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How Does Your Garden Grow
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Jan 20, 2023
Who doesn't love the smell of fresh flowers? Or maybe you prefer a nice ripe piece of fruit.. Either way, we share why gardening is good for you and the environment, as well as how to be sustainable while doing so! Rob and Caren talk about how gardening can be beneficial for the environment and your surroundings. They encourage others to start their own garden.#gardening #environment #sustainability Timestamps 0:00:04 Topic: Exploring the Benefits of Gardening and Sustainability 0:02:21 Conversation Summary: Benefits of Gardening 0:06:12 Conversation on Gardening and Overcoming a Brown Thumb 0:08:03 Heading: Benefits of Indoor Gardening and Hydroponic Growing 0:09:31 Conversation on Hydroponic Gardening and Sustainability 0:11:54 Conversation on Drought Restrictions and Desert Soil 0:13:26 Topic: Sustainability in the Home: Lowering AC and Heating Bills and Reducing Food Waste 0:15:01
View Video Transcript
0:00
overheard the official raw Blaster
0:01
Network and we're going to teach you
0:03
about gardening how to why it's good and
0:08
probably debate a little bit so let's go
0:13
[Music]
0:29
hey guys welcome to another Ultra
0:31
Universe Live my name is Rob that's
0:33
Karen I call her mom because I can and
0:37
this show covers all sorts of fun things
0:40
today however we're going to kind of mix
0:42
both this and everyday Heroes together
0:44
maybe some minor mental health as well
0:46
because we're actually going to talk
0:48
about some important uh worldwide uh
0:51
issues going on but first and foremost
0:53
welcome to the show if you are a
0:55
gardener and you like some of our other
0:56
gardening shows then welcome back if
0:58
you're brand new cool so we're going to
1:02
answer two main questions today first
1:05
off why is gardening important and
1:07
secondarily why sustainability is
1:10
important and how to do so so you just
1:13
started with your little raised pot and
1:16
everything right you got your what herbs
1:18
growing uh what else I've got flowers
1:21
that are literally taking over the
1:23
entire planting area I think I'm having
1:26
fun I'm gonna have to get another one
1:28
because it's so fun well I definitely
1:30
need pictures of that because we want to
1:32
see all the cool colors and stuff like
1:34
that so obviously you're doing it for
1:36
your reasons I Garden for mine and I
1:38
totally boom and I my snake plants in
1:40
the other room but I'll still talk about
1:41
it and we'll still show you later
1:44
but
1:45
why is important Garden so you know we
1:47
could go over the the personal thing
1:49
we've done that before right so I kind
1:51
of want to focus on why is it important
1:52
for the environment and your
1:54
surroundings well gardening in general
1:56
and I don't know if you know this or not
1:58
but I I learned this recently gardening
2:01
local plants actually stops the growth
2:04
of weeds and invasive species why
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because most of your flop your garden
2:10
patch is going to be overrun by the
2:12
things that are supposed to be here you
2:14
can easily go online look up your city
2:16
or state and find plants that do uh down
2:20
where we are cacti is a big thing
2:22
because of obviously drought regulations
2:24
however in the desert area cacti grow
2:27
best because fun fact they store their
2:30
own water another fun fact if you're
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actually out in the wild and you need
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water you can actually open a cacti and
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drink water from it I know if you
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remember that I learned that in Boy
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Scouts
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that was a Boy Scout thing right that's
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a Boy Scout thing or Girl Scout I'm sure
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girls can I said that too
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um so depending where you live you're
2:48
going to know what you want but if you
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don't know what you want to grow go
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online type in your city there's
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probably going to be a list of plants
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that they recommend as a native plants
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and native plants are generally just
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that things you would see growing
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outside your window
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so
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other things that are good about
3:06
gardening daily uh the ecosystems such
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as the animals that live there bees and
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butterflies rely highly on you now I
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don't know if you know but recently the
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bee population around the world has been
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cut down and only about 20 or 30 percent
3:20
are left and most people are like eobs
3:23
however bees do much more than we think
3:27
we do well I mean we know what they do
3:28
right those watching may not so bees not
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only make a lot of the food obviously
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they're big producers of honey and other
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sugar substance but because of
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pollination bees actually grow I'm gonna
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say maybe about 80 of what you see
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because by accident you know it sticks
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to their legs when they fly they drop
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the uh seeds of the flowers throughout
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where they live so you'll notice yeah
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and I'm sure you've seen this before and
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I'm sure uh you know if you look on a
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map depending on where you live you'll
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see the stuff growing right so you might
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not notice it but I would assume and
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again I couldn't find a number on this
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most of the plants that you see growing
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outside let's say half of them probably
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or be related because of their travels
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interesting so they're pollinating
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they're literally taking in WoW exactly
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and that also explains why how some
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places you'll find flowers that aren't
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supposed to be there grow because these
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do usually migrate far and wide right
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and you'll end up with California plants
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in Colorado because those bees might fly
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and you'll go huh they went on a trip
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hey they go on a trip butterflies the
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same thing you can actually attract
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butterflies and other birds like
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hummingbirds as well to your uh Garden
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they don't necessarily pollinate as much
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but they're pretty they're fun to look
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at so why not do that too so what else
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does it help well if you do gardening
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naturally you're going to be using less
