Nature’s Way Resources is proud to produce & email you this free weekly newsletter. We have no ads, but sponsors do graciously help support this project as a public service. Please note their names below & show your gratitude for this free service by patronizing their businesses! To become a sponsor, call (936) 273-1200
Nature’s Way Resources owner John Ferguson, “The Lazy Gardener” Brenda Beust Smith and Pablo Hernandez welcome your feedback and are so grateful to the many horticulturists who contribute their expertise
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Brenda’s article will be back next week.
ATTN. GARDEN/PLANT GROUPS — Nature’s Way Resources offers free guided tours of NWR’s extensive nursery/soil/mulch facilities for garden clubs, plant societies and other plant-oriented, organized groups. As usual, NWR’s now-expanded meeting site is free to above groups. Reservations a must for both. Great time to visit!
- SUBMITTING CALENDAR EVENTS?: For next upcoming newsletter, submit in exact format (see top of calendar below. Reformatting = delay)
HAVE A COLUMN SUGGESTION OR CALENDAR SUBMISSION?
ADDRESS DIRECTLY TO ME AT LAZYGARDENERBRENDA@GMAIL.COM
(USE “REPLY” for general newsletter suggestions and John’s column.
John’s Corner
NEWS FROM THE WONDERFUL WORLD
OF SOIL AND PLANTS
Subject: Healthy Plants for Healthy Food
Twice in my life the medical doctors and the specialists I was referred to wanted to
perform very expensive surgery to correct some health problems. In both cases other
doctors (functional medicine practitioners) corrected the problem with nutrition only. The
first case, to correct the issue cost less than two dollars versus the $20 thousand surgery
and the second time it only cost a couple hundred dollars of nutrients (colloidal minerals)
versus the $85 thousand dollar surgery.
These experiences gave me a passion to study nutrients and how they affect health from
microbes to insects and plants. One thing I have learned is that nutrients (minerals) are
essential for good health.
As any experienced gardener knows to have healthy plants, we first need healthy soil.
Hence the relationship: healthy soil = healthy plants = healthy people.
The chart below from the USDA on several common vegetables illustrates the issue. Our
vegetable plants are no longer healthy, most are covered in poisons (pesticides, etc.) and
many are now genetically modified (GMO). The nutrient content has continued to decline
since 1997. At the same time all kinds of human health problems have increased
dramatically.
This is why more and more gardeners are also growing vegetables, berries, and fruits using
modern organic methods in re-mineralized soils to get the health benefits.
A good introduction to the subject of nutrient-dense foods (or lack of) can be found in a recent paper: An Alarming Decline in the Nutritional Quality of Foods: The Biggest Challenge for Future Generations’ Health
Additionally, I recently finished reading a book that has a lot of good information on nutrition and how it can help one’s health.
Beating Cancer With Nutrition – Using Nutrition and other Modalities to Improve Quality of Life for Medically Treated Cancer Patients, by Patrick Quillin, PhD, RD, CNS, 5th Edition, Nutrition Times Press, 2020, ISBN: 978-1-7352347-0-0
From the book’s cover: Dr. Patrick Quillin is an internationally recognized expert in the area of nutrition and cancer. He has 30 years experience as a clinical nutritionist, of which 10 years were spent as the Vice President of Nutrition for Cancer Treatment Centers of America where he worked with thousands of cancer patients in a hospital setting.
“After 30 years specializing in Cancer Nutrition I have consulted with 1000’s patients around the world. Many medical doctors and physician’s consult with me for their own personal needs. For the past several years I have been a leading spokesperson on The Truth About Cancer. My book can help you restore your health.”
Learn what cancer fighting foods and vitamins are best for the cancer patient.
Incorporate these cancer fighting foods that should be included in every anti cancer diet.
Whole foods are irreplaceable in your quest for healing from cancer.
Discover the best anti-cancer foods for beating cancer.
Use these fruits, vegetables, cancer fighting herbs and spices in addition to anti-cancer supplements as “biological response modifiers” to up-regulate the body’s built-in mechanism for eliminating cancer cells, such as apoptosis (programmed cell death).
