Author Archives: schatzi

Easy Steps in Starting Your Organic Garden

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With a renewed focus on healthy eating and living, more people are turning to natural and traditional gardening methods in their own backyards. This essentially means gardening without the use of any artificial fertilizers or pesticides.

Organic gardening utilizes nature itself for balance by using micro-organisms, insects, and plants to maintain a healthy environment naturally. By adopting this approach you are producing healthier and more nutrient-rich vegetables, herbs and other garden plants and flowers.

It’s not difficult to start your own organic garden but it does takes a bit of planning.

The Space

Space, or the lack of it, shouldn’t stop you from growing an organic garden. For those who live in cramped spaces and don’t have the luxury of square footage to work with, pots are the perfect solution. There are a plethora of containers available in a variety of styles that can be adapted in just about any way to create your own designs in limited spaces.

Wooden containers are probably the best as they allow for better airflow. Ceramic pots are a good choice as well but must have holes to allow for draining and air circulation. You should however avoid clay pots as they are too porous, and have a tendency dry out faster.

For people who do have the ground area to work with, start your planning with research. Find the plants you would like to grow and see if they are suitably zoned for your area? When should you plant and how far should they be spaced apart? Learn which plants complement each other and will work together effectively to deter pests.

The Tools

Basic garden tools remain the same for organic gardening. It’s always a good idea to purchase the best quality you can afford and maintain them religiously.

  • For digging and compost turning – spade,shovel, pitchfork.
  • For weeding – hoe, trowel, rake.
  • For cutting and pruning – secateurs (pruning clippers), pruning saw.
  • For loading and carting soils and mulches – a wheel barrel.
  • For watering – several hoses and watering cans.
  • If possible rain barrels strategically placed to minimize water consumption.

The Soil

Going organic primarily means that there is no use of synthetic chemicals in the gardening process of any kind. It’s vital to maintain a healthy soil level in order to grow plants which are less susceptible to pest damage. The best way to achieve this is to include compost in your garden bed. Anything from dead leaves and cut grasses to kitchen wastes like coffee grounds and vegetable peelings. These are readily available and costs very little when you have your own compost station set up.

The Bugs

Not all insects are harmful and in organic gardening, you will need to incorporate them into your beds. Earthworms help mulch and enrich the soil continuously and Ladybugs love aphids. Again, knowledge is your best friend when you are introducing new critters to your gardens. Frogs love to eat flying insects so, if your garden is near a pond, you’re in luck.

Place a birdbath near one of your gardens. Attracting birds is a great natural defense. You can also create physical barriers, such as sheer netting which can prevent insects from getting through. You will, however need to be diligent with pest control and a bucket of soapy water will do the deed when necessary on caterpillars and other unwanted pests.

The Plants and Seeds

The type and size of your garden partly dictates the kinds of plants you should grow. You want to choose seeds that can adapt to your soil type, available sunlight, and humidity of your garden. Don’t be afraid to mix and match plant selections that grow healthy together and may actually need each other to survive. If you do chose starter plants you need to make sure they come from strictly organic sources, or you would be defeating the purpose.

You might want to start with vegetables that grow into small shrubs, like tomatoes or peppers, or root crops, like yams and potatoes. Since you are still a beginner in organic gardening, smaller plants will give you good practice.

Add A Little Garden Love

Plants much like people, do best if they are well cared for and loved. Growing your own organic garden is taking it one step further by removing the unhealthy chemicals that surround gardening and using Mother Nature to keep it simple. By going back to basics, some practical know-how and a good solid effort you are well on the way to living a healthier life by growing your gardens naturally.

An Introduction To Office Furniture

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Office furniture should let workers do their jobs in comfort. You feel like you are at home when you are in the office, and you don’t feel tired of work. Certainly it looks professional. Care should be taken so that the office furniture provide healthy working environment for the employees.

Office furniture is a category that includes view desks, computer work centers, leather desk chairs, roll top, corner desks, computer desks, conference room furniture, filing and storage cabinets, lobby/reception furniture, magazine racks, office chairs, office partitions, office tables and others.

The costs of the furniture vary depending on the quality of the product. The furniture without any basic provisions will cost much less than sophisticated equipment that holds all the provisions. Depending on the cost, the customer can purchase a wide range of products.

The furniture varies in quality, durability, flexibility, and usage. Handling is more important when we consider the lifespan of furniture. If the furniture is bought from branded shops and retailers you will likely get a warranty.

The office furniture should incorporate comfort and functionality. The factors that help you decide the good furniture are quality, material, flexibility, durability, cost and multi-utility. In fact, the furniture should satisfy all the requirements of the customer.

To provide cutting-edge products there is a constant search for embedding high technology into normal lives. Hence the furniture industry has been investing a lot in recent years to provide solutions to the demanding market, in order to provide all the requirements to suit the new environment.