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fertilizer and pesticides which are not
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good using less of that helps two things
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well one you're going to be able to go
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outside and roll around your grass and
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not really worry about getting stuff on
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you or your clothes that are bad for you
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secondarily you're also helping the
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environment because again just as bees
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and stuff will transfer pollen they can
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transfer that stuff as well and you
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might be accidentally polluting your
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next door neighbor's house is because
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the animals are traipsing back and forth
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and it pesticides in your backyard again
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it's not their fault they're just
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wandering through your backyard they
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might be dragging you know residue back
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and forth right so gardening is very
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good and of course you know I know we
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talked about before but it is good for
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the soul it's good for the mind
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apparently there's stuff in dirt that
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when you touch it it actually increases
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your serotonin I have no idea about that
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but that's kind of me so what do you
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think I mean what what made you put your
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little well together we know what you're
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gonna laugh at this because I've always
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said I have a brown thumb and somebody
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took me to task on that and said why are
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you so negative about that why why don't
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you don't have a brown thumb and I said
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well just watch me and I I was almost
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like a challenge that I could actually
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have things grow and not die on me and
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so a friend of mine we I came out and we
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went out and I do agree with the dirt
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the the soil I don't think we're
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supposed to call it um yes so we bought
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four you know 50 pound bags of soil to
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fill this
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thing that I now plant in and feeling it
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and touching it and and digging into it
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there is something very very cathartic
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about that and I feel very successful
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because my flowers are growing and My
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Rosemary is growing and I'm succeeding I
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now can say in a positive way so now I'm
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very positive I do not have a brown
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thumb I actually have a maybe a light
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green thumb I mean you know we're not
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quite over there but it has been an
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amazing experience now Rob you're
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gardening are you are you growing
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vegetables what are you gardening
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um no so we haven't fully actually
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gotten to it yet
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um what I do and I brought it up is the
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snake plant thing uh for me it's easiest
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right now because they're super
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indestructible
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um basically you water them we do it
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once a week you can actually get it with
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every two weeks but for us because they
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actually help the air quality so we have
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allergies uh live allergy I think uh
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Chris it has as well so having a snake
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plant in the house not only is pretty
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but it actually helps clean your air so
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that's a reason why we kind of got into
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the plant thing was because you know
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flowers are great and we try to bring
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them in but flowers kind of die when
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they're in the vase
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they don't last very long I have a
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question for you Rob so when was my
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gardening are you talking about are you
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only talking I don't think you are
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because you started talking about
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indoors or when we say gardening do we
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really is it really like outdoors in in
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the soil and planting outside or
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gardening and having little pots in the
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house
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right that's a good question no I mean I
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think it's either or um you know
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um we talk about sustainability I think
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that'll also answer a little bit but I
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think
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if you're just asking me personally I
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think yeah if you don't have the time or
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want to naturally get out there and get
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dirty you can easily bring in your stuff
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I know on the other show we had those
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little pots that we were that we sold
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um doing this the hydroponic because you
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can actually do this in your house and
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actually okay so really you could do the
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fun stuff and grow little things but the
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thing about this this actually like a
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lot because this not only saves the
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water which we'll talk about in a
