Foods to Avoid to Reduce Stomach Fat – 3 Foods That Are Sure to Make Your Stomach Fat

"I can't seem to shift those last few pounds, what are the foods to avoid to reduce stomach fat?"

This is a common question I get asked from folks who are looking to reduce stomach fat but are not sure how they should approach their diet, and what foods to avoid.

If this rings true with you, then you'll realize that you're not alone. It's not surprising really, since there is so much junk info out there about the latest celebrity fad diets, and diet pills, that very little mention is made about simple things you can do and foods to avoid to reduce stomach fat. Diets like the Atkins Diet, low-carb, etc etc, are also to blame as they've served to confuse people further about what they should and should not be eating, and the foods to avoid to reduce stomach fat.

While there are a number of foods to avoid to reduce stomach fat, here I'll show you the top 3 that you should look to control in terms of your intake, as these will be the biggest stumbling blocks when trying to reduce stomach fat.

Foods to avoid no 1 – Chocolate

Who doesn't like chocolate right? Well, if you're serious about losing fat, then chocolate is definitely one of the foods to avoid to reduce stomach fat.

The thing about chocolate is that it is often consumed as a treat or snack, so giving it up, is not as hard as it may seem. Make sure you are eating healthy meals consistently throughout the day and you should avoid the need to snack.

Chocolate gives a sugar rush which is pleasant at the start, but often drops you lower than before you ate it. So avoiding it will not only help you reduce stomach fat, but will help to keep your mood level throughout the day.

I suggest you avoid chocolate to reduce stomach fat, in particular the milk, white, and creamy varieties. Dark chocolate contains far less sugar and fat than most big brand chocolates.

Foods to avoid no 2 – Butter If you're like me then you like nothing better than the taste of pure fresh butter on piping hot crusty bread…mmmmmm….

BUT!

Butter is a major food to avoid to reduce stomach fat. It's not hard to see really, butter is around 95% pure saturated fat, which is difficult for your body to process, and very easily and quickly stored as excess fat, typically around your stomach area.

One tablespoon of butter (14 grams) contains 100 calories, 11 grams of fat (of which 7 grams are saturated fats). Butter is also terrible for your cholesterol levels.

There are many low-fat alternatives out there – low-fat spreads and the like, that you shouldn't need to use butter most of the time anyway.

Avoid using mayonnaise in your sandwiches as a substitute for butter, as this also has an extremely high fat content.

Also, avoid using vegetable margarine as they contain high amounts of trans-fats which also wreak havoc on your cholesterol…more so than butter.

Foods to avoid no 3 – Alcohol

While not often seen as a "food", I've included it here as its impact is often little understood for folks who are trying to reduce stomach fat. I've seen people make changes to their lifestyle, diet and exercise patterns but fail to see how their continued alcohol intake undoes all their hard work.

Why is alcohol so bad for weight loss?

Well, there are 3 main reasons why alcohol is so bad. Firstly, alcohol is the second most calorie-dense "food", second only to fat. However, these calories are empty calories. This means that the calories hold virtually no energy benefit to you and your body, unlike fat itself, and thus are simply stored away by your body as fat.

Secondly, alcohol is regarded by the body as a toxin, and therefore becomes priority number one and is sent off to the liver to be processed. While this is happening, your liver is not able to do its normal job of processing and metabolizing your body fat, which means you find it more difficult to reduce stomach fat.

Thirdly, alcohol can also makes us incredibly hungry, and so we begin to crave particularly fatty, and unhealthy foods. It's no coincidence that after a night out, folks will often happily tuck into a hamburger, kebab, or fried eggs and bacon, even though they might normally avoid such foods. Remember that at this point your body is still trying to get rid of the alcohol from your system, and now you're piling on extra saturated fats and high-calorie foods, so it's a real double whammy if you're trying to reduce stomach fat.

Now, I'm not saying you should avoid alcohol all together to reduce stomach fat, but you should certainly reduce your intake if you're serious about trying to reduce stomach fat. Wine has more health benefits than beer, and contains less calories so that can be a way to enjoy a drink every now and then but still be able to reduce stomach fat.

FACT: Did you know that 99% of people who start a diet to reduce stomach fat fail?…Can you afford the risk of failing?

Want to know more foods to avoid in your diet plan to reduce stomach fat? Reinventing Aging provides a FREE video to get you started.

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Beware of Potty Training Regression...

Wanna have some fun imagining life without diapers?  

Imagine if your child would disappear on their own one minute and all of a sudden the next minute you hear the toilet flush and the sink start to run.  

Can you imagine it?  

Life becomes so much easier the second your child becomes potty trained and you start to wonder why you didn't just get it over with sooner...  

Would you start potty training right this weekend if I handed you a guide that guaranteed to get your child out of diapers in just 3 days?  

