The importance of the green colour
Repainting the Green Colour (Green):
http://projects.takingitglobal.org/green
The Green colour is in many shapes. And perhaps the closest one of them to our mind is plants. Plants is not only the closest shape to mind, but it is also the most common one and the source of Green on earth. So, in order to save this colour we must know its importance and benefits. The coming sections contain a little about Green from some trustworthy articles and websites.
Support the color green!
Why green?
For me, a few reasons....
• When someone, like yourself, is "surfing the web", they have a tendency to be staring at their monitors for upwards of 3 hours... This means that it is 3 hours that they're not looking at trees, grass, plants and shrubberies. Here is the compensation for those situations... All the green the average user could need!
• I was a student at El-Tawfiqia secondary school, and while it is a very good school it is missing something of importance to me. Greenery. Sure, there are trees and grass and stuff, but most of what you see around campus are bricks, and cement. The bricks are "RIT Brick Red" colored. ugh.
• I have a TV. It's a 14" Sony TV which is at least 15 years old. This TV has some problems reproducing a colour. That colour is green. The TV’s green gun is bad, and the other colours are usually washed out. The green gun occasionally likes to come on for a few seconds per day.
I was watching miscellaneous TV shows in purple. Then, out of nowhere, the green gun kicked in. I got up, went to the front panel of the TV, made everyone not look like Martians, and then sat back down. 20 seconds later the green gun died again for the night... Grrrrr.
What is green?
• approximately 525 nm wavelength
• the 'G' in the abbreviation "RGB"
• half of yellow and cyan
• one of our project's alias
Here are the additive and the subtractive colour system which I have decided to put here irregardless [sic] of their importance.
bla bla bla and pic of a green lamp.........
And now a special guest appearance by The Lamp
It is a day,
and the lamp is green!
The Lamp appears courtesy of itself, and GreenCo Ltd. Industries Incorporated. D.B.A. LampCo Ltd. Industries Incorporated. Any association to The Lamp is neither directly expressed nor implied. The Lamp speaks for itself, and neither myself or CSH, or any other company, corporation, person, living or dead, fictional or factual is purely coincidental. This sentence was put here because I like self-referential statements, and also to use the words "The" and "Lamp" together in a phrase-let like this: "The Lamp"; although it is too bad that they were just stated point blank, and not in any sort of context. This sentence was just put here to bloat this paragraph. As was this one, The appearance of The Lamp on this page was done at the request of The Lamp himself. No outside forces pressured The Lamp into making an appearance on this page... well, no others besides me. [Bawl] Fine! You made me say it... [Grumble]
The Lamp supports green, why don't you? ;)
Indoor Plants Are Good For You
Summary:
Indoor plants extract a host of noxious gases from the Atmosphere and create a better living environment for the people around them. Here we explains how they do it and why we need them.
Details or Transcript:
It's well known that indoor plants help to purify the air we breathe. Yet it's only now that scientists are beginning to work out how plants manage to survive in polluted environments. Apart from turning carbon dioxide into oxygen they also absorb hundreds of other potentially dangerous vapours.
Plants organise there own nutrition as you know. They don't need food, what they need is light and air and soil and from the light they get the energy to make their own sugars, from the soil they get the minerals that they require and from the air they get the carbon dioxide that they need for the photosynthesis with, of course, water from the soil. In that process of photosynthesis they make sugars. Now, it turns out therefore that from sugars they can make anything else that we find in plants. So the plants have a very wide metabolism which means that they are very good at converting anything into anything else.
They've got lots of enzymes to do it. And we think one of the reasons that they can contribute to reducing volatile organics in the atmosphere is because they have the ability with their enzymes to chomp the volatile organics as though they were sugars and use them for the respiration or for other purposes. However, we found also that in the indoor plant situation the most rapid response that we get is not even from the plants themselves but from the micro organisms in the potting mix that can respond very quickly to what they see as a new source of food. And they can use organic compounds of various sorts including carcinogens like benzine and hexane that you find in indoor atmospheres and can use that to get their energy to par (?) other processes.
You may wonder we mention benzine and hexane. You don't recall the last time you actually went out and bought them on your shopping list. How will these poisons actually get into your everyday environment?