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sustainability but this one really
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this grows what you need to grow versus
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what you want to grow and I know that
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sounds kind of funny obviously you want
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to grow what you want to grow but when
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you're doing and yeah exactly we can
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garden inside but when you're doing the
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hydroponic machine you're not only
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growing pretty things but you're growing
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useful things so like the commercial
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that I was that I always see on TV now
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when you're talking about it I'm like oh
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I see the commercial all the time you
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know tomatoes and uh carrots uh one you
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know somebody was cutting you know basil
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or something off of the thing so not
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only is it something cool and useful but
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you're you're getting something out of
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it and one could say you're maybe saving
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some bucks because you're not shopping
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yes and I think also hydroponic uses not
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it doesn't use soil it uses water
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correct so I guess the negative there is
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and then we'll get into the drop thing
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in a second but I think the negative
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there is is most people right now
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probably wouldn't be so privy because of
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the water usage however I'm sure it's
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still a lot less water usage than you
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would to sprinkler or yeah yeah
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but you know you also have to you have
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to I agree with them with that sense too
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because I think the the less you have to
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use their whites which is why I love the
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steak plants so much because I literally
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I put some water in the pot it's done
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I'm good I do it once a week it takes me
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maybe this much water per thing if that
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and then I'm done so I love a plant like
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that because you're not using so much
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but yeah I mean the Hydroponic and again
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I think you you told me like you said
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somebody you know has it but then I
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started seeing the commercials and I'm
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like oh this is like a humongous it is
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you know they have tabletop ones they
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have outdoor ones they have indoor ones
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and I think that we need to address that
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not everyone lives in a house with a
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backyard where you can go and plant
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outside people live in apartments in
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Columbus that live in high rise maybe
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you have a balcony maybe you need some
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potted plants or something you're going
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to Garden or maybe you don't even have a
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balcony which is cool but you have to
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then Garden inside and I think that's
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where the little pots come and the
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hydroponic however right and and it
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cleans the oxygen doesn't it clean the
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air when the uh depending on the uh you
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know the plants I have do not all of
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them do but if you if you search online
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for
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um I don't know what you call it but air
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cleansing plants so to speak you can get
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a list uh there's one called a spider
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plant that's kind of like a snake plant
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but it goes more outwards it looks like
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the lead you know right right so I think
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a great way to jump into is
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sustainability because this is the
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biggest deal here and this is what
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really gets my goat going
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um and one of the somebody that we know
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actually commented a while back yeah and
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I know if you want to read it off real
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quick
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so when we went and put this show up and
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we scheduled the event somebody Uh Kevin
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corn made a comment saying I'm hoping
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with all this rain the drought
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restrictions will be lifted and I can
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actually grow my garden again and I
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think a lot of people are going through
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that right yeah and I mean and I don't
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you know I don't know where he is as far
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as the rain you know here we've gotten a
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little bit but I don't know if we're at
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the level where the amount of rain we've
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gotten here is good enough but I totally
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agree it would be nice if we got
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I don't know two or three days of pretty
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good rain right you know now the other
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day we were driving and I I don't know
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the rivers or whatever but something
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that looked like it was dead all of a
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sudden had some water flowing through it
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was gross and muddy but it had some
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water flowing through and I was like and
