Grow your own greens

From this month’s Discovery magazine.

If you don’t have the garden space to grow your own veggies, you can grow them in just about any sunny spot with a bit of creative cultivating…

 

Harvest potatoes from hessian bags

Place one hessian bag (1m by 1.5m) inside another, and roll the sides of the bags down so that the seed potato – a regular potato that has begun to sprout – has 15cm of potting soil below and above it after sowing. As the plant grows, gradually unroll the sides as you add more potting mix to cover it. Potato plants take about 20 weeks to mature, and your sacks should produce about a pocket of potatoes, all from a single sprouter!

Make your own hanging garden

Grow tomatoes a la Babylon: take a sturdy plastic bucket that olds about 20 litres, with a tight fitting lid. Cut two holes five centimetres in diameter, one on the lid and one of the bottom of the bucket. Cover the holes by taping squares of cheesecloth over them, and then fill the bucket with lightweight potting soil. Put the lid on, and turn the bucket upside down. Make a small hole in the cheesecloth covering the bottom of the bucket and plant your tomato seedling. turn the bucket right way up and hang it in a sunny spot. the tomato plant will grow down out of the bottom of the bucket.

Grow herbs in kitchen containers

Colanders make for great drainage. Pack some sphagnum moss into the bottom and then plant seedlings into potting soil. place the colander on a saucer to catch excess water. Old enamel teapots can also be converted to quirky planters by drilling a few holes into their bottoms. set two or three teapots on a tray filled with river stones and you have your own handy herb garden.

Happy World Environment Day

Read more here on how you can kick the habit.

Bruwer Family Crest

Origin Displayed: English

Where did the English Bruwer family come from? What is the English coat of arms/family crest? When did the Bruwer family first arrive in the United States? Where did the various branches of the family go? What is the history of the family name?

Before the last few hundred years the English language had no fixed system of spelling rules. For that reason, spelling variations occurred commonly in Anglo Norman surnames. Over the years, many variations of the name Bruwer were recorded, including Brewer, Bruer, Bruyere, Brewyer, Breuer, Brower and others.

First found in Devonshire where they were seated from early times after the Norman Conquest in 1066.

The unstable environment in England at this time caused numerous families to board ships and leave in search of opportunity and freedom from persecution abroad in places like Ireland, Australia, and particularly the New World. The voyage was extremely difficult, however, and only taken at great expense. The cramped conditions and unsanitary nature of the vessels caused many to arrive diseased and starving, not to mention destitute from the enormous cost. Still opportunity in the emerging nations of Canada and the United States was far greater than at home and many went on to make important contributions to the cultures of their adopted countries. An examination of many early immigration records reveals that people bearing the name Bruwer arrived in North America very early: Daniel Brewer who settled in the Barbados in 1680; John Brewer and his wife Marie, who came to Boston Mass. in 1632; Obadiah Brewer, who was on record in New England in 1647.

Bruwer Family Crest