Benzine is a component in motor vehicle fuel so consequently there are traces of it in the outdoor atmosphere but you can sometimes get the phenomenon, particularly in air conditioned buildings, where the contaminants of the outdoor atmosphere can actually be concentrated in the indoor atmosphere because there is too little ventilation. The hexane is a solvent that's used in indoor furnishings like carpets, desks, laminated materials, bench tops, chairs and things like that and in curtains and so on. So all of those components of our indoor environment are gassing small amounts of volatile organics all the time.
They're just the two that we've been testing. Over 300 volatile organics have been found in traces in indoor air.
You may say:
You're saying my flat is killing me in other words.
I wouldn't go as far as to say it's killing you, but it could be that it is not doing you any good. And in an office environment it's very common in fact to feel a bit headachey and perhaps have sore eyes and throat and to have a feeling of wooziness and so on associated with the indoor atmosphere. And it's not just an allergy to hard work it can be because of what we call the sick building syndrome or, building related illness.
You may ask:
When we talk about reducing pollution is it simply a question of the surface area of the leaves - the more plants you have the more beneficial they are? Or do specific species actually target specific, volatile compounds as you call them?
Well to some extent both of those are true. The more plants you have the more likely you are to get a good result. And it's not just a matter of the leaf area because as I said, the agents that seem to respond most quickly to the contaminants in the atmosphere seem to be the soil micro organisms. What we recommend is that people look to having as many indoor potted plants as they can and have a variety of them so that if there are differences in the degree to which one species will take up one contaminant and the other, another one, then you're likely to be covering them better.
We have tried Howea forsteriana Kentia palm and Spathiphyllum petite and Dracaena I think that is just called Janet Craig and we have found no particular differences in their capacity to do that if we get similar size plants. We think that it's likely that any plant can do it. And we also know from work that colleagues have done in England in houses with a number of pot plants. Their levels of nitrogen oxide are down by a third. So you don't need a forest presumably to make a significant difference to the quality of your indoor atmosphere.
Plants are Good for Your Health: Four Ways to Use Them to Your Advantage
Most people recognize the importance of spending some time in nature--living closer to nature can actually help you to live longer--but when it comes to bringing plants indoors, the importance is often overlooked. Plants do much more than just brighten up a room; they have real benefits to your health and living environment. Whether in the home or office, plants can be used strategically to improve air quality, ease asthma symptoms, increase your energy and more. Following are some of the best ways to use plants to your advantage.
Put a Plant on Your Desk
Adding greenery to your office is one of the easiest ways to become more productive and less fatigued at work. Studies have shown that people who work at computers for more than four hours a day feel better when they have a plant on their desk.
Plus, modern office buildings are typically full of synthetic materials like carpeting, paint and furniture, which give of various toxic emissions. Plants are able to absorb pollutants from the air, making it cleaner and more pure. The following plants are particularly effective for air purification:
• Palms
• Ferns
• Peace lilies
• Spider plants
• Chrysanthemums
• Ivy
• Dracaena
• Recover From Illness Faster
Hospital patients who have a view of nature recover from illness and surgery more quickly than those who don’t. Even if you are facing an illness at home, surrounding yourself with plants is an excellent way to improve your mood and speed your recovery time. Generally speaking, the more plants you have and the healthier they are, the better the effects will be.
Indoor plants can also reduce your chances of getting sick. One study found that houseplants reduce fatigue, coughs, sore throats and other cold-related symptoms by more than 30 percent.
Cleanse Indoor Air
Indoor air can be up to 10 times more polluted than outdoor air, but adding plants can actually help to make the air cleaner. Just some of the potential toxic vapors that can contaminate indoor air include:
• Formaldehyde
• Benzene
• Xylene
• Toluene
• Ammonia
According to NASA scientists, houseplants can actually extract volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) from the air. According to one study, one six-inch houseplant per 100 square feet of indoor area acts as a decent filter for the air, and another U.S. government study found that 15 to 18 houseplants in six- to eight-inch containers helps to improve the air quality in an 1,800-square-foot house.
Some houseplants can be poisonous so be careful which varieties you choose, especially if you have small children or pets. One resource to use if you’re interested in using plants for the functional purpose of cleaning the air is the book How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 Houseplants That Purify Your Home or Office.
