How to Plant Vegetables in Early Spring

Early spring is the time to start planting vegetables like lettuce, peas, spinach
and broccoli. While nighttime and even some daytime frost is still in the weather reports, these vegetables prefer cool weather and don’t mind a light frost. You must remain on your guard for hard frost and act accordingly to protect your plants, but otherwise early spring crops’ requirements are much the same as those of later growing vegetables. If you can’t wait to get in the garden, include early spring vegetables in your gardening plans.

Step 1
Work the vegetable beds in autumn before the ground freezes. Remove all dead vegetation and work fresh compost into the soil. Cover with a 4-inch layer of straw mulch to speed ground thawing in the spring.
Step 2
Remove the mulch once daytime temperatures are above freezing in spring. Dig to a 10-inch depth to check that the soil is thawed all the way and there are no ice crystals still present. Commence planting once the soil is thawed.
Step 3
Sow the vegetable seeds directly in the garden following package instructions for each particular variety. Generally, seeds are sown to a depth twice that of their height with fine seeds being sown directly on the soil surface and covered with a quarter-inch layer of soil.
Step 4
Water after planting and keep the soil moist at all times during the growing period. Use a mister attachment on your garden hose to avoid washing away the seeds or dislodging seedlings.
Step 5
Cover the plants with an upside-down bucket, cloche or other protective covering if frost is predicted. Use coverings that do not touch the plants because they will damage them. Remove the covering as soon as the temperature warms or the plants will cook under the covering.
Step 6
Fertilize each plant with a general purpose fertilizer four weeks after they sprout to encourage crop production. Follow fertilization recommendations for each plant type thereafter.

At this moment, there are more than 17 million steel intermodal shipping containers floating or riding across the globe—rectangular, bland engines of global commerce filled with anything and everything you can imagine. While there’s a certain fascination with all these small links in the global supply chain slowly making their way around the world—each identified with its own ISO 6346 number, an odd commercial shorthand—here at Dwell, we’re even more amazed by what happens when the trip ends and reconstruction and reuse begin. We’ve previously collected incredible examples of what intrepid architects and designers have done with these structures; here are ten more recent projects that give these 20-foot-long steel rectangles a second life.

On March 30, 2015, Facebook officially opened its new campus in Menlo Park in Silicon Valley, though employees started moving in over the weekend. Designed by starchitect Frank Gehry, the 430,000-square-foot complex has the largest open floor plan in the world and already received its LEED gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The building itself is “a cavernous office space on stilts, sandwiched between parking below and a roof garden above,” and that roof garden spans nine acres and includes a half-mile walking loop and more than 400 trees. In a written statement, Frank Gehry said “From the start, Mark [Zuckerberg] wanted a space that was unassuming, matter-of-fact and cost effective. He did not want it overly designed. It also had to be flexible to respond to the ever-changing nature of his business — one that facilitated collaboration and one that did not impose itself on their open and transparent culture. This is the building that we created for him.”

Below are photos of the facility. Impressive.

Five Steps to Greener Driving – Go Green and Save Some Green –

1. Sensible and Sustainable Driving

Drive smoothly for improved fuel efficiency of up to 30% (according to The Guardian). Don’t be a boy racer! Be speed savvy to cut fuel consumption – The Department of Transport state that driving at 70mph uses up to 15% more fuel than travelling at 50 mph.

2. Source a Second Hand Car

Cut costs and buy a second hand car model. Not only will you save cash and avoid the steep vehicle depreciation of a new car, but you will save the worlds resources! You are even able to check the fuel efficiency of car models through online search tools. Carhoots marketplace is where you can find the best deals on used cars.

3. Join a Car Club: Become a Zipster

If you only need a car now and again, join Zipcar, the UK’s biggest car club. It’s hassle free, cost effective and sustainable. In fact, each car club vehicle cuts 26 privately owned cars on the road, according to a TFL report. Pick up a car for an hour and the fuel and insurance is covered. You’ll be stylish too!

4. Lift Sharing: Join the National Car Sharing Scheme

Reduce your carbon footprint and commute with colleagues to work. According to Liftshare you could save up to £800 a year, whilst also easing traffic congestion and looking after your car. You’ll never have a lonely commute again!

5. Go hybrid or electric: Set the trend for greener living

Invest in a car that produces low emissions and help save the planet. London has already enforced a low emissions zone to cut CO2 and with tightening Euro Standards (rules on vehicle emissions) you need to get in there first in setting the future trends for using environmentally clean vehicles. There are even plug-in car grants available, see Direct Gov for more.

