Gardening,organics,sustainable gardening,food crops,etc

[Ron Mauer Sr]

Posted by Highwhistler (here)

Hi Norman and others in the UK,

Have you seen this amazing organization that
connects people who want a space to grow a garden
with people who have a gardening space
that they want to share?

Landshare

Landshare is a really nice idea. It may not be so important here in Lovingston, Virginia because we are not crowded.
But if anyone needs space for a garden, I can offer that plus water from 5 streams that converge on my property.
It would take some work to keep the wild animals away though.

[Ella]

This might not be the right thread for this, but I'll chance it seeing as there are a couple of posts about chickens. Has anyone had any experience of keeping rabbits in their garden for food? I'm thinking about doing it this year, seems like one of the easier ways to keep animals for a food source if you haven't got room for sheep, pigs etc.......
If this isn't the best thread for this I'll check out some others too.

Thanks peeps.

[Bo Atkinson]

If and when markets present unbearable problems, some remedies of shipwrecked survival might apply. This actually has appealed to me as an option to and an avoidance of the squared and linear life styles of recent centuries. I have explored nonlinear and curvilinear solutions for everything, even gardening. Since so many today live with cold winters or droughty landscapes the greenhouse may well offer important backup, in extending growth seasons and in adjusting micro climates.

http://harmoniouspalette.com/EyelidG...reenhouse.html

The concept of annualized solar would benefit greenhouses tremendously. I used to have more concerns that wet climates would wash away this annualized heat, underground. However, my very slow, experimental progress at leasts has already provided some frost freedom, even though my insulation is so unfinished. Given considerable ground water at my location.

Next is a much easier eyelid with just a fraction of the advantages:

http://harmoniouspalette.com/EyelidG...reenhouse.html

[Dennis Leahy]

Purple Majesty potatoes

There are about 4000 different varieties of potatoes. This is just one of them. If you think of "Russet" potatoes (white flesh, brown skin) when you think of potatoes, may I recommend that you expand your horizons.

Blindfolded, you would not be able to detect the potato varieties with colored flesh, but the colored flesh does contain more nutrients/phytonutrients.

Theses are beautiful as chunks in a soup, or mixed with other potatoes (such as the pink-red fleshed Mountain Rose, and the golden-yellow fleshed Yukon Gold), or with other root vegetables.

This is one of my new three favorite potatoes (the others named above.)

Dennis

[Dorok]

Here's what I do in my suburban backyard. Definitely can grow more food than my wife & I can eat.

[Dennis Leahy]

How do we get more people excited about gardening?


("Adam, say hello to Eve.")

:~)

Dennis

[Nenuphar]

Cool pic, Dennis! I have never seen potatoes such a deep purple before. That is wild! *L*

I will be trying my hand at growing Yukon Gold potatoes this summer, though. Can't wait! :-)

[Creative Lorraine]

This thread is so cool I want to get a garden out this year
Found that Ace hardware has"Plastic 55 gallon drums with lids"
I want to place dirt into it cut out holes on sides and plant Leaf Lettuce
Chica chica plant remember those hahha
Youtube has a lot of gardening video's

[Arrowwind]

Posted by Ella (here)
This might not be the right thread for this, but I'll chance it seeing as there are a couple of posts about chickens. Has anyone had any experience of keeping rabbits in their garden for food? I'm thinking about doing it this year, seems like one of the easier ways to keep animals for a food source if you haven't got room for sheep, pigs etc.......
If this isn't the best thread for this I'll check out some others too.

Thanks peeps.

My neighbors keep rabbits for meat. They are very economical and don't have as many problems as chickens can have and they reproduce... well, they reproduce like rabbits so it is always a growing population if managed right..

You can feed them store bought feed and supplement in the summer with wild herbs and clovers from gathered from your morning walk

Ive been thinking about it but the cuteness factor keeps getting in the way..

