Well, great. Thank you. It's great to be here. And what a fun topic, flowers. And you know, I enjoy all aspects of gardening. And one thing that I like is that there's something for everybody in gardening, whether you like vegetable gardening or tree shrubs, landscaping, flowers, I like it all. And it's going to be fun today to talk about flowers, growing flowers for fun or profit. And as flowers make our homes and cities just so beautiful, there's so much that we can do. And now humans have a long history with flowers. We've been growing flowers for beautification ever since the days of the ancient Romans and Greeks. And of course, Europe has a long history with flowers. The palaces and public gardens in old Europe were filled with flowers. And many of those same traditions from Europe, their love of flowers came with our immigrants when they came to this country. So many of our ancestors are parents and grandparents, great grandparents. Many of them when they came to this country brought that tradition of enjoying flowers with them. So for many of our early settlers, after they got their houses built and maybe their barns built, then decorating the outside of their homes with flowers was just a natural. In fact, on many old homesteads, you can still find peonies that were planted in the days of the homestead. So we have a long history of enjoying flowers. And they make our yards and businesses so beautiful. And in many ways, flowers just make summer come alive for us, just natural. Now, whether we're growing flowers for fun or for profit, many of the principles are the same. The growing principles, the care that the flowers take are much the same, whether you're growing flowers in your backyard, or whether you're growing them acres and acres for a livelihood, the basic care is very much the same. Now, when we talk about flowers, there are really two broad categories of flowers, annual flowers and perennials. So we're going to talk about those two types today. There's actually a third type called the biennial, but there aren't many flowers that are actually like that. Those are ones that live only two years specifically. So let's talk a little bit about each of the main types of categories. Now, annual flowers, annual flowers are types of flowers that just live for one growing season. And what they do is they grow, produce the flower, then they make a seed head, and then their purpose in life is done, they die over winter. So annual flowers just live for the one growing season. Oftentimes, they're referred to as simply as annuals or bedding plants. Now, take a look at the photo of marigolds. Notice the dry flowers, and those dried flowers are going to produce a seed pod. And that is an annuals goal in life is to produce that seed pod. We're going to talk about removing those later. So it's interesting the life of an annual flower. The next category are perennial flowers. Oftentimes in flower gardening, there's some people called perennials. Now those are plants that live for two or more years. Their plants that died to the ground are in winter and then come back in the spring. So perennial flowers living more than just seeds. And if we take a look at, if we take a look at annual flowers, a few more growing things about annual flowers. Annual flowers are really unparalleled in color and excitement. There's just so many different types, the colors, the heights. A fascinating thing about annual flowers is that they produce their bloom for most of the growing season. They start blooming early and continue right on through till frost. That's one of the main advantages is that they have that long summertime of bloom. And of course, one of the disadvantages is that they do need to be replanted each year. So if we take a look at some of the growing techniques for annual flowers first, one of the key points is to fit the annual flowers into whether they like sun or shade. So on the left side, the zinnias are sun loving. They can take a full all day sun. On the right side are the impatience. And impatience and some other types of annuals prefer the shade. So it's a key point to fit the flowers into their preferred light, whether sun, shade or part. For full sun, those flowers should really have a full eight hours of sunlight each day. Now let's take a look at some ways that we could use our annual flowers. Of course, you could do a flower bed composed completely of annual flowers. That's fun. The entire flower bed you can create it very nicely with totally annuals. Or another good way is to combine annuals with perennial flowers. Annuals work very well tucked in between the perennial flowers. We'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. A third way to use annuals are in containers. Our pots and planters, we can use those on apartment balconies, decks, doorsteps. The nice thing about annuals in containers is that we can use those in spots that you don't have soil for a flower bed. You can still decorate and have the advantages of flowers even without needing a regular flower bed. Let's talk a little bit about using annual flowers in a flower bed. Annual flowers love organic material. When you start the annual flower bed, if you work in organic material, things such as compost or peat moss, bags of manure work well. You can add up to about three inches of that material over the flower bed and work that in. And then when you plant those annuals are really going to enjoy that. On how to plan a flower bed, an annual flower bed, you could put those in rows as we see on the photo to the left. Annuals in rows are very beautiful. That gives kind of a little more of a formal look. And in some spots that it really looks well. Another way on the right side, the lower right side photo, shows annuals used in a little more of a random pattern. And now I like to say it's a random pattern, but yet we plan the randomness. For example, we need to take a look at the height. If we take a look at the plant tag to see the height of the annual flowers. So that generally you're using the taller material to the back and the shorter growing material toward the front. But even in kind of a random natural, that can give a very good look too. Another point about annual flower beds is the fall cleanup. And of course, since annual flowers do not come back each year from the roots, in the fall it's wise to clean them up. If you wait until the next spring, oftentimes the tops have become kind of limp and more difficult to deal with. One thing that I've enjoyed doing in our own annual flower beds in the fall is simply running over them with a lawnmower. That might sound a little funny, but after they've been killed by frost, you can chop up that material and return it back into the soil. It makes a good organic material. So setting your lawnmower fairly high and mowing over several times that grinds it up good. Now, if any of the material was diseased, for example, if it had the grayish powdery mildew, we should remove that and not work that back in to the soil. So a good way to return that material back and that helps to improve our soils. Perennials combine very well with perennials. So that's another good way to use annual flowers. Take a look in the photo of how the green hosta are interplanted with impatience, both like shade. And notice how the colorful red impatience give pops of color in that. So a wonderful use of annual flowers is in amongst perennials. Another way, of course, that we mentioned about using annual flowers is in containers. And there's a fun way to design a container. And it's kind of easy to remember it's with a designing with a thriller, a spiller and a filler. Now, the thriller is something eye catching. For example, take a look at the photo. The caladiums, which are kind of the pinkish red larger leafed plant. The caladiums would be considered a thriller, something to kind of catch the eye, something that makes the planter pop. And a spiller would be the sweet potato vine, which is the light bright green material. The spillers spill over the edges of the container, giving a nice pleasing natural look. And the third thing is a filler. The purple leafed material is called purple heart. And the purple heart kind of spreads and fills in. There are a few other plants in the container too. But anytime you have a chance to design and plan your pots and planters, try doing it with a thriller, a spiller and a filler. It gives a nice look. Another tip about growing annual flowers is that they're considered heavy feeders, meaning that they like a lot of nutrition. And it does take a lot of nutrition in order to keep blooming as long as the annual flowers should. Now a couple of ways we can produce or provide that nutrition. In a flower bed, you could incorporate a fertilizer, either a chemical type or an organic fertilizer. You can incorporate those that at planting time. A couple of other fertilizer types. If you notice on the left hand slide is a product that is a slow release fertilizer. That works very well for pots and planters. The label tells how much to apply to a certain diameter pot. And that type of slow release fertilizer will give nutrition for a month. Oftentimes the entire growing season. On the right hand of the screen we see the water soluble type of fertilizer. And that works very well too. Now if you read the directions on the slow release granules, the directions oftentimes say that you can supplement that with the water soluble type fertilizer. So you can use both. Water soluble type should probably be applied every two weeks or so. So that nutrition is very important for keeping annual flowers blooming as long as possible throughout the summer. Another tip for growing annual flowers and keep them blooming as long as we can, is a process called deadheading in garden terminology. And deadheading means that you remove the spent or withered flowers before they set a seed pod. See as we mentioned before an annuals purpose in life is to flower, produce seed, and then die. If we can prevent seed pod formation the annuals will continue blooming and trying for much longer. So to remove that seed head it's important not just to remove the withered flower petals, but to remove the enlargement at the base. For example the petunia seed head on the right hand. If we just take off the withered flowers we are not getting the seed pod. So it's important to go right below the withered flower petals and remove that seed pod. That's the type we're trying to prevent so the annuals will keep blooming. Well how do we go about getting our annual flowers? How do we obtain them? Well one way is to visit garden centers and to buy transplants. Oftentimes these are sold in multiple packs such as the petunias and vinca or the marigolds and vinca shown here. They may be sold in six packs or four packs oftentimes called cell packs. Another way to buy annual flowers at garden centers is in individual pots. Many of the plants that are sold for container gardening are sold in individual pots as well. Another fun way to get your annual flowers is by starting them yourself from seed indoors. And my wife Mary and I enjoy doing that. This is me transplanting petunia seedlings grown from lights in our basement fluorescent lights. So it makes a fun hobby too. So we