While snow may still be on the ground and winter winds are blowing, it may be hard to remember that the spring season is on its way! Although by this time of year many of us are dreaming of warm summer nights and farm-fresh food, that doesn't mean that you have to wait a few more months to make that dream a reality.

From urban apartment dwellers to suburban homeowners, there is a growing trend towards indoor gardening. With minimal space required to grow plants and the ability to have fresh produce at your disposal all year long, it is easy to see why this has become a popular pastime! It doesn't take much to get your indoor garden started, but knowing a few tips and tricks on what grows best indoors and how to care for your plants is essential when you want to turn your home into a mini-greenhouse during the cold, winter months.

Fresh Herbs

While dried herbs can be used in the vast majority of recipes, nothing beats the crisp, aromatic flavor of fresh herbs straight out of the garden?making them the most popular plant for growing indoors! Many different herbs can be grown inside with a few small pots and a sunny windowsill, and our favorite varieties include:

• Mint: This herb spreads quickly, so make sure that you stay on-top of harvesting!
• Cilantro: Delicious but short-lived, so you'll need to plant several plants to maintain supply.
• Basil: There are several types of basil, but globe types are ideal for indoor gardening.
• Thyme and Oregano: Both are excellent to grow indoors and easy to care for.
• Chives: Consider growing the ?Grolau? variety?a type bred for indoor growing!

Microgreens

If patience isn't your strong suit, growing microgreens could be right up your alley! These nutritious, flavorful plants are ready to be harvested in about two weeks, and they are a highly gourmet addition to your weekly menu. A few popular microgreens include radish, mustard, wheatgrass, kale, and cabbage?all of which are harvested just as the leaves emerge for maximum flavor and nutrient density. If you're considering adding microgreens to your indoor garden, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Grow them in a sun-filled space that gets plenty of natural light.
• Only use about an inch of soil and sprinkle seeds on top.
• Keep them moist?microgreens love water!
• Harvest when the first set of leaves emerge.

Citrus Trees

While the frozen tundra out your window might not look like an environment where you'll find fruit trees, you can still grow them right in your own home! tHere nothing better than reaching for a fresh lemon or orange straight off the tree, and creating an environment where these trees produce fruit indoors isn't as complicated as you might think. Keep these tips in mind if your citrus dreams are leading you to delve into the world of indoor fruit tree gardening:

• Dwarf varieties are best for growing and maintaining indoors.
• Citrus trees require a minimum of eight hours of sunlight to grow fruit.
• Regular pruning helps to maintain a small size and keep the tree healthy.
• Consider moving the tree outdoors in the summer for extra sunlight.

Vegetables

Everyone knows that eating veggies is part of a balanced diet, but the selection at the grocery store during the off-season can be less than appetizing. Solve the problem once and for all by growing your favorite vegetables in your own home! There are many veggies that do best when started indoors during the winter months and later planted in an outdoor garden, but tomatoes, lettuces, peppers, and more are all great choices to continue your harvest well past peak outdoor growing season.

Indoor gardening isn't just a smart choice for healthier living?it's also a fun pastime that the whole family can participate in and a great way to add life, color, and natural beauty to your home! By getting creative with vertical planters, windowsill growing, and taking advantage of south-facing, sunny windows, you can enjoy a multitude of fresh greens, fruits, and veggies any time of the year.

Recently, my local business bank sent out an email newsletter that offered three financial resolutions to make 2013 your best year yet. Never one to choose originality over effectiveness, I thought I'd borrow a page from their book and offer four marketing resolutions to make 2013 your best year yet.

Resolution #1: Generate monthly marketing effectiveness reports.

The first resolution my business bank offered was to produce monthly financial statements. At first I thought, "does anyone NOT do this?" Then I realized that the number of people that produce regular financial statements for their business probably only slightly exceeds the number of business owners that produce marketing effectiveness reports.

I recognize that a whole bunch of people reading this post are probably saying, "screw that, I Don't need to waste time producing monthly financial or marketing reports." you're right - you Don't have to do anything. If you're content running a small company that is not generating as much profit as it could be, keep on doing what you're doing. Plenty of small business owners say they want to grow, but deep down inside They are content just as they are.

This recommendation is for those that truly want to make more money than they did last year--through growth, increased profit margins, or both! If you want to build a substantial business, you've got to start thinking and acting like the business you want to become.

