions of components that once existed were a critical part of keeping the basic life-supporting systems healthy and functioning.

By stripping the land of natural components we start to see the degradation of the basic life-supporting systems - water, soil and air.  When a large number of living components are removed, these natural systems break down because the components and the systems are interrelated.  As a diversity of plants and animals are replaced with a single species of crop, we start to see effects on the way the basic water, air and soil systems operate.  Water moves faster and is not filtered by a variety of plants.  This usually lowers the ground water and leaves the surface hotter and drier.  The hotter surface moves the air in different ways causing rain clouds to travel away from the area causing localized drought conditions.  Overall fertility is lost from soils as water moves out of the system at a greater rate.  The temperatures are hotter in summer and colder in winter as there are fewer plants to thermoregulate the area.  Rainfall becomes more unpredictable as the air current is affected by hotter ground temperatures.  It eventually gets difficult to grow the commercial crop.

Modern-day human intervention can offer short-term solutions, but cannot fix the cause of the problem.  Irrigation from bores cannot provide a sustainable solution to the breakdown of the water system.  Irrigation only lowers the ground water further making the problem even bigger than it was.  The use of groundwater is not a bad practice in all cases, but it doesn't fix the root problem.  Likewise, inorganic fertilizers will not repair the soil systems.  If a soil is being leached of nutrients due to water passing through it too quickly and hungry hybrid crops feeding on it, it will not be repaired by adding more minerals.  The same forces that are depleting the soils are still happening, so the soils will continue to become depleted.  Inorganic fertilizers cannot restore soil structure and cannot build new soil, like a natural ecosystem can. 

Commonsense will tell you that if there are no natural soil-building systems in place and soils are being lost and degraded, then fertilizer dependence must increase.  Year after year more fertilizer will be needed to obtain the same yield.  Remember, the farmer depends on a predetermined yield to fulfill his lifestyle, but now there is a greater cost to maintain that yield, in the form of store-bought fertilizers.  As costs increase, net profits decrease and eventually the whole operation becomes economically nonviable.  When you add market instability and retail competitiveness to the equation, you can see how difficult it would be to survive as a farmer.  The solution, so far, has been to cut the amount of human labor on farms because they are the most expensive part of the operation.  This is done by increasing the size of the operation and the equipment.  Large conglomerate companies can grow crops over thousands of acres, tended by very few humans.  In ecological terms, this means less diversity over a larger area, which means less natural components and less natural systems in operation.  Of course, the result is that the basic life-supporting systems; water, air and soil, will be ruined at a quicker rate.  Surely that means that even these massive operations will eventually become too costly to run. 

The only way to keep an ecosystem alive and healthy is to make sure the basic life-supporting systems - water, air and soil - are intact.  This applies to any patch of land, whether it's a native forest, a farm or an urban garden.  Every ecosystem is just a smaller part of a larger ecosystem.  In fact, the whole planet could be referred to as a single ecosystem.  What we do on a local level may only cause a tiny effect, but if a significant number of local people start doing the same thing, then it will cause an effect on a slightly larger scale.  If this is replicated on a big enough scale, then eventually, our actions can affect an entire planet. 

There is no buffer that can protect you from the global breakdown of the basic life-supporting systems - water, air and soil.  However, you can cause an effect on your immediate surroundings.  To restore our basic life-supporting systems - water, air and soil - we need to increase the number and diversity of biological components.  Diversity is the answer.  Remember, an ecosystem has millions of components, systems and sub-systems operating in a given area.  These systems need each other for their survival.  We can add diversity to our backyards and farms in the form of plants and animals.  Once we start to add biological components, they will start to support more biological components.  The addition of biological components, in the form of plants and animals, will start to build soil.  This in turn will slow down the flow of water and keep it in our property.  Trees and other plants will reduce and capture water lost from ground evaporation, mulch soils and create niche spaces for more life-forms.  Your property will be better regulated in terms of temperature and humidity.  It will be cooler in summer and warmer in winter.  This, in turn, helps the plants to yield more, creating more biomass and better soil.  There will be more opportunities for life forms and the basic life-supporting systems; water, air and soil will be more supportive and better able to meet your needs.  As these basic systems become healthier, more sub-systems will appear.  Systems within systems will start to rev up and biological components (plants and animals) will increase in number, diversity and health. 