can grow our own annuals started from seed indoors. A third method is direct seeding flowers outdoors. Now that's not the preferred way because it takes a long time for annual flowers to germinate and grow a green plant and begin blooming. So if you plant flower seed directly outdoors into a flower bed in the soil, oftentimes they won't start blooming until maybe well into July or August. There are some very fast growing types that that does work for. Some of those are Zinnia, Cosmos, four o'clock grow fast and maybe sometimes marigolds. Nestertium is another one. Other than possibly those, it's wise to start with plants that have already been started. In fact, each of these types also, Zinnia, Cosmos, marigolds, four o'clock, they can all be planted from pre-started plants and then they bloom that much quicker. Now let's go on and talk about perennial flowers and some of the tips for growing perennials. Now perennial flowers are plants that live for two or more years. And sometimes the perennials that we grow in our flower beds are called herbaceous perennials. And that's because the tops die back to ground level each winter and then they come back from the base. Now trees and shrubs are perennials too because they live from year to year. Those are called woody perennials because they burst forth, they bud forth from the woody tops each year. So perennials that are considered winter hardy for our region each year they're coming from ground level. And of course that is a key point winter hardy. Perennials vary greatly in their ability to survive in a given region. Now our hardiness zones are U.S. Department of Agriculture hardiness zones. Most of us in North Dakota and Minnesota are considered in zones three and four. Most of us are zone four, zone three in the northern reaches. So when a person is choosing perennials to plant it's important to look for those that would be winter hardy in hardiness zones three and four. So they need to really survive winters down to about 35 degrees below zero. And so those will be winter hardy perennials. Well those winter hardy perennials are coming back ground level each year. And if we were to dig up perennials we find that there are some several different structures below ground from which they are arising. And one way as shown in the picture is some perennials grow from a very fibrous root system, very fibrous. And sometimes when you're reading garden books or magazines you'll hear the term the crown of perennials. And the crown is the area between the roots and the above ground stems when they grow. And that's important to tell where the crown is because that's the point if you want to divide a perennial we divide down through the crown of the perennial. So good term to know. Other perennials grow from a bulb the structure that's coming back each year for example hardy lilies. When we dig those up we would find that they're coming from a bulb and the hardy types of lilies that bulb is winter hardy enough so it survives well. And so each year they come back from a bulb underneath yet other structures that are surviving underneath look at these iris. The enlarged portion is actually a modified stem called rhizome. So iris grow back each year from a rhizome. The true roots are below that rhizome, kind of fun botany. Now some of the underground structures from which plants grow are not fully hardy. These are gladiolus corms and they aren't winter hardy enough to last. If we were way down south in the United States we might be hardy. These might be hardy enough to last over winter. But in our area these structures such as gladiolus need to be dug each fall about the time of frost and then brought and stored in indoors. And then each spring we could plant them back out again. In that category besides gladiolus are the canas and dahlias, tubers, begonias, things such as that. They kind of act like a perennial if we dig them up store them and then plant them out.  Now they can be in a flower bed all their own that looks beautiful. We also mentioned they can be combined with annual flowers and that looks great too. Now notice how good these perennial tulips look in the landscape. Perennials not just tulips but almost all types of perennials could be planted in amongst the shrubbery in our foundation plantings. And that gives color. Many of our shrubs you know don't have much blooming but annual perennials added can give very nice color to our landscapes. Another thing that's very important is to consider the lifespan of a perennial. Now even though all perennials live two years or more some of them have longer lives than others. So some are long lived some are short lived. Now take a look at the peonies down kind of in the left hand portion of the photo. Now perennial peonies have been known to live for centuries even in North Dakota. There are many pioneer peonies still living. So peonies have a very long life some such as bleeding heart, hospita, day lily, iris, long lived perennials. Other types of perennials such as the Delphinium here have a shorter lifespan. They may live for three to five years then sometimes they need replacement or digging and dividing. Even though they have a shorter lifespan they're certainly worth planting they're beautiful aren't they? But we should keep in mind that certain perennials have long lives and others have a shorter lives and so then we replant as we need. For successful perennial bed it's very important to combine a number of different types of plants. The reason for that is that most perennials have a certain bloom time. Most of them bloom for a two to six week period either in spring and early summer or mid summer or fall. So when planning a perennial flower bed it's important to choose types from each of those blooming seasons. So choose some perennials that bloom early spring some in mid summer some in fall and by doing that you'll have color throughout and if you locate in a perennial bed locate some of those from each blooming season kind of throughout then your perennial bed will be always changing and it will look nice and have bloom throughout the summer. One of the beauties of a perennial flower garden is that it's continually changing as the different types bloom. There are few if any perennial flowers that bloom from spring until frost. Most of them have their specific bloom period and that's why we combine the different types. Just like we did with annual flowers with perennial flowers we need to examine the type of light that they preferred. Some perennials love the shade such as on the left side the hosta and bleeding heart and ferns. They love the shade and that's where they do their best. Other perennials like the iris on the right side need full sun in order to bloom their best. And so when deciding what to plant and where to plant it make sure that we investigate the light requirements. For example if the sunny iris were put in the shade they just don't bloom as well and hosta that like the shade they certain types of hosta might not do well in the sun. Now perennials give us a chance to be patient. Now perennials it does take them a few years to develop a root system and a structure in which they can burst forth in bloom. So many perennials will take up to about three years and then in that third year they'll begin their nice full bloom that we're accustomed to and then they'll bloom strongly thereafter. But that gives us a chance the first few years to be patient and they're well worth waiting for. Nearly all perennials love soil that has been amended with organic material such as peat moss, compost, bags of manure. Now perennials since they like organic materials so much can be planted into soil in which we've already added the organic material. At plant for example if you're starting a brand new perennial bed we can incorporate those materials from the start. Even if we have an existing perennial bed that maybe doesn't have much organic matter in the soil we can add handfuls and then kind of work that in around. Perennials grow much better in a soil rich in organics. And it's always important too to check the height and the width of perennials so that we don't locate short growing perennials behind the tall ones. So we should kind of plan our perennial beds so that we are situating them right. Very important is to look at the width or the spread of each perennial type so that we give each of them the footprint that they need in order to develop and grow so that our perennial beds don't become crowded. Now when you first develop a perennial bed the first year of planting it's maybe going to look a little bit skimpy because we're allowing the room for them to grow and develop. A good technique is to during that first year especially maybe put some annual flowers in between the blank spaces just to kind of give a person something more to look at while the perennials are developing. Mulch is very important in a perennial bed. We mentioned that perennials like a soil rich in organic material. They also tend to like a cooler soil and a good layer of mulch three to five inches of wood product mulch does wonders can even be combos does wonders for keeping the soil cool. It helps conserve moisture. Also it helps diminish the weeds. Now a common question is should we be adding landscape fabric under that mulch. Now perennials do grow better if they just have the mulch applied over the soil without the landscape fabric landscape fabric can be used on perennials. But the perennials seem to like it better without plus if weeds get started through that landscape fabric makes a little more difficult. So just a good layer of mulch over the soil in a perennial bed and we don't necessarily need the landscape fabric. We mentioned in annual flowers the importance of deadheading to remove the withered blossoms. And that's equally important with perennial flowers because forming a seed pod is an energy drain and the energy instead of going to seed pod formation which they don't need that energy can go into forming a better plant structure. And it can go into energy for the plants so that they will bloom better the following year. So as soon as the blossoms wither and before the seed pod is enlarging remove the withered blossom including the seed pod. Now when Mary and I had our greenhouse business sometimes customers would ask for perennials because they wanted to do something with which they didn't have to work any longer. And that's kind of a nice idea in theory but actually perennials aren't necessarily less work than annuals. It's true that you don't need to plant them each year but some of the things such as weeding can actually be a little more difficult. Some of the perennial type weeds establish closely within the crown of perennials. Dandelions are a good example. Quackgrass, thistles can easily become embedded in the central crown of perennials. That makes getting rid of weeds a little bit of a challenge but if we keep with them we can persist. Now ways to control weeds in a perennial flowerbed we can hand dig. If a person makes the rounds several times a week you can get some of these weeds when they're young. I like to think of that as giving us a chance to view the flowers and then you pull some weeds or dig them out as you're working. Another