How many business owners do you know? How many Income Statements have you analyzed?

My guess is that I know more business owners and have seen more financial statements than most of you, so I'm comfortable saying that better performing businesses generate more reports with more detail than the rest of the pack. Of course, they didn't get here overnight. Many started with a few basic reports and evolved them over time as they became more sophisticated.

Do likewise ladies and gentlemen.

A minimal marketing effectiveness report should include:

• A summary of each tracked marketing strategy (cost, calls, web visits, leads, revenue, etc.)
• A summary of your website performance (visits, new visits, traffic sources, visit-to-lead conversion rate, etc.)

As you get more comfortable with the data, you should get more granular. For example, examine a website traffic source in more detail. Take organic visibility for a second - how many: number 1 rankings, first page listings, non-branded visits per month, etc. do you have? If you're investing in SEO, these are key numbers that you must know and track.

Resolution #2: Understand what your marketing effectiveness reports are telling you.

The point of generating reports is not to generate reports. You have to take the time to understand what They are telling you. Why are number 1 rankings down, but traffic and leads from non-branded organic search are up? Why do leads appear to be trending up, but sales are trending down? Why has your cost per click gone down, but your cost per lead more than doubled?

You Don't have to become a trained online marketing expert, but you should have a good understanding of how the numbers in your marketing reports reflect What's happening in your business.

By understanding your numbers and reviewing them monthly, you'll have time make the necessary "course corrections" before it's too late and you're left wondering why 2013 ended up the way it did.

Resolution #3: See how you stack up against your competitors.

you're working hard to build a successful contracting business. Do you know how you stack up against other companies in your industry and geographic area? Most contractors Don't. Every industry has its own "rules of thumb" and industry associations are a good resource to get this info. The trouble is, when it comes to marketing, the data most of these folks have is about 10 years old. When it comes to online marketing, three years is outdated!

Did you know that the highest ranking HVAC and plumbing contractor websit's have, on average, 210 pages on their website and over 1,900 inbound links, or that 1.5-2% is a great visit-to-lead conversion rate for a high-end remodeling company?

I try, through my blog posts and forum contributions on this site, to share some of the industry benchmarks and data I have, but I can only share so much. These numbers are incredibly powerful. I've seen remodelers spend (waste) thousands of dollars rebuilding their website because they think 2% is a terrible conversion rate. More than half the time, their new site performs even worse than the previous site. Instead, they should have stuck with the current design and focused on getting more qualified visitors to their site.

You can analyze your competitors on your own or pay an online marketing company a few bucks and have them do it for you. The data you'll get from the process will amaze you.

Resolution #4: Maximize your web real estate starting with the search engine results pages.

The web is a real estate game and, for a limited time, the real estate is cheap. The trouble is - low cost or not - you Don't have the time or money to advertise your business everywhere. Your success is going to come down to prioritization. Get used to saying, "no" to advertising sales reps (A LOT). The reason you should focus on maximizing your real estate on the search results pages is because that's where people have INTEREST and (often) INTENT.

Not everyone on Facebook or Twitter is in the market for your services (and even those that are probably didn't hop on FB to click your ad). On Google, Bing, and Yahoo, things are different. If you're a roofing contractor in Rockville, MD and someone searches, "rockville roofing company", you can be pretty sure They are looking for someone like you. If you want a crack at that business, you gotta be present to "win" the click.

The most cost-effective way to maximize your search engine real estate is by investing first in "SEO" and second in "PPC." I'm not going to go into the details of either. If you're interested in my thoughts on these, read some of my previous posts on this site. The most successful contractors in the country are KILLING it with one or both of these.

Again, you can spend your time rebutting my contention and tell me all about how you tried it and it didn't work. To this, I would say, "you probably didn't do it correctly or test it for long enough." Try, try, try again.

So there you have it - four resolutions you can implement to make 2013 your best year yet. it's January 4th... the New Year has barely just begun. it's not too late to adopt these resolutions. Most of your competitors will be "too busy" to do anything different this year than they did last year. Do what you always did and get what you always got. Most people that are "too busy" to test new things are almost always "too busy doing the wrong things."

Best of luck and have a safe and prosperous New Year!

