Green Real Estate Appraiser

Feast Your Eyes on Edible Gardens

Posted on March 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

As more and more people look to grow their own vegetables and herbs, a question arises: Where to grow them? While a corner of the backyard has been the traditional spot, what do you do if your only sunny spot is in your flower garden, along the driveway or in the middle of the front yard?

Will this add value to your property? Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your value questions.

Fortunately, people are discovering that edible plants are beautiful in their own right and deserve to be the star of the landscape show. As a result, vegetables are growing right alongside their ornamental cousins — even crowding them out to take over as the main landscape feature.

It’s an old idea whose time has come again. Edibles were an essential part of the original English and American cottage gardens and the point of the French potager (kitchen garden). Today you’ll often find vegetables, fruits and herbs in both public and private landscapes all over the world.

See the gardens at: http://sfgate.houzz.com/ideabooks/1741788/list/Feast-Your-Eyes-on-Edible-Gardens/w/sid=1

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Jatropha: The Green Fuel is Awash in Red Ink

Posted on March 25, 2012 | Leave a comment

Money may not grow on trees, but for a time it appeared to grow on bushes – specifically, a tropical shrub called jatropha curcas.

Over the past decade, jatropha was planted on millions of acres across Asia and sub-Saharan Africa after research showed that oil from its crushed seeds makes an excellent biofuel. Because jatropha can tolerate dry, rocky soil unsuited to agriculture, boosters said, subsistence farmers could grow it as a cash crop without denting food production. And with governments worldwide pushing renewable fuels, investors in jatropha-oil ventures looked set to win, too.

So far, the jatropha boom has produced more losers than winners. Many projects have foundered as seed production has failed to meet expectations, and India, China and other countries have scaled back plans for additional planting. Farmers have discovered that while jatropha can indeed grow on barren land, it doesn’t flourish there, says Promode Kant, director of the Institute of Green Economy in New Delhi and co-author of a report titled “The Extraordinary Collapse of Jatropha as a Global Biofuel.”

Says Kant: “Without moisture it does not seed, or it seeds extremely poorly.”

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Solar Panels from China Could Face Tariffs

Posted on March 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

The U.S. Commerce Department plans to slap import tariffs on Chinese-made solar cells in a trade dispute that has strained relations between the two countries and divided the American solar power industry.

The tariffs, proposed Tuesday, follow complaints that the Chinese government has given its solar companies an unfair advantage in the international race to dominate the industry, supplying low-cost loans and land for new factories.

Those factories have swamped the global market with cheap solar cells, slashing the price by 60 percent last year and driving competitors out of business. Three U.S. solar companies, including Fremont’s Solyndra, plunged into bankruptcy in 2011.

disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

Feast Your Eyes on Edible Gardens

Jatropha: The Green Fuel is Awash in Red Ink

Solar Panels from China Could Face Tariffs

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