[sister]

Reminder:
Planting day today and tomorrow for above ground crops and flowers, as the moon's sign is 1st Taurus.
Also, good planting day next Monday for the same, moon in 2nd Cancer.
Happy planting!

[Ella]

Posted by Arrowwind (here)

Posted by Ella (here)
This might not be the right thread for this, but I'll chance it seeing as there are a couple of posts about chickens. Has anyone had any experience of keeping rabbits in their garden for food? I'm thinking about doing it this year, seems like one of the easier ways to keep animals for a food source if you haven't got room for sheep, pigs etc.......
If this isn't the best thread for this I'll check out some others too.

Thanks peeps.

My neighbors keep rabbits for meat. They are very economical and don't have as many problems as chickens can have and they reproduce... well, they reproduce like rabbits so it is always a growing population if managed right..

You can feed them store bought feed and supplement in the summer with wild herbs and clovers from gathered from your morning walk

Ive been thinking about it but the cuteness factor keeps getting in the way..

Thanks Arrowwind,
I think I have pretty much convinced myself to give this a go. The more I read about it, the more I think it sounds perfect for us. I know what you mean about the cute factor though, luckily my husband isn't as sentimental, so I'll leave the 'dirty' work up to him. It's our 2 yr old that might not like it too much, though I'm sure if we use the experience as a learning one for him he'll be fine. Kids should know where their food comes from right? Last summer he loved eating the tomatoes and cucumbers straight from the plants in the garden, and it's kind of the same principle! Plus we'll know they are treated well, are healthy and have a good (but short) life!....

[Arrowwind]

Ella. just be sure to not allow any rabbits to turn into pets.

It might be a good time to get a dog or cat so he can direct that part of his being
onto a living thing that will be around which he can develop a relationship with.

[Cjay]

BIOCHAR


ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ENVIRONMENTAL DISCOVERIES EVER

A way to create hyper-fertile organic soil very quickly, simply and cheaply.

The videos below should be compulsory viewing for gardeners, farmers and politicians.


Approximately 10% of the soil in the Amazon Basin is man-made.

This knowledge has potentially enormous implications for:

• improving soil fertillity
• improving fertilzer retention in soil
• reducing the need for chemical fertilizers
• improving soil biomass/ecosystems (micro and macro organisms)
• improving soil aeration
• improving soil drainage
• reducing soil erosion
• rehabilitating huge areas of degraded farmland
• making barren land fertile
• growing much healthier plants
• reducing the need for pesticides
• improving water quality (by reducing chemical fertilizer and pesticide usage and reducing their run-off as a result of natural carbon filtration)
• reducing atmospheric CO2 (by sequestering carbon from plants in soil for thousands of years)
• reducing emissions of other greenhouse gases from soil
• growing a lot more food of much higher quality

EL DORADO RE-DISCOVERED - THE REAL GOLD IS BLACK SOIL (TERRA PRETA)

I first heard this story on National Geographic channel when I was in the Philippines in 2005. It recently came up in a conversation with my youngest sister, so I did a little digging (pun intended) and found some very useful info on the 'net.

El Dorado is the “mythical” civilisation in the Amazon Basin that was "discovered" by Conquistador Francisco de Orellana in 1542. He was ridiculed and labelled insane by many because, despite thousands of people searching for over 430 years, no one could find El Dorado, until 2002.

El Dorado is real and it covers an area about twice the size of the UK. The reason the thousands of people who searched for El Dorado could not find it is because diseases like influenza, common cold and small pox wiped out the entire population in less than a decade and it was 30 years after its "discovery" before the next fleet of European explorers returned to the region, by which time the jungle had grown so much that it concealed El Dorado. Also, most of the explorers were looking for metallic gold, so they didn’t have eyes to see all the evidence and they walked all over El Dorado for about 430 years without seeing it!

It’s a long story but the gist of it is that the ancients (thousands of years ago) figured out a way to create hyper-fertile soil from virtually barren clay - mixing "biochar" (charcoal made from burning wood in an oxygen-depleted furnace) and compost with the clay that covers most of the Amazon Basin. The man-made soil is known as Tera Preta (black earth). Roughly 10% of the soil in the Amazon Basin is man-made. The soil itself actually GROWS.

