Month: May 2013

Cost Effective Vegetables for Your Garden

 

Growing your own vegetables can be fun and a great way to do gardening. By having your own backyard vegetable garden you can be sure of the quality and the freshness of the vegetables that you would be getting. You can never be certain about the vegetables that you can get from the market. There’s no way for you to know if it has been sprayed with harmful pesticides. You can wash it all you want, but harmful chemicals could still stick to it.

You can also raise certain vegetables that are not so easy to find in the market. Exotic and rare delicacies could be an excellent addition to your garden. But there is one benefit that gardeners normally don’t think about when planting a vegetable garden. That would be saving some money.  The reality is that no amount of technique would make raising vegetables cheaper than buying them. If you consider the value of the labour that you put into taking care of the vegetable then you could be eating a really expensive salad there.

Still it is good to consider cost effective vegetables that you can plant in your garden, and some of these can even be grown as indoor plants. You can at least be sure that you would not be wasting your time and effort in taking care of those plants.

vegetable garden
image via http://www.teamhomemissions.com/

Here are some of the more cost effective vegetables that you can try:

Bell Pepper

Green bell peppers can cost $1.50 for each piece. The yellow and the red ones can even be more expensive.  But you can buy pepper plants at a lower cost than that. So it just follows that if you are able to grow the plant and it could yield five or more peppers then that would be a really cost efficient. Peppers do not require a great deal of care too so it is still cost efficient when you factor in the cost of labour.

Lettuce

Lettuce has always been one of the more expensive vegetables to buy. There are varieties that can really be costly. So if you can start raising your own lettuce from a small packet of seeds that can cost from $2 to $3 then that would really be worth it. You can enjoy it only after a few weeks. The only downside is that might need more care than other types of vegetables.

Garlic

The price of garlic can vary greatly. What’s known however is if you raise your own garlic and you do it in the right way then it would just cost you about $ .50 for each pound. That might mean a great deal of savings if you consume a great deal of garlic.

Winter Squash

Though squash can be bought at a relatively low price, this plant would grow like a weed and require almost no care.  So it can be very cost efficient to include it in your garden.

These are just a few of the vegetables that you should have in your garden if cost efficiency is what you have in mind.

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This article by Madam Stewardess, she’s an eco nut from Australia with two green thumbs and a great big smile for life.

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Why Bats Aren’t As Scary As They Seem

Bats are truly amazing creatures, and in fact they’re the only mammal known to man that are capable of flying. With long fingers, fangs, sharp claws and scaly wing membrane, it’s clear to see why so many people are afraid of bats, and seeing as there are over 1,000 different species of bat worldwide, they can be found in all corners of the earth, from the cities to the urban areas. However bats aren’t as scary as they seem, and once you get to know these furry fliers, you’ll realise that there actually nothing to worry about! Let’s take a look at some of the key facts about bats that you might now know.

Diet

When people think of bats, they think of fangs, and then Count Dracula, and then human blood. In actual fact, the percentage of bat species that grow fangs is extremely small, and even then their diet is pretty simple. Bats are one of the best alternatives to pesticides, and seeing as over 70 per cent of them feed on small insects, they’re great at helping to protect crops. Fruit also plays a major part in a bat’s diet, and unless you’re living in South America, you’re not going to see any bats feeding on small mammals or fish.

bats

Behaviour

Although there are tens of millions of bats all over the world, their numbers continue to decline every year, causing concern for scientists. Over thousands of years, bats have had to adapt to predators as well as their ever-changing surroundings, and this has meant that they’ve developed an amazing sense of hearing. One common believe is that bats are blind, and although this is not the case, their eye sight isn’t the best. Alternatively, they use their super hearing powers to emit sounds, which in turn bounce and reflect of objects in their flying path – it’s like their own radar system.

Not only can this sound pulse tell the bat how far away the object is, but it also lets them know how big the object is too, all in the space of a few milliseconds. Not all bats act the same either. Some species enjoy the company of others, living life in big colonies in dark caves. Other on the other hand prefer the solitary life, fending for themselves and only meeting other bats to reproduce. Who ever knew that facts about bats could be so interesting!

Bat Mythology

For hundreds of years, bats and witchcraft have come hand in hand, and many cultures still believe that they’re the symbol of black magic and darkness. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, bats were part of the witch’s brew, and because they can fly whilst still being a mammal, they’re seen to be part of both worlds, thus generating mythical significance. In Tonga for example, bats are considered to be reincarnated souls of the dead, and in other Native American settlements, they’re seen to be trickster souls who play games with the living.

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David is a huge wildlife fan and has a particular passion for bats and protecting their habitat.

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