Friday, April 23, 2010

Help Oceans: Go Chemical-Free with a Square-Foot Garden


Salam

Lately there’s been a tremendous surge in interest in eating locally. There are Slow Food groups popping up all over the globe, books about eating food sourced within 100 miles from your home, and farmers markets becoming more common and trendy.

But what’s better than going to a farmers market and filling your cloth bags with your local farmer’s latest and greatest veggie? Well, how about stepping out on your porch or into your yard and picking some bright, juicy, delicious, home-grown tomatoes or some fragrant basil?

Too much work, you say? Ever heard of square-foot gardening?

Two years ago, I was introduced to square-foot Gardening at a class at my local “green living” store, IndigoGreen. We promptly went home and gathered the materials to put together our garden and several weeks later, we had our first crop!

Square foot gardening can be done anywhere you have 6 to 8 hours of sun daily — so even a fire escape with 1-square-foot will do if that’s what you’ve got to work with.

The ideal situation is a 4×4 foot space where you can place a garden box. The garden box is just 4 boards, some nails, and a barrier at the bottom to keep the weeds and grass from growing through. The quality of your soil doesn’t matter because you mix up your own with supplies from a local garden or farm and feed store.

If you compost your kitchen waste, even better: You can use this in place of the recommended cow manure compost that makes up 1/3 of the soil mixture. The other 2/3 is made of equal parts vermiculite and peat moss.

Once you divide up your 1-foot-square plots with string or other material, you are ready to start planting your very own organic garden.

Our square-foot garden has become a great family project that my 3-year-old has been involved in ever since he could grab a hand full of dirt. Now he has his own square foot to plant whatever he likes. The box design reduces work because weeding and thinning becomes unnecessary.

And it is incredibly productive. Just one 4×4 box can produce up to 5 times the produce that a traditional garden of the same size would yield, while using 90% less water and 95% fewer seeds. And the best benefit? It’s free of pesticides and fertilizers that harm sensitive environments.

Why do I, a marine biologist, care about pesticides and fertilizers? Well, putting aside the potential ill effects on human health, they also cause harm to waterways and ocean environments.

After being applied to your yard or garden, these chemicals make their way to local streams and rivers, eventually finding their way to the sea. Adding both toxins and excess nutrients (i.e., fertilizers) creates problems in the sensitive ocean environments, causing events such as red tides, which is a type of harmful algal bloom being seen more and more frequently these days.

When these algal blooms occur, oxygen gets sucked up by the tiny algae, making the water unlivable for resident sea life — thus causing massive die-offs of fish, shrimp, crabs and numerous other small creatures.

So planting your own backyard garden not only gives you food that’s as local as it gets, it also reduces your impact on the ocean.

It doesn’t matter where you live: As a famous fish cartoon character says: “all drains lead to the ocean.” So next time you start to sprinkle that fertilizer, remember where it is likely to end up.

And learn more about other ways you can green your gardening to help protect our waterways in my previous post on green lawn care.

Debaran AF8 Minggu ke-5 & Showcase Stacy

Salam...

Masuk minggu nieh kali ke-2, tgk debaran af8 di Stadium Bkt Jalil [stadium yang comey tuh...]. Tapi kali ini... sayangnyer tak ada yang kuar. Sama seperti af terdahulu..tapi dah tak ada rase kejutan malah nyampah la pulak.

Sepatutnya tegar, walo pon pelajar [kononnya] dah lakukan persembahan dan nyanyian yang terbaik... kann.. Akademi Fantasia dah masuk musim ke-8. Dah 8 tahun, tak kan la ada pelajar yang tak pernah nonton kan..... sukati korang jew la.


Hakikatnya, nak tengok showcase STACY!!!! Memang MALATOPPPPP!!! Stacy nyanyikan 5 buah lagu dan semuanya fast dance @ catchy. Ternyata Stacy mempunyai stamina dan energy yang gempak... dari mula "Aku Stacy" hinggalah "Menggegar Dunia" nyanyian bersama Evoke , Stacy tetap maintain dan mantap.

Insya'Allah.... jumpa lagi di lain debaran @ showcase.... =))

credit to: Anis Lebb & Azlan Daniel

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Highway to Fashion 2010, Midvalley

Salam.....

Bulan April, byk jugak sosial xtvt angah nieh. Tanpa di sedari , tanpa di plan tapi itu lah yang menjadi selalunya lah. Kebanyakan mengikut firasat angah, kalo apa ajew yang di rancangkan pasti tak menjadi...heran jugak!!!

Kali nieh nak share, dapat jemputan dari Badrul yakni manager Diddy Hirdy [af4] untuk ke majlis Highway to Fashion 2010 bertempat di Midvalley pada Selasa 13/04/2010. Sebelum nieh, majlis fashion nieh pon dah di adakan di tempat yang sama pada hari Ahad sebelumnya khas untuk pereka-pereka fashion di Malaysia. Tapi yang hari Selasa pula atas tajaan butik2 di Midvalley di mana ianya di gayakan oleh model2 dan juga artis Astro dari Akademi Fantasia. Di antara artis af yang menggayakan fashion tajaan butik adalah seperti Diddy, Akim, Salima, Adilla, Nora, Shawal, Farhan, Akma [ni jew yang ingat..kot2 ada yang tertinggal nama sori la ekkkk]. Manakala Nana pula menjadi pengacara di malam tersebut.