Well...  

==>Here Is The GUARANTEED Guide

It's how YOU approach potty training that brings fast results.  

What you discover will allow you to understand EXACTLY what needs to be done and in what order to have your child fully potty trained.  

And...  

Gives you a big insight into how children emotionally feel about the potty training process.  

I can't say you'll have xray vision...  

but Carol Cline...  

who's helped thousands of parents potty train their child in only 3 days, gives you tools you can immediately use to get your child on their potty and never change a dirty diaper every again.  

Every parent should read this...  

==>Read How Carol Makes This Possible Here

NOW...you may start to wonder?  

What happens if you have a VERY stubborn child?  

Can you still have them potty trained in just 3 days flat?  

How could that be possible?  

Carol Cline has proven the answer is YES, but most parents approach potty training troublesome children the wrong way.  

==>Here's the RIGHT WAY

To use this potty training method..  

You can NOT make this a negative experience for your little one by...  

-Getting Mad -Threatening them -Calling it quits halfway through  

Good news is...  

Carol Cline shows you how her program makes potty training a breeze and feel like a rewarding experience for both you and your growing toddler.  

It is an amazing BREAKTHROUGH really...  

Because your child will feel like it's THEIR decision to be potty trained (and it really is)  

I'm excited for what you're about to discover!  

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Top 15 Weight Loss Myths

There are many common weight loss myths that people live by when it comes to their health. It is difficult at times to separate the weight loss myths and fact from what is true. Many sound true while others are just laughable. I once read somewhere that if you drink water at night that you are going to gain weight or that if you scratch your head too often you are going to lose your hair….

Weight Loss Myth # 1

The more weight that I have to lose the more intense my exercise routine should be.

Weight Loss Truth: Although having an intense workout routine is great, there are a few things you should consider: the first being that everyone is at a different level when it comes to their fitness and how much intensity they can actually handle. If you have been physically inactive for a number of years, an intense work out for you might be, walking half a mile a day. After you walk that half mile you notice that you are sweating bullets and that you are tired. However, for someone who has been physically active for many years, walking half a mile can be done without a sweat. Everyone has a different definition of what "intense" is.

If intense for you is working out for an hour a day, but due to life's busy schedule you only have time for 20 minutes a day, then those 20 minutes will go an extremely long way. It might not necessarily be classified as "intense", according to your definition, but those little cardio moments will have positive health altering effects.

Fat Loss Myth # 2

Stress and weight gain do not go hand in hand.

Weight Loss Fact: This is one of those "laughable" myths. To learn more how stress is adding lbs. to your life please download my free E-Book, "Psychology of Releasing Weight".

Weight Loss Myth # 3

I can lose weight while eating whatever I want.

Weight Loss Truth: Sir Isaac Newton once said " What goes up must come down." There are natural principles that govern our lives. If you throw a ball up in the air, it is going to come back down. You can sit on your couch and imagine and visualize that the ball will staying afloat in the air, but natural principles teach us that it will come down. Same goes when it comes to our weight.

This is one of the most common weight loss myths out there. It is illogical to think that your health and weight are going to be in balance if your nutrition consists mainly of twinkies, chips, and donuts. Sure you can burn it off by exercising, but most people whose diet consists of mainly junk food are probably not disciplined enough to stick to a workout routine. I do know a few people who, from the outside, look like they are in good shape, because they are not "fat, but who have high cholesterol.

Just because I feel sorry for crushing the hearts of so many twinkie lovers out there, I would say this. You can eat junk food, cookies, chips, ice cream, pizza, burgers…. All of those "soul satisfying foods", but it should be in moderation. Anything in excess is never good.

Fat Loss Myth # 4

Skipping meals is a good way to lose weight.

Weight Loss Fact: There are numerous studies that show that people who skip breakfast and eat fewer times during the day tend to be a lot heavier than who have a healthy nutritional breakfast and then eat 4-6 small meals during the day. The reason to this might be the fact that they get hungrier later on in the day, and might have a tendency to over eat during other meals of the day.

Weight Loss Myth # 5

I will not lose weight while eating at night.

Weight Loss Truth: You can over indulge in food during the day and not eat a single thing at night and you WILL gain weight. As is the fact that you can starve yourself during the day and eat all night long and you still will gain weight. The key here is balance. If your body is telling you that it is hungry then perhaps you should listen to it. The truth is, that over eating, while not exercising, will cause you to gain weight; no matter what time of the day that you eat. Whenever I am hungry at night, as is my habit with other meals during the day, I try to select something that is natural in nature. Something like fruits, vegetables, or I might even make myself a fruit smoothie. During those moments that I am craving ice cream or something sweet, I allow myself to get some, and DO NOT feel guilty about it. Many people who are overweight live their life in guilt and shame. I allow myself to get some, however, WITH MODERATION.