Green Certified homes are healthier, more environmentally friendly, and economically smarter than the average home

Is your home Green Certified?
As both energy costs and environmental awareness rise, energy-efficient “green” homes are becoming more desirable.  MoveInCertified.com’s Green Certification program can help you enter into this market with an edge. To determine if your home qualifies for Green Certification before having it inspected, follow these simple instructions:
Print a copy of the MoveInCertified.com Green Certified Checklist (may take a few moments to load)
Go through the worksheet and, to the best of your knowledge, try to answer each question listed in the OBSERVATION column.  If you don’t understand a question are are unsure about it, don’t worry–this step is simply an initial assessment to determine whether you’re ready to have your home independently evaluated.
Tally your answers to pages 1 through 3 (adding the values of the POINTS column together) in the space labeled FINAL RESULTS on page 3.
http://www.moveincertified.com/download/greencertifiedchecklist.pdf
Here are some advantages of having your home-for-sale inspected before you list it:
You can choose an InterNACHI Certified Professional  Inspector® to inspect your home first, which may prompt the buyer to waive his own inspection contingency.  And even if he doesn’t, a Seller Inspection means you won’t be in for any surprises.
You can schedule your inspection at your own convenience, rather than accommodate a buyer and his inspector.You can assist your inspector during the inspection, which is something not normally done during a buyer’s inspection. A Move-In Certified™ Seller Inspection may alert you to any immediate concerns, such a broken pressure-relief valve or an active termite infestation.
The Seller Inspection: allows you to take the time to shop for competitively priced contractors to make repairs, rather than making rushed decisions to get things fixed in a hurry; lets you attach repair estimates or paid invoices to the inspection report; and removes over-inflated buyer-procured repair estimates from the negotiating table.
Move-In Certified™ yard signs, free from your InterNACHI inspector, will attract potential buyers touring homes in your neighborhood.
A Move-In Certified™ Seller Inspection is the ultimate gesture in forthrightness on your part.

There are other distinct advantages of having a Move-In Certified™ Seller Inspection report: You’re given the opportunity to dispute any misstatements in the inspection report before it’s distributed to real estate agents and prospective buyers.The report provides an unbiased, third-party, professional opinion about the condition of the home to potential buyers.The report may encourage the buyer to waive his own inspection contingency, so the deal is less likely to fall apart the way they often do when a buyer’s inspection reveals unexpected problems at the last minute.The report can be hosted on www.FetchReport.com, which can be used as an effective marketing tool.
The report can help you realistically price the home if problems exist.
The report can help you substantiate a higher asking price if problems don’t exist or have been corrected. The report may relieve a prospective buyer’s unfounded suspicions and concerns before he walks away from an otherwise great deal.The report provides full-disclosure protection from future legal claims

Here are the best picture winners from the last 7 previous years..

“12 Years a Slave”

Argo

Silent Movie

The King’s Speech

The Hurt Locker

SlumDog Millionaire

No Country for Old Men

As the recipient of the MusiCares Person of the Year 2015 award, Bob Dylan delivered a 30-minute acceptance speech that was equal parts riveting, confessional and controversial. During the speech, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legend thanked his many supporters and the artists who covered and spread the message of his work, while also singling out his “detractors” with sharply prepared barbs.

A source close to the Dylan camp provided Rolling Stone with a transcript of the singer’s speech, taken from Dylan’s own notes. Read the entirety of Dylan’s epic MusiCares Person of the Year 2015 comments below:

There are a few people we need to thank tonight for bringing about this grand event. Neil Portnow, Dana Tamarkin, Rob Light, Brian Greenbaum, Don Was. And I also want to thank President Carter for coming. It’s been a long night, and I don’t want to talk too much, but I’ll say a few things.

‘m glad for my songs to be honored like this. But you know, they didn’t get here by themselves. It’s been a long road and it’s taken a lot of doing. These songs of mine, I think of as mystery plays, the kind that Shakespeare saw when he was growing up. I think you could trace what I do back that far. They were on the fringes then, and I think they’re on the fringes now. And they sound like they’ve been traveling on hard ground.

I need to mention a few people along the way who brought this about. I know I should mention John Hammond, the great talent scout, who way back when brought me to Columbia Records. He signed me to that label when I was nobody. It took a lot of faith to do that, and he took a lot of ridicule, but he was his own man and he was courageous. And for that, I’m eternally grateful. The last person he discovered before me was Aretha Franklin, and before that Count Basie, Billie Holiday and a whole lot of other artists. All non-commercial artists. Trends did not interest John, and I was very noncommercial but he stayed with me. He believed in my talent and that’s all that mattered. I can’t thank him enough for that.

Lou Levy ran Leeds Music, and they published my earliest songs, but I didn’t stay there too long. Levy himself, he went back a long ways. He signed me to that company and recorded my songs and I sang them into a tape recorder. He told me outright: there was no precedent for what I was doing, that I was either before my time or behind it. And if I brought him a song like “Stardust,” he’d turn it down because it would be too late. He told me that if I was before my time – and he didn’t really know that for sure – but if it was happening and if it was true, the public would usually take three to five years to catch up – so be prepared. And that did happen. The trouble was, when the public did catch up I was already three to five years beyond that, so it kind of complicated it. But he was encouraging, and he didn’t judge me, and I’ll always remember him for that.

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