Clear the Clutter: Two Books to Help

For those looking for simple, easy-to-adopten advice books on clearing clutter, look no farther than Clutter Clearing Choices by Barbara Hemphill's Barbara Tako and Taming the Paper Tiger at Home. Both books are full of common sense help in getting rid of items you have been keeping for sentimental value or the fear that you'll need them some day.

As seniors reaching the season of life to downsize, Tako's book will be like a series of conversations with a friend about what really matters. And what really matters is clearing away the things that weigh you down so you can take care of yourself and the people you love.

Her book is seasonally organized to make life easier? for example, organizing papers to get set for tax preparation is a January project. and pick which mode of de-cluttering works best for them.

If you don't know what system will work for you, she offers many choices for readers to pick from. All the reader has to do is find the system that best fits their personality and style.

She reinforces that ' feel good factor ' that comes from donating cast spin-offs and helping someone else out.

Hemphill's book is the result of a business helping people de-clutter so it, too, is based on long years of experience. Her business was based on four simple words: Clutter is Postponed Decisions ?. "Few of us ... great reach the point of being satisfied with their ability to get rid of clutter," she says. This is a great book to help get organized with all the paper of life, helping the reader understand what is truly important versus unimportant.

All that searching for where you put that piece of paper or ticket? Gone if you follow her organizational system.

Both books emphasize the motto "Less is more!" And neither book is intimidating, even for the clutter-clutter-queens and kings!

The author is a free lance writer and editor in Florida with specialties in senior issues, healthy living, travel and Tora.

How to Setup Your Own Garden

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Figuring out which gardening tips to follow can be quite a challenge. So much of the information out there is conflicting that sorting through it all can be very time consuming. Gardening is more involved than simply tossing some seeds into your yard and watering them every once in a while. Gardening takes hard work. It be time consuming. It won't take long for you to realize that working in your garden, in spite of all of the time and energy it takes from you, is incredibly rewarding. Here are some gardening tips to help you grow the garden of your dreams!

Growing more than one plant can be tricky-put a schedule together for yourself and follow it. Input the number of times your plants need to be watered. Write down exactly when you plan on adding nutrients to the soil of each of your plants. Put all of these things onto your calendar and then follow the instructions on your calendar each day. Even your weeding schedule could be put on the calendar! This mapping and scheduling will help ensure that your plants grow to be healthy and thriving. If you haven't ever grown a garden before, keeping the details on a calendar can help you make sure that you don't miss anything. Bees are great! Even if you hate the idea of having bees near you, you need to learn to deal with them because they are good for your garden.

Bees are how pollen gets spread around your garden (which helps the plants grow). Plants cannot grow fruit or bloom until they've been "fertilized" with pollen. So, basically, you need to get used to seeing and dealing with bees. In fact, you might even think about doing whatever you can to attract the bees to your garden! One of the easiest ways to attract bees to your garden is to plant tomatillo plants; bees love tomatillos. Take care to plant more than one tomatillo plant because bees are not good at sharing; in fact, one of the best ways to get stung is to try to fight with bees to get the fruit from a tomatillo plant-instead, plant some tomatillos for yourself in another part of the garden.

Always remember that gardening happens throughout the whole year. Even during the cold winter months when not much is growing, there is work to be done. For example, you will need to prepare your garden's soil for colder weather. Most of the spring plants you like so much get planted during the last few frosts of the year. Learn how to take care of your garden even when the plants are not blooming. You will have a far more successful and healthy garden if you do your best to take care of your garden plot throughout the whole year. Growing a garden doesn't have to be hard. A thriving garden is inevitable if you are willing to put in the time, the effort and the work that goes along with growing and caring for plants. You just need to practice patience. It takes time to grow a garden that will flourish. Pretty much every person on the planet can learn to grow a wonderful garden. You don't need to come pre-built with super gardening powers or a green thumb. You just need to find the right gardening tips to follow and you will be on your way.