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I think that's because of our soil here
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the desert has different soil it's sand
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and yes it literally sinks right into
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the ground and as a matter of fact
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that's how we have a lot of golf courses
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here as you know and in fact they when
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you know one one might say that we're
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wasting water when they go in water the
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the law you know the golf courses but in
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fact they actually have groundwater and
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Wells underneath that collects all the
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water and when it goes through the sand
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it collects down there so we're prepared
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a little bit better I think than a lot
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of communities uh and that's because of
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our soil I think I mean yeah and you
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think about you know places like in
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Africa and Australia that are mostly
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desert right they've probably figured
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out ways to deal right but if you've
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watched some you know documentaries the
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you know the animals that are trying to
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look for water you know they have to dig
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so you know I I agree we are somewhat
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prepped but I think it's also just kind
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of you know the as it goes now on this
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website that they're found and again
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we're not going to go through the
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research because we want to talk opinion
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but they did put out some really good
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points here so sustainability for the
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home the two things I really want to go
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over here lowering your AC and heating
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bills by growing native shade trees and
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helping reducing food waste through
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composting so sustainability in the home
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I love this these are really really
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important things you know I know when
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you're in a two level AC you know air
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rises super expensive we're now in a
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single you're on a single level as well
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plant those shade trees again if you
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don't know what they are I don't know
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you know we have some in the backyard
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but I guess I guess get it we have a
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ficus okay and all you're gonna do you
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know take some time so maybe you can get
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one that's partially bloomed or ready to
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kind of see the process but shade trees
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make all the difference you're probably
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thinking well you got your roof how is
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the shade gonna help well if you're
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shading the outside area of you the
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inside's going to get cooler guys it
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will yeah and then reducing food waste
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well that's a big deal on everybody's
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mind I mean people are like well we're
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wasting all this stuff what you know
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what the hell if you can go back and
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there's a machine I think you've seen it
14:53
before you actually can compost it
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we should have go found we should have
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actually put one in we'll throw that on
15:00
afterwards for you guys because it's
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really really well worth it I think it's
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only about 60 70 bucks
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it gets under your kitchen sink and you
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put all the scraps exactly when you're
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done
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very cool so sustainability for the home
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grade for your lawn and garden as I
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mentioned before planting native plants
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stops invasive species climate
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appropriate plants that usually build
15:22
grow stronger why because as you just
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said they're the plants that live here
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are prepared for the weather so if you
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are into cacti if you are into Ficus if
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you're into more of the flowering plants
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go online type in desert type in
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Mountain type in coastal
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existent type in drought resistant
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plants there you go Bougainvillea
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there's a lot of different plants that
15:49
that actually flower because I think a
15:52
lot of people think when you go to the
15:53
desert cactus is not you know it's it's
15:55
not pretty it's it's just green and
15:58
sticky and you know little prickly
15:59
things but in fact drought resistant
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plants are beautiful there are some
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amazing colorful yeah I'm a fan we got a
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couple outside the door of cacti they're
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I mean they're they're cool and they
16:09
actually grow flowers on them if you're
16:11
lucky which is pretty new
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um all right and then the environmental
16:15
sustainability here guys again you know
16:17
limit the spread of invasive species in
16:19
your community so what you're doing in
16:21
your backyard is actually helping your
16:23
neighbors and your local parks you're
16:25
reducing excess waste in local landfills
16:27
because surprise surprise there's no
16:30
waste or minimal and you're also not
16:33
only saving money on your air bill but
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on your water bill because you're
16:36
minimizing your water usage right most
16:40
of the stuff is not super it's not
16:42
rocket science guys this is exactly and
16:44
again I'm not calling people out and
16:46
saying anybody's you know whatever but
16:48
it's not rocket science and yes we're in
16:50
that type of country here where it's
16:52
like okay well do it for me I don't want