There are countless options out there for kitchen flooring, from farmhouse wood floors to sleek, modern tile or stone. While all of these materials have their benefits and work beautifully with many different kitchen styles, concrete flooring is gaining ground in becoming a popular kitchen flooring option.

Now, before you start picturing grey, cold concrete floors that come straight out of a warehouse, it's important to understand that concrete flooring is much more versatile than you might think! When used in a kitchen, concrete floors can be installed in a wide range of stunning colors, sheens, textures, and patterns?creating a beautiful and functional foundation for the heart of your family's home.

While the beauty of concrete floors in the kitchen make them one of the most modern and innovative ways to ramp-up the style in the space, that's not the only advantage that they offer. There are several other benefits to choosing concrete flooring when you're ready to take the leap in a kitchen remodel.

Sustainability for a Greener Home

Green living and sustainability have become top concerns for modern-day homeowners, so why not turn your kitchen into an eco-friendly mecca with beautiful concrete floors? As a highly sustainable flooring material when you use an existing concrete pad, concrete floor installation can avoid using new materials to cut down on waste and debris being sent to the landfill.

To ensure that your concrete floors are as sustainable as possible, consider the following questions:

• what's in the Concrete Mix? Durability and performance are both important factors when choosing a concrete mix, but you also need to consider the use of substances, such as coal fly ash, and weigh the pros and cons of its sustainability before committing.
• How Eco-Friendly is the Colorant and Sealant? When choosing the colorant and sealant for your new concrete floors, look for a product that is labeled as low-VOC. This will help you avoid carcinogenic solvents found in high-VOC products that are much less eco-friendly.
• What Cleaning Practices are the Best? Installation isn't the only time you need to think about sustainability with your floors! You also want to keep indoor air quality at optimal levels by choosing natural, safe cleaning products that have EPA labeling.

Low-Maintenance Care and Upkeep

With its heavy daily use, the kitchen can become a messy, cluttered space?fast. So, choosing a new floor that doesn't require constant scrubbing, scouring, and deep-cleaning of the grout is a smart move to cut back on your daily chore list. The smooth, wall-to-wall coverage of concrete floors creates a seamless surface that requires minimal maintenance and upkeep to stay looking its best. In fact, a once-a-week mopping with some soapy water is all you'll need to keep your floors shining!

Affordable, Cost-Effective Pricing

Any size kitchen remodel is a big expense, and replacing the flooring can be a major portion of your budget. Fortunately, concrete flooring isn't just durable and stylish, it is one of the most affordable solutions out there for getting a high-end look in the kitchen! If all you need to do is give an existing concrete slab a polish and shine, you'll be looking at just $2 to $6 per square foot. For more elaborate and decorative finishes, such as grid patterns, different colors, or texture, you can expect the cost to range from $5 to $8 per square foot.

You want your kitchen to look great and hold up to the demands of daily life, and that'starts from the ground-up when planning a kitchen remodel. With the benefits of concrete flooring, you are sure to get a gorgeous kitchen update that'stands the test of time?without dealing with stress, hassle, and an empty bank account along the way.

This Week?s BEST PEARL

Builder?s Engineer Success Tip || Passion ? Effort ? Ability ? Risk ? Luck

Luck and My One-Armed Dad

Luck is an indisputable element of success. We all have luck, some good, some bad. it's what we do with ours that really matters.

My dad, for example, fell from a tree when he was eight-years-old, sustaining a compound fracture of the wrist. The doctors set his cast too tightly and gangrene set in. Little Charlie had a one in one-thousand chance of living IF the arm was amputated. Because it's me writing this today, you know that he did live, though his last 68 years have been without a left arm. You'd probably say he was a victim of bad luck - falling from that tree and then the doctors botching the cast. Or you could say he was unbelievably lucky in that he was the one in one-thousand who would survive full-blown gangrene in 1944.

The one sure thing is that he didn't let that incident define him. In fact, because he only had one arm and would be viewed as a cripple in his parents? blue-collar world, his dad encouraged him to break the Garrison tradition of entering the workforce directly from high school. He instead went to college and enjoyed successful teaching and real estate careers, not to mention raising my three brothers and me on a 76-acre cattle ranch. I'll tell you the lucky one, it's me. Had he not broken his arm, he would not have gone to college, where he met his wife, my mom.

Here's an example of one builder's disproportionate share of luck.