The knowledge is being applied (still experimentally but on a fairly large scale) in Australia and many other countries.

Map showing the extent of El Dorado



For a quick introduction, read this site:
The Secret of El Dorado revealed
http://www.mnn.com/technology/resear...orado-revealed
That web-page contains a link to another page that contains a BBC documentary video.

I have posted the link to the other page here, for your convenience:
http://ecopreservationsociety.wordpr...terra-pretado/

Here is the BBC documentary about the re-discovery of El Dorado and the implications of terra preta.

[GOOGLE]8993313723654914866[/GOOGLE]

This next site includes a short documentary video about soil research and the modern application of the ancient El Dorado biochar knowledge: http://replantingtherainforests.org/...mentation.html

Here is the short documentary about modern soil scientists research on biochar.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=nzmpWR6JUZQ

A closer look at biochar. Notice it has lots of surfaces for fungi and bacteria to grow on and lots of internal spaces for storing moisture, nutrients and air - and, importantly, for carbon-filtering the water before it ends up in creeks and rivers.



To turbo-charge plant growth in any soil type, in any climate, learn about and
COMBINE BIOCHAR AND PERMACULTURE (more on this in future posts).

[Cjay]

PERMACULTURE


TWO OUTSTANDING INSPIRING ENVIRONMENTAL REPAIR STORIES

Everyone who cares about our planet should learn how to do this.


Willie Smits - Regrowing rainforest in Borneo

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3vfuCPFb8wk

Geoff Lawton - Permaculture - Greening the Desert

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=8gPvsl9ni-4

If you haven't already, please spend one hour reading the post above regarding BIOCHAR, including reading the links and watching the videos.

If we COMBINE PERMACULTURE AND BIOCHAR, we have an extremely powerful and relatively simple way to rapidly repair the land that feeds us and clean up our water - and the results could last for thousands of years, as shown by carbon-dating the man-made soil in El Dorado

[jorr lundstrom]

Posted by Ella (here)
This might not be the right thread for this, but I'll chance it seeing as there are a couple of posts about chickens. Has anyone had any experience of keeping rabbits in their garden for food? I'm thinking about doing it this year, seems like one of the easier ways to keep animals for a food source if you haven't got room for sheep, pigs etc.......
If this isn't the best thread for this I'll check out some others too.

Thanks peeps.

Yeah, we have had a lot of rabbits.

[Arrowwind]

Posted by Cjay (here)
I have posted the video link here, for your convenience:
http://ecopreservationsociety.wordpr...terra-pretado/

This next site includes a short documentary video about soil research and the modern application of the ancient El Dorado biochar knowledge: http://replantingtherainforests.org/...mentation.html


To turbo-charge plant growth in any soil type, in any climate, learn about and
COMBINE BIOCHAR AND PERMACULTURE (more on this in future posts).

Very interesting Cjay! I will be looking into this.

Please tell us if you have made this soil and how it has gone for you.

[Arrowwind]

Ya need to watch the video on this page.

http://biochar.be/

[Arrowwind]

and this:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=nzmpWR6JUZQ

=player_embedded

[Maria Stade]

Posted by Arrowwind (here)
Ya need to watch the video on this page.

http://biochar.be/

Cool thanks I will test this out !

Back to see more films !

Sipping some Birch sap..... mmm thats good.... wohoooo

[Maria Stade]

Arrowwind
You can feed them store bought feed and supplement in the summer with wild herbs and clovers from gathered from your morning walk

Not so good idea !

Rabbit food contains antibiotics (sulfa in Swedish ) and you do not whant to eat that !
To much clower can kill ( gas production) them or make them unfertile or inpossible to mate much hormones !

Hay is important they have teath that grows all the time, and green food is fine but read how to do so you dont over do it they have a sencitive stomach !