Request Plants in Your Work Environment
As mentioned above, putting a plant on your desk can make you feel better physically and mentally, improving your mood and reducing stress. Beyond this, companies that make an effort to include plants in their workspaces see significant increases in employee productivity and health.
In one case, when a company incorporated plants into its office space so that no employee was more than 45 feet from greenery, they reported that employees had greater creativity and productivity. So, if you’ve experienced the benefits of plants in your home and are looking for a reason to suggest plants in the office, consider that plants in your office building will benefit not only your health, but the health of the company as well. When you put it this way, requesting more plants is a very smart suggestion.
Plants ARE Good for Offices!
Common indoor plants may provide a valuable weapon in the fight against rising levels of indoor air pollution. Those plants in your office or home are not only decorative, but NASA scientists are finding them to be surprisingly useful in absorbing potentially harmful gases and cleaning the air inside modern buildings.
NASA and the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA) have announced the findings of a 2-year study that suggest a sophisticated pollution-absorbing device: the common indoor plant may provide a natural way of helping combat "Sick building syndrome
Top 10 plants most effective in removing:
formaldehyde, benzene, and carbon monoxide from the air.
Common Name Scientific Name
Bamboo Palm Chamaedorea Seifritzii
Chinese Evergreen Aglaonema Modestum
English Ivy Hedera Helix
Gerbera Daisy Gerbera Jamesonii
Janet Craig Dracaena "Janet Craig"
Marginata Dracaena Marginata
Mass cane/Corn Plant Dracaena Massangeana
Mother-in-Law's Tongue Sansevieria Laurentii
Pot Mum Chrysantheium morifolium
Peace Lily Spathiphyllum "Mauna Loa"
Warneckii Dracaena "Warneckii"
Sources of airborne pollution
Formaldehyde
Foam Insulation
Plywood & Particle Board
Carpeting
Furniture
Paper Tissues
Household Cleaners
Benzene
Tobacco Smoke
Petrol
Synthetic Fibers
Plastics
Inks
Rubber
Detergents
Trichloroethylene
Dry Cleaning
Inks
Adhesives
Varnishes
Lacquers/Paints
What plants are good for narrow privacy hedges/screens
What plant to use to screen a view that grows fast, tall and very narrow is one of the most common faq. If the space is VERY narrow, the best solution is to put up a trellis and cover it with a well behaved evergreen vine like Trachelospermum jasminoides, Solanum jasminoides or Hardenbergia violacea. Another option is to espalier plants that have a habit of growing flat to begin with.Grewia, Xylosma, Podocarpus gracilior, and Cocculus being good choices.The other possibility is bamboo- but be SURE that you plant a clumping bamboo, rather than a running species, or you and your neighbor will live to regret it. Good clumping bamboos for screening are varieties of Bambusa multiplex. They have foliage nearly to the ground, are very dense clumps, and are from 6' to 15' tall. They can even be sheared.
If there is a bit more space, a fastigiate shrub or small tree may be the answer. These are plants that have mutated from the normal growth habit, and grow much narrower than usual. Italian Cypress is the most commonly seen fastigiate plant, but there are many others that are potentially useful. Possibilities are Juniperus scopulorum 'Skyrocket', Deodara 'Gold Cone,' Juniperus communis 'Gold Cone', Thuja occidentalis ‘Emerald’, Buxus sempervirens 'Graham Blandy', Ilex crenata 'Sky Pencil', Ilex vomitoria ‘Will Fleming’, and Euonymus japonicus ‘Chollipo’ and ‘Beni Komachi’.
There ARE a few plants that naturally grow tall and narrow, Nandina, Mahonia japonica and Podocarpus macrophyllus are the easiest to find.
If you are trying to extend the height of a fence, you could plant a large shrub or small tree along side the fence, then prune up the lower branches to provide room to walk (and even plant) underneath. Photinias, Pittosporums , Oleanders, Arbutus unedo and Prunus caroliniana ‘Brite n tite’ and ‘compacta’ are good candidates for this treatment.