To give you an idea of how this may look in real terms, imagine this; a backyard that had a massive number of edible and non-edible plants of differing size, shape, habit, colour and form.  Also, imagine a diversity of domestic and wild animals, native and introduced, edible and non-edible.  Now, try to imagine a system where these plants and animals coexist in a way that they fed each other and, at the same time, create surplus food for humans.

Using a mixture of edible and non-edible plants is important.  Not everything within the system should be directly consumed by humans.  Non-edible plants create the structure that supports the edible species.  They should be planted in sensitive areas such as hilltops and drainage lines and in strips along contours on slopes.  They act as water filters, native habitats, climate controllers and soil builders.  Edible plants fill in the spaces only after the basic supporting structure is in place. 

Ecosystems are in a constant state of change and so are sustainable food growing systems.  This makes it very difficult to predetermine the yield from year to year.  The system needs the freedom to change as the components and systems evolve.  This is the most difficult part for humans to understand.  In our current way of farming we strive to make each year the same so that the yield can be predetermined, even when the conditions are changing.  Sustainable agriculture calls for a massive faith in natural laws and absolute respect for the basic life-supporting systems. 

I have seen many agricultural systems, but very few sustainable ones.  I have even seen several organically-certified farms that are practicing agriculture in a way that is depleting the basic life-supporting systems; soil, air and water.  Rather than buying inorganic fertilizers, they simply purchase organic fertilizers.  These organic farmers have little understanding of natural systems and just operate in a similar way to traditional farmers, only their job is more difficult without the use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides.  The food they produce may be free of chemicals, but they are slowly killing the basic life-supporting systems; water, air and soil.   

To make the world a healthier place is not difficult.  Even if you don't get the design as perfect as you possibly could, just the addition of a diversity of plants will create a positive effect on the basic life-supporting systems.  However, if you can get the components arranged in a way that they feed off one another to create a cyclic flow of energy, then you are starting to mimic a natural ecosystem.  As the site matures, the basic life-supporting systems - water, air and soil - will start to be restored.  That is when the system becomes self-sufficient and will provide excess food for humans, with minimal effort.  In fact, at that point, we will have returned to the past and, once again, be just another ecological component within an ecosystem. 

Jonathan White is a self-employed environmental consultant and landscape designer.  He is the author of Food4Wealth, an eBook and video package that shows the reader exactly how to set up and maintain an ecological garden.  It is available at food4wealth DOT com

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The Problem with Traditional Vegetable Gardening?

 

Traditional vegetable gardens require an enormous amount of hard work and attention - weeding, feeding and strict planting schedules.  There is also the problem of seasonality, allowing beds to rest during the cooler months producing nothing at all.  Then we are told to plant green manure crops, add inorganic fertilizers and chemicals to adjust imbalanced soils.  It takes a lot of time, dedication and a year-round commitment to grow your own food the traditional way. 
But does it really need to be that difficult?
Let me ask you this question.  Does a forest need to think how to grow?  Does its soil need to be turned every season?  Does someone come along every so often and plant seeds or take pH tests?  Does it get weeded or sprayed with toxic chemicals?
Of course not! 

Traditional vegetable gardening techniques are focused on problems.  Have you noticed that gardening books are full of ways to fix problems?  I was a traditional gardener for many years and I found that the solution to most problems simply caused a new set of problems. In other words, the problem with problems is that problems create more problems. 

Let's take a look at a common traditional gardening practice and I will show you how a single problem can escalate into a whole host of problems.

Imagine a traditional vegetable garden, planted with rows of various vegetables.  There are fairly large bare patches between the vegetables.  To a traditional gardener, a bare patch is just a bare patch.  But to an ecologist, a bare patch is an empty niche space.  An empty niche space is simply an invitation for new life forms to take up residency.  Nature does not tolerate empty niche spaces and the most successful niche space fillers are weeds.  That's what a weed is in ecological terms - a niche space filler.  Weeds are very good colonizing plants.  If they weren't, they wouldn't be called weeds. 

Now back to our story.  Weeds will grow in the empty niche spaces.  Quite often there are too many weeds to pick out individually, so the traditional gardener uses a hoe to turn them into the soil.  I have read in many gardening books, even organic gardening books, that your hoe is your best friend.  So the message we are getting is that using a hoe is the solution to a problem.

