Richard Kaloust Preservation

Your garden provided the summer bounty for your and your family, whether it’s food or flowers. You’ve taken great care of it by adding  compost and weeding it,  and watering it throughout the season so that it can really work for you.

But now that fall is around the corner, what can you do maximize it’s potential? Of all the wonderful things you can do in a garden, mulching is by far the best, and this is why.

Moisture retention

Mulching does a marvelous job of keeping the moisture in the soil, which is exactly where you want it.  Watering the garden can be extremely time consuming, not to mention a terrible waste of perfectly good drinking water, so save your tap water for the tea pot!  It’s important to give the ground a good soaking before you mulch to ensure the moisture is locked in from the start.

Weed suppression

Let’s face it, no one likes weeding, so why bother?  A good, thick mulch will stop the light getting to all those pesky weed seeds and prevent them from germinating all over the garden.

Nutrients

A good organic mulch will rot down gradually and replenish the soil, keeping your hungry plants well fed.  If you make your own, it’s the perfect way to keep those vital nutrients in your garden.

Soil erosion

Your valuable topsoil would like nothing more than to run away with the wind and rain.  Soil erosion can be a huge problem in many gardens, but it’s nothing a good mulching won’t put a stop to.

Temperature

Soil gets cold in winter and hot in the summer, which for many plants can be damaging or even life threatening.  Mulching provides a natural form of climate control, keeping roots and crowns protected from frost, cold and heat.

Appearance

The right mulch will bring your garden to life by providing a strong, consistent backdrop.  This tends to enhance the colours of the plants making them stand out look their best.

Disease

Mulching helps to stop fungal spores rising from the soil and infecting your beloved plants.  It will also protect the roots and lower stems of plants that are vulnerable to disease.

Which mulch?

You can mulch with almost anything, but to get the maximum benefits it’s important to choose the right mulch.

If you want to mulch your vegetable patch, try using straw or hay or grass cuttings.  You can buy hay bails from your local farmer for next to nothing.  It should rot down within a growing season, which releases nutrients and gives you access to your soil for the following year.  Give it a good watering when you first put it down to stop it blowing about in the wind too much.  It is likely to have a few seeds in it, which will probably germinate, but it will be nothing compared to the weeds that will grow without a mulch.

For perennials, ornamental boarders, fruit trees and bushes you might want to try a longer term mulch like wood chippings or wood bark.  This will take between 3 and 5 years to completely decompose, and releases nutrients into the soil slowly.  However, it will also make it tricky to get to the soil for planting new plants.  It looks great but can be expensive to buy.  It’s best to make your own if you can.

When to mulch?

A good time to mulch is in the autumn, to prevent weed growth over winter and to allow the nutrients to be slowly released into the soil in time for spring.  It is also a good idea to mulch again in mid summer to reduce the amount of watering required and prevent further weed growth.

Grab your Spade

So there we have it.  An afternoon’s work can save you a years worth of weeding and watering.  It is definitely worth getting your hands dirty for, so grab your spade and get on with it!

{cc photo courtesy of Dvortygirl On Wikimedia Commons}

When snacking, it’s a good idea to think about blood sugar levels. If you consume a sugary snack, chances are your blood sugar levels will spike. And although you may feel a temporary rush of energy and an elevated mood, you’ll most likely feel like you’ve hit a brick wall and experience a crash shortly after snacking on high-glycemic index foods.

After crashing, you’ll feel hungry again and repeat the vicious cycle.

A little background …

Our fundamental rule is that we always want to combine the following three macronutrients when eating:

• protein
• carbohydrates
• natural fat

Combining macronutrients ensures that you’ll feel full longer and won’t need to binge on sweets. In fact, if your regular meals have a good ratio of the three macronutrients, you might find you may not have to snack at all.

Pay attention to your body

Start paying attention to how you feel after eating a meal. If you feel full for three to four hours after eating and don’t have bloating or a drop in energy, then whatever you just ate is the right macronutrient proportion for you.