way is the mulch that we mentioned. If you put mulch and for weed control it really has to be about five inches thick. Mulch can help suppress weeds. There are some weed preventative products. One commonly seen on the market is one called preen, P-R-E-E-N preen. Now those are products that need to be applied. They're usually granules that are applied to flowerbed soil but the flowerbed soil has to be weed free. They prevent weed seeds from sprouting and they can help reduce, not totally eliminate but sometimes reduce the hand weeding. If some of the perennial weeds become established we can spot spray with an herbicide but great care needs to be taken because most of the herbicide chemicals that would kill weeds would also injure perennials. Weed control in perennials can be a whole topic for a whole series as well. Let's talk about dividing perennials, digging and dividing. Now sometimes perennials as they grow become quite large in a clump. There's a way to tell if your perennials need digging and dividing and that's to look at the center of the clump. If the good healthy parts of the perennial are all on the outside perimeter and if the center of the clump has become old and woody and not growing it's a good sign that the perennial should be dug and divided. We dig it up, take the good parts, the vigorous parts from the edges and then reset that. Now some perennials like iris which are in the upper left hand corner on the screen, iris benefit from dividing about every four years. You just dig them up and then reset a good healthy clump. On the right hand side in the photo are peonies. They can last many decades and as long as they're growing and blooming and the plant looks healthy there's really no need to dig and divide if the plant looks healthy. Now how do we know what season to dig and divide our perennials? Maybe you've heard that some need dividing in the fall and September, some in the spring. How do we know? There's an easy rule of thumb to remember and that is the time to dig and divide a perennial is the season opposite its bloom time. For example, if a perennial blooms in spring or early summer, you divide in the fall. An example would be tulips. If you're dividing tulip bulbs, which bloom in the spring, you do that in the fall. Also peonies, which bloom in early summer, late spring, early summer, peonies are always divided in the fall in September. In the central photo we see mums, chrysanthemums, which are a beautiful fall blooming perennial. Now, since they bloom in the fall, mums are always divided in the spring. So you choose the season opposite of the bloom time. If the bloom happens to be in the middle of summer, then what do we do? For example, tall flocks that bloom in July and August. Generally those are done in the spring time. So what forms do we buy perennials in? Well, let's take a look. On the left hand side, we see dormant roots. And sometimes you can buy dormant roots of perennials in the spring of the year and sometimes in the fall of the year. Things such as hosta and daylilies, peonies, those are oftentimes sold as dormant bare roots. Other ways of obtaining perennials in the picture, the central lower, we see perennials that are already growing in pots as would be sold in a garden center. So that's a good way to get a start on perennials. On the right hand side, some of the perennials are planted from a bulb, such as tulip bulbs. And lily bulbs are sometimes also planted. You can buy potted lilies, but oftentimes you just plant the dormant bulb. I might mention a fourth way to get perennials, and that's if you get divisions from a friend or a neighbor. You can dig at the appropriate dividing time and get your start that way as well. Let's talk a little bit about what we do with a perennial bed in the fall. In the fall, we used to think that a perennial bed should be cleaned up in the fall, get it all cleaned up. But then we discovered that perennial flowers actually survive winter best if the tops, the above ground portion, if the tops are left on over winter. Now take a look at the photo. Isn't that pretty? There's beauty in the tops of perennial flowers, even in the winter. Of course, if we get deep snow, then you don't see them for salon. But isn't that beautiful? Even in the fall and winter, a perennial garden, the mixture of browns can be really, really quite pretty. But the main concept, of course, is that they survive winter better. The tops help to catch snow, which is a great insulator. And so the winter survival is almost always best if you just leave the tops on, don't clean them up in the fall and then remove the tops by cutting back in the spring before the new growth starts emerging from the ground. Now there are a couple of types of perennials that should be cut back in the fall. And one of those is peonies. A peonies tend to harbor the grayish powdery mildew disease and cutting the tops back to about an inch above ground level in the fall after frost and disposing of those tops instead of leaving them lay. But disposing of them, that can help reduce the disease. A couple of other types of perennials that do benefit from cutting back in the fall are hosta, daylilies, and iris. The reason for that is after they freeze and get a little snow, the tops just kind of turn to mush over winter. And next spring it's a little difficult to clean those up. So those types, iris, hosta, daylily, we may as well cut those back in the fall. But the rest of the tops really are best left on. Now if you have some perennials that might be a little tender or maybe the first year until they really get established, they can benefit from a covering of leaves. These leaves are straw, a good layer of 12 to 24 inches placed over the perennials. Now it's important to wait until the ground has frozen. So protective mulches would usually be put on in November, the first half of November. The object of a winter mulch is to keep the perennials comfortably frozen and to prevent freezing and thawing. If we put the mulch on ground that is warm and thawed, the perennial crowns can actually rot under that. So we let the ground freeze and then apply the protective mulch and that keeps them what I like to call comfortably frozen for the winter time. And then that protective mulch would be removed in spring before any growth would start from below. Now these same principles apply really if you're growing annuals and perennials for fun or if you're growing them for profit. And it's kind of fun to see flower farms where they're growing acres and acres, flowers are oftentimes grown for cut flowers. So a few ways that if you would like to grow flowers for profit, there's a few ways you can do that. Now there's a high demand for cut flowers at farmers markets and also we can wholesale them to florists. Some types that work very, very well for cutting are the gladiolas shown here. Gladiolas, they store well, keep well and that really works well. Another way that a person can make profit from flowers would be to start a greenhouse, smaller, large, and raise the bedding plants for sale in a greenhouse. You would be starting from seed and transplanting into cell packs to create a finished pack of flowers such as the marigolds or petunias or tomato plants that we would buy at a garden center. Or another alternative for growing flowers for profit would be to grow them such as in a field situation for the underground structures. Let me give an example. If we have a peony root, we could divide that peony root into small sections. Each one needs to have several of the buds or eyes down below in the roots, but we could take a large peony, divide it up into sections, plant those out. Then in another year, dig those up, multiply them, and eventually we would have quite a few peony roots that we could dig and sell. The same thing could be done with hosta or daylilies. We can multiply them in a field situation and then dig, divide, and sell those. Now anytime we would be doing some of these things, it would be important to check with the State Department of Agriculture to see if there are any restrictions or guidelines when growing some of these things for profit or end sale. Well now, so whether we're growing annuals or perennials and whether we're doing it for fun or profit, growing flowers is fun. I have enjoyed it my entire lifetime.  They mean a lot to us, especially after kind of a long winter. Now I will open up for questions and Scott, are you able to share the questions with me? Yes, Don, I can read them to you from the chat or if you want to click on the bottom next to the share button is the chat button too and you could go ahead and read them. I think there's only one that's come through so far. On my computer, I'm not seeing the chat box so if you wouldn't mind reading them that would be great. Yeah, that's fine and this person actually sent it privately to me anyways or thought they were sending it to Julie. So if anybody sends them to Don personally, he won't see them. But yeah, go ahead and send your chat messages, type them down in the bottom right hand corner. Make sure it says everyone and then just go ahead and type and then I will read them to Don. So first one, Don. What annual flowers can we start indoors now from seed for a zone three climate? What annual flowers can we start indoors from seed? The important concept when starting annual flowers indoor from seed is to check the preferred recommended starting date. If we start annual flowers in the same holds true with vegetable plants, if we start them from seed too early, the plants tend to get too large and languish indoors. So for most annual flowers, they begin the earliest to begin would be about March 1 seeding things such as petunias about March 1 then about March 15 would be items like marigolds. And my wife and I enjoy starting these plants under fluorescent lights in our own basement. And so for quite a number of years we've kind of used that calendar. So beginning about March 1, the only items that would require starting earlier because they take a long time to grow one would be begonias, begonia seed. They could be started now in February. And also one called Lysianthus, beautiful annual flower, but takes a long time to grow from seed would be really January. And if you were to grow geraniums from seed, really January also, but most geraniums we are grown more like from cuttings and bought from a greenhouse so starting geraniums from seed isn't as common. I might might mention too, at the end, Scott, if we share my like email address, I can certainly provide the calendar of when to start some of these things but as a rule, March 1, March 15, and then April 1 is when things such as zinnias would be started from the first of the 15th. Yeah, I'll go ahead and drop your email down in the chat here. Okay, so the next question from Kristen was, do you make any special considerations for deer when choosing perennials? Yes, now that's a great, great question. Any special considerations for deer. And I've battled deer for, well, let's see, probably 40 years or so, and repellents are kind of hit and miss some work, some don't. Now it's interesting also, sometimes a person will see published lists of deer, deer proof plants, whether it be annuals or perennials, deer proof.  