The Composer of this article is a journalist and has composed several content pieces on the internet. Among his masterpieces comprises of an article concerning get back with your ex and getting ex back.

Ready, Set, Organize! A Workbook For the Organizationally Challenged

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"Ready, Set, Organize! A Workbook for the Organizationally Challenged" by Pipi Campbell Peterson with Mary Campbell is just what it claims to be, a book of useful, entertaining, and quick advice for work and home.

If you are unorganized, you don't want to read a huge length text on what you need to do. After all, time is something you are most likely short of, that is part of the problem! One thing I really liked about "Ready, Set, Organize!" is that it was a quick read. Being disorganized wastes time. This book takes no time at all to gain advice that you can put to use now.

If you like lists, you will especially like "Ready, Set, Organize!" The book contains numerous list and charts to assist you with your planning and organizing. While you could just fill them in, I would recommend photo copying the pages and keep the book where you can make additional copies as needed. Or, you may wish you use the forms and lists in the text as guides to make you own on the computer so you can print them out when needed, or even keep your planning on the computer entirely.

The book is organized with nine chapters divided into three parts. Each chapter is simple, to the point, and relevant to get you organized right away. Part One focuses on taking the time to find time. It is the planning before the organizing. This is a very important step. If you are someone who already writes out your priorities, your mission, and your goals, this part might not be as beneficial. There are more complete texts on these topics. However, if you have never completed exercises such as these, do them. This is a great little primer to start. Chapter one gets you thinking about what your priorities are, how you use your time, and determining what your goals and objectives are. Chapter two then goes into determining what you want to accomplish with annual, monthly, and daily agendas. This leads to the third chapter which focuses on using a planner to organize your days.

Part Two focuses on your stuff. Chapter four gets you looking at what kind of belonging you have and what places you have to store them. And just like the rests of the book, there are lists and ideas to help you along. Chapter five covers a problem that many people seem to have with their clothes. No room to keep them all! If your clothes are unorganized this chapter will help! Chapter six goes into one of the biggest areas of clutter for just about everyone. The paper chase. Short chapter on creating files from piles. There are entire books on this topic, so if you need more help it is out there. But this chapter will give you a good start, and may be all you need.

Part Three focuses on organizing your household. Chapter seven will help you organize your home office, both for personal and business activities. Chapter eight has suggestions and ideas on organizing children's stuff and how you can get them to assist you with the organization. If you have kids, there are some good tips here. Chapter nine is the last chapter and it teaches you how to organize personal and family records, personal property, financial information and your final wishes. Most of this chapter is forms and worksheets to assist you in organizing. Photocopy them or use them as guides and you'll be able to get your things in order.

Read this book and get organized today. It is a quick read with loads of practical advice. It contains numerous lists and worksheets to assist you. If you really want to succeed in life and get the most out of your time, being organized is a must. This book will help you get started and more importantly, keep you on track.

Alain Burrese, J.D. is a mediator/attorney with Bennett Law Office P.C. and an author/speaker through his own company Burrese Enterprises Inc. He writes and speaks about a variety of topics focusing on the business areas of negotiation and success principles as well as self-defense and safety topics. He is the author of Hard-Won Wisdom From the School of Hard Knocks, several instructional dvds, and numerous articles. You can find out more about Alain Burrese at his websites http://www.burrese.com/ or http://www.bennettlawofficepc.com/

The Greenest Thing You Can Do - Square Foot Gardening

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I really love this article, because it records my first real step in becoming a consciously sustainable person. I don't mean becoming eco-friendly or environmentally conscious or any other nebulous phrase that suggests some effort at environmental awareness without really being concrete enough to define a measurable standard.

I have taken tentative steps before, but now that I have done my research, I know what true sustainability is, I know that is our highest goal, and I know how to get it done. I chose to start this journey to full sustainability by starting to become a producer. Yes, of course I will still consume, and for right now there a lot of holes in my game, but I am becoming a producer as well, and it feels pretty damn good.