However, I would like to show you how using a hoe actually creates a new set of problems.  Firstly, turning soil excites weed seeds, creating a new explosion of weeds.  And secondly, turning soil upsets the soil ecology.  The top layer of soil is generally dry and structureless.  By turning it, you are placing deeper structured soil on the surface and putting the structureless soil underneath.  Over time, the band of structureless soil widens.  Structureless soil has far less moisture holding capacity, so the garden now needs more water to keep the plants alive. 

In addition to this problem, structureless soil cannot pass its nutrients onto the plants as effectively.  The garden now also needs the addition of fertilisers.  Many fertilisers kill the soil biology which is very important in building soil structure and plant nutrient availability.  The soil will eventually turn into a dead substance that doesn't have the correct balance of nutrients to grow fully developed foods.  The foods will actually lack vitamins and minerals.  This problem has already occurred in modern-day agriculture.  Dr Tim Lobstein, Director of the Food Commission said. "… today's agriculture does not allow the soil to enrich itself, but depends on chemical fertilisers that don't replace the wide variety of nutrients plants and humans need."  Over the past 60 years commercially grown foods have experienced a significant reduction in nutrient and mineral content.

Can you see how we started with the problem of weeds, but ended up with the new problems of lower water-holding capacity and infertile soils.  And eventually, we have the potentially serious problem of growing food with low nutrient content.  Traditional gardening techniques only ever strive to fix the symptom and not the cause. 

However, there is a solution!  We must use a technique that combines pest ecology, plant ecology, soil ecology and crop management into a method that addresses the causes of these problems.  This technique must be efficient enough to be economically viable.  It also needs to be able to produce enough food, per given area, to compete against traditional techniques. 

I have been testing an ecologically-based method of growing food for several years.  This method uses zero tillage, zero chemicals, has minimal weeds and requires a fraction of the physical attention (when compared to traditional vegetable gardening).  It also produces several times more, per given area, and provides food every single day of the year.

My ecologically-based garden mimics nature in such a way that the garden looks and acts like a natural ecosystem.  Succession layering of plants (just as we see in natural ecosystems) offers natural pest management.  It also naturally eliminates the need for crop rotation, resting beds or green manure crops.  Soil management is addressed in a natural way, and the result is that the soil's structure and fertility get richer and richer, year after year.  Another benefit of this method is automatic regeneration through self-seeding.  This occurs naturally as dormant seeds germinate; filling empty niche spaces with desirable plants, and not weeds. 

Unfortunately, the biggest challenge this method faces is convincing traditional gardeners of its benefits.  Like many industries, the gardening industry gets stuck in doing things a certain way.  The ecologically-based method requires such little human intervention that, in my opinion, many people will get frustrated with the lack of needing to control what's happening.  Naturally people love to take control of their lives, but with this method you are allowing nature to take the reins.  It's a test of faith in very simple natural laws.  However, in my experience these natural laws are 100% reliable. 

Another reason that traditional gardeners may not like this method is that it takes away all the mysticism of being an expert.  You see, this method is so simple that any person, anywhere in the world, under any conditions, can do it.  And for a veteran gardener it can actually be quite threatening when an embarrassingly simple solution comes along. 

I have no doubt that this is the way we will be growing food in the future.  It's just commonsense.  Why wouldn't we use a method that produces many times more food with a fraction of the effort?  I know it will take a little while to convince people that growing food is actually very instinctual and straightforward, but with persistence and proper explanation, people will embrace this method. 

Why?  Because sanity always prevails…

…eventually!

Jonathan White is an Environmental Scientist and the founder of the Food4Wealth Method.  For more information see Food4Wealth DOT com

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Easter Crafts: Easter Candy Sundae

 

To make this Easter treat you will need: a Sundae glass, Easter candy (Hershey's chocolate kisses, Easter chocolate eggs, or jelly beans in Easter colors), a stick candy, curling ribbons in Easter colors, pipe cleaners or thin stem wire, scissors and wire cutters.

Step 1. Find a Sundae glass you would like to use in your candy arrangement.

Step 2. Fill the Sundae glass with the Easter candy of your choice. I used milk chocolate eggs for my Candy Sundae.

Step 3. Put the stick candy, which matches the other candy colors, into the glass.