And what I've noticed is some of the plants on those lists that are supposedly deer proof, I've experienced deer eating them. So, you know, it's personal preference on the deer's taste. But some things that they particularly enjoy, deer seem to love hosta, and they love lilies. But to plant certain materials and not have the deer affect them usually doesn't work. The better ways are to try to use some of the most effective repellents. And the most effective repellents, there's a couple of types. One, the ingredients are rotten eggs, garlic, and so it sounds kind of funny. But those are the ingredients in the repellents, such as the one called liquid fence, liquid fence. Another ingredient that is in some of the other products is blood, and a product called plant skid, plant skid, is a repellent that has blood in it. So if a person kind of looks at the ingredients, those are the two types. And of course, repellents have to be applied fairly regularly. And so deer are definitely a problem. And but there are really no deer proof perennials as such. Okay, thanks. From Charlotte, she asks, Can you dig and divide hollyhocks? Dig and divide hollyhocks. Now, we mentioned how perennials are flowers. Most flowers come are in two broad categories, perennials and annuals. There is actually a third one called biennials that grow one year and flower the next, second, then die, biennial, meaning two. Hollyhocks are a biennial, meaning they grow the first season, then produce a flower stock the second, but they also drop their seed. So at any time in a hollyhock flower bed, you usually have new little seedlings coming up. So they kind of act like a perennial. So instead of digging and dividing, you're actually digging up little seedlings. So yes, in the spring of the year, if you see little, they're probably actually seedlings. But if you see those around kind of what was the original plant, yes, in spring as soon as you see a little growth, then you can reset those. And also, if some of the older plants too that maybe haven't exceeded their two year, you can dig and divide that. So the answer is yes, you can be separating and dividing hollyhocks as well. All right. Next one here is from Lila. In regard to mulch in perennial beds, can annuals densely planted among the perennials take the place of mulch? That's a great question. She answered that. Doesn't break down of woody mulch, deplete some nitrogen, although I understand eventually that isn't an issue. Okay, so let's talk about mulch on perennial flowers. We mentioned three to five inches of wood product mulch, and in time that will decompose. And right on the surface, a person would probably see a little bit of nitrogen depletion because you see the organisms that decompose the wood use a little nitrogen in the process. But it wouldn't sap enough nitrogen out of the root system to show any measurable effect. So generally, wood mulch does not adversely affect the nutrient content. A person could add some 10, 10, 10 well-balanced fertilizer just for good measure or an organic type fertilizer.  Now that's a good question about using annuals in amongst perennials. That's a good idea. Most annual flowers don't have a root system that will be that vigorous because they only grow for one season. So most annual flowers have a fairly mild root system in most cases. So they blend well with perennials. The advantage of some annuals in amongst the that would shade the root system, keeping the perennial roots shade ear and conserve moisture. And plus the use of annuals among perennials kind of bridges the bloom time because most of the annuals bloom most of the summer season. So annuals and perennials are very compatible. So yeah, good idea. Okay, thanks. The next one is from Diane. She's asking, when do you transplant rhubarb? When do you transplant rhubarb? Great question. Rhubarb, the old time-honored method is digging and dividing rhubarb in the fall around Labor Day, September, around Labor Day. That works beautifully. The second time that it can be dug and divided is in early spring just as a little bit of growth is starting to poke out of the ground. So probably late April, maybe the first part of May, depending on the season, just as soon as you see a little bit of life so you can kind of see what you're digging and dividing, that is secondary time. Okay, next one's from, I'm not sure if I'm saying the name right, but Barrel. What time of the year would you recommend to start Cleome from seed indoors? Cleome from seed, that's in a few, if you aren't familiar with Cleome or Cleomy, look at that beautiful tall annual flower. We enjoy growing that each year. And Cleomy usually started about the 1st of April, the 1st of the 15th of April. Cleomy grows fairly rapidly, so we don't want to start it too early. Now Cleomy is interesting. The germination improves if you put the seed in the refrigerator for two to three weeks before your planting time. So that can help improve the germination also on Cleome. Okay, well there's two more here. Does the same sprays apply for deer repellents also to rabbits in the landscape? Yes, deer repellents and rabbit repellents, the most effective ones work for both. And in most cases they need to be reapplied after heavy rain. Most of them have the ones that I mentioned, such as liquid fence or plant skid. I think another one is called deer away. Those products have kind of a spread or sticker type material. So in most cases they'll last about a month or after heavy drenching rain. And for rabbits, anytime we can do some fencing with chicken wire sized fencing, that will also help too. Okay, a couple more have come in here. When is the best time, I'm assuming time, when is the best to transplant a Chinese peony? Chinese peony, a wonderful group of peonies slightly different from our old fashioned type. But Chinese peonies really the fall is a good time with those as well. September. Around Labor Day is a great time for peonies, either the Fernleaf type, Fernleaf or Memorial Day on the Chinese type peonies, the other species type peonies as well as the old fashioned. September seems to work quite well about Labor Day. Okay, have, wait here I missed one there from Leslie. How do I work wood chip mulch into my garden already established perennials? All right, the wood chips if they're actually fairly, if they're wood chips with a fair amount of structure yet, it's better not to incorporate those down into the soil too far. For the reason we mentioned a couple questions ago, because in the rotting process, the little organisms will borrow some nitrogen fertilizer from the surrounding plants. So it's better to let wood chips that have some substance just remain on the surface and decompose. Other products, organic products that are more broken down, compost, peat moss, things such as that, those are the types that can be worked down into the upper 68 inches of soil. But the types of wood products that are more substantial should stay on the surface until they break down. Okay, have you had any luck starting Lantana from seed? Lantana, no. You know, on my bucket list is to have experienced as many things plant wise as I can. And I've never grown Lantana from seed. Now some Lantanas are propagated from cuttings, many of the type that are grown and sold by a greenhouse. So Lantana, I don't have any words of wisdom on Lantana. That's right. Is it okay to plant herbs among the flowers? Herbs among flowers. It would depend on the types of herbs. And of course, herbs fall into also two categories. Some are perennials that come back from the roots. Others are just annual herbs that live for one season. And they would do well among perennials except the types that would be invasive. Some of the mint type herbs are very invasive and could become too competitive. So other than mints, chives can become, they can seed themselves and become too spreading. So avoid the types that would be too invasive. And but noninvasive type herbs would do well in perennials and beds. Alrighty. Do we need to be concerned with copyrighted plants? Copyrighted plants. Plants that have patents, which is fairly common now, a lot of the annual plants that we would buy and put in our plant, or as many of those are patented, and some of the perennials that we plant are patented. And so a person does need to be aware of that. And as a rule of thumb, any plant that is patented, you cannot propagate and sell the propagations. Using it for your own use is usually permitted, but definitely not to propagate a patented plant for a resale. So a person would need to check on if the particular plant you had was patented. Alright. Last one here. Any recommendations on good places to buy seed starting supplies? Seed starting supplies. It's fairly, fairly easy to do a search on the internet for seed starting supplies, as you ask. And there are a couple of good companies. One, let's say, I hope I get the name right. I believe it's Gardner supply or growing supply. And many of these seed catalogs also have seed starting supplies. And I've also had very good success buying seed starting supplies at the local garden centers. Some of the home improvement stores also supply them. But garden centers have good seed starting supplies, things such as the lights that would go above. You can use regular fluorescent lights. But also the heating pads. Bottom heat is very important when starting seeds indoors. And garden centers sell heat pads, especially made for putting trays of germinating seeds. Alright. I spoke too soon. There was one comment and one more question here, and then maybe we'll wrap it up. The one comment was that her fern leaf peony grows beautifully in the spring, blooms beautifully, then turns brown and withers and comes back the next year. So I think she's just saying that it gets kind of smothered by the surrounding plants. Yes, fern leaf peony, which are a very beautiful type species of peony. And that's kind of the way that they grow. They will come up early, bloom beautifully, but then that's what they tend to do. A bleeding heart tends to do the same too.  One thing that a person can do, you don't need to do anything about that because it's natural, is to plant some annual flowers, not so much that they'd smother them or detract, but just plant some in the near vicinity so it gives something else to look at for the remainder of the summer. All right. Oh, the hydrangeas. So Carol has strawberry, vanilla, and limelight hydrangeas, and they're bent over by the heavy snow. Are there any ideas for them? Yeah. Let's see, and there are two categories of hydrangeas. Some come back from ground level each year, the big, great, big, round white-flowered ones. So if the tops bend, no problem, they come back from the ground anyway. But the types that were mentioned, such as vanilla strawberry, they leaf out each year from the above ground branches, and they can take a good, severe pruning. So if you can now, if they're bending too much, if you can go do some pruning on them to try to make them less top-heavy. I think after all this snow, this winter, I think we're going to have a fair amount of pruning, myself included. So try to do a little bit of pruning, maybe two, so they're quite so rambly and top-heavy that might help.


