Claude Thompson

This approach aims to facilitate commercial vegetable and fruit growing, particularly in the county’s rural regions outside of Bannau Brycheiniog National Park.

The advice covers the need to have accomidation nearby when running a small-scale horticultural business.

The changes should make it easier for peole to get planning permission from Powys County Council for a house in the countryside where a grower needs to be closer to their crops.

Matt Perry, Powys County Council’s chief officer – place said: “The evidence suggests that small-scale horticulture can be both highly productive and profitable, but despite this a large proportion of the vegetables and fruit we eat every day aren’t grown in Powys or even in the UK!”

According to a Food Security Index commissioned by DEFRA (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs), only 55 per cent of vegetables and 17 per cent of fruits consumed in the UK are grown in the country.

Mr Perry further added: “There is great potential for much more of the food we buy to be grown closer to home, boosting the Powys economy, providing a more predictable supply of fresh and nutritious produce and reducing our carbon footprints as we look to address the climate crisis.”

Fruit and vegetable growers in Powys might also access financial support through the Welsh Government’s Food Business Accelerator Scheme.

Source: countytimes.co.uk

article

Do you have a green thumb? A knack for growing beautiful flower beds or your own personal vegetable garden? FOX 35 and ABC Home & Commercial Services want to show them off on Good Day Orlando!

Submit your best flower and garden photos using the upload tool below. Make sure to tell us when and where you took the photos, as well as what the photo is of. Plus, tell us why you love that photo – and it might just be shown during the “Garner’s Garden” segment on FOX 35’s Good Day Orlando. Watch weekdays, 4 a.m. – 11 a.m. 

Source: fox35orlando.com

1

Nasturtium

These fun, pretty little flowers are easily one of the easiest annuals to grow. Simply plant the seeds and water, and within a few weeks you’ll have a bounty. They don’t need much in the way of care—though they don’t transplant well, so be sure to grow them from seed.

Sun Exposure: full sun to part shade
Blooming Period: summer/fall
Helpful Information: They’re edible! Growing from seed is recommended.

Learn more about how to grow nasturtium.

2

Love in a Mist (Nigella damascena)

Another gorgeous edible flower, these annuals look beautiful by a garden gate, or along a path, by themselves or among wildflowers. They’re annuals, but they will also self-sow. They bloom best in the spring and fall for a month or so at a time.

Sun Exposure: full sun
Blooming Period: spring/fall

Read more: 15 Pretty Edible Flowers for Decorating Your Dinner Plate

3

Cornflowers

These lovely annual wildflowers almost look like they’re made of crepe paper. There available in plenty of colors, but of course that cornflower blue is the most striking. Deadheading the spent flowers will keep them blooming!

Sun Exposure: full sun
Blooming Period: Early to mid summer

Should You Deadhead Your Flowers? How to Do It and Why

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4

Poppies

The paper-thin petals, setting on top of tall stems, make poppy flowers hard to mistake for anything else. You can find them in all sorts of colors, not just that traditional red. Grow them from seed—you can practically sprinkle them on the ground. Though technically they’re short-lived perennials, they’re mostly grown as annuals.

Sun Exposure: full sun
Blooming Period: late spring/summer
Helpful Information: seldom severely damaged by deer

Learn more about the symbolism of poppies.

5

Zinnias

A true annual, zinnias are easy for beginners to grow from seed, and they reseed readily, making them a no-fuss bloomer for lazy gardeners. Plant zinnias in your butterfly garden, and the flowers will likely attract hummingbirds too. Available in an array of forms and vibrant hues, with sizes varying from petite dwarfs to towering stems that benefit from staking, this beloved annual deserves a spot in your cutting garden for flowers all summer long.

Sun Exposure: full sun
Blooming Period: summer/fall
Helpful Information: seldom severely damaged by deer

SHOP ZINNIA SEEDS

6

Petunias

You can’t go wrong with these fuss-free flowers for containers, pots, window boxes, hanging baskets, and garden beds. You can find them in pretty pinks, reds, whites, yellows, and purples. The hybrid ‘Supertunia Vista’ is a particular favorite of Melissa Lallo Johnson, a Midwest-based master gardener who shares her expansive garden on Instagram at @fancyflowerfarmer. “It is a superstar that quickly fills in gaps with loads of color,” she says.

Sun Exposure: full sun
Blooming Period: spring/summer/fall

RELATED: 22 Creative DIY Bench Ideas to Add to Your Garden This Year

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7

‘Aaron’ Caladium

Annual plantings aren’t all about the flowers. The pretty foliage of ‘Aaron’ caladium, boasting heart-shaped leaves with dark green borders and pale centers, makes it a go-to annual for landscape designer Daniel McCurry of Father Nature Landscapes. Technically a tender perennial, you can enjoy it as an annual in most areas throughout the U.S.