Step 4.

a) Prepare curling ribbons in Easter colors (pastel red, pastel yellow, pastel green, etc.). You can also use ready-made curl swirls.

b) Take a piece of pipe cleaner (chenille wire) or thin stem wire, bend it over the middle of the curling ribbons, twisting the two legs tightly near the ribbon. Curl the ribbons by pulling them over the edge of the scissors.

c) Insert the wired curling ribbons in the glass. Great job! Congratulations on your beautiful Easter Candy Sundae!

I wish you Happy Easter!

If you want to quickly and easily learn how to make candy bouquets either to start your own business or just to be able to make amazing memorable gifts for any occasion, check out my valuable "illustrated" step-by-step guides "How to make beautiful candy bouquets for fun and profit" and "Candy bouquet designs".

Lana Glass

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Easter Candy Arrangement

 

Materials used for this candy arrangement: an Easter bucket, "Dum-Dum" pops or other lollipops, decorative Easter grass, curling ribbons of different colors, floral foam, a stuffed bunny, chocolate bunnies, bamboo skewers or lollipop sticks, hot glue, wired decorative Easter eggs (I bought them in Michaels Craft store), and Easter ribbon.

Step 1. Take an Easter bucket and fill it 5/6 full of Easter plastic grass.

Step 2. Cut the floral foam and put it on the top of the Easter decorative grass so it fits into the container firmly. Cut and insert filler pieces of foam as necessary. If the foam is loose in the bucket, you can secure it to the walls of the bucket with some floral sticky clay.

Or you can buy foam in the shape of a flat circle, cut it to the desired size and insert it into the bucket.

Step 3. Cover the foam with Easter grass securing it with floral pins as necessary.

Step 4. Set the toy Easter Bunny in the back of the bucket. If the bunny does not want to sit, you can attach a piece of a bamboo skewer to the back of the toy using a piece of clear packing tape or hot glue. The bunny is held in place with the piece of skewer inserted in the foam.

Or you can stabilize the toy bunny securing his legs to the foam using floral pins or hairpins.

Step 5. Make several candy flowers.

a) Prepare "Dum-Dum Pops" or other suckers and curling ribbons of different colors.

b) (Optional). Take a "Dum-Dum" pop and a piece of matching curling ribbon. Tie a small bow at the base of the pop (where the stick and the pop meet).

c) Using scissors curl the loose ends of the ribbon.

d) That is it. One candy flower is ready. Make several candy flowers of each color and flavor.

Step 6. Insert pops in light and dark green wrappers all around the edge of the bucket. Then insert the rest of the pops around the bunny.

Note: You can even put little bunny ears and a face on the pops.

Step 7. The next step is to add the chocolate bunnies to the arrangement.

a) Prepare chocolate bunnies, bamboo skewers or lollipop sticks, and clear packing tape or hot glue.

 

b) Attach the bamboo skewer/lollipop stick to the back of chocolate bunnies with packing tape/hot glue.

 

c) Insert these chocolate bunnies at the back of the bucket behind the toy bunny.

Step 8.

a) Take wired decorative Easter eggs and Easter narrow ribbon.

b) Tie an Easter bow around these Easter eggs and insert them in the foam so they will be in the bunny's hands as though he is holding them.

I wish you Happy Easter!

If you want to quickly and easily learn how to make candy bouquets either to start your own business or just to be able to make amazing memorable gifts for any occasion, check out my valuable "illustrated" step-by-step guides "How to make beautiful candy bouquets for fun and profit" and "Candy bouquet designs".

Lana Glass

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Candy Arrangement in a Sundae Glass

 

You will need: a Sundae glass, a piece of stick candy, Hershey's chocolate kisses of one flavor or several, Life Savers, curling ribbons, pipe cleaners or thin stem wire, scissors and wire cutters.

1. Find a Sundae glass you would like to use in your candy arrangement.

2. Fill the Sundae glass with the Hershey's chocolate kisses.

3. Put the stick candy of the matching color into the glass.

4. (Optional). You can put Life Savers candy on the top of the Sundae (they will form whipped cream) securing them in place with glue dots or double-sided tape as necessary.