Welcome to my talk. It's almost 10.50 here in Berlin and I'm very happy to see that you have attended to my talk using blockchain to reduce electronic waste or e-waste and make recycling commercially viable. My name is Nina Schmulius. I am the speaker today for the next 20 minutes and then we go quickly into a Q&A. Before I start, I just like to thank the Hyperledger community, the Linux Foundation and the sponsors Accenture and IBM for inviting me to speak here. I think the Hyperledger community is an incredible community. I've joined over the last weeks the Hyperledger special interest groups and they're amazing people and if you want to learn more about Hyperledger, I can really recommend to join those groups. So the next thing before I start is unfortunately my system faces some weird problems with platform hoping. So my camera might drop off in between the talk and I might be even quitted out of the talk because the hoping platform is a little bit too much for my system and I kindly ask you to stay in the talk. I will be back soon and I also apologize for this more or less unprofessional frame with the PDF. It's the best settlement I could do with the hoping platform not to overload the system. Yeah, so let's get started. To give you a quick impression, what we are talking about in the next 20 minutes is, of course, I'm very interested who is joining the talk and I want like to share about me and what is my background, why I'm here today. Then I want to talk to you why we need change, what is the problems or what are the problems linked to e-waste, what could be the solution or the solutions and let's talk blockchain of course. We're in a blockchain forum here and of course I want to give you an insight about the impact we could make. While I'm talking you see on the right side you see a bar with a possibility to chat. I would like to invite you to chat to make contact with each other. Please share your name, please share where your background a bit about what you're doing and of course if you like the town that you are in and I would like to see that later on and please just connect to each other because this is also a network community event and that's why we are here isn't it so. So let me give you a quick introduction about my background. I'm a writer, a lecturer in Switzerland and also the founder of 7479C, a startup that is connected to the problems of e-waste but today I'm speaking to you mostly as a citizen, as a citizen of this planet and I feel the urge to address my problems that I especially have with the topic of e-waste to you today to inspire you and yeah to bring some new hopefully new information about e-waste and things that are connected to it and I'm very happy to be part of your community today. Let's jump directly into the e-waste why we need change and why I'm talking about e-waste I now want you to imagine you stand in front of a massive cruise ship you may have seen them lying in harbour maybe you have traveled with with one in your lifetime so you know how impressive and how massive those ships are and it's just one but I now want you to imagine you stand in front of 350 cruise ships and now your mind is a little bit like this one isn't it so why I'm telling that 350 cruise ships is exactly the amount of e-waste reproduced in one year in 2019 accordingly to the global e-waste monitor a report from united nations it's a number isn't it so so and only or less than 20 percent of this amount was collected and professional recycled what is e-waste in general to give you a quick information about that e-waste is everything that is temperature exchange equipment such as fridges or air conditioners but it's also screen and monitors of course it's lamps large equipment for example large printers in company small equipment like calculators but also small it and yeah your laptop or your smartphone that's what what e-waste defines so I said before only 20 percent is recycled or even less than 20 percent so the question is what is happening to the other 80 percent isn't it so and sorry but we don't know entirely yet what we know so far is that there is a lot of movement of e-waste mostly from high income countries to low income countries I just gave you here an example you just can see the example of the US so the US ships a lot of e-waste outside to countries like India Brazil to Nigeria to Ghana yeah this is what we somehow know it's not totally totally clear but that is what we somehow know about the movement of e-waste so what is the problem or what causes such a movement is environmental or waste colonialism what we mean by environmental or waste colonialism this is scientific definition is all movement from high income to low income countries and I gave you the example of the US but of course US is not the only country who does it right so it's all here in Germany we do nearly the same but it also I mean waste colonism is also the the kind of that you know about that waste is shipped out like I like you see here in the quote Malaysia sent 4 000 tons of plastic trash back to rich countries but it's also not only about the trash that is going around it's also about that indigenous people are suffering from the moment that we need raw materials a lot and they suffer from displacement so it's sad to say but I'm also a smartphone user so I also have two laptops here in front of me to to get this presentation ongoing but it's said to say buying a new smartphone or laptop accelerates environmental or waste colonialism until now the second problem linked to e-waste is climate change smartphones and laptops contain a lot of precious metals such as gold and silver right and mining those raw materials accelerates global warming raw materials are also becoming scarce and 80 to 90 percent of our raw materials are coming only from China since pandemic started this has led to many problems like delays in supply chain or even delivery um yeah late deliveries of electronic devices unfortunately we're still doing this raw material mining so you can say okay our smartphones our laptops accelerate climate change a very short version but it is that way but it's not only that we have this massive problems like environmental or waste colonialism or climate change that we face as citizens of our planet also businesses change a lot of shifts and new needs since the past years one of course it's also climate change businesses always say yeah why should I care for climate change I mean I don't have a problem here right but that's not true so um as you see I brought you some quotes from Forbes and CNN business and climate change is really cost intensive for businesses so if businesses would realize say okay we do something against climate change it would be less expensive for them also businesses nowadays face a lot of requirements in the environmental social and governance sector such as fair labor conditions let me give you one example the best is the food industry or the fashion industry more than 80 of consumers pay attention if a product is sustainable that's one of my favorite topics the plant obsolescence you see here this beautiful light bulb which is the oldest light bulb on planet it still hangs in a fire station somewhere in us and it's still you can still watch it burning so you can see the live videos there so you know 100 years ago the companies decided to go for plant obsolescence and of course this is also a major threat or a major problem of e-waste right because it accelerates already e-waste another topic I found out during my research for the past two years about e-waste is that consumer do not know about the value of their waste so this is pretty I just point to myself because I have three old laptops at home and also three old smartphones right so it's it's not about you only it's also about absolutely me so what is the the the facts behind I found out during my research of course there are already solutions such as fairphone or google came up with the google era project right which could be easily to switch components once they are broken but um due to my experience of 20 years in marketing and corporate communications I know that people buy lifestyles right I'm the best example I love apple and I have everything of apple right so I never switch sorry to another system right that's it people buy lifestyles they buy systems not solutions unfortunately another thing that is a threat or a problem linked to e-waste is the hibernation so as I said before I have four old laptops at home and so I'm calling a problem because I'm building a barrier to circular stock let me sum it up unfortunately until nowadays yet consuming devices grabs more attention than the e-waste it costs or the way it is manufactured right but I'm sure this will change soon and why I'm so sure two weeks ago I attended in Paris or virtually in Paris to the change now gathering the the largest world gathering for impact on planet and I always heard in every talk that people want to live in alignment with their values and companies providing that will thrive so that brings us to a beautiful solution let us turn problems into solutions people let us rebalance us the time is now and one solution could be that you include knowing and caring for e-waste and the manufacturing process into ethical consumerism right so normally or until now we are just starting from source to product and look on this part of the supply chain but we should look more we should look behind the product we should look what causes the waste or which waste is cost and also we should look more close to the manufacturing process when we talk about ethical consumerism what could be a solution for hibernation once I would be rewarded for bringing my four or six or eight devices back to the recycling yard it would be brilliant right because I would run to get the reward so that could be also a possibility to to stop this barrier to circular stock and the third topic linked to e-waste could be empowerment of urban mining instead of linear practices we could start thinking circular and make recycling commercially viable through that process and what do I mean when I talk about urban mining it is the city or to look at the city as a raw material deposit so the raw materials are next to the my neighbor's door yeah so it also is based on the three principles reuse recycle and recover and it helps to or it helps us to avoid transport rules why is it so necessary I just sum it up accordingly to the report by the united nations the value of raw materials in the global e-waste generated in 2019 is equal to approximately 57 billion US dollars think of that still we haven't solved one problem the role of businesses what could businesses help us to do all those solution thriving and my answer of course is let's talk blockchain right maybe you're familiar with using blockchain on supply chain and businesses could enable consumers to trace their raw materials through recycling processes they could easily use blockchain to meet requirements in the esg sector by building transparent sustainable supply chains and they could also prove that their devices are made out of materials from urban mining just to give you some inspiration about the possibilities blockchain could be used as a lecture here for the reward system or also to trace each component you know nowadays it's possible to build a digital twin on blockchain so you could easily trace each component of a laptop for example or a smartphone because sometimes only the plastic from a laptop is recycled but not the entire device itself it could help us to understand where the 80 percent of e-waste is going right and it could help us to bring recycling forward and to change the system to think more circular and of course to slow down climate change and reduce or minimize environmental and waste colonialism how could it work just a small graphic I don't want to take it too far because it's a as I said I don't want to put my startup in the center of this talk I just want to talk to you and give you some inspiration about it you can easily trace devices from the beginning of the manufacturing process even nowadays from the sources of raw material mining isn't it so and you can trace it along the entire value chain until reselling processes and even when they are resold two times three times you can easily