Minor dietary constituents, conditionally essential nutrients, phytochemicals, enzymes, pH stabilizing factors, substances that are required for a healthy colony of bacteria in the gut, and much more.
Reverse or avoid the common malnutrition that kills 42% of cancer patients.
Help stimulate the immune system, which is in charge of killing all unwanted cells in the body, such as cancer
Comprehensive information on inexpensive cancer-fighting foods
Cancer-fighting foods are widely available, in the city or country, warm or cold climate
The cancer diet includes extraordinary healing agents, with both scientific documentation and centuries of folk medicine to support their use
The best Cancer fighting foods are very versatile and can help a wide assortment of seemingly unrelated problems
Foods that help fight cancer are very safe, especially when compared to the risk-benefit ratio of prescription drugs.
Whether we are growing flowers, vegetables, fruits, or berries, it is critical to remineralize our soils.
SPONSORSHIP
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please contact us at 936-273-1200 or send an e-mail to: lazygardenerandfriends@gmail.com
ABOUT US
BRENDA BEUST SMITH
WE KNOW HER BEST AS THE LAZY GARDENER . . .
but Brenda Beust Smith is also:
- a national award-winning writer & editor
- a nationally-published writer & photographer
- a national horticultural speaker
- a former Houston Chronicle reporter
When the Chronicle discontinued Brenda’s 45-year-old Lazy Gardener” print column — started in the early ’70s as a fun side-project to reporting, it then ranked as the longestrunning, continuously-published local newspaper column in the Greater Houston area. The name, she says, is not just fun, it’s true.
Brenda’s gradual sideways step from reporter into gardening writing led first to an 18-year series of when-to-do-what Lazy Gardener Calendars, then to her Lazy Gardener’s Guide book which morphed into her Lazy Gardener’s Guide on CD, which she now emails free upon request.
Brenda became a Harris County Master Gardener and, over the years, served on theboards of many Greater Houston area horticulture organizations. She hosted local radio and TV shows, most notably a 10+-year Lazy Gardener specialty shows on HoustonPBS (Ch. 8) and her call-in “EcoGardening” show on KPFT-FM.
For over three decades, Brenda served as Assistant Production Manager of the GARDEN CLUB OF AMERICA’S “BULLETIN” magazine. Although still an active broad-based freelance writer, Brenda’s main focus now is THE LAZY GARDENER & FRIENDS HOUSTON GARDEN NEWSLETTER with John Ferguson and Pablo Hernandez of Nature’s Way Resources.
A native of New Orleans and graduate of St. Agnes Academy and the University of Houston, Brenda lives in Humble, TX, and is married to the retired Aldine High School Coach Bill Smith. They have one son, Blake.
Regarding this newsletter, Brenda is the lead writer, originator of it and the daily inspiration for it. We so appreciate the way she has made gardening such a fun way to celebrate life together for such a long time.
About her column, Brenda says: “I don’t consider myself a ‘garden writer.” I started out 50+ years ago as a very lazy “gardening reporter.” I still feel that way today. I hope my columns inspire/help newcomers, but I do not write to them. I write to very experienced gardeners who want to expand their horizons.
JOHN FERGUSON
John is a native Houstonian and has over 35 years of business experience. He owns Nature’s Way Resources, a composting company that specializes in high quality compost, mulch, and soil mixes. He holds a MS degree in Physics and Geology and is a licensed Soil Scientist in Texas.
John has won many awards in horticulture and environmental issues. For years he represented the composting industry on the Houston-Galveston Area Council for solid waste. His personal garden has been featured in several horticultural books and “Better Homes and Gardens” magazine. His business has been recognized in the Wall Street Journal for the quality and value of their products. He is a member of the Physics Honor Society and many other professional societies. John is the co-author of the book Organic Management for the Professional.
For this newsletter, John contributes articles regularly and is responsible for publishing it.
PABLO HERNANDEZ Pablo Hernandez is the special projects coordinator for Nature’s Way Resources. His realm of responsibilities include: serving as a webmaster, IT support, technical problem solving/troubleshooting, metrics management and quality control. Pablo helps this newsletter happen from a technical support standpoint.
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