Sun Exposure: Partial shade

8

‘Blue Daze’ Evolvulus

Both drought and heat tolerant, this low-growing ground cover, also known as shaggy dwarf morning glory, offers charm in spades. It’s is another favorite of McCurry’s for annual plantings.

Sun Exposure: full sun
Blooming Period: summer

9

Begonia

These dainty flowers, which bloom in shades of white, pink, and red, require very little maintenance and upkeep (no deadheading or pruning required!). When fall arrives, you can move them indoors or dig up their tubers to reuse for the following year.

Sun Exposure: full sun/partial shade/full shade
Blooming Period: summer

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10

Angelonia

These heat- and drought-tolerant flowers are perfect for gardeners down South. Even the hottest, sunniest days won’t ruin these beauties. In warmer regions, they’ll continue to flourish through the fall.

Sun Exposure: full sun
Blooming Period: summer
Helpful Information: deer resistant

11

Celosia

These colorful beauties come in a variety of shapes (brains, fans, and plumes) and a range of colors (pink, red, orange, and yellow). Plus, they grow fast and are incredibly easy to care for.

Sun Exposure: full sun
Blooming Period: summer
Helpful Information: seldom severely damaged by deer

12

Cosmos

These cute and feminine flowers grow taller the more you cut them (and faster, too), meaning you’ll have pretty petals (in shades of pink, white, or purple) in your garden all summer long.

Sun Exposure: full sun
Blooming Period: summer

SHOP COSMOS SEEDS

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13

Geraniums

Dress up your walkway, porch, or front yard with these perky and petite blooms. Once grown or potted, these fuss-free flowers will flourish for months.

Sun Exposure: full sun/partial shade
Blooming Period: spring/summer

14

Impatiens

These small flowers with soft and delicate petals are ideal for darker areas of your yard that aren’t suitable for plants or flowers that need lots of sun. Plant them in your favorite shady spot, and you’ll have beautiful blooms to enjoy all summer.

Sun Exposure: partial shade/full shade
Blooming Period: summer

RELATED: 10 Plants for the Shady Spots in Your Garden

15

Marigold

Looking to get a lot of bang for your buck? These fast-growing, vibrant orange and yellow flowers produce a hardy amount of blooms each summer. You can expect around 15+ flowers per plant.

Sun Exposure: full sun
Blooming Period: summer
Helpful Information: seldom severely damaged by deer

SHOP MARIGOLD SEEDS

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16

Snapdragons

Easily add height, dimension, and bold color to your garden with these tall, easy-to-grow flowers.

Sun Exposure: full sun
Blooming Period: summer
Helpful Information: deer resistant

Learn more about how to grow snapdragons.

17

Sunflowers

While you can opt to grow sunflowers in their classic golden hue, you can also find other varieties in shades of red, white, orange, and even pink. These tall flowers can grow several feet high, so you may need to stake them to give them the proper support they need to flourish.

Sun Exposure: full sun
Blooming Period: summer/early fall

18

Dahlias

These stunning flowers will make your garden beds look oh-so-lush. From honeycomb-like shapes to fluffy peony-esque varieties, there are endless options. They’re incredibly easy to grow as annuals. With proper care, you can dig up and reuse the tubers year after year as perennials.

Sun Exposure: full sun
Blooming Period: late summer/fall

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19

Chrysanthemum

If you’re looking to add some fresh blooms to your fall landscape, chrysanthemums (or simply, mums) are a must-have. Pick them up at your local nursery and add them to planters, or grow them from seeds starting in the spring.

Sun Exposure: full sun
Blooming Period: late summer/fall

20

Pansies

If you’re after bold color, frost-resistant pansies are the way to go. You can find them in almost every color of the rainbow (and several multi-color options). And since they can tolerate frost, they’re the perfect bloom for your garden in both the fall and early spring.

Sun Exposure: full sun/partial shade
Blooming Period: spring and fall

Terri Robertson is the Senior Editor, Digital, at Country Living, where she shares her lifelong love of homes, gardens, down-home cooking, and antiques. 

Chris is the Senior Food & Garden Editor at Country Living, where he covers all things edible or growable. He has two kids and lives in Birmingham, AL.

Source: countryliving.com

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Think beyond Petunias and Impatiens. Young’s Greenhouse has different annuals to plant flower boxes and containers.