I bought All New Square Foot Gardening because I had heard good things about it, and I wanted to start growing my own fruits and vegetables with the least amount of hassle. I happen to know that hydroponics is the most efficient way to grow anything, but it is a pretty complicated place to start. Square Foot Gardening seemed to be a good simple solution from the outside looking in. But would it deliver?

After reading it and buying the materials for starting my own square foot garden, I have to say it truly does provide a very easy way to start growing your own food. Among the many fantastic things about this method is that it can be done in any living setting, even an apartment balcony. I strongly recommend this book to people like me who do not want to deal with the hassle of gardening. The author Mel Bartholomew provides a step by step process for building your planter box, mixing the perfect soil, planting, growing and harvesting. No fertilizers. No pesticides. It is good stuff.

It took me less than a week to read the book, purchase the materials, put the box together, mix the soil and plant my veggies. The author does not mention costs, so I am going to list my costs for materials right here, for your benefit:

Heirloom Seeds (more on heirloom in my next blog): 8 packets - $23.25Lumber: (1) sheet of plywood + (2) 2x6 redwood - $28.59Soil Mix: vermiculite + peat moss + compost - $80.93Grid: 5/8" x 1/4" trim board - $14.98Total cost: $147.75Work Time: roughly 8 man hours

This was more than I expected, but most of the costs are one time. The only ongoing costs are for compost and seeds. If you compost yourself, that line item is eliminated. With Mel's technique, seed use and waste is significantly reduced in comparison with tradition row gardening, so seed packets can last as much as five years.

So what is the payoff?

I will have to wait and find out for myself, but according to the book, here is an example harvest from a 4x4 box:

1 cabbage1 broccoli1 cauliflower4 romaine lettuce heads4 red lettuce heads4 leaf lettuce heads4 salad lettuce heads16 scallions5 lbs. of sugar peas8 swiss chard9 bunches of spinach32 carrots32 radishes16 beets

I priced out this theoretical harvest at my local supermarket, and it came to over $115.00. If you have two growing seasons per year (this is typical), you will be in the bonus after the second harvest.

You have probably heard a million times about "getting back in touch with nature", so I'm not going to bore you with that. What I do want to say is that the project is a lot fun, it is a fantastic way to beautify your yard, it has endless possibilities for adaptation and creativity, and it is one of the greenest things you can do. Sometimes I think green can be summed up in one sentence: make it yourself, or buy local. That is the long and the short of it.

The book is far more detailed and complete than this little summary suggests, so I strongly urge you to buy it, read it and make it happen in your garden.

There are a few other items I would like to mention before I sign off that I will be expanding upon in future blogs.

As I mentioned before, my researched has determined that hydroponic agriculture is the most efficient, and I love the idea, but it does require more upfront cash than a square foot garden.I will be pursuing this in the future though, so stay tuned.

One technique I will be testing in future growing is living water. I am not doing it in this first season, so this first yield can be considered as a control in my little experiment. For those of you who are not familiar with the work of Victor Shauberger or Masaru Emoto, water can have amazing regenerative and vitalizing properties given the correct energetic charging. As with hydroponics, I will elucidate in the near future.

OK, one last near future note. One method which is outside of the square foot gardening book that I did experiment with is the seed planting process mentioned in Anastasia, the first book in the Ringing Cedars series. I am late to this party, having just finished the first book, but all I can say is wow. That book has already contributed mightily to the shifting of the paradigm and the material is great, but I am not going just take it at its word. I will review that book in the near future, and let you know just how effective the practical advice in that book is based upon how my crop turns out.

That is all I have for now. Happy Passover, and love to all,

Millard

Source Green Blog [http://source-green.com] offers sustainable news, movie and book reviews, success stories and practical solutions from our "Road To Green" series. For more information on Source Green, please visit our What We Believe page.

Owner and founder Millard Nathan Arterberry, Jr. was born and raised in San Diego. He graduated with honors from the University of California at Berkeley in 1995, has worked in the architectural profession for over 12 years, and is LEED accredited by the United States Green Building Council.