16:53
to do it I'm like you got to take two
16:56
minutes and do it yourself or else it's
16:57
not gonna yeah
17:00
you really will enjoy it I mean once you
17:04
do it and I'm I'm here to say that
17:06
because I was resistant I was resistant
17:09
I wasn't going to do it and now I can't
17:10
wait to look out my window and see my
17:12
flowers and I can't wait to look out and
17:14
see the tree that's growing because it
17:16
it makes me again it's how it makes us
17:19
feel
17:19
yeah I know and so not only is it fun
17:23
and kind of a cool hobby to do but it is
17:27
super important and you know it you look
17:30
at let's say the Amazon rainforest which
17:33
is losing its trees but you're looking
17:35
at companies like let's say Charmin and
17:37
Bounty who for every role you buy
17:39
they're going out and they're planting
17:41
an acre or two right right that's the
17:44
kind of stuff you need now again I don't
17:45
know the logistics I'm not really sure
17:47
what that means I haven't looked it up
17:49
but my assumption I'm hoping is that
17:51
when they say they're planting a couple
17:52
acres they're planting a couple acres
17:54
which I would you know they're not going
17:56
to go against their thing right but
17:58
that's the kind of thing you need and
17:59
it's great to see a big company doing it
18:01
and we're going to talk about companies
18:03
next week on a different scale but it's
18:06
good to see that you look at the you
18:09
know the the product and it says hey you
18:11
just bought this toilet paper this paper
18:12
towels but hey don't worry we're
18:15
planting 15 trees to replace all of that
18:18
right now the only question again I
18:21
don't know if there's an answer to it
18:22
and I'll pose you on it you know is
18:25
there a way to go to get it done because
18:27
you know I was watching a bouncy
18:28
commercial and they said you know put
18:30
away your dish rag a bounty towel
18:32
cleanse your hands more sanitary than
18:35
using a dish rag however so many people
18:38
prefer to use a rag over towels to save
18:40
the paper so the ongoing question here
18:43
guys is what do you do to kind of make
18:47
both sides happy they're actually I
18:50
think there's products out there that
18:52
are like paper towels bamboo sheets that
18:55
that work like this but they are organic
18:59
and they when they when they're thrown
19:00
away they go back to the Earth so I
19:03
think there are things that are starting
19:04
to come out but
19:06
for those of us who say we're not going
19:08
to wait for that so that's why we do use
19:10
wash Rags or towels because
19:13
it's you can throw that in the washing
19:16
machine again using water but then you
19:18
do full loads right and it's a balance
19:20
guys it really is I mean we're less
19:22
balanced you you know we're in a drought
19:25
but at the same time you don't want to
19:27
you know throw resources away and then
19:29
you end up with the you know stuff in
19:31
the ocean where the the fish are getting
19:33
caught up in things
19:34
so it is a balance
19:37
um it's just a question that's always on
19:39
my mind to think about it's you know
19:40
what what exactly is the thing but
19:42
you're right and and then but then
19:43
someone goes oh well now you're making
19:45
out another plant that you're cutting
19:46
you know it's it's a vicious circle
19:48
right it's a circle that if you can
19:50
close or make a little bit smaller right
19:52
right totally somebody that's doing a
19:56
really good job at this
19:58
um is Ron Finley he's known as The
20:00
Gangsta Gardener I first of all I love
20:02
the name right he's a gangster gardener
20:04
it's here in Los Angeles
20:06
um downtown Los Angeles in the Pico
20:08
Union area and this gentleman decided to
20:11
take all these streets and it was just
20:13
dirt patches and you know on the
20:16
sidewalk there'd be and he started to
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plant them like vegetables and flowers
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and you name it and the city said no you
20:22
can't do that you don't have a license
20:24
and somehow he was able to fix that and
20:28
got a license and now in the inner city
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he is literally teaching people how to
20:33
be sustainable in their own Gardens and
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if you go and take a look at
20:37
ronfinley.com you're going to see what
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he's done it is pretty freaking amazing
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and he started he started this and I
20:45
know we talked about this in another
20:46
show right they're doing these
20:48
sustainable Gardens everywhere yeah
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throughout the world
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um places like Japan places like uh
20:54
Europe over the place
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um even like the United Kingdom that
20:57
usually gets pretty poor weather they
21:00
are making an effort to make sustainable
21:02
Gardens even in places where the weather
21:04
is not so nice to the plants right
21:06
they're still doing it but I know we
21:07
have a whole list of things
21:10
and these things will make your job even
21:13
that much easier uh so what do we got so
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this is a sustainable garden project
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book okay so you can go this this is a
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really cool book I did actually look
21:23
through the some of the page just to see
21:25
what this was and it literally gives you
21:27
projects and how you can create that
21:28
sustainable garden so take your camera
21:31
out and scan this code and it will take
21:33
you right over to the item in Amazon
21:36
here's another one a regenerative Garden
21:38
80 practical projects so we we're giving
21:41
you projects you don't have to go and
21:43
buy books though you can go Google this
21:44
you can say you know what kind of
21:46
projects can I do in my backyard but if
21:48
you don't want to do that and you want
21:49
to see the information that other people
21:51
have done go do that we talked a little
21:53
bit about vegetable gardening for
21:55
beginners this is really cool and you
21:57
can do the hydroponic for that you can
21:59
you can actually put tomatoes and
22:01
lettuce and herbs and stuff so this is
22:05
kind of cool or you can go plant in a
22:08
little planter in the kitchen or
22:10
Outdoors do what you know do you do you
22:12
as we like
22:15
um and of course if you're gonna go and
22:16
garden you need some tools yeah or you
22:19
can do what I did I used a kitchen spoon
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because I didn't have any tools
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I did go out and buy some kitchen tools
22:29
I think we have a
22:31
what do we have here
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I don't think do we have a common here
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maybe not
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oh you can definitely Garden inside yeah
22:38
we we definitely can garden inside so
22:41
you know you go get your tools uh check
22:43
them out and this is a window herb
22:46
garden that you this is kind of like
22:47
what we showed in the other show except
22:49
I think that one was little flowers and
22:51
fruit but same idea here right and so if
22:54
you have a windowsill right out you know
22:55
where your kitchen sink is that's a
22:57
great place to put it or maybe in your
22:59
bathroom if you have a window anywhere
23:01
that gets light very very cool and then
23:03
finally we'll just bring this up really
23:04
quickly and that's the indoor garden
23:06
hydroponic just know though that there
23:09
are outdoor ones that are huge I mean
23:11
like huge and you can
23:14
they're pricey too so I say check out
23:16
this one first because it's not quite as
23:18
expensive
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um and go ahead and grow and take some
23:21
pictures we'd love to see some pictures
23:23
right I want to see oh yeah or just send
23:25
food
23:28
No Maybe not maybe maybe not send it to
23:31
her and if it's okay she'll send it to
23:33
me yeah yeah um yeah
23:36
so what do you guys think huh
23:38
should you go plant I think they should
23:40
go plant right they should go plant yeah
23:42
no it's a great thing and you know it um
23:44
as we always do you know we want to kind
23:46
of give our personal opinion uh the
23:49
Articles we found are super great check
23:51
them out but we want to give you more of
23:53
the right Personal Touch
23:56
um along with the cool stuff so yeah go
23:58
check it out take your pictures and um
24:01
we'll see you next time there you go
#Home & Garden