Source: newscentermaine.com

Vertical farms look high-tech and sophisticated, but the premise is simple—plants are grown without soil, with their roots in a solution containing nutrients. This innovative approach to agriculture is growing in global market value and expected to reach $23 billion by 2029.

Typically, this soilless cultivation happens in huge greenhouses or warehouses, with plants stacked high on rows and rows of shelves. Parameters such as lighting, temperature, and humidity can be controlled by computer systems, so vertical farming is sometimes called controlled environment agriculture.

There are three types of vertical farming. In hydroponics, plant roots are held in a liquid nutrient solution. In aeroponics, roots are exposed to the air and a nutrient-rich mist or spray is applied to the roots. In aquaponics, nutrients from fish farm waste replace some or all of the chemical fertilizers being delivered to plants through hydroponics.

There’s huge scope to produce a lot of food using these methods of cultivation, but there are four key myths about vertical farming that need to be dispelled.

1. Vertical Farms Will Dominate

Some people may worry that vertical farming puts traditional field cultivation at risk, but this could not be further from the truth. At present, it’s only profitable for a limited range of small, fast-growing, and high-value plants such as lettuce and leafy greens to be grown in this way.

Vertical farming costs are expected to fall due to economies of scale and standardization of processes, so a wider range of crops could be grown. But there is an ethical issue to consider: Just because something can be grown in this way doesn’t mean it should be. Vertical farming of grain crops, such as wheat, is technically possible but requires so much energy that it’s not cost effective.

Whilst vertical farming uses land efficiently—through stacking, it fits in more crops per unit area—it cannot compete with the sheer scale of food production required globally. It’s a complementary mode of food production, which can increase production and resilience within supply chains. Growing more lettuce on vertical farms reduces the need to import salads from abroad, cuts food miles, and decreases reliance on overseas field production which may be vulnerable to droughts.

Vertical farms can support traditional agriculture by providing space to develop new crop varieties or grow the nursery phase of young trees and crops which are later planted out in fields. By freeing up substantial areas of land, vertical farming offers space for other food production, bioenergy plans, or reforestation and restoration of ecosystems. It can enhance conventional farming, but won’t ever totally replace it.

2. Vertical Farming Will Feed Everyone

Although this is a nice idea, it’s not currently a reality. Most vertically grown crops are sold at a premium. Simple economics means that because the product costs more to make, it must be sold for a higher price. Vertical farms have high capital expenditure because of the infrastructure required: climate-controlled growth rooms, soilless systems, lighting, heating, cooling, and ventilation. They are energy intensive, even if run on renewables such as solar. Their operational expenditure is also high because of the energy costs of running the systems and because more highly skilled workers are needed.

Some researchers suggest that city-based vertical farms can help address nutritional food deserts. This could be true, as they produce food close to consumers, but to scale this up, costs must come down. The innovative Robin Hood business model—charging wealthier people more and giving discounts to less fortunate people for the same product—could provide equitable access to everyone in urban areas.

3. Vertical Farming Isn’t Sustainable

This argument typically derives from the fact that vertical farms require electricity to run. They do, but a decarbonized grid running on 100 percent renewables makes this point moot. Many commercial vertical farms already source their electricity from renewable energy providers. Conventional field production of crops also has associated emissions, through the use of diesel tractors and so on.

In some ways vertical farming can be more sustainable than field production. It is a closed-loop recirculating system which means water and fertilizer are reused many times. There is no effluent run off into the environment, unlike farming—whereby if it rains, any excess agricultural chemicals run off the crops and end up in the soil, groundwater, or rivers.

Many of the UK’s leafy greens are currently grown abroad in water-stressed areas, and they require irrigation that exacerbates any water shortages. Field agriculture uses vast amounts of herbicides (weedkillers) and pesticides (chemicals that kill insect pests). The controlled environment of vertical farms reduces or eliminates the need for these synthetic chemicals. If pests become an issue in vertical farms, natural predators such as ladybirds can be introduced to kill aphids.

4. Vertical Farming Isn’t Natural

Naturalness is subjective. Vertical farming essentially uses technology to mimic processes and environments that exist in nature. It does not manipulate or defy natural processes.

In field cultivation, crops grow in soil and use the sun for photosynthesis. They access nutrients from both the soil and fertilizers. In vertical farming, LED lights mimic sunlight, and can even be programmed to improve light ratios and help the plants grow faster with higher levels of nutrition. The fertilizers used are composed of the exact same elements as those used in the field.