Do It Yourself "How To Books" - Electrical

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When there are better and more interesting things to do why should one bother with trying to learn how to fix ply boards, repair the fuse and rectify the water faucet? This feeling is most prevalent when one is an adolescent and nagging parents seem to disturb the peace and quite of a teens room. All they want and that too all the time is to make you be an apprentice in whatever they are doing be it plumbing work, electrical work or kitchen work.

With pop, it is either a beam that requires holding while he fixes a hole in the shed wall or handing over nails or holding the torchlight while he tries to get back the electricity. All that this apprentice work gives you is a pain in all the joints that you can count. Little do we realize that we are missing out on a training that will probably come handy some day. It is only on the day that the crisis lands up at our doorstep that we look back longingly and feel "had I paid more attention, I would have been able to solve this issue"

When you finally buy a house of your own and the first night the electric power goes off, you repent that you have never ever tried to learn the nuances of fixing a fuse wire or understanding the live wires from the earthed ones. At times like these one regrets the decision not to invest in some handy 'how to' books.

Looking at all sorts of wires and trying to figure out a way to get the power can have you cracking. These 'how to' electric books explain the matter in great detail using charts and illustrations. This helps the most ignorant people as to the various steps involved when standard issues crop up. There are separate books available for trouble shooting

Before buying a particular 'how to' guide, you must research the Internet and ask those who have purchased such books in the past. Once the right choice is made, these books can help in becoming an all-in-on worker at home. It gives you a sense of pride at having achieved control over certain circumstances. The next thing you know you shall be buying drills and tools and actually looking for areas in your house that need the use o these tools.

To find tips on many subjects check out some "how to" books [http://advice-books.com/how-to-electrical-books.php] visit [http://advice-books.com]

World's Best Compost

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Are you having trouble getting your plants to bloom out in all their glory? If so, you may want to read this review. If you are into gardening, then you are more than aware of the importance of good compost. For it is the compost that provides your plants with the essential nutrients, of course, you could go the 'toxic route' or anything similar. But if you need your plants to bloom naturally, it is always better to do it with good compost than with a chemical fertilizer hot out of a chemical plant. Natural is in and everything else is out, especially if you expect your plants to grow naturally. No good comes out of artificial stuff and sooner than later, you will be bound to come across a whole range of problems if chemical fertilizers are your stuff. Try out the e-book, the world's best compost as it shows you how to get the best out of your plants the natural way.

The world's best compost is all about developing your own compost, without having to hold your breath in. Yeah, as hard as it may seem to believe, this compost method does not stink to the high heavens and you do not need to turn it over either. Every greenhouse needs a good compost to get the best out of the plants, be it roses or orchids. If you are an orchid buff, you probably would not mind splurging a bit on the latest chemical fertilizer. However, before you do so, you may want to consider the long term effects on your orchids due to large scale use of the fertilizer on your part. It is better to stick with natural products and world's best compost, for with the compost method listed here; your plants will start to shine in no time at all.

This book comes packed with all the information that you need in order to develop /make your own colloidal humus compost. The humus compost is the better version of the traditional compost in the sense that it does not stink or does it require to be turned over once in a while. I guess, it is the easy take on the traditional compost methods and this e-book should show you just how to go about it as it comes packed with information, diagrams and photographs to show you exactly how to make your own.

This book is written in an easy-to-understand format so you should have no issues in making sense of it. The process is fairly easy and the only requirement is that you have some basic gardening know-how. So, if you are looking for natural ways to get your plants to bloom, you may want to give this book a second look.

Reuben Wallis has reviewed Rod Turner's e-book the worlds best compost. For a detailed take on growing plants naturally, do click on worlds best compost reviews.

Squash Vine Borer Controlling

Recently a grower from the UK sent us a photo of damage to a pumpkin janick plant and wanted to know what it was and whether it could be controlled. This pest had apparently been a problem for a long time, to the extent that it was questionable whether it was worthwhile planting pumpkins or squashes Kiwi.

