About Ann & Chris

Ann is a Nebraska girl, with a love of nature, plants and people. "The Gardening Gal" with a gift for annuals & perennials. Chris is an English transplant, he's a landscape design & build specialist with over 40 years experience, designing & managing construction & aftercare for a wide variety of landscape projects, from small residential, estates, parks, playgrounds, roof gardens, urban regeneration, power stations, office parks. Ann, my Co-Host and I, have a growing band of people who are passionate about their landscape & the environment on our internet radio show 'Growing Trends' - The show is all about people in our industry, people who are passionate about the environment, landscapes and sustainability. We talk to these fascinating people, about latest trends, in styles,materials, products, plants, vegetables, wines, just about anything connected with enjoying outside spaces. We hope you will find time to listen to a broadcast and then drop us a line with ideas, suggestions or even the odd request.

GT 110 Norma Burnson – Sustainable Food for the Globe

Ann and Chris interview this remarkable lady, Norma is on a mission.

Norma's mission is "Sustainable Food for the Globe, One Square Foot at a Time," and that is also the title of Norma Burnson's book, available on Amazon.com. At Burnson & Associates, we are passing along the baton of youth leadership development and involving our U.S. Veterans in our projects and workforce.

sustainable food for the globe

Be inspired to help Norma, but first listen to our interview.

GT109 Dr Charles Rawlings talks about his passion, studying & photographing living shells

Living Shells

Ann and I were very fortunate to interview Dr Charles Rawlings MD , he has an interesting passion, studying & photographing 'living shells', a scuba diver for the past thirty or so years Dr Rawlings has been observing, studying & photographing 'living shells' all over the world.

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His knowledge of these creatures, their habits and habitats is extraordinary.

Recently he produced a beautiful coffee table book of pictures of these amazing creatures.

We caught  up with Dr Rawlings as he was planning yet another trip.

You can hear our interview at www.growingtrends.org or on our iTunes Podcast 

We hope you enjoy the interview, do send us any comments you may have.

Chris & Ann,

Growing Trends

GT108 Fracking – is this the future for oil?

Ann & Chris continue their fascinating talk with Rich Sapienza and Bill Sosinsky.

Today we spend time talking about Fracking a relatively new industry with maybe a huge potential.

Rich works with the 'Fracking' industry and has some interesting things to say on it's behalf.

 

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Do let us know what you think. Could this be a way for the world to enjoy cheaper oil for years to come?

GT107: Alternative sources of energy power & storage – it’s looking good for the future

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Ann & Chris continue their talk with Rich Sapienza and Bill Sosinsky, starting with windmills and wind turbines.

Rich is a believer in 'Small is beautiful' – the idea of making incremental savings of say 25% with smaller units being preferable to building huge systems that may or may not work.

Most of the savings will come as we discover more efficient energy storage and they have been exploring some interesting options.

We then move on to hydrogen power, thorium, Tesla and so much more. It's fascinating to listen to the bright picture they paint for future generations..

GT106:Sustainability for the world today.

Ann and Chris interview Rich Sapienza and Bill Sosinsky  we talk about sustainable solutions for the world today.

It's fascinating, interesting and very enlightening.

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Sustainability must work on its own, grow on its own, support itself with the built-in ability to endure and grow naturally. There must be a plan. As long as we rely on subsidies and philanthropy as the means by which we re-establish our sustainable balance on this planet, we are ultimately doomed. This lack of strategy insures we run out of sufficient monies way before we have fully addressed these essential challenges. The simple answer is that everything must work together and their needs to be a singular general vision that incorporates the best efforts of all the contributing parties

GT105:Bill Sosinsky talks on empowering the world to re-establish a sustainable environment.

Bill continues his visionary journey creating Energime University. 

Empowering the world to re-establish a sustainable environment.

The Tipping Point

World Wide WEsponsibility

As far back as I can remember since we as people began to recognize our potential to destroy our planet’s environment, experts have spoken of a tipping point. This is a theoretical time frame where our collective action would no longer offset catastrophic damage to our biosphere. The reality is we passed that tipping point years ago.

You can visit Energime University here 

GT104:Introducing Energime University

World Wide WEsponsibility

World Wide WEsponsibility

Bill Sosinsky, Founder, Co-Owner, and CEO of The Energime Family of Companies including Energime Sustainable Technologies, Energime Power, Energime Energy Efficiency and is the Chairman of the Board for The Energime Foundation. Bill is also the Founder and Director of Energime University.

What Energime University is planning to Accomplish

Energime University will have three main goals. The first is to train students in the skills required to run this new sustainable infrastructure. We will need tens of millions of specially trained workers to populate the industries and factories that will produce these new technologies, and direct the advanced agriculture, farming, waste and water management protocols that will be the key to this turnaround. Courses and curricula will be specific to developing this skilled workforce so they can support regional efforts throughout the world. The plan is to empower individuals to participate in the ongoing projects and jobs being created through our global partnerships in these key areas.

The second goal is to offer a basic curriculum to the general population that clearly defines how each individual, household, business, and local government can adapt affordable changes that support this effort. We are living in a new world with new challenges. If we are to get this right it is essential for our population to change the way they relate to our resources. New technologies and advanced protocols will help by increasing output, productivity, and efficiency. It is still necessary to address the consumption part of the equation. If we do not educate our consumer based population to manage their consumption on a more sustainable basis, all attempts at increasing our output will eventually fail.

Finally, we must educate our business, governmental, and social leaders. They need to understand and implement the proper protocols and methodologies required to allow this process to go forward in a manner that is economically feasible and ultimately adaptable. Without that understanding we will not have the money to finance this global effort. This is essential if we are to re-establish a sustainable balance between consumption and resource management. It is that lack of understanding that has been key to our failures thus far.

GT103:Patti talks about her Bees & Bee keeping

Honey beePatti is one of those rare ladies, an expert bee keeper and a fascinating speaker. Listen to her explain the intricate lifestyle of the honey bee, it's truly fascinating and very educational.

We visited Patti at her lovely country home one Saturday morning.

GT103:Weston Red Barn Farm

Red Barn Farm

We called in to the farm early one morning, just as the sun was rising, to talk to Steve before his busy day had got into full swing.

A trip to the Weston Red Barn Farm is like visiting a turn of the century working farm.

In the spirit of preserving the American dream of farming, the Red Barn Farm offers visitors the opportunity to experience a real working farmstead. We feature traditional farm animals and crops. In addition to the working farm, we offer school tours, a country store featuring our fresh produce, facilities for weddings and bonfire/hayride events and a fall festival where families can come pick pumpkins and apples, take a hayride and enjoy the country.

GT101:Kelly’s Garden

Kelly was an inspiration, sitting in her beautiful garden was almost spellbinding.

Take a listen and tell us what you think ?

"Finding happiness in a garden – how it's done at the Kelly Gallery"

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