Vertical farming won’t save the world or feed the poor. But it is a complementary method of producing food closer to end users, with more control and a higher land-use efficiency. It can build systemic resilience within our food system because vertical farm yields won’t be vulnerable to extreme weather events due to climate change. It can enhance local food security that might otherwise be at risk from increased political unrest abroad.

Vertical farming is currently limited in the crops it can produce economically, but by incorporating these technologies into the transition to more regenerative and nature-based farming practices, it could have wider environmental benefits.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image Credit: Ark. Agricultural Experiment Station via Flickr

Source: singularityhub.com

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A Smart Bird Feeder with Camera

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This rustic feeder gets a high-tech upgrade with its built-in camera and AI bird identification technology. Made of natural bamboo, this feeder will be an environmentally friendly addition to your backyard. Plus, its dual seed bin and flexible perch design will allow several birds to feed at a time.

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A Handy Lawn Mower

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Mowing the lawn on hot summer days might not be a favorite task on the to-do list, but with this self-propelled mower, it can definitely be easier. This one gets moving at the touch of a push-start button and has a brushless motor designed for twice as much power and runtimes.

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Nutrient-Rich Potting Mix

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Designed for indoor and outdoor container plants, this potting mix is made with nourishing ingredients to help them grow twice as big and with more vibrancy to their colors. This bag can fill at least two 8-inch-wide pots and feed plants for about six months.

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A Stunning Monstera Plant

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Turn your indoor plant garden into a lush oasis with this live Thai Constellation Monstera. The tropical plant needs bright indirect light to get its marbled leaves to unfurl.

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Kick back: This egg chair has an ergonomic, curved shape and supportive cushioning to help you unwind in ultimate comfort. No matter the weather, its polyethylene rattan and metal materials help prevent the chair from wearing down.

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Beat the dog days of summer by attaching this misting cooling system to a faucet, as it’s designed to lower outdoor air temperatures around you to about 68℉. It’s equipped with a misting line and nozzle, self-sealing T-joints, and a leak-proof brass adapter to prevent excess water from spilling out.

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Bucolic Plant Wagon

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Blooming Hydrangea Shrub

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Defined by fluffy flowers and heart-shaped thin leaves, grab this stunning Annabelle Hydrangea shrub to add beauty to your garden just in time for its blooming season. This type of hydrangea produces white flowers that bloom from spring throughout the summer.

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A Classic Watering Can

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If there’s one thing plants need a routine amount of, it’s water. This watering can will make it easier with its removable spout and two handles to tend to indoor and outdoor plants. Its large fill hole makes for easy refilling with a hose.

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A Multi-Design Garden Bed

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This raised garden bed gives you the option to transform it into a bunch of different shapes and sizes to fit your needs. Plus, it’s durable metal material is designed to withstand intense rain and heat without breaking down.

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A Solar Pest Repeller

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As the temperatures rise, so do the chances of pests stopping by your ready-to-harvest garden. This repeller is powered by solar energy and has adjustable frequencies to ward off pests like squirrels or raccoons.

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Sturdy Wooden Garden Bed

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If you want to grow veggies without worry of overcrowding, turn to this raised garden bed. It has a removable divider right down the middle to keep different plants separated. Its side plates are designed to seal in soil moisture without leakage.

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A Seed-Filled Sock Bird Feeder

Mr. Canary Seed-Filled Finch Sock Feeders

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These Nyjer seed-filled socks are probably one of the simplest ways to feed birds in your backyard. Simply hang up the mesh socks and they’re designed to attract backyard songbirds like finches, chickadees, and nuthatches.

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Pretty Faux Olive Tree

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Supportive Tomato Cage

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From fending off bugs and pests to tackling companion planting, growing tomatoes isn’t always the easiest task. This cage can make the process easier, though. It’s made to provide support for climbing plants and vines while preventing overcrowding so the tomatoes can reach sunlight.

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Faux Ivy Fence

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For those who’d like to more privacy in their backyard, you can install this fence screen inspired by ivy leaves. While the artificial hedges are designed to help block harsh sunlight and sight lines, they still allow ample airflow through the open net back.

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A Gorgeous Garden Arbor

Costway Outdoor Wooden Cedar Garden Yard Lattice

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Add a tranquil touch to your garden entryway with this fir wood arbor. Its a stunning structure on its own thanks to its bow-shaped top and lattice side panels, but it can also double as a trellis for climbing plants.

Nashia Baker is a commerce editor at Hearst Magazines; she covers all things home and lifestyle across brands such as Oprah Daily, Cosmopolitan, Delish, and Esquire. Before joining Hearst, she highlighted small business owners, creatives, and the best shoppable content. 

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Source: countryliving.com