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BioMarkers |
It's mid-November and southern Wisconsin continues to escape the really cold freeze and any snow. The weathermen say we'll stay relatively warm until two days before Thanksgiving then we'll finally get to enjoy our normal freeze-your-butt-off-until-April weather.
November, if it doesn't freeze up solid, is actually the best month of all to be weeding and prepping in the garden. The soil goes through a change in late October and November. The weeds lift out more easily and the soil has a moist softness that makes it easy to work. I've only got this weekend left to finish off whatever cleanup I can do before the ground gets too cold and probably too wet, so I better take advantage of the nice days ahead.
The picture at the top of the sidebar is of plant markers we are now selling. They are BioMarkers and like the handle for our CobraHead Weeder, the plastic is made of what the industry calls a "bio-plastic". That is plastic either made entirely of grown materials or plastic blended with grown or biologically based material. It is the supposed future for the plastics industry, which is now mostly dependent on petroleum for its main input. The markers are made of recycled plastic blended with corn-cob waste. They are made in Iowa and I understand there is some corn cob waste to be had over there.
The bio-plastics that are based on pure biological inputs as in plastics made totally from hemp or corn do not yet have the desirable physical properties of petroleum based plastics. It's a problem that the plastics people say will be overcome, and the race is on to develop all-around useful plastics that are made primarily with agriculturally grown material. In the meantime, we are happy to contribute to better plastics in our own small way.
We are looking forward to our Thanksgiving and we hope you have a good one, too. We will be cooking and eating a lot of the good food we grew this year. We strongly encourage anyone who can, to give a try to growing some of their own food. It's good for you and good for the planet.
Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Gardening from Noel and the CobraHead Team!