just keep the data right until the device is entirely 100 percent recycled so two minutes to go before we start to the Q&A so I give you a little insight of the impact we could make blockchain has already become a driving force for open supply chains and for transparent supply chains right so imagine blockchain would become a driving force in open reverse supply chains so that you have a completely transparent value chain for e-waste that would be absolutely brilliant right according to the problems I mentioned what would we achieve we would know where the lost 80 percent of 53.6 million metric tons of e-waste would be we would make sure that the waste is recycled we would thrive urban mining and power citizenship reduce climate change or at least slow it down we would be also rebalance inequalities and stop environmental colonialism and these are just goals I never made up myself these are goals linked to the sustainable development goals of united nations of course and I think this model could be a benefit for citizens because we are all citizens even if you work at IBM you're still a citizen of this planet and it could help us to really achieve those goals so I'd like to thank you for your attention wherever you are please stay safe and I open the Q&A now thank you Matthew that's incredible yes I invite you to contact me directly if you like so and yeah I'm happy to if you want to help me that's great thanks Peter for sharing thanks Dorothy yes for the reminder and yes are there any questions you have you can if you like if you like you can type it in the chat I normally go with questions like okay do we need do we need I at the Q&A excuse me sorry yes Matthew oh no we started with Takuma thanks for the question Takuma are are there any groups already discussing e-waste I just can answer it from the perspective of German right so we have a lot of groups here in Germany discussing e-waste one is the a group that is absolutely for Berlin and also I can recommend you to to look at the donut groups formed by the donut theory of Kate Ravers who is also interested in seeing the holistic picture of waste and economy so Matthew does the technology exist to be able to recover these raw materials from e-waste yes yes and thank you for the questions of course yeah it is and one major one major player in this game is mint innovation in Auckland they found a system to use I think it's bacteria to to recover precious metals from waste and they did it in a way which is commercially viable because this is the pain point about recycling right to do things in a matter that the costs are not expanding right so the the name is mint innovation Peter are there currently recycling systems that can be updated with blockchain um for that I think that the model I propose here is very new and I haven't seen that yet but well you know it's just um it might be so um I can have a look and can get to get back to you just send me an email if you like so we can discuss that or I just do a deeper research on it so there is a notion that blockchain and its need for several nodes itself contributes to excessive use yeah mm-hmm yeah how do you see yeah how do I see that right thanks for the question Patrick that's uh incredible yes I'm I'm um thinking about that a lot to be honest and if you're a bit familiar with blockchain then you know that um mining bitcoin is in the centre of this discussion right so that's one aspect of it but the other aspect you are totally right I think there are several blockchains using several kind of energy amounts this is one fact and the other is I think blockchain is still in its beginning and I think we need to to look at it it's a very young technology from my perspective to be honest so so I'm uh yeah I'm looking of course to um that there will something come up with a less uh use of energy thanks for the question but it's really really absolutely necessary to discuss that so for example for my startup I'm doing a life cycle assessment to look um if this is also um causing more damage or if this is really a solution that can help us to reduce the energy problem thanks yeah Ernest thank you so much how do I incentivize all the stakeholders in the value chain to ensure you have a complete traceability record in the blockchain right so yeah that's that's another topic um I'm thinking about a lot but there are already people who have solved that problem and um once one is the startup provenance in based in London I guess and they work closely together with NGOs and there's another startup which is working also on transparent supply chains here in Germany by initiated by Boston consulting group and they work for example together with worldwide life found and I think this is a valuable situation when you just shape a model that also includes non-governmental organizations and that's what I'm aiming to do at 74.79c so thanks a lot for your questions if there's any question left here please go ahead and reach out later if you want to I will also be uh attending to other sessions at Hyperledger Global Forum and um yeah I can just tell you these guys and girls you have to say um an incredible community I know from the special interest group that they're already also working on this energy problem and a lot of stuff and yes I'm very happy if you just go and join our special interest groups uh Peter thanks 74.79c is building a platform and app to inform people consumers and businesses about raw materials and to enable them to trace them through the entire recycling process and also we are empowering recycling by donating a percentage of our revenue to build professional recycling facilities wherever it is needed and we're a startup and yeah we are here in Berlin so whenever you want to reach out I'm very happy thank you Peter that's cool thanks a lot thanks a lot to all of you thanks for your time thank you so much for being here thank you Clementina thanks a lot thanks Eric thanks and have a good time have a good global forum 2021 have fun


There are foods that can actually support your immune system that I've talked about before But there's some really important foods that will destroy your immune system that you should know about first up we've learned that 80% of all of our immune system all of our white cells are Congregated down in our gut down in our abdomen Why because we're learning on a day-to-day basis That most of the mischief that's going to get into us Comes through the wall of our gut from leaky gut and so if you are eating the typical American diet or Even eating a healthy lectin rich diet You're number one going to have leaky gut and number two you're going to have most of your immune system Activated and concentrated down where the trouble is coming now what that means is your immune system is basically Distracted from other jobs that should be doing Simultaneously like checking in on your nose and your mouth Checking in on the airways of your lungs. It's too distracted and most of the army is In the wrong place down in the gut and what I see in patients who have for instance, low white blood cell counts is always they have leaky gut and Shockingly to their doctors to their hematologists when we repair their leaky gut Low and behold their white blood cell count returns into the normal range So all those white cells were kind of out of commission because they were battling the enemy down in the gut So that's point number one point number two Sugar suppresses the immune system. This was proven back in the 1950s by two-time Nobel Prize-winning laureate Linus Pauling the vitamin C Doctor and what was shown in human volunteers that a glass of orange juice would suppress White blood cells from eating bacteria or eating viruses for up to six hours After a healthy volunteer drank a glass of orange juice Now imagine what would happen if you are the typical American Who's not all that healthy? So the last thing you want to do when you're catching a cold or feel something coming on is Down that glass of orange juice. It'll suppress your immune system not help Okay, if sugar is the big enemy of your immune system, then surely Sugar-free foods or sugar-free drinks would be a whole lot healthier Well, not so fast sadly almost all sugar-free sweeteners have been shown to Kill off or suppress the microbiome Now, why is that so important? We now know that much of the information That the immune system gets about who are bad guys and who are good guys And who they should be worried about and who they should ignore comes from Education from the gut microbiome and we know that literally there's a language of communication between our white blood cells and our gut microbiome the gut microbiome in general if it's healthy if it's diverse Tells the immune system. Hey guys We got your back.  So you've got to keep your microbiome healthy and in good Population you don't want to kill it off with an artificial sweetener that would be Crazy if you really wanted to support your immune system. Okay, so With that in mind, let's just name three of the worst foods for your immune system number one Healthy whole grains Now you see it everywhere whole grains support your health not so first of all Let's take a piece of whole grain bread or a whole grain cracker. Have you ever seen any whole? Grains in that bread or the cracker. No, of course not. They've been ground up And whenever we grind up a whole grain We also grind up the fats in that grain which go rancid very quickly. So these products have to have antioxidants to stop the oxidation of that product now the antioxidants that are used in these products as I've written about in my books are not only endocrine disruptors, but also great for suppressing your Microbiome in your gut. So rather than supporting your microbiome is worse, but it gets even worse Raisin brand for instance, that's a whole grain cereal. That's full of brand that ought to be a great thing sadly a cup of raisin brand is going to have up to 20 teaspoons of sugar in a cup of raisin brand now you add a cup of milk To that and you're looking at this giant sugar bomb That you're having as a healthy breakfast because it's whole grain goodness And it's no wonder when I see patients in my clinics That are doing this that everything is thrown off and they're always coming down with Infection of the week. So stop eating whole grains particularly Whole grains that have been ground up and still labeled whole grains dairy is right up there as number two Two raisins number one. It's full of sugar Number two almost all dairy milk in this country is casein a one Containing dairy from Holstein cows the black and white cow casein a one is a really good lectin-like protein for causing leaky gut so if leaky gut is what's Distracting your immune system down into the gut from the business of guarding you and It's loaded with sugar which would suppress your functioning immune system. It's a one-two punch Dairy is out in terms of milk number three a fruit smoothie Now I used to joke with my patients that Let's take a trip down to the San Diego zoo and look in all the cages And let's see if anybody has a juicer or a Smoothie machine in any of the cages and of course We have a good laugh and realize that of course you wouldn't give Juices to a great ape you wouldn't have a smoothie prepared for an orangutan you would in season give them Apples or oranges and they would eat them whole when they're whole they have a lot of fiber At least they used to and so they could tolerate these foods but if you juice the fruit or Pulverize the fruit you now have released those bound sugar molecules for instant absorption So if you wanted to suppress your immune system have a glass of juice have a fruit smoothie It's winter time and now is the time to make sure your immune system Operates in tip-top shape and a lot of things we're doing for health is Absolutely suppressing our immune system More amazing episodes just like this one watch now If it says dye it on the label stay away from it at all costs think of diet soda as dye soda


