Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Garden Update: Plant Down!

It’s only been a few weeks and we already have a plant down.

After a couple days of rain I finally went outside to check on my hanging garden. Unfortunately I found this:

Broken plant

That’s pretty disappointing to see!

That pot held the spring onions and a single spinach plant. Now they are destroyed along with the pot.

I’m not sure what happened but I did see a guilty looking JuJu hanging around.

Juju broken plant

Considering she ate my first 5 kale plants and one broccoli plant she seems very suspicious. We thought they were secure enough and high enough that she couldn’t reach them and maybe she didn’t. Maybe it just fell on it’s own? I guess we will never know.

Luckily the rest of my plants are growing well. All the kale and spinach and lettuce is growing well. So far the kale is the only vegetable we have used in a meal but I have high hope for the rest!

Growing plants

The cilantro is especially promising. This stuff is growing like crazy and tastes so nice.

Cilantro

Other than losing yet another plant I have high hopes for the rest of this garden. It’s a nice trial run for future gardens I want to plant whenever we get our own home one day. I’m definitely learning a lot about what not to do during this process if nothing else. I’ve heard those kinds of lessons come in handy and experience matters in these kinds of things.

Wish me luck for no more garden mishaps!

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Weekend Fun: Markets & Gardens

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A European Perspective on the U.S. Shale Energy Revolution

The intersection of a recent anti-natural gas fundraiser at the trendy Brooklyn Winery – featuring fabulous culinary delights prepared by a group of talented chefs – and the natural gas that made the evening possible was, well, simply mouth-watering.

New York Daily News columnist Bill Hammond writes that the “Taste of the Marcellus” event last week was hosted by a group called Chefs for the Marcellus, to showcase the kinds of foods they say could be jeopardized if New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo OKs hydraulic fracturing in that state’s portion of the Marcellus Shale. Hammond:

"Guests were treated to eggplant-stuffed okra, smoked lamb belly with fermented tofu and whipped ricotta jewel on toast — along with wines from the Finger Lakes and beers from Cooperstown’s Ommegang brewery. Th... more »

Jill is a district manager for Total Safety, a company that provides service solutions for various aspects of the oil and natural gas industry, as well as power-generation and industrial markets. For her, the industry is about future job security: “It’s really an industry that’s not going away.”

Her video:

Visit American Energy Works.org for more videos and information about the people who’re at work for America’s energy future.

A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds two of the top three issues that Americans care about the most in this election year are … jobs and reducing the federal budget deficit. Check and check. America’s oil and natural gas industry can help with both. Respondents were asked to weigh the importance of a number of issues (see chart), and 92 percent said creating good jobs is “extremely/very important.” On cutting the federal deficit the figure was 86 percent. Jobs and revenue to the government – we can help.

With the right policies in place – increasing access to American natural resources, the right approach to energy regulation, encouraging energy investments and more – our industry could create 1.4 million jobs by 2030. Here’s how the Wood Mackenzie energy consulting firm charts the pot... more »

Energy-driven economic growth is more than theory in places like Mount Vernon, Ohio, and Chandlersville, about 60 miles to the southeast. Shale energy is building growth in both places – in different ways.

In Mount Vernon, Ariel Corporation is experiencing demand for the reciprocating gas compressors it manufactures, which are used to extract, process, transport, store and distribute natural gas from shale. In Chandlersville, Steve Addis and his wife own and operate Annie’s Restaurant, which is seeing an influx of workers who’re drilling new shale gas wells in the area. Both show how the oil and natural gas industry supports jobs beyond direct industry jobs.

More in this video:

Visit American Energy Works.org for more videos and information about the people who’re at work for Am... more »

ConocoPhillips’ Bob Morton is chief materials scientist at the company’s technology center in Bartlesville, Okla. The chemical that allowed development of low-sulfur gasoline and diesel – without sacrificing octane and without increasing the cost of the fuel – was developed there, he says.

Coming up with environmentally friendly consumer products is Morton’s mission:

“What I really love about my job is sometimes I’m given the opportunity to see something that nobody has seen before. And when those moments happen truly, those are the things that I think are the most wonderful parts of doing the job.”

Check out Bob’s story:

Visit American Energy Works.org for more videos and information about the people who’re at work for America’s energy future.

... more »

View the original article here