For example, a breakfast of two eggs, one piece of sprouted whole grain bread with a little dab of butter and two small slices of all-natural bacon may satisfy you for several hours.

To keep your blood sugar levels steady, it’s a good idea not to go more than four hours during the day without eating. So taking the breakfast example above, say, eaten at 8 a.m., you’ll want to eat lunch at about noon.

Maybe you don’t get home till 6 p.m. If you wait till then to eat dinner, you’ll likely be tired and cranky, so it’s a good idea to have a late afternoon snack.

What are some healthy snack choices?

Here are some examples of healthy snacks that combine all three macronutrients:

• Celery and raw almond butter: celery is a carbohydrate; almond butter is both protein and natural fat.
• Cheese and crackers: opt for grass-fed cheese for higher essential Omega 3 fatty acid content if possible and gluten-free rice crackers for less intestinal bloating.
• Hummus and carrot sticks: hummus contains a little protein and natural fat.
• Nitrate and nitrite-free jerky: contains protein and natural fat; you don’t always have to include a carbohydrate if you can digest meat efficiently.
• Edamame sprinkled with sea salt: edamame is the whole soybean and it contains both protein and essential trace minerals if sprinkled with sea salt.
• Greek yogurt: unless you’re on a restricted diet, go for the full-fat variety, which will keep you full for longer and includes all three macronutrients.
• Apple slices with honey and olives: perfect for those who crave sweet and salty.
• Organic turkey breast slice with crackers: turkey contains both protein and natural fat. (It’s easy to bring a package of healthy deli slices with you to work; just make sure your coworkers don’t steal it!)

Even nutritionists, dieticians and health coaches fall off the wagon. If you do and reach for a doughnut, the best thing to do is to eat a little protein and natural fat (preferably before eating the doughnut) to stabilize your blood sugar levels.

But if you adopt these healthy snacking ideas, hopefully, your cravings for sugary junk food will subside.

1. Send a hand-written thank you card to someone.

2. Give a compliment about your waiter/waitress to his or her manager.

3. Hold open a door for someone.

4. Have a conversation with a homeless person.

5. Compliment a co-worker.

6. Pay for the person behind you in the Starbucks drive-thru.

7. Clean out your clothes and donate to a local non-profit.

8. Send flowers to someone anonymously.

9. Leave an encouraging note in a library book.

10. Ask an elderly person about their childhood.

11. Be a courteous driver.

12. Mentor an at-risk child.

13. Mow a neighbor’s lawn.

14. Donate blood.

15. Introduce yourself to a new coworker/classmate/church member.

16. Share inspirational quotes.

17. Write letters of appreciation to organizations that serve your community.

18. Leave happy post-its for strangers to find.

19. Smile.

20. Appreciate the people who support you.

21. Treat everyone the same– from your best friend to your mom to postal worker.

22. Release your expectations of other people. Allow them to be who they are.

23. Be genuine.

24. Forget yourself.

25. Delight in every day.

26. Flatter people.

27. Tell people how much you like them.

28. Share your lunch.

29. Fill a parking meter.

30. Volunteer somewhere. Anywhere.

31. Seek forgiveness.

32. Do your best.

33. Love yourself.

34. Dream big.

35. Tell someone why you love them.

36. Check in on someone who is lonely.

37. Stay curious.

38. Adopt a pet from the humane society.

39. Tell your boss that he/she does a great job.

40. Renew an old friendship.

41. Donate toys/books to a hospital.

42. Give someone a sheet of brightly colored stickers.

43. Make eye contact.

44. Take someone’s picture and send it to them.

45. Don’t think about other people’s definitions of success, beauty or happiness.

46. Create spaces for others to enjoy.

47. Make beautiful art.

48. Send unexpected gifts.

49. Be enthusiastic.

50. Love your life and everyone in it.