Lucky should be coming in here in a minute. Mr. President. Prime Minister of the federal government. Well, Prime Minister, welcome. It's good to see you, and happy to be here, Mr. President. And Mr. Vito? Mr. President, hello there. See you. And the ambassador? Hello, Mr. President. And our ambassador? Well, good morning, Mr. President. Sorry to get to see you. Well, come in. Mr. President, it's a great honor to meet with you, Mr. President. May I extend to you, Mr. President, the best wishes of the Dr. Mauno Koevist of the President of Finland. And his warm welcome to you to Finland later this month. Mr. President, in 1988, our two nations are celebrating their 350th anniversary of the arrival of the first Finnish settlers in the new world. And, Mr. President, you have kindly proclaimed 1988 as the national year of friendship with Finns. Finns are very proud of their contribution to the American nation, and proud of the longstanding friendship with you. May I present to you, Mr. President, the first copy of a special commemorative medal cast in Finland to honor this year of jubilee. It symbolizes the pioneering spirit the Finns brought to this country. And as well, the bonds to keep the spirit alive. And as well, our esteem to you as alive. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you very much, esteem 38. I'm very proud and pleased to have this. We observed these 350 years began not too far from Washington here, that first colony was what is now Wilmington, Delaware. Well, thank you. I'm most proud to have this. And please get my regards to President Kavisto. And once again, welcome to Finland on your very important trip to Moscow. Well, I'm looking forward to that. I've heard a great deal from George Schultz about your hospitality. And we're looking forward to it. We are doing our best to serve you, Mr. President. That's well, well, thank you very much. And to come in here and let us sit down for a few minutes. I think you know some of the people who are doing it. Mr. Secretary, you may have a picture. Senator Becker, she's the Prime Minister of our country. I know she's a good gentleman. I'm sure I've seen her. Two seats are about $1,000. We have impressed her. So we should leave. We need to be aware of something. We've got one really impressive comment before we share this now. We've heard quite well. They know, but if Mike had to tell me, so we'll lie like it in this case. But it's thanks to you, Mr. President. You'll keep them. Oh, OK. I think we have the same experience here. Can you choose Helsinki as resting place before going to Moscow? Well, if it's the Secretary of State who's impressed upon me, the great hospitality of Kimman that he has enjoyed. And I have never had the opportunity to visit your country before. And I'm looking forward to it. Glad to see you. This way, Mr. President. I think I'll give the bill. $200,000. Thank you. That's the Nobel Peace Award that was won by Katie for settling the Russell Capney War. Well, I'm delighted to be here with you today. I was just in a staff meeting across the hall when Bob told me that you were here.  But I'm told that you came to Washington to let us know what's going on in the American heartland. And since the postal race went up, no one writes me in. I'm sure to have changed. Now, if Bob is back in Illinois and we need to rush a letter out to him, I have to keep reminding myself to ask for federal express, not crony express. And all seriousness, I know this is not supposed to be a political rally. But I can't pass up this opportunity to tell you how much I value the leadership that Bob Michael gives to his country every day. He's always in the forefront leading the fight for what's right for America, a strong national defense and a vibrant growing economy. I want you to know how much gratitude this Illinois native feels toward the people of the 18th District for sending Bob Michael to Washington. Bob has been my general for more than seven years of legislative battles. While I wish he could have had more troops, the success of our policies and programs would not have been possible without his leadership. We work together to cut tax rates, control the growth of government spending, and get rid of unnecessary regulation. We work to open up the economy for private business and entrepreneurs. Results speak for themselves, and the credit belongs to businessmen and women like you. Our economy is now in the longest peacetime economic expansion in the US history. 65 straight months of economic growth completed, and we're now into the 66th month. During this period we have created some 16 million new jobs. That's raising employment to an all-time high. The highest percentage of the potential employment group ever employed in our history is at work today, 62.3% of that potential group. And inflation is low. Basic industries and factories are expanding, and there's good news on trade. Exports are at record levels, and the trade deficit has turned around. Since the third quarter of 1986, the volume of American merchandise exports has been growing no more than four times as fast as the volume of imports. The result is that when you account for price changes, the real trade deficit is now 23% smaller than it was then. Our trading partners are learning an important fact. When American business goes into the world market to compete, it plays to win. The bottom line, I'm happy to tell you, is that the economic outlook is excellent. In fact, the only threat to our economy comes from those who would raise taxes, put up trade barriers, and burden our businesses with excessive regulations, like the plant-closing layoff provision in the honor of us trade bill. Some people seem to find prosperity unbearable, politically unbearable, and then they come up with all sorts of schemes to turn America back to where it was seven years ago, and railroad rolled back our economic gains. We won't let them do it. The prosperity of the American people have achieved will not be rolled back. It will be preserved and built upon. You have my word on that. And you have Bob Michael in Congress making sure of what the American people have won, they keep. I want our legacy to be an American confident of its future, prosperous at home, a leader in the world. And I've never felt more optimistic than I do today about the future of our great country. Now, before I thank you and go back to work or something, I may be one or two of you might have thought of something and said, if I ever had a chance, I'd like that. When are we going to get things straightened out in Panama? When are we going to get things straightened out in Panama? And now, we're hoes up here. I just can't say a time, and I can't talk about specifics with regard to all over trying to do, but we are using every effort. And it is a very frustrating situation. Certainly, I think you would all agree. We couldn't walk in there with military force and kidnap him and do that. We would lose every friend we'd gotten in Latin America. I've noticed it's an amazing thing. My first couple of years here, I made a trip down around some of the countries of Latin America. And when I came in, you could just see the kind of waiting. Here comes another big plan from the crosses in the north. Well, I know we've gone down there with some plans before, but I told them I was down there to find out what they wanted, what their ideas were. And I emphasized that we were all Americans from the whole hallway down to Tierra del Fuego and had common interests and so forth. You'd be surprised how surprised they were. But the only thing I did learn from them, they want our help in every way. They want what I was talking about. But they all let me know, no, they didn't want the Marines to land and tax down there. They'll take care of that part of it. And I guess that's from a history of when we were the big colossus of the north. And even well-intentioned as we were, why we went down kind of giving the orders. So we can't do that out of Panama of all places, but we are exploring every avenue and we're negotiating. We have a man there that's talking to them. Some of the speculation in the press is just purely that speculation. They don't know what they're talking about when they talk about Panama. But we're determined we have to get that man out of power. So have there been any thought given to changing the format of press conferences as they seem to have become so adversarial? Well, I think your answer is right. It's true every once in a while, we've invited people in here from the media outside the Beltway, from all across the country, representatives of local radio stations and the press in those communities. There's just all the difference in the world. Those questions are legitimate questions for news and for answers. And you're right. The relationship here with the Washington Press has become adversarial. You're in a contest and they're there to catch you on something if they can. And it's very frustrating and frankly, that's why we haven't had any more than we have. Why waste our time? Mr. President, I know you've tried and I know you know that the result of tax reform has not been in simplicity, but what do we do in the future about getting simplicity into our tax laws? Well, we think that a lot of this is the transfer that going into it is accounted for a lot of the not simplifying that we're seeking there. We really think the main features of the plan do simplify it. And we think it'll get better past this. But also, we have to tell you that some things were added in that were not part of our idea of tax reform. And they became a part of it. And some of them, I think they have contributed to the lack of simplifying. Now, we've been sensitive to being outnumbered as we are, up against the majority of the other party in both houses. The policy name would be tax increase if they had their way. We've been restrained in trying to go in and get changes in some of those things that were brought into the program for fear of opening up right now the whole thing to another contest of which we wouldn't know how it might turn out. But we think that the total analysis of it, and it has been a success. It's a success to the point that at lower rates, we're proving what I have always believed was an economic fact. The revenues are going up, not down. My degree was in economics. So those are the only ethnical stories jokes I can tell. I believe he was a man many centuries ago named even Cal Doom. And he was an absolute economist. He made a statement then. He said, in the beginning of the empire, the rates were low and the revenue was great. At the end of the empire, the rates were great and the revenue was low. So I'm always believed that if you look at our own history, tax cuts usually resulted in more revenue. Mr. President, I'd like to say that. How do you feel about them trying to chip away at the presidential powers? Well, that's been going on for a long time. Before I got here, the devil of it is they succeeded in it to a large part. And I think an evidence of that I think was in 1974 when the Congress really took over the budgeting and shut out the president for some of the powers that he had. And we've been in trouble budget-wise ever since. But I've tried to fight for, I don't want to leave a heritage to another president. As a matter of fact, when I'm out of this job, so people won't be able to accuse me that I'm doing it for myself, I'm going out of the mashed potato circuit and see if I can't get back some things and get something that I had as a governor and that 43 governors have. And then there's a line item veto. Sucker for style. We've all read about what reporters tell us, your impressions of Gorbachev, our class last, et cetera. But can you share with us a little bit of personal revelations? Well, I have to tell you, he is different than the other ones before him. I had a problem meeting with the government before I could die on him. I believe that for one thing, he is trying to jump over Stalin, who changed everything from Lenin and get back to some of the things Lenin said. And if you study Lenin a little bit, you will find that Lenin was one that talked about working alongside capitalists. And as he said, you learn from them. And it was Stalin who came in and said, no, sir. And it was Stalin whose idea was we must take the world. We must make the world of one world communist state. And many of the things he's trying here, but he's up against great opposition. Now, there's one of his programs. And I was shocked the other day to learn that if he got the program that he'd asked for, 400,000 bureaucrats