5.
a) Prepare curling ribbons of colors that correspond with the kisses wrappers. You can also buy ready-made curl swirls.

b) Take a piece of pipe cleaner or thin stem wire and tightly wrap it around the middle of the curling ribbons from step a). Curl the ribbons by pulling them over the edge of the scissors.

c) Insert the curling ribbons in the glass. Your beautiful and tasty Candy Sundae is ready!

If you want to quickly and easily learn how to make candy bouquets either to start your own business or just to be able to make amazing memorable gifts for any occasion, check out my valuable "illustrated" step-by-step guide "How to make beautiful candy bouquets for fun and profit".

Lana Glass

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Can Anyone Start A Christmas Light Installation Business?

Christmas Light Installation is a business opportunity for anyone that is interested in making money fast. Whether you're looking for some extra money for Christmas gifts, a new job, a way to get out of debt or just a chance to own your own business, this kit is for you.

It doesn't matter at what stage you are in life or what your financial or educational Background is; this business kit can be your fast-track to financial freedom. I constantly receive emails from satisfied readers about how this business kit has helped start a successful Christmas Light Installation business or even help them increase revenue year after year.

I think it's a great fit for any of these people:
- Seasonal business owners (Construction workers, framers, painters, landscapers, pool cleaners, window cleaners etc.)
- People with no prior business knowledge
- Aspiring small business owners
- College and University graduates
- High school students
- Fund-raisers for community groups and sports teams

As you already know, this is a seasonal business, so you have the opportunity to make quite a bit of money in a short period of time. That leaves you with the rest of the year to live how you choose. I usually take four months off to travel and then run a landscaping business in the summer. You, however, can do whatever you want!

This is a great business for many reasons. I believe that Holiday lighting will not only help you earn the amount of money you need to live a healthy lifestyle, but will give you the independence to and the self confidence to do anything in life that you put your mind to.

I am living proof that the information contained in these pages works. It is tried, tested, and holds true. The ideas in this business kit will not make you a millionaire overnight. Chances are, it will never make you a millionaire. What it can do, however, is help you obtain a comfortable lifestyle with the freedom and confidence to live your life as you choose.

These are the aspects of the job that got me interested in the first place:
- It's a simple, structured business model that is easy to follow
- It's one of the fastest growing service industries in Canada and the United States
- It's an easy-to-follow system
- It's an opportunity that's available now with minimal start up costs

Earn $1000 Per Day Running A Christmas Light Installation Business!

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Could this be THE most important test of your life?

As tests go, this one is short.

12 multiple-choice questions and about 2 minutes of your time figuring out how to answer them.

And at the end of it?

A prediction about just how susceptible you are to THE most dreaded of diseases.

I am talking about cancer. The Big C as it is sometimes called.

Carolyn Hansen, fitness professional and nutrition expert, has put together a powerful little quiz that she claims will give you an unnerving glimpse into your future:

Click here to find out your Cancer Risk Number


Maybe you have wondered whether there are things you may be doing that are INCREASING your chances of having to deal with cancer in the years ahead?

Well, this is one way to get that question answered. And it only takes 2 minutes of your time!

And consider this. If there was an invisible sword hanging over your head and someone offered to show you how to step out from under it, wouldn't you want to take just 2 minutes of your time to see what it was they were talking about?


 

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The Cancer Coin Toss - Will You Come Up Heads?

If I told you that by the time you turn 65 years your chance of having contracted some form of cancer is one in two, or the same odds as flipping a coin and coming up tails, you would probably say "That can't be right... Can it?"

Unfortunately, those ARE the odds you are faced with. For some of us the odds are better, for others it is worse.

This begs the next question: "What can I do to change my PERSONAL odds of getting cancer?"

As it turns out, that is an excellent question. Because when it comes to cancer we DO have a say in how it might affect us in the years ahead. This is because a good fraction of the risk we assume in getting cancer is due to what we DO over the course of our lives.

This is to say that you are NOT born with a one in two chance of getting cancer by the time we retire.

No. Those odds are new. A century ago most people who lived to old age would die of slow age-related organ shut down. Heart attacks were rare, as was cancer. It happened. Just not in the numbers that affect us today.

The reason for the modern day epidemic of cancer?

Poor health. We are the most overweight, least fit segment of the human race that has ever lived. As a consequence, our general health has plummeted and we are paying for it.

