I have decided that it would be better to serve all of you by going to a quarterly Garden Tips situation. While this past year I did the monthly tips, it was necessary to bring everyone up to speed on a number of aspects. Now that we have covered those, as it applies to people doing their gardens, I feel like we can move to a more generalized exchange of information. I still want to do some important discussions on certain topics, it might be better to do those by topic. So here we go with the first quarterly discussion with this being the fall of 2020 discussion.

Many people will naturally follow the example of their plants that the fall of the year, for those in the Northern Hemisphere anyway, to call it a day and let nature take the course and start planning for next year, at least after taking a break for a few months. You must resist the temptation to do so. Fall is the most important time for the success of next year's crop. Just keep in mind that you are changing the order of...

Today we are going to begin a series of discussions centered around Photosynthesis. In my opinion, this whole Photosynthesis thing is perhaps one of the greatest miracles to ever take place on this planet. What is really fun and exciting about it is that it has been taking place from a long time ago and up to the present moment and on to the future. Now if you are religious or spiritually inclined, which I feel I am very heavy on the "spiritual" side and somewhat skeptical on the "religious" side, please rest yourself as we are looking at the physical side of life, you know the side of life that from when I recall a scripture that is often quoted that makes reference to the idea of, "From dust thou comest, to dust thou shalt return" aspect of life.

What is perhaps one of the most important elements that we as animals ie; humans need? The same question can be asked of Plants. The answer for plants is C02, you know that substance that everyone is freaking out about that is going to...

The title of this discussion can be misleading I know. But it is just so on purpose. As we will be discussing two actual meanings of the sources of Essential Oils. The first will be Sourcing from the source, the actual farms, etc. The second will be suppliers that are essentially the middle man or the importer or gathering place, ie; the wholesaler, and among other related items.

So here we go with the second part. One of the main things that you must remember is that for some oils and in some areas, the marketing of them is somewhat like the commodity markets, which the essential oil is simply just another item within the agricultural production community. Many times these oils will pass through brokerage houses, bidding markets, and so on. However, some oils, usually the artisan type oils will simply pass from the distiller to the retailer or is retailed by the distillers themselves. Most of the time these artisan oils will be domestically produced so the whole export/import deal...

The title of this discussion can be misleading I know. But it is just so on purpose. As we will be discussing two actual meanings of the sources of Essential Oils. The first will be Sourcing from the source, the actual farms, etc. The second will be suppliers that are essentially the middle man or the importer or gathering place, ie; the wholesaler. Part #2 will deal with the oils at the supplier level and even the retail level.

#1-Sourcing from the geographical locations. I seriously doubt the many of you know the world of essential oils is really going through a massive change. One of the primary changes is the actual plants, no matter the geographic location. What I mean here is that it is quickly becoming a point in legitimate aromatherapy, that many oils are moving to the endangered listing. When and as this happens, many of these oils will be hard to get or impossible to get. During the past decade or two or more, oil here and there become "obsolete" if you will, and would no...

Many times, well most of the time anytime that essential oils are mentioned the next thing that comes out of people's mouth is a fierce defense of the oil company where they purchase their essential oils from. We will learn of all kinds of methods of proving that their oil is purer than pure its self could ever be.  While some of these ideas sound really, really good, there is one sound on this issue that sounds really good, especially when people are at the initial steps of the Dunning-Kruger effect. In the next paragraph, you will see where the Crickets come in here.

One idea that I never hear from all of the people out there that carps about the quality issue and that they have a corner on the market to that end. One thing that all of you need to keep in mind is that the quality of essential oil is based on one thing, that is the health of the donor plant(s). Toy with that concept for a while. The health of the donor plant is the pinnacle of essential oil quality. A lot of...

This is a subject that is rife with assumed ideas and with some misconceptions. When you get out there in the real world many people will think one thing yet when the realities of life are factored in a different picture is presented. So let us look at each one.

Organic; So what comes to mind when it comes to organic and how our food is grown under this label. Of course, since I am supposed to be focusing on how this topic applies to essential oils, we first must understand that what applies to one also applies to the other. In some cases, a particular plant is eaten as a food or even distilled or pressed into an essential oil. But lets us keep it simple. When we consider the Organic label on a product we usually formulate the idea in our mind that it is grown under conditions where that the product never is exposed to any synthetic ..cide.. as in pesticide, Insecticide, or herbicide of any kind. Don't get me wrong here, I am not in favor of any of these things on my food either....

This is our topic for the essential oil that is almost a magical oil in its own right. When looking at Orange Essential oil, one must first define which Orange essential oil that you might be talking about. A number of different essential oils are obtained from the humble Orange tree. Some oils come from the Orange peel, some from the fruit, some from the flowers or blossoms, some from the leaves, so the Orange tree contributes very heavily into the whole of the Orange Essential Oil production and uses pictures. Each one of these types of Orange-based essential oils has its own names and varieties to their identities. There are many types of Orange oil from various countries. Most of these are really good oils. The key to the quality of many of the Orange oils is the purpose in which they are used. One variety will do a really good job in one area whereas another will work OK, but not great for the same purpose. But overall most Orange Essential Oil will have a wide range of equally...

Hi Everyone,

When I do these articles or rather "Discussions", I always try to do a lot of background research. The main reason for this is to verify the information that we are discussing. I take this very seriously and I don't want to mislead any of you or even present any ideas that cannot be found somewhere else or even discussed by reputable people. IE: I have had people blow smoke up where the sun doesn't shine and when you use this information one ends up looking like a fool. Plus the information is not factual, so it doesn't work. So I hope that if any of you might end up using the information I present here, you will find that it works or is at least creditable. With that said, let us move on. I was ready to prepare a very interesting discussion on seawater, pH related water, and minerals, but that will come around later on as I ran across an article in an agricultural magazine that is really, really cool. I will discuss the information presented and how it applies to us as...

Lemongrass seems to be floating to the surface in a number of areas when it comes to human health. In the past, it has been largely ignored. But in today's world, based on a number of concerns and searches for solutions, it is being studied more and more. That studying has produced remarkable results. Today I will start with the newest one and then list a few other ones that have been mentioned in the past.

The latest discovery has been the use of Lemongrass to cut down on methane production. It doesn't really matter if you use the Lemongrass in its original form, like grass/herb, or if you use it as an essential oil, the results are about the same. We as humans have an extremely difficult time with the grass/herb form as it contains too much cellulose and we can't really digest it. Since we are talking about how it relates to Methane production, we are naturally talking about the digestive route. So we use the essential oil form. This allows us to benefit from the use of the...

At the present time in most of the USA, we are experiencing record high temperatures. Sometimes we as the people responsible for our pet's welfare will overlook their needs, even if it is for a short period of time. We need to be careful to not overlook their basic needs. As many of you know, the most common companion animals don't sweat as we do to help remove the heat from their bodies. They will pant. When they pant for long periods of time, the thurst that sets in is unbearable. So we need to make sure they have available water at all times and have access to it as they feel the need to drink or rather lap up the water. Sometimes, based on a range of factors, they experience a similar thing that we experience and that is no matter how much water we drink, the thurst is still there. So I would like to suggest a few things that you might consider doing. Here goes;
Consider putting a little bit of PDM in their water. This would be maybe at the rate of a drop in one ounce of water....