So seperti biasalah, angah pasti sampai dulu sbb jam on the way ke sana kan... [awal sangat kol 5.30pm]. Sementara tu, jalan2 cari makan dulu sbb tak amik lunch ada hal.... then jumpa Bad, DD dan penolong baru [agaknyer la]. Sambil borak2 terserempak kembar DD iaitu Fazren, kalo secara live memang tak serope muke deme pon...berlainan sungguh kat tv tgk mcm kembo siam kannnn...nieh dah jadi kembo tak seiras..ehehehhe. Anis lebb pon sampai, maka mcm rombongan cik kiah la ke butik Jaspal yang menaja pakaian DD & Akim. Akim pon ada juga nak mencuba pakaian tersebut sebelum di peragakan di khalayak ramai. Sempat berkenalan dgn WAWA, sementara menunggu artis di make-up lepak2 sambil menerjah sticker kereta percuma sempena majlis fashion. Tak lama melepak, terserlah ketibaan Azlan Daniel....tak cukup corum lagi nieh. Perut anis lebb dah berdondang sayang... cari port baik punyer..Coffee Bean. Barulah nampak cik Lizz sampai, maka itu join la beramai2 berlima orang kita makan2 sambil borak2 dan paling wajib posing.


After eating, dating and meeting... barulah beredar ke teratak Highway Fashion 2010. Wah!! Dah ramai orang nieh...sib baik kwn lan mengajak kami berlima masuk ke tempat yang khas untuk VIP mendekati siri peragaan tersebut. Thank Zeee...luv u la....!!! =)) Nicolas Saputra pon ada tapi kekwat gler... senyum tapi mcm tak ikhlas. Who cares??? I don't care...hehehhe...dulik apa kan tetap amik gambo dia walo pon tak ikhlas..wakakakakka... Selain memperaga pakaian, Diddy turut hiburkan dgn nyanyian dgn lagu terbarunya "Lelaki di atas Awan" [mendayu dayu pulak].


Sebelum mengakhiri siri jelajah kali nieh... yang penting posing. Tak kiralah dgn siapa, dimana, uat apa pon janji bergambar... oleh itu renung-renungkan...hehehehe.....=))

Malam itu di akhiri dengan begitu meriah sekali dengan kehadiran komuniti dari UCM dan juga peminat DD bergambar beramai-ramai. Berbagai gelagat dan keletah yang tak kering gusi.
[angah harap DD dan Ellen suke dengan pemberian yang tak seberapa sebagai hadiah perkhawinan].

credit pics : Azlan Daniel, Anis lebb & Badrul.....
thanks a lot... lebb uols....

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Remy Ishak Birthday Bash - 11th April 2010

Salam......

Remy Ishak birthday bash - 11th April 2010
Venue: Hotel Singgahsana, Petaling Jaya
Time : 2.30pm - 6.30pm
Memang best!! Memang havoc!!! Memang happenning!!!
Semoga kita jumpa lagi next event Remy... wahhh!!!

Balik jew dari besday Remy, sempat anis merempit bawa kitorang ke debaran af8 lagik. First time.....gi debaran. Ok ajew... tp yang best tgk showcase apiz & aril.

anyway....what's next???? hehehehhe.....

credit to: azlan daniel & anis lebb

Monday, April 19, 2010

Pertandingan Seni Persembahan Dunia (WCOPA), Istana Budaya.

Salam....

Pada 10hb April 2010 {Sabtu}, bertempat di Istana Budaya satu pertandingan iaitu Seni Persembahan Dunia (WCOPA) Road to Hollywood di adakan jam 8.30pm. Yang bestnyer, tix adalah percuma yang pentingnya kita haruslah memberi sokongan untuk menjayakan pertandingan ini.

Best jugak kan..!! Kali ni angah, lan & liza jew yang bertandang ke Istana Budaya tetapi anis lebb tak dapat nak join sb2 tertentu {sindarela katakan....}. Dapat seat depan lagik, memang menggalakkan mata2 kami memandang ke stage..wahhh!!! Pengacara perantaraan ialah Awal Ashaari.... anyway para peserta memang best especially bahagian Vokal. Semuanya mantap-mantap belaka cuma rezeki sahaja yang di berikan pada peserta2 yang berjaya.

Vokal seperti Shila OIAM, Nabil Mentor, Nadia AF6, Iz OIAM, Cheryl Koh dan lain2 sukar untuk di nilaikan sbb memang mereka berada di pentas untuk berjuang mendapatkan kemenangan. Tetapi yang berjaya vokal wanita => Cheryl Koh, vokal lelaki => Iz manakala Shila sebagai simpanan.
Begitu juga dgn tarian berkumpulan, tarian solo, bahagian peragaan...cuma bahagian lakonan tidak ada sesiapa pon yang layak untuk ke pertandingan seterusnya di Hollywood. Anyway, uols dah buat yang terbaek.... Walo bagaimanapon, sempat jugak singgah studio cafe untuk melepak dan makan kuey teow. Sedap juga .... hehehe...[perut lapo kannn]. Sambil2 tu tolong jengah2kan apartment Suria Jelatek yang belum siap atas permintaan lizz..walhal dah tengah malam tuh. Keesokannya jugak ada program seterusnya... (wahh!! bz nya bulan nieh).

credit: Azlan Daniel