Watch the Fat Loss for Grownups review videos for more insider information about this exciting weight loss program now

Fat Loss Myth # 6

I'm not acceptable until I lose weight.

Weight Loss Fact: The person who doesn't feel acceptable because they are fat is because they are not acceptable to themselves first. The way that you think others view you is based on your view of yourself. I honestly believe that one must become emotionally fit before becoming physically fit. I have gone through these self-limiting emotions before. Once I realized that I was ALREADY ENOUGH in the eyes of God and that I had no need to prove myself to anyone or to receive external validation for my self-worth, that made all the difference for me. Once you accept yourself as who you are RIGHT NOW and realize that you are already enough in the eyes of God, you will not feel like you are not acceptable because of your weight.

Weight Loss Myth # 7

I need to cut calories to lose weight faster.

Weight Loss Truth: Cutting your calories down might be a great thing, if you are drastically overeating and stuffing your face. However, if you are eating proportionally then cutting calories might have an adverse affect. If you are cutting calories and are starving your body, then that will lower your metabolism, or in other words slow it down, which may result in you actually not losing any weight at all, even if you are "cutting calories".

Fat Loss Myth # 8

Skipping meals will help me lose weight.

Weight Loss Fact: Skipping meals may actually cause you to gain weight! You will become too hungry and will eventually have to eat. This will knock your metabolism off track and will eventually slow it down. Think of a car running low on gas (food), if you do not fill it up, it will eventually stop working. Same goes for our body, we need to keep it fueled constantly.

Weight Loss Myth # 9

I think I have genetic weight gain, it runs in my family!

Weight Loss Truth: Can someone say E-X-C-U-S-E-S? I will not deny that there might be tendencies for heavy parents to raise heavy children who will remain heavy their whole lives, but I don't believe that there is actually a "fat" gene or DNA out there. What we do inherit from our family, primarily those who directly raised us, are our views and beliefs. Your views about food, money, religion, politics, education, etc. are based upon how you were raised. If you were raised in a home where the primary meals cooked where fried foods, then you might have a tendency to continue cooking and eating fried foods throughout your life. If that is the case then you might be a little heavy around the waist. The easy thing to do is to blame it on those who were in charge of your upbringing, however, you ALWAYS have a choice to change.

Fat Loss Myth # 10

Eating healthy is too hard.

Weight Loss Fact: Eating healthy is the simplest thing in the world…..once you have trained yourself to do it. How many times have you placed a goal to lose weight or to "eat better"? The first few days you are doing great, eating all kinds of foods which you normally wouldn't eat. Then something funny started to happen, you went back to your old habits and behaviors. This has happened to you in other areas outside of your health. It could be with making money, looking for a new job, or in your relationships. Creating a new habit takes time because our brains do not like change. Change to the brain is dangerous. Anyways, if you would like to learn more about how our brain attempts to sabotage us from creating new habits then please download my free E-book, "Psychology of Releasing Weight".

Weight Loss Myth # 11

You have to give up your favorite foods to lose weight.

Weight Loss Truth: What would a world without chocolate and without pepperoni pizza be like??? I think it would be a torturous world to live in!! lol, now on a real note I completely disagree with this myth. You are definitely able to eat your favorite foods. Depriving yourself of this kind of pleasure is not fun, and quite frankly you probably WILL eat it anyways. As has been mentioned before, the real key is moderation. If you are a steak lover, then perhaps it might not be the best things to eat it every single day, but perhaps once or twice a week. Those who know me personally know that I LOOOOOOOOVE chicken wings with pizza. In a perfect world where I wouldn't gain any weight and my arteries were clog-less, I would love to eat it several times per week, well more like every day. However, I know that those aren't the healthiest of food choices so I have it about 2-3 times per month. I am not giving up my favorite foods, I am just eating it in moderation so that it doesn't catch up to me in the form of excess weight.

Fat Loss Myth # 12

Overeating is caused by hunger.

Weight Loss Fact: Nice try there. If only we could blame "hunger" for it. In fact, this person we call hunger has nothing to do with you OVEREATING. It might have something to do your body telling you that it is time to "fuel up" and that it needs food, but that is not an indication that one should overeat. What causes many people to overeat are different reasons. One of the main ones is feeling of stress, depression, loneliness, anxiety, fear, and other down grading emotions of that nature. Many times food can be a means of satisfying your needs. You might be actually getting your needs met through your foods. For example, if you live a lonely life, and aren't very happy, then food could perhaps be a means of you feeling happy and comforted. There are other articles that I have written on this subject but suffice it to say that overeating is NOT cause by being hungry.

Weight Loss Myth # 13

Only drastic diets work.