This world-famous builder wasn't always famous - he started modestly. At age 19 he began a home renovation company and soon developed an abhorrence for shoddy workmanship because he typically had to undo or fix other's messes prior to starting his piece. At 38 he got a job building a straw bale home for Michael Quast, a local TV exec who produced a home repair show. During a break in construction, Mike Holmes bent Quast's ear for 30 minutes about shoddy construction. Quast invited him to do a pilot for a show on that topic. At first Holmes said no, too busy, but he thought about it and 3 months later shot the first show. Now at 48 Mike Holmes is an international celebrity and icon of integrity. He has starred in hundreds of TV shows. Holmes on Homes is the highest-rated show on HGTV, Canada. He's the president of the Holmes Group: TV shows, books, Holmes Magazine, DVDs, work wear, etc. He did a 6-hr TV special with Brad Pitt, post-Katrina. He's been on the Ellen DeGeneres Show rebuilding a botched job that left a family in ruins.

Would Holmes be where he is today if Quast hadn't found him and asked him to bid his straw bale home? What if Holmes hadn't changed his mind to do the pilot? What if the show he did wasn't a new series pilot but a one-time-only show? On a scale of one to one million how lucky was Holmes? I say around one million.

But one doesn't create an empire on luck alone. Had Quast hired you to build his straw bale home, would you have been charismatic enough to garner an invitation to host a new TV show? If yes, would you have had the acumen to spin that into something bigger? Could you have parlayed a stroke of fate into a worldwide brand?

Many ultra-successful people trace their ascent to a single lucky break. But deeper study reveals that there's more, a lot more, to it. it's not so much your luck, it's what you do with it.

Tim Garrison, The Builder?s Engineer?, is an award-winning author, public speaker, and professional engineer

1. How to Cook Everything

How to Cook Everything accomplishes exactly what the title says it does. This cookbook has a little of everything and makes it extremely simple to find what you're looking for. More than just recipes, this cookbook spends time explaining cooking techniques, tools and more. it's a fantastic starter cookbook that won't ever let you down.

Read more on Amazon

2. Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

Italian cuisine is a staple that everybody should be prepared to cook. There is nobody better than Marcella Hazan to bring amazing Italian recipes and techniques into your home. This is truly a classic that will take your food to the next level and teach you what it means to cook Italian food.

Read more on Amazon

3. Joy of Cooking

Joy of Cooking is a book many of us have seen in our parents, grandparents or relatives homes. it's been an influential cookbook for almost 100 years, and continues to be a classic. Joy of Cooking has taught countless people how to cook with no prior knowledge and is considered by some to be ?The Cooking Bible?. If you're not sure which cookbook to start your collection with, you can?t go wrong with this one!

Read more on Amazon

4. Mastering the Art of French Cooking

This is the definitive book on French cooking that people have turned to since the early 1960?s. While this is the go-to cookbook when it comes to French cuisine, it's also an incredible instructional guide and great read. Reading this book and following the recipes will elevate your cooking skills like none other. Even if you'removed every recipe from this book, we?d still recommend it. Buy this, even if ?French cuisine? isn't your thing!

Read more on Amazon

5. The Taste of Country Cooking

Edna Lewis is a great woman with a great story. The Taste of Country Cooking is written extremely well with great stories and anecdotes. Along with those, you get fantastic country recipes. This book is split into seasons and holidays, making it easy to figure out what you?d like to cook. Any interest in Southern/country cooking should result in you giving The Taste of Country Cooking a read. you'll love it!

Read more on Amazon

6. Baking: From My Home to Yours

Our essential cookbook list can?t be complete without a book dedicated to baking and sweet treats. Dorie Greenspan, the author of this perfect baking cookbook has written recipes for top chefs across the world. Many bakers, chefs, and home cooks agree that the best baking recipes come from Dorie. This cookbook has 300 recipes, each better than the last, guaranteed to wow you.

Read more on Amazon

No list can ever be perfect or complete. We think that our cookbooks above are the essential picks for any kitchen. We?d love to include additional cuisines, but that's where you come in! As you learn more about what you want out of a cookbook and see what the essentials lack, you'll be able to add to your collection. We would recommend adding 2-3 additional cookbooks from other cuisines and 1 ?restaurant cookbook? from a chef that interests you.