Choosing the Right Floor Cleaning Supplies

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Knowing the right floor cleaning supplies to use will help maintain the quality and look of your floors. Different floor materials require different cleaners and tools.

For all floor types, sweeping regularly will reduce the build-up of dirt and grime. On tile and laminate floors, dirt and dust that remain on your floors will mix with water or other liquids that are spilled and will create dirt spots and stains. On wood floors, dirt and sand particles can actually gouge, scratch and dent the wood, causing permanent damage that can only be fixed by sanding and refinishing. In selecting a broom, choose one with stiff but flexible bristles that will cling to dirt. For particularly soft wood floors, a synthetic broom is preferable over a corn broom, as the latter tends to be very stiff and can scratch floors. Another way to help protect floors is to use small rugs at entry points or in high-traffic areas. Rugs will help collect and trap the dirt, keeping it off of the rest of the floor.

Even if you sweep your floors often, you will still need to mop them on occasion. In recent years, you have the choice of using an all-one-tool that has an absorbing, scrubbing pad and a cleaning liquid that is dispensed with the push of a button. These work fine on laminate floors, or as a quick cleaner for tile floors. However, these tools do not usually reach the grout on tile floors. To clean your tile floors, a good mop, with either cloth strips or coiled yarn, will effectively scrub at tough spots on both the tile and the grout. In terms of cleaners, you can use just a simple vinegar and water solution or you can use a solution made of floor cleaner and water. Follow directions on the bottle based on how dirty your floor is.

To clean your wood floors, stay away from oil-based soaps. You also do not want to use a large amount of liquid on your floors, as they can warp the floors and leave stains. If you have stains or stuck-on dirt, use a wood-floor spray and a damp rag to clean the spot. Never use the same mop, sponge or rag on your wood floors that you use with harsh cleaners, unless you have washed it thoroughly. Chemical cleaners will strip wood finish and cause damage to your floors.

What Are the Best Electric Razors For Men?

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That’s not an easy question to answer because it depends on many factors. What is the perfect electric razor for one person may be totally unsuitable for someone else and this could be due to differing skin types, having soft or hard whiskers or desiring a different closeness of shave.

However, there are two very important factors that need to be considered – features and price. Modern electric shavers have a wide variety of features, some of which may or may not be deemed necessary to everyone, depending on your expectations. Of-course, the more advanced features usually add to the cost of the razor.

Which are the best men’s electric razors?

There are numerous different brands of electric razors including Panasonic, Braun, Sunbeam, Remington and Philips to name a few. After some research into the wide range of men’s electric shavers available, I have found three that really stand out above the rest. They are:

* Philips Norelco Arcitec 1090;

* Braun Series 7-790cc Pulsonic Shaver and

* Panasonic ES8249K Arc IV Nano Vortex.

Let’s look at some of the features of these three electric razors.

1. Philips Norelco Arcitec 1090 Men’s Shaving System

If you like high tech design, then this Norelco electric razor is for you. It is one of the coolest looking shavers on the market. It is a rotary head shaver that has the ability to conform to the contours of your face to give you a very close shave. It also comes with a 60 day money back guarantee for peace of mind.

2. Braun Series 7- 790cc Pulsonic Shaver

These braun electric razors are also high tech but in a different way. It produces several thousand “micro vibrations” per minute which help to lift the hairs for easy cutting. The Braun also uses very advanced blade technology which minimises any tugging and pulling of the whiskers and also gives a very close shave. A really cool feature is that with the press of a button the shaver will automatically clean and lubricate itself.

3. Panasonic ES8249K Arc IV Nano Vortex

Unlike the other two, this Panasonic electric shaver can be used as a wet or dry shaver. You should consider this shaver if you shave in the shower, for instance. The Panasonic has a very powerful motor and with its extremely sharp blades that are set at the smallest angle of any razor available today so not only do you get a very close shave but it makes light work out of shaving a thick beard.

Naturally, these features are going to reflect in the prices of these electric razors but if price is not an issue and you want the features then any of these would be more than suitable.

Best Value Men’s Electric Razor

But if price is an issue, let’s find a shaver that has a low price but gives excellent value for the dollars spent. To ascertain this I went through many electric shaver reviews and found the shaver that had more positive customer reviews than any other. The one that stood out was one manufactured by Braun. It is their PocketGo P-70 Men’s Electric Shaver with a current retail price of around $30.00. Strictly speaking this shaver is aimed at the traveller and may not be suitable for everyday shaving. It is powered by a couple of AA batteries so it can be used anywhere including your office and even the car. Although it doesn’t have the bells and whistles of the more expensive shavers, it is extremely portable and does give quite a close shave.

Like anything, it’s most important that you decide which features you need in a shaver and then look for the best value men’s electric shaver that will fit that need.