Weight Loss Truth: There goes that word again…DIET….those "drastic diets" are only good for quick weight loss and rapid weight gain once you get of it. These drastic diets range from the "cookie diet", lol…. All that way to "the water only diet"….. I am sure you can lose weight while on these DIETS, however the weight will be gained right back and usually with some added weight as a bonus.

Fat Loss Myth # 14

I am too fat and too far down the road to begin.

Weight Loss Fact: A long journey begins one step at a time. It is natural to expect instantaneous results and to even fear the road ahead of you; especially if you are extremely overweight. The secret here is to make SMALL incremental changes. Don't expect perfection because that will lead you to disappointment. You are never too far down the road to where you cannot see the sun's light……

Weight Loss Myth # 15

I can't do it, I have tried many times and have failed.

Weight Loss Truth: The great Henry Ford once said "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't- you're right.'"……It is 90% mindset, and 10% actually getting off your butt and doing something about it. You fall down, you get back up…. you fall down again, you get back up again. If you have tried to lose weight in the past then it is time to keep trying. Discouragement is to losing weight as is a piece of fried chicken to a vegetarian……they DO NOT go hand in hand.

These tips are courtesy of my friends at Reinventing Aging. They have a new program called Fat Loss for Grownups that expands on the list above. Click here for their free video.

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Bad News About Potty Training...

Today... If you'll allow me?  

I'd like to introduce you to a good friend who can save you a lifetime of frustration and disappointment when potty training your child.  

You may be familiar with her?  

Her name is The Potty Training Guru, but she prefers Carol Cline.  

Carol Cline has helped thousands of parents potty train their child successfully in over 67 countries around the world.  

How can she help you?  

By showing you how potty training can be easy... If you follow a proven plan.  

Most parents potty train using trial and error and *prolong* potty training by months instead of just days if they had used a proven plan.  

==>Carol Cline explains here

The longer you wait to potty train your child... The harder it will be for you... Even if they are currently not showing any signs of being ready.  

Even if you had tried potty training in the past and failed...  

...Listen, it's NOT your fault.  

==>Here's what's going on with your child

I don't know for sure?  

But this is likely the most important lesson about potty training I could EVER share with you.  

I say that because I've known parents who've potty trained their children in just 3 days...  

only using 3 simple tips Carol Cline suggested to them… and now never have to pay for or change diapers ever again.  

If only every parents used Carol Clines method... parents would have their child potty trained in days... instead of weeks or even months...  

==>Here's her proven method

Would you mind grabbing a piece of paper and taking notes?  

I truly believe this is THAT important to your child's future....  

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Fat Loss for Grownups – An In Depth Review

With numerous weight loss programs doing the rounds, it's hard to determine which one will really work for you and which one is a scam. Here is an in-depth Fat Loss for Grownups review.

Fat Loss for Grownups is a program written by the Reinventing Aging organization and is absolutely packed with valuable information on how to lose weight quickly and naturally. The steps are well laid out in a step-by-step basis so there is no confusion on what actionable steps need to be taken.

Fat Loss for Grownups introduces 5 key factors that they say the weight management industry doesn't want you to know. The only 5 things that you need to do to get healthy, blast weight and belly fat safely, and keep it off for life.

The 5 key factors introduced are:

Eliminating the foods that make you fat.
Fixing a sluggish metabolism.
Balancing metabolic hormones.
Fixing toxic overload.
Changing 2 shocking habits that cause belly fat.

Each area is presented as an easy-to-read-and-follow, actionable step. They go into great detail on each of the key points above, giving valuable insights, and showing you exactly how to make any necessary changes.

As a bonus you also receive a very handy nutritional guide, a 7-day shopping list, and a 7-day meal plan that's been tailored for both women and men. A comprehensive fitness guide that includes a 14-day transformation program and two specialized weight training programs. These weight training programs are designed to be done at home so gym memberships are unnecessary.

Pros and Cons Pros:

• Fat Loss for Grownups provides doable and an easy diet plan that is easy to follow. It can also be customized as per one's needs. While it focuses on workouts and good nutrition, it doesn't require you to alter your daily schedule to fit this program in your daily routine of things. • Irrespective of your present fitness level, you can easily follow the workout plan as all three levels of training programs are included in the package. • Enhances your natural metabolism. • It provides a log book to track your success and uphold your motivation. • The program also accentuates on emotional support and stress management during the weight loss.

Cons:

• Most of the diet plan consists of organic foods, which is a bit expensive to maintain. • As mentioned above, starting 12-14 days won't be easy at all. • The guidelines are easy to follow and apply but the entire program requires high amount of commitment on user's part.

Fat Loss for Grownups – The Final Word

The Fat Loss Factor system is a realistic and practice approach headed for weight loss. It is proven and effective program that is tailor-made for all those who wish to shed unwanted extra pounds.

Watch the Fat Loss for Grownups review videos for more insider information about this exciting weight loss program now
 

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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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