You can find out your own personal odds of getting cancer by taking this quick 2-minute Cancer Risk Quiz, set up by Carolyn Hansen:

Click here to find out your Cancer Risk Number

Answer the dozen or so questions and see how you fare. The score will come back as a number between 0 (great expectations for a long life) and 10 (time to get your affairs in order).

Yes, it may be sobering to discover that you are an EIGHT on the scale and slated for an early departure. But it is not all bad news. Because a good deal of that risk is behavior-based. Changing your bad habits CAN improve your odds of living until a ripe old age.

The question then, I guess, is how bad do you want to live long enough to see your grandchildren have children themselves?

Click here to find out now...
 

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You have not yet made your first $900.00 sale? Why not?

 

I wake up every day and do the things I want to do.  I know that sounds crazy but I only work about 4 hours per week and earn over $1000.00 per week.  If you are in a position where you can buy what you want and never worry about money than please do not read this e-mail. 

I'm not going to tell you that the 4 hours is the easiest work on the planet but when it comes down to it… it's only 4 hours!   I spend those 4 hours making phone calls and meeting with business owners for 5 mins to discuss my business.

The rest of the week I enjoy the $1000.00 however I wish

Learn How To Earn 25,000 Per Week

I'll show you how to find these companies, get their business and how to advertise for free.

If you're sick of waiting for extra income, than please watch our short video that could have you earning big money just like I do.

Please watch our short video for proof that my system really works.

Learn How To Earn 25,000 Per Week

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How Much Money Can Someone Make Hanging Christmas Lights?

Each year, people spend over 400 million dollars on lighting services over the holidays. Over the last 10 years, the industry has grown tenfold. The beauty of the Christmas Light installation industry is that virtually anyone can do it. No prior business knowledge is required. I know high school students that make $12,000 or more in just 60 days. I believe that anyone can make at least $20,000 in the 60 days leading up to Christmas. Great installers earn over $100,000 during the Holiday season. What the industry offers is an easy to start business opportunity. Most aspects of the business are already taken care of and all you have to do is follow the steps that I outline in this business kit. It is an extremely simple operation to learn and apply. You can do it. Yes, you.

Hanging Christmas Lights is a solution to the dull 9-5 job. This business lets you be your own boss, work for yourself, and determine your own schedule. With over 7 years of industry experience, I have created a realistic business opportunity that has proved to be a success with anyone who takes the principles and applies them.

In this industry, you are simply selling a service that includes the installation and removal of Christmas lights on residential and commercial buildings and landscaping. Can it get any easier than that?

The difference that you make in this business is how you choose to sell your services. Many Christmas lighting companies differ in how they sell their service. Some companies only sell the installation service requiring customers to provide the materials while others provide the work with no warranty. Other full-service companies offer to provide the lights, do the install, give a warranty for the season and provide a take—down service at the end of the season.

I have found that the service that works best is one that combines all these variables together. I have built my business model on this principle. It is a model that that provides the lights to the customer, offers an installation before Christmas and removal of the lights in the following January.

Some Installation businesses offer to lease the lights to the client and then store them for the rest of the year. I don't recommend this model unless you have a huge garage or want to pay heavy costs to rent a mini-storage to keep your clients lights for the other 9 or 10 months of the year.

For more information on starting a christmas light installation business, visit:
Earn $1000 Per Day Running A Christmas Light Installation Business!


Title: Make More Money in 2 Months than others do Year-round with your own Christmas Light Installation Business
Body:

In my experience, I would say that most Holiday lighting companies are small (2-4 employees) and only have the ability to handle a limited amount of customers each year.

Once some installation companies establish core clients after their first year, many of them don't even market. Their business comes from previous jobs or referrals from current clients, which usually is made up of neighbors, family and friends.

Each holiday season, you will find that more calls come in than can ever be fulfilled. I have found this to be a very common complaint from Christmas lighting installers: too much business! I can't think of any other industry that has a problem turning down customers!
During the first week of December, things get really busy any calls start pouring in. I have found myself telling people that I can't leave my house for less than a minimum of $400. Lighting services are in such demand that people are really willing to pay an arm and a leg to have it done.

Growth is the goal and most important aspect to your new business. Be careful though because you don't want it to grow so quickly that you find yourself overwhelmed. This will only lead to a series of problems that will have a negative impact on your business. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Only make commitments that you can keep. Never say you will do something and not follow through. Your reputation is your most valuable asset and you should protect it at all costs.

