HOME & GARDEN EXPLORE

Plant tomato transplants today

riggreat — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:52:26 +0000

The next few days offer the last opportunity for Houston area gardeners to add tomato transplants to their gardens with good prospects for a full harvest before a potential first frost date in December.

Since time is short for planting, tomato transplants should be purchased growing in pots four inches to one gallon in size rather than in six packs. It is already too late to grow tomatoes from seed.

When planted in the garden, tomatoes should be spaced two to four feet apart to provide sufficient room for support cages, enough sunlight and proper air flow.

Tomatoes do need the support of large cages in our area. Ideally, cages should be five to six feet tall to support mature plants that can reach heights of five to eight feet.

Remesh (wire mesh) can be bought from local hardware stores in seven foot long strips (cut to seven feet) by five feet tall.

Humans in Habitat

riggreat — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:12:26 +0000

They chose not to utilize the space for a community garden. Their life activities and responsibilities seemed better suited to creating individual gardens in their backyards or other food-producing activities, such as we saw with the corn row and the grape vines. Also, the Commons Area will contain the Bioswale, an area graded to accept the development’s drainage, with water filtering back into the water table rather than going into storm drains.

Habitat for Humanity’s Green Building program was begun in 2002. They say…”Many aspects of green building are simply design choices that utilize natural resources, like facing the homes south to capture passive solar heating and cooling…long-term savings gained by the energy efficiency…passed on to the families…$5-$10 electric bills…and some even report receiving bills where their house has contributed energy to the electric grid.” HforH has completed 52 green solar homes with many LEED certified.

Family health take charge! Have fun exercising and you will

riggreat — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:21:59 +0000

Gardening is a great way to create an oasis and see the daily results.

Find a park or some green space to have a picnic and some family games.

No money or time to go to a gym? Make an exercise area at home. It does not cost a lot to have a jump rope, exercise bands, some weights and mat and maybe a TV or radio to keep you company.

Need to run errands? Put a basket on your bike and make short trips to the store by bike, not car.

If you love to dine out, walk with family or friends to a restaurant and back. Don’t drive. Walk to join others for breakfast on Saturday or Sunday morning. During breakfast, plan an outdoor activity for the afternoon.

For more information

Go to healthymemphis.org/links for more information about fun ideas on developing the exercise habit.

Rare Positive Cash Flow Model Leaseback Homes in Charlotte NC

riggreat — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:45:26 +0000

The builder covers the utilities, HOA (home owner’s association dues), insurance, and taxes during the lease back period. It is not only a safe investment but one with guaranteed positive cash flow during the lease period. The builder will be using the home as a model to sell new homes to home buyers in the community. Investors know that this type of investing is a rarity and it is often called the best answer to long distance investing as it is virtually hands off.

Models homes are the first homes built in the neighborhood. Builders always build in price increases as the neighborhood is selling and the model homes generally have the best of upgrades and amenities. As the community is built up and the homes appreciate you are locked into the original lower pricing from the time the community begins.

Tradition makes a comeback in Indian furniture market

riggreat — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:13:36 +0000

He also uses old railway sleepers to fashion rough beds and garden seats with antique designs and then hand paints them with basic colours to create an ethnic look.

“Fresh hardwood is not available any longer and so I make it a point to recycle old wood,” the designer pointed out.

His factory in Noida is stacked with handcrafted antique furniture made of recycled wood and discards.

The prices of Vadhera’s furniture range from Rs.5,000 to Rs.50,000. He sources his old wooden furniture from villages and royal estates in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Sidhant Lamba, the owner of Strot, a high-end furniture boutique in the heart of the capital, balances traditional with contemporary designs.

“Due to increased levels of exposure to the global standards of furniture design and its relative availability, the Indian homemaker is more aware of what completes the perfect modern home without running the risk of being too different,” Lamba said.

The Shelf: Guide to Build Green Homes

riggreat — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:12:49 +0000

Like most gardening issues, how to water, and how much, has many prescriptions. Here are a few of them, compliments of our three water-wise gardeners and some local experts:

Soaker hoses or drip-irrigation systems are way more efficient than sprinklers. But if you must use sprinklers, avoid those with a misty spray. You want big drops that won’t evaporate.

Get a rain gauge to figure out how much water the sprinkler is tossing or how much rain has fallen. (You want about an inch a week.) You can buy a fancy pluviometer with digital features and an ice-warning system, or you can do what Becky Szkotak, of Rutgers Cooperative Extension in Camden, N.J., suggests: “Get a small Tupperware container.”

Try not to let your sprinkler water the sidewalk, street or house, and don’t hose down your sidewalk, driveway or patio either.

A Gardener’s Notes

riggreat — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:32:55 +0000

My few acres is devoted not only to gardening organically, but also to creating an Appalachian Native Habitat. I love good food and I love wildlife. About a year ago, when I learned that my native blackberries were doing much better than those hybrids I had planted, I began encouraging patches of …

UK lender Woolwich cuts mortgage rates

riggreat — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:25:06 +0000

“We have seen an improvement in the swap rates recently and we have taken the opportunity to reduce our longer-term fixed rates where we see customers can get the best value at the moment,” Woolwich Head of Mortgages Andy Gray said in a statement.

Mortgage costs remain historically high, having risen sharply in the past year as banks stung by the credit crunch seek to conserve capital and protect profits. The abrupt drying-up of cheap mortgage finance has triggered a slump in UK house prices, ending a 10-year property boom.

Woolwich accounted for 28 percent of all net new lending in the UK during the first three months of 2008, up from 8 percent a year earlier, a Barclays spokesperson said.

Woolwich’s rate cuts follow similar moves last week by mutually-owned lender Nationwide and Cheltenham & Gloucester, part of British bank Lloyds TSB (LLOY.L: Quote, Profile, Research).

The Mortgage Crisis: A ‘Failure of Leadership’

riggreat — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 18:33:46 +0000

Builders sold more homes, and home prices soared,” KW concluded. “Monoline” insurers, or insurance companies that specialize in insuring bonds, gave an additional stamp of approval. But as defaults skyrocketed, some “Monoline” insurers have recently filed for bankruptcy protection. Complex models developed by investment banks to track returns proved faulty—causing billions in write downs and losses, dismissals of CEOs, collapses of major institutions (New Century Mortgage and Bear Stearns), and massive layoffs on Wall Street.The Blame Game In the wake of an economic downturn and rising housing foreclosures, there is plenty of blame to go around. Analysts believe a combination of Federal Reserve officials’ inability to assess market forces, incompetent regulators, greedy lenders and Wall Street executives, naïve homeowners, and irresponsible speculators dragged the United States into its current economic turmoil.

Green: Camp’s toilet-shower building a pioneering design

riggreat — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:19:42 +0000

The building planned for Otsego Lake State Park will be smaller than the one in Grand Haven and feed runoff rainwater from the roof into a garden of native plants, says architect Ryan Brouwer of Integrated Architecture.

“It’s meant to be self-sufficient landscaping,” he said.

Randy Pease, also an architect at the firm, said another special feature of the new toilet-shower buildings in the state-park system is the high degree of accessibility for disabled users. The facilities will be 85 percent to 90 percent accessible, “far, far exceeding” the guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, he said.

DNR officials estimate that the Grand Haven building will use about 40 percent less water and require significantly less electricity than the building it replaced.