Many of us are finding that our lives are getting more and more busy all the time. If we do not pay attention, it is not long before we find ourselves hitting the drive thru too often or heating up yet another TV dinner. After all, if you have had a long day and time is short, you might have trouble finding the energy to cook.

Unfortunately, convenience eating - restaurants and processed foods - can lead to gaining weight, unhealthy, sluggish feelings, and many other unfortunate side effects. It does not set a good example for our families either. A good, home cooked meal should be an important part of most families’ days.

Thankfully, it is possible to cook good, healthy meals without a lot of extra work. Just do a little planning, some preparation when you have extra time, and use ingredients like boneless chicken that will cut down on the effort you need to spend cooking. Home cooked meals can be simple and easy if you know what you are doing. Instead of cooking, cleaning, and dealing with the mess of a whole chicken or bone in parts, you can use boneless chicken to begin preparing your meal right away!

Home Greenhouse in January

This month the daylight is theoretically on the increase, but it is surely slow. Stormy weather obscures the sun so that the actual total of light is still low. However, snow and January thaws produce some beautiful days under the greenhouse roof. The standard roof slope of one in two is such that it sheds freely.

The quiet blanketed feeling of a sunny morning with 6 or 12 inches of snow on the roof is likely to be interrupted by a “whoosh” as the snow unloads in a junior avalanche. Afterwards the bright sunshine and reflected light from the outside snow make a fine spring-like world indoors, and a beautiful sight altogether.

The dumped load of snow from a sizable roof should be considered in planting close to the foundation outside. Brittle shrubs should not be used here unless they are carefully protected.

In full bloom now or beginning to bud are most of the late-sown annual seeds. Many of these are cool loving plants, which do well in a 50-degree greenhouse. Among these are alyssum, lobelia, calendula, wax begonia, impatiens, pansy and the greenhouse strains of snapdragon, stock, didiscus and carnation. From sowings the previous spring, flowers will be appearing on cyclamen, streptocarpus and Primula.

Orchids will dry out quicker in their lofty position hanging in the greenhouse. Again it should be stressed that humidity and moisture are all-important if your plants are to reach their full potential, and every part of them is to be allowed to develop fully.

However, in the home, comfortable as it may be, conditions are more artificial than in the greenhouse, and the plants need to - adapt to a much drier environment with less light in most cases.

Within a few years a dense palisade of short, extremely sharp, pointed roots is formed, with the all-too-clear intention of defending the plant, as can become quickly apparent when the plant is handled and the roots accidentally touched. Although this is obviously intended to ward off marauding insects or molluscs which could be harmful in the wild, some species of ants find the dense mat of roots an ideal and safe home for themselves and co-habit successfully.

Not all orchids are suitable for indoor culture. For some there is not enough light, for others insufficient heat or humidity. Those orchids which will succeed best are the shade-loving, or low-light, types. These include the paphiopedilums, some of the intergencric odontoglossums, miltonias, and in the warmer range the phalaenopsis.

Having a new baby in the house is wonderful. And if you’re a parent bringing home your first baby you are soon to discover some of the wonderful ways your life has changed forever. And some of the inconveniences too. All of a sudden going out has just got a whole lot harder. You’re going to need to consider buying a baby stroller.

There are some logistical difficulties attached to a new baby, and getting around is one of them. Suddenly just getting into the car has become a 10 minute job, and then when you get out how do you get around conveniently?

In the past you could buy a pram. A solid steel pram. It was solid and heavy, and very hard to fold up and put in the car. It was inconvenient. When you were going out you had to allow 20 minutes to get the pram and baby into the car.

But modern technology allows the manufacture of strollers that overcome these problems. They are lighter, fold up much better and are way easier to push, with bigger wheels.

There are about 50 species of Laelia, which are found throughout Central and South America, with a high concentration in Mexico. They divide into several distinct groups depending upon their habits, which vary considerably.

All the species are lovely and extremely showy, but many had been difficult to find in cultivation until recent breeding programs increased the availability of some of the finest types, such as the fabulous varieties of L. purpurata from Brazil.

Good varieties with sweet berries, few thorns and large crops are Pixwell, greenish pink; Poorman, red; and Welcome, pink. Plants will bear berries for 25 years, and a mature plant ordinarily yields 5 to 10 quarts annually.

Tomatoes may also be started from small purchased plants; set them in the garden when seeds or seedlings should be planted outdoors. Indeterminate tomatoes may be allowed to ramble on the ground, or they may be staked; other types are not supported.