The last (and most labor intensive) option is to plant a row of evergreen shrubs and keep it sheared to the width desired. Keep in mind frequency of shearing will depend on the growth rate of the plant. I have an evergreen privet hedge (one of the fastest growers) that needs to be sheared twice a year to keep it under control, and could use a third if I was a perfectionist and less lazy. I highly recommend purchasing and using electric shears to make the job more bearable. However, if you go this route, DO NOT plant a broadleafed plant like English laurel (electric shears result in mangled and shredded leaves that look awful). Highly recommended species for a sheared hedge are Pittosporum tenuifolium, Myrtus communis and Eugenia.
You also need to think of what is on either side of the planting area. If it's an asphalt driveway or your neighbor’s foundation, you don't want the heartbreak of having to remove your hedge (tree) 10-15 years down the road when it's looking perfect but starting to cause underground structural damage.
Plants for good fortune
Nowadays we see bamboo plants in shops, offices and houses. What’s the best direction for keeping these plants in the house and the workplace?
Bamboo plants are considered to be very auspicious, hence we see them everywhere. You could place these plants in the southeast sector of your living room and in the southeast of your workplace. When kept in this direction, the bamboo plant will enhance your wealth luck, bringing you prosperity. As these plants are also symbolic of good health and long life, these could be kept in the eastern sector of the living room.
Why Plants Make Good Neighbours
Plants can be good neighbours or bad neighbours. Some plants help each other and grow stronger when they are planted together. Some people call them good companions. Other plants growing next to each other do not benefit one another. In fact they may grow poorly side by side. They are bad neighbours and should not be planted together.
Farmers have been choosing good neighbours to plant together since the beginning of agriculture. In the Americas, squash, corn and beans have been planted together for hundreds of years. They are known as the "three sisters". When planted together each crop yields much more than when it is grown separately.
Today we're going to talk about how to choose crops that make good neighbours. This is sometimes called companion planting.
There are different reasons why plants do or do not get along well together. Today we'll talk about some of these reasons. We'll also give you examples of good and bad plant combinations that farmers and gardeners have discovered.
To begin, let's talk about the shape of plants, and the space they need. You might have noticed that some plants do well growing near each other because of their different shapes or the way in which they grow. For example, a tall sun loving plant, such as corn, provides shade for a shade loving crop, such as cucumber. The corn also benefits from the cucumber vines which cover the ground and protect the soil.
Let's look at another example. Vegetables which mature quickly can be grown beside vegetables which mature slowly. For example, carrots and radishes do well together. As you pick the fast growing radishes, the carrots have more space to grow. Try to find ways which crops can be arranged so that they don't need to compete for space. This way, each plant will have room to grow big and strong.
Some plants are good neighbours because they take different amounts of nutrients out of the soil. Most of the vegetables we grow - such as tomatoes, squash, lettuce, and cabbage - take a lot of nutrients from the soil. On the other hand, some plants take fewer nutrients from the soil. For example, legumes such as beans, peas, lentils, and clovers take less nitrogen from the soil. They take nitrogen from the air instead. So legumes are good companion plants for many crops because they don't compete for nitrogen in the soil.
When you're choosing plants to grow together remember that different plants have different needs. Some crops need more sun or water than others. They need different nutrients. Some need more space for their roots, and some need more above ground space. If you keep this in mind, you'll probably be able to think of other good plant combinations.
By choosing good companion plants you can also reduce insect damage. Crops with strong odours, such as onions and garlic, can repel some harmful insects. So plant garlic and onions with other crops. For example, cabbages and garlic are good neighbours. Insects will probably attack a plot where only cabbages are growing. But they are less likely to attack a mixed plot of cabbage and garlic.
Herbs and flowers with strong smells, such as mint, thyme, basil, marigolds and nasturtiums, can be useful companion plants. Their strong odours repel insects and may discourage them from landing in the garden. For example, marigolds are widely used to repel nematodes, Mexican bean beetles, and other insects.
So you can see that some plants provide a pest control service for one another.
And remember that the more kinds of plants you have growing in one area, the more stable your yields will be. Some crops will survive even if you have bad weather or poor soil, or an attack by pests. So the more variety of crops you have, the safer you are.
Many of the ways that plants can help other plants are still not well understood. A lot more research needs to be done by both farmers and scientists. As you think about which plants to grow together, keep an open mind. Keep trying different combinations until you find a system that works for you.
If you are interested in Green, please, join us on the new project about the green and the environment “Repainting the Green Colour” (RGC) at:
http://projects.takingitglobal.org/green