Like all vegetables, pumpkins and squashes are no strangers to disease and bugs. Squash Vine Borer (Melittia cucurbitae), which is what was preventing our pumpkins, grower's is only one of the range of pests that affects members of the cucurbit family (members of which include pumpkins, squashes, zucchinis, cucumbers, melons etc). Besides the Squash vine borer lives UK in most temperate areas of North America, although not on the Pacific Coast. This pest is renowned for the fact that you cannot see it until it is too late (when the plant is wilted and does not recover when watered). Close examinations will reveal that the stem has been severed just above ground level.

Symptoms

When you examine the base of affected plants, you will notice a small hole and some frass (sawdust-like droppings). The hole is a sign of the presence of the Squash Vine Borer. If there are multiple numbers of borers, these pests can actually cause the stem to break-especially if it is colder-or to rot, depending on the weather. The injury will also prevent the plant from taking up water and nutrients, which will ultimately cause it to die.

The Squash Vine Borer is the larvae of a species of black moth that attacks both wild and cultivated varieties of squash. The moth looks like a bee or wasp because of its movements, and the bright orange scales on its hind legs. It has a wing span or around 25 to 37 mm (1-11/2). The females usually reddish-brown lay eggs on the leaves, and when they hatch the larvae bore their way into the base of the stem? the larvae feed on and inside the stalk, eventually killing the leaf. From the leaf, the caterpillars migrate to the main stem, and with enough feeding damage to the stem, the entire plant may die.

Squash Vine Borers can affect hubbard squash, gourds, pumpkins, zucchinis and other squashes. It is not common to find them on cucumbers or melons. Control Squash Vine Borer Gardeners find a difficult pest to combat. Some try to avoid it by timing the production season to harvest before the pests can build up, or after they have peaked. However, there are cultural control measures that can be implemented.

Squash Vine Borers As overwinter in the soil as larvae in cocoons, removing and destroying old vines after harvesting will help. Tilling the soil will also help to destroy any cocoons that may be there. Birds will also assist you with this job once the soil is tilled.

Once your crop is planted, if you are vigilant, you may be able to remove eggs when they appear. As the larvae bore into the stem usually close to ground level, a paper or other wrapping at the base of the stem may assist as a barrier. If you notice the plant wilting or a hole at the base of the stem, it is possible (if you are very careful) to slit open the stem and remove the larvae, and then cover the stem with dry soil so that it can grow more roots. In fact if you notice a hole, you can even just pile some dry soil over the affected area to try and promote new root growth so that the plant will not die.

An old trick for growing pumpkins and squash is to cover the vine with earth at various points along its length, inducing rooting at several points, thereby continuing to feed the developing fruit despite the loss of the original stem. After the vine has taken root at multiple points, the infected portion of the plant can be cut off, along with another inch where the larvae is eating into healthy tissue, without significant damage to the plant. Row covers are another option that can be used up until bloom.

Some gardeners use pesticides, but these are ineffective after the larvae are inside the plant. It is also not recommended as these pesticides used to kill the adult moth may contaminate the flowers and the East kill pollinators through poisoned nectar or pollen.

Lucia Grimmer is the main author of best selling books How to Grow Juicy Tasty Tomatoes and How to Grow Good Potatoes.

Lucia Grimmer is a world renowned expert in plant disease and nutrition who trains horticulturists, agronomists and professional growers. She has won awards for her technical papers and regularly conducts trials on a range of crops with the objective of improving yield and reducing disease.

Co-author Annette Welsford also has a horticultural background, however her true skills like with taking complex technical information and representing it so that even novice gardeners find it easy to understand.

Their books are considered to be the authoritative "bibles" on Growing Tomatoes and Growing Potatoes and have sold to thousands of novice and professional gardeners in 85 countries, and have been featured on TV, radio and leading gardening publications in 4 continents.