Tomatoes, the most popular vegetable for the home garden, are divided into three main types. Small compact plants with stems only 12 to 18 inches long, called determinate, stop bearing once they reach their full size.

Slightly larger plants, talled semideterminate, cease production when their stems become 18 to 24 inches long. The third type, known as indeterminate, consists of wide- ranging vines that grow and bear indefinitely unless they are killed by frost or disease; indeterminate plants are the only tomato plants suitable for staking.

Modern varieties have a built-in resistance to verticillium wilt and fusarium wilt, diseases that can wipe out a crop and for which there are no effective sprays; several varieties are also resistant to nematodes, microscopic pests that eat and weaken tomato plants. The resistance of each variety is indicated by the letter “V” for verticillium wilt, “F” for fusarium wilt or `V” for nematode.

Brassias do well in the company of odontoglossums or in a mixed collection. The plants can be divided when they are large enough, and propagation is from back bulbs. Temperature: Mainly cool-growing.

Vines For gardeners who live in THE CENTRAL STATES

WINTERCREEPER - There are two varieties of this broad leaved vine or ground cover worthy of attention. The first is the purple-leaf wintercreeper, Euonymus Fortunei colorata, whose foliage has a purple cast; the second, the big-leaf wintercreeper, Euonymus Fortunei vegetus, noted for its attractive bright green rounded foliage and bitter sweet like fruit in fall. Both are tolerant of most any soil, prefer a north or east exposure and cling to walls or trees by root-like holdfasts reaching up 25 feet or more. As ground covers they grow a foot or so tall. The nice thing about them is that they will grow in shade and can stand root competition from trees. Regrettably they cannot be recommended for the coldest or the warmest parts of the region.

BALTIC IVY - The hardiest variety of English ivy, Hedem Helix baltica, will climb up walls or tree trunks 25 feet or more and also makes an interesting 3 to 5-inch-deep ground cover. It will grow in practically any soil and prefers a north or east exposure. The foliage is medium sized and prominently veined.

The beauty of orchids is well known - but how do you make sure you are taking care of orchids properly? Well - part of taking care of orchids is choosing the right pot. It can make a different in the orchids growth and its ability to bloom.

Before you even get started potting orchids - it is important to do some investigation into what your species/breed needs. There are 28,000 species of orchids - they do not all like the same thing. Your breed or hybrid may need fir bark, moss, some coconut husk, or some concoction that includes all the above.

Your objective in potting orchids and choosing potting material is to create a support system for the roots of your orchid. The support system needs to provide air movement and structural support for the roots.

Many orchids originate in rain forests. You can imagine how humid it is there! What is really awesome is that orchids can grow on the side of these massive trees. Their roots dangling in the air and drinking up the water. What you can learn from this - do not let your roots be submerged in water for a long period of time. It just isn’t natural for them.

I had watched landscape shows for a couple of years and bought the landscape software determined to get my yard in shape. Yet it wasnt until I got married two years ago that I really got motivated. My wife and I decided we would rather spend the extra money we had on creating a nice space in the yard than going out to eat and movies.

Luckily I knew someone from a local organization that was an experienced landscape designer and my wife agreed to use part of the money we had saved to hire him. Since we wanted to do most of the work ourselves, he helped us by creating a design that we could pull off with some help from friends and family.

After taking the time to listening to us he came back with a very simple plan where we were able to accomplish almost 90% of the work ourselves without a hitch. Laying the patio blocks and getting them even and right was the most difficult thing we had to do and thankfully, we had some much needed help that day.

You’re thinking about re-covering some of the floors in your home, and you’re looking for an inexpensive, but good-looking way to do it. You’ve decided that hardwood flooring looks the best, but it’s so expensive! Well, there’s another option available - Pergo Flooring. It looks so much like hardwood that it’s hard to tell the difference unless you’re an expert — but it costs about half as much as real wood.

Pergo fooring was first introduced in Sweden more than 30 years ago, but only recently made its debut in the United States. After an initial success, Pergo made a deal with Home Depot to carry their line in all of their stores. And now the Pergo name is becoming almost synonymous with laminate flooring.

There are basically three reasons why Pergo became the best selling flooring in the world so quickly. They use only the highest quality materials, installation is simple, and the floor is easy to maintain. Pergo flooring has more design patterns than any other, and it is eco-friendly since it doesn’t use real wood — only wood by-products. And if you are worried about harmful chemicals, Pergo doesn’t use any — not even glue.