Take this business one job at a time and don't be afraid to tell a client that you are booked.
Things tend to get very busy and there is only so much you will be able to handle on your own. It may be hard at first to turn down jobs, but be aware that there is always next year.
Keep a database of names, numbers, and email addresses. Even if you don't get to them this year, you will be able to contact them earlier in the season next year to ensure that they become a client.

Make sure that you take down as many details as possible about your clients and contacts. Names, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, how they found you, job description, and price quote are all important to have in a database. The more organized you keep your business, the more efficient you become and the more profits you make.
You should have a good handle on your strengths and weaknesses as a worker and a business owner. If you don't, you will soon learn them.

Owning a business will teach you a lot about yourself. By knowing your skills and what you bring to the table, you will be able to take advantage of many opportunities that will make your business as efficient as possible.

Make $100,000 Hanging Christmas Lights! => Click Here!

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Is The Christmas Light Business Profitable?

According to several sources, the Christmas Lighting industry has had an amazing 1000% increase in growth over the last 10 years! I have been in this business for over seven years. I saw it when it was small and have seen it grow exponentially! Also, residential homeowners as well as commercial and professional business owners spend over a billion dollars each Christmas season for this service and its associated products. And, with the Christmas lighting industry being fairly new, this quite possibly will be the perfect 'add-on' service to your existing business. It is also the perfect business that can earn you enough in 90 days so you can either take the rest of the year off or run another seasonal business during the other
9 months of the year.

As a general rule, the installation season begins in early October focusing mainly on commercial properties. This is when you will start to look for leads and begin your installations. The season ends in mid to late January when you've finished taking down all the lights from your clients' homes and businesses.

Christmas light installation businesses can make more than $1000 per day per work crew during the season. Well-organized installation crews can make more that $2000 per day. It is also not uncommon for installers to earn upwards of $3000 in a single day when installing larger residential and commercial jobs. I recently managed to get a lighting contract with a local hotel. The quote I gave was for $3200. My light costs were $600 and I paid my 2 employees $160 each for an 8 hour day. Do the math. At the end of the day, I had over
$2000 cash profit in my back pocket and a huge smile on my face!

A smaller Christmas light installation business can easily expect to earn more than $20,000 in their first year of hanging lights as long as they have a solid business plan. Try to begin with the end in mind. I know of many midsize Christmas light Installation companies that make between 100 and 150 thousand dollars each year - in only 90 days! There is a ton of money to be made in this industry. You are providing an essential service that people will use year after year.

This Holiday light industry is the perfect add-on for seasonal businesses like, construction workers, window cleaners, junk removal services, landscape architects, painters, roofers, and framers. The main thing that attracted me to this industry is the fact that this business is extremely low risk. I have been able to use my current client database to create leads and get contracts. I have also been able to keep my employees during this season whereas in other years, I have had to lay them off and often they never came back because they found other work! This business changed all that!

The Holiday Lighting industry is one of the fastest growing service industries in the
United States, Canada, and the UK! Each year, the demand for this service increases. For some reason everyone wants to outdo their neighbors with a bigger and brighter display of lights. In a recent study, it was shown that the thing that people despised most about the holiday season was putting up the Christmas lights. People want the Christmas spirit without the hassle of putting up their own lights. This is where you come in and cash out!

This wonderful business opportunity is now more popular than ever and you are a part of it! The biggest benefit you have is the fact that this industry is still relatively young. It's new and you got in on the ground floor at the beginning. That means there is a ton of room for growth. There is also room for small business owners, like you, to make a ton of money in a short period of time. It's going to be some work, but once you get rolling, you are going to look back and think that taking the first step was the best decision you could have ever made.

Earn $1000 Per Day Running A Christmas Light Installation Business!

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The Big C - Something to watch - not live through...

OK, I'll admit that maybe I watch a little too much television.

But some of it gets you thinking about things you otherwise never would.

Like cancer. The Big C.

For 4 seasons Showtime ran a series by the same name: "The Big C".

It starred Laura Linney who played Cathy Jamison, a woman faced with her own mortality as she struggled to cope with a diagnosis of cancer.

The character Cathy, upon hearing that she had possibly just months to live, decided bravely to celebrate life

But she also had to deal with feelings of anger, depression, and every other emotion that comes with knowing that you may not be here this time next year.