would have to give up their colors and private drivers. Now, they don't do that easy. But at the same time, he believes in communism. He believes that in that program. And yet, there's an entirely different relationship in working with him. He's an affable fellow. I've told him a couple of stories that his own people are telling in Russia about their system. And I've got belly laughs. That's about getting to those questions. It'll take too much time. Maybe just one more. I know the press has been very generous for this time. Mr. President, I just want to say that as a migrant, I left my duty in Nigeria 25 years ago. It is a crystallization of a dream for me to be standing in your presence. And I am grateful to belong to the District of Congress with Michael's and to be a part of this wonderful delegation from Illinois. The question that has been bugging me, Mr. President, is the problem of functions. One, that has set up rules and regulations for their employees that are similar to what we have here. That they can graduate to supervisory positions over whatever employees, a mix of employees there are. In other words, in their own running of the companies over there, they have a bombished apartheid, you might say, in those companies. And I have had visits here with, for example, a man I respect very much as a statesman. And that is Brutalazi, the head of the Zulu tribes in South Africa. And he feels that same way, that this is not the rule, that there is a better way, and I've tried on the other side, to get them, the government, to consult with them and start dealing with people like that in a way to bring an end to what is a shameful practice of apartheid. But the other things that we have done have not been helpful. You can't hurt the people who want to know. Incidentally, I say about you and welcome here. I got a letter that explains something I never thought of it this way. A man wrote me not too long ago. And he said, you know, in this country, he said, you can go to France. Don't even France. You can't become a Frenchman. You can go to Germany, or Greece, or Turkey. You can't become a German or a Turk, or a Greek. But he said, in this country, anyone from any corner of the world can come to America and become an American. I'm proud to be one. But I take just about that many seconds and tell that one Russian story to all of you. Hey, we've got a moment. The story is an American and a Russian around you. And the American says, look, in my country, I can go to the Oval Office, power the Oval Office desk, and say, Mr. President, I don't like the way you're running our country. And the Russian said, I can do that. The American said, you can? He says, yes. I can go into the Kremlin, and the General Secretary's office. I can pound his desk, and say, Mr. General Secretary, I don't like the way President Reagan's running his office. Mr. President, thank you. I'm proud to be a good man, Master. I'll be out of the call. Thank you. Believe me. Thank you. You know, I work back. Yes, no way. I'm proud to be a good man. It's a pleasure, Master. I see you in the car. I see you in the car. I see you in the car. I work back. You were knocked out. I was knocked out. I see you in the car. I see you in the car. I see you in the car. I'm not sure if you're going to say that. I'm sorry. Are you sure? Are you for the government? You standing in the car, Master. That's good. Does that mean you're running the Oval Office? I'm running the Oval Office. Hohohohohoho. Next is thisdraw the November data from the Trump에서는. How does the Oval Office react to the reduction? that we want to talk to you about using those facilities on that? Well, just in case you need us, we'll do that. We're here on the right cooperation there on that. But I also know there are some things that are frustrating to you. You have to do with a tax treaty and the correction of the triple tax. And rest assured, we're committed on getting that treaty ratified and resolving the tax problem. Mr. President, his eminence card will be just... But when you have the suppression of the eminence, well, please see what I've seen you before. Yeah, yeah, as we were talking here. Night time and time. Instead of 10 minutes, it's 20 minutes. Desperate of the job you feel waiting outside. Yeah, of course it is. You satisfy the press? You satisfy the press or you have a shock? Oh, sir, congratulations. Mr. President, I would like to urge you to, for a few points, and if you go there to Moscow, forbid the treatment that they have agreed because I want to forget it. I urge you, Mr. President, to remain firm in your support for the legalization of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and the Ukraine Orthodox Churches. Keep the issue of the legalization of the churches as an item on the summit agenda. Since Ukrainian Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholic Churches are both direct descendants of the Kievan-Russia legacy, the millennium of Christianity provides an excellent opportunity for the resurrection of the Ukrainian churches. Third, I discourage you, Mr. President, from visiting Danilo's monastery or any other institution symbolic to the Soviet-controlled Russian Orthodox Church. Because A, such a visit will play into the Soviet agenda to justify this millennium of Christianity and will downplay Ukraine's direct historic claim to this event. B, such a visit would devastate millions of Ukrainian Christians who risked their lives to practice their abolition in the clandestine underground church. They put their hopes on our President because you might, President, too, to understand and publicly support their struggle for a fundamental freedom, the right to worship in their native Ukrainian churches. Please remind, I remind you, Mr. President, that just sign, you sign congressional resolution that discourages official U.S. participation in millennium events as long as Ukrainian churches are not legalized. Mr. President, despite glassness, persecution continues. The Kremlin's liberalization, the Soviet-controlled Russian Orthodox Church is a political, motive shame and does not allow for true religious freedom. I urge you, Mr. President, to publicly manifest your support for Ukrainian churches when you travel to Moscow. I urge you, Mr. President, to meet Ukraine Catholic and Ukraine Orthodox leaders in particular, leaders of the underground churches. So it is my begging you for those things, Mr. President. Well, you remember, let me say, I'm a little tied with regard to the monastery and the visit. That's a little worst done. But I can assure you that because I'm on this subject, I'm going to deal with him one-on-one, just when the two of us are alone. And I have taken up the subject before and I think that the approach that I'm taking there is one that tries to head off and is accepting it as interference in there. In terms of, I'm putting it on a basis of a suggestion that will help him in his own problems if it proceeds. And I very much am going to be calling attention to the fact that the millennium they celebrate began in Kiev. That's right. Yes. And they didn't exist at that time. They came to exist 200 years later. So how could we be back then before we were born? For me, it's simple and possible. Yes. But for them, it's everything possible. But I assure you I'm going to do my best on that. And I have already once before broached that subject here just between the two of us and for all faiths there that when he was complaining about the emigration and what it would do to his country and so forth. And I try to suggest to him that maybe so many people wouldn't feel like emigrating if they could worship God in their own way in their own country. And feel good about it. Yes. So I can assure you I'm not going to give up on that. I'm going to do my best. Thank you very much, President, Mr. President. We will pray for you safe going and coming back. I appreciate that. And I believe in it very much. Thank you very much. But I believe if, you know, if there's any thought that it's not out in the open like a treaty or something, I think the right way is to urge him and to actually persuade him that I would stand back and just give him credit for doing that. I would not appear to take any credit. It is good to be here. Thank you very, very much, Mr. President. I am encouraged that even though it right now, all the more first movies made has been with the Orthodox Church, I can understand that happening. But I think there's a chance that he is wanting to move this way. But he's afraid of himself. He's what? He's afraid of himself. Oh, yes. And because he's got great opposition within the government there. That's right. Then not to make a wrong move. You might be like Khrushchev out of the business. And I'm sure he knows that. He knows. And yet he's gone farther than anyone has. Yes. And he's done a pretty good job of surrounding himself with people that just try to believe in him. So let's hope that he succeeds. And that you, Mr. President, succeed. Believe me. Be healthy. And be fair to me. I think this is more important than anything we're trying to negotiate in this particular fashion. Wonderful. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to bow to you and you will be good. No, you're tired already. You're not bothering me at all. Bless you. Appreciate you. And keep you available the time. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, how do you do, sir? Well, I'm fine. And thank you so very much for giving me this opportunity to talk to you about some matters of very great importance to North Carolina. This is Colonel Dan McDonald. And you know just exactly what I was talking about. Thank you very much. No, I'm not. Asked to see you. Good to see you. Hello there. Where would you like first? Thank you, sir. I come on the business on behalf of my state. And I appreciate it very much. You are arranged in this so that we can meet. I've had a chance to quickly discuss this with everyone else here. Colonel McDonald has been associated with this project for a long time. And we are prepared to get into it whenever it would be the best suit on occasion. Well, we came right now and there's something about it that's been on the books for 20 years and almost. But I do know that I have not been able to get into it yet. So we can surely get into those and bring you up to speed. Let me hand out some booklets that will give you an easy reference. Colonel Dan, if you have those, because it can introduce not only where the project is and the potential of it, but what's been going on there and the safety factors. And I'll be referring to the first of all, to the first drawings in there just to show it's relationship. I believe it's going just to have that. Just to show it's relationship on the coast. Most people wouldn't realize that that Pamlico sound is about the same size as the entire Chesapeake Bay. And you can include the smaller sound than off of, which is the Albemarle sound. And it has the same surface side. Now it has no shipping because there's no entrance for that character, nor with this beat one. And it's not deep enough for that. But it's a beautiful area. Mr. President, I'm going to bring you the size of your friend, Enn Mut Kohl, the Federal Chancellor of Germany. And I have a present for you, too. Surely you have heard of the term Fulda. But there's also Fulda. There's not only Fulda money. That's also the same amount of Fulda. And that is my friend. It's 1,200 years old now. And the 11th American tank bridge is engaged there. And to show you that that's a very beautiful city, and that the charming people living there, I want you to this as a small gift. Well, thank you very much. And this is a message to you personally from him. Thank you. And thank you, Mr. President, my very best friend. And this is for Michael Geiger, Fulda, to the Foreign Minister in the CDUC as a fraction. Mr. President, I'll be the Secretary of State. All right. Well, let us come in this morning. Thank you very much. Mr. President, I'm Howard Bailey. I'm the Secretary of State. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.  I would like to thank you for everything that you have done as a President to increase the courage and the self-confidence of the citizens of the United States of your country and of the Alliance. Well, yes.