Most people - me included - try hard NOT to entertain the idea that the odds of escaping cancer's cruel hand are NOT good.

Unfortunately, cancer is a subject that you cannot ignore forever. It has a habit of catching up with you.

In fact, according to Carolyn Hansen, you have about 2 chances out of 3 of contracting some form of cancer by the time you retire at the ripe old age of 65.

I don't know about you, but I intend to live a lot LONGER than that. Which is why when Carolyn alerted me to her Cancer Risk Quiz I had to take it:

Click here to find out your Cancer Risk Number


It only takes a few minutes to complete. Just 12 multiple choice questions that paint a rough picture of how likely it is that you WILL or WILL NOT contract cancer in the years ahead.

By the end of the quiz you'll receive an indication of whether your risk is LOW, MEDIUM, or HIGH.

You'll also be given the option of receiving a more precise score from 0 through 10, and a personalized summary of just what your high risk behaviors are and how they affect your life expectancy.

You can find a graphic showing Carolyn's Cancer Risk Scale here:

Click here to find out your Cancer Risk Number
 

Fortunately these days a diagnosis of cancer doesn't mean it cannot be treated effectively if caught in time. Even so, it's not a disease that you ever want to have to deal with.

I'm not going to tell you what I scored on the test. But I will tell you that my number is a LOT higher than I would like it to be.

Hopefully that's NOT the case for you!

 

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So What's YOUR Cancer Risk Number?

Cancer is not a picky disease. It does not REQUIRE an unhealthy host to get started in your body. But it usually DOES require an unhealthy host to keep growing.

If you'd like to know whether your current lifestyle habits are pushing you towards a state of health that is conducive to cancer proliferation in your body, try taking this little two-minute test offered by Carolyn Hansen.

She calls it the Cancer Risk Quiz:

Click here to find out your Cancer Risk Number

This is NOT the kind of self-assessment that you want to fail!

Sure, we all know that if we smoke regularly we are increasing our odds of getting lung cancer. If we expose our skin to too much sunlight over the years we increase our risk of skin cancer. And if we are just plain unlucky and we inherit a genetic propensity to develop certain cancers we are already at risk no matter what steps we take to improve our health.

But often overlooked are lifestyle behaviors that can unnecessarily INCREASE ours chances of getting cancer. It is these "self inflicted" risk enhancing behaviors that so interest Carolyn. This is because these risks are ones that can be mitigated.

You can simply elect to "just say no" to cancer by KNOWING what those risk factors are and consciously avoiding the actions that lead to the increased risk.

For example, we all know that excess body weight is a marker for diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, and coronary disease. But having unwanted fat hanging around on your body also increases your odds of contracting cancer in later life.

That in itself may be enough to get you to think twice about hitting the junk food machine the next time you feel peckish.

If you visit the Cancer Risk Quiz page you will see a Cancer Risk Scale that ranges from zero (no chance of contracting cancer) all the way up to ten (fatal propensity). Unfortunately most of us will live in the range somewhere between 5 and 9. Not too surprising when you consider that about two thirds of the population WILL be faced with a cancer scare sometime in their lives.

The question is this: Will it happen sooner or later?

 

P.S. So, what's YOUR Cancer Risk Number

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Are You Still Not Earning Money! It’s been long enough!!!

I bet you that if you put in just a few hours with my help you can earn at least $199.99 by the end of today. 

Don't think that you can? 

Well if you feel that earning money is hard it's because you have not really took the time to listen to how my business runs.

 I work about 4 hours per week and spend the other 20 hours in total freedom!!!

I know that most people think it's hard to start a company and earn money instantly but they are so far from correct that it makes me sick.

 When I was younger everyone and their brother thought I was crazy for wanting the freedom of owning my own business.

Years later I'm spending 4 hours per week working and the rest is… whatever I want it to be!!!

  I'm going to show you how to start a flyer business and get your first big $900.00 sale in just weeks from day 1.

Learn How To Earn 25,000 Per Week

I'll show you how to find these companies, get their business and how to advertise for free.

If you're sick of waiting for extra income, than please watch our short video that could have you earning big money just like I do.

Please watch our short video for proof that my system really works.

Learn How To Earn 25,000 Per Week

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