home gardening
Locked
 
|
Bringing food local reduces transportation costs, cuts carbon emissions, and makes for a healthier diet. Glad to see the White House has decided to have a huge organic garden (see link below). Makes me realize it is time to get out there myself (at least pretty soon!) Peggy
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/dining/20garden.html?_r=1 ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
|
|
All good reasons to eat local. But I remind you all that in some parts of the country, "eating local" would reduce us to rutabagas for most months of the winter. I wouldn't like that, and neither would my body.
On Mar 23, 2009, at 9:50 PM, peggy miller wrote: Bringing food local reduces transportation costs, cuts carbon emissions, and makes for a healthier diet. Glad to see the White House has decided to have a huge organic garden (see link below). Makes me realize it is time to get out there myself (at least pretty soon!) Peggy
Immanuel Kant ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
|
|
In reply to this post by HighlandWindsLLC Miller
peggy miller wrote:
> Bringing food local reduces transportation costs, cuts carbon emissions, > and makes for a healthier diet. Glad to see the White House has decided > to have a huge organic garden (see link below). Makes me realize it is > time to get out there myself (at least pretty soon!) Peggy If you're in NM, the best bet is to wait until May Day. 15 April is the mean last frost, but local master gardeners hold off to avoid fruit-tree-blossom-killing-time. Also, if in NM, you need to consider your altitude and location. I live in the valley north of ABQ and I'm still finding frost on my car in the mornings - not so much from altitude as from being the lowest spot where the cold settles. Another piece of NM gardening wisdom I've gained from the real masters - especially as you want to go organic - you have two choices for growing squash and avoiding squash bugs. You can put a board down on the ground next to your squash - once the bugs show up you go out with your morning coffee, pick up the board, and dance all over the bugs (it's organic :-). Alternately, you wait two weeks after all your neighbours have planted squash and then plant. All the bugs will go to them first and you shouldn't have many of them. ObComplexity - Considering squash bug spread as a complex, epidemiological problem, why would an enclave planted later experience less infestation than surrounding enclaves? What effect does the range of spread of bugs have? Does that range of spread change with the lifecycle of the bugs? -- Ray Parks [hidden email] Consilient Heuristician Voice:505-844-4024 ATA Department Mobile:505-238-9359 http://www.sandia.gov/scada Fax:505-844-9641 http://www.sandia.gov/idart Pager:800-690-5288 ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
|
|
On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 11:46 AM, Parks, Raymond <[hidden email]> wrote:
> (it's organic :-). Alternately, you wait two weeks after all your > neighbours have planted squash and then plant. All the bugs will go to > them first and you shouldn't have many of them. This suggests another option: When you cull your seedlings, select twice the number of plants you need. Pick out the weakest half. Plant them. Wait 2 weeks. Destroy the planting. Plant the (now two weeks older) 1st string plants. Maybe less bugs. Ah, I remember the nights in pumpkins patch. A flashlight beam through the vines exposed the shadows of the (huge!) vine-borer grubs. Then, with scalpel and hemostats, we'd extract the grubs, finally wrapping and taping the wounds and injecting a good dose of Bacillus thuringiensis. I don't garden anymore. ~~James ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
|
|
In reply to this post by HighlandWindsLLC Miller
The Tomato Hornworm is about the size of your thumb and writhes sensuously
when you try to pick it off the plant. One of these critters can devour the better part of a tomato plant in a day. I used to grab them off the plant, and try to fling them into the underbrush before my gag reflex got the better of me. The moth that lays the eggs that become the hornworm, is about the half the size of an attack helicopter and almost as noisy. The first time I saw one, I gave up organic gardening for a year. It was so horrifying, that garden defense required a 22 rifle. I would rather go hand to hand with a raccoon than touch one of those things. Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University ([hidden email]) http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > [Original Message] > From: James Steiner <[hidden email]> > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]> > Date: 3/24/2009 10:13:11 AM > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] home gardening > > On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 11:46 AM, Parks, Raymond <[hidden email]> wrote: > > (it's organic :-). Alternately, you wait two weeks after all your > > neighbours have planted squash and then plant. All the bugs will go to > > them first and you shouldn't have many of them. > > This suggests another option: > > When you cull your seedlings, select twice the number of plants you > need. Pick out the weakest half. Plant them. Wait 2 weeks. Destroy the > planting. Plant the (now two weeks older) 1st string plants. Maybe > less bugs. > > Ah, I remember the nights in pumpkins patch. A flashlight beam through > the vines exposed the shadows of the (huge!) vine-borer grubs. Then, > with scalpel and hemostats, we'd extract the grubs, finally wrapping > and taping the wounds and injecting a good dose of Bacillus > thuringiensis. > > I don't garden anymore. > > ~~James > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
|
|
I always used tongs for the grosser larva, and a badminton racquet for
the moths. Also for cabbage moths, and any other white-ish flying thing I saw. The dog thought it was fricken hilarious--helping the crazy screaming monkey swing the racquet around. Whee! Badminton was one of his favorite lawn games--with or without shuttlecocks. ~~James On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 12:23 AM, Nicholas Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote: > The Tomato Hornworm is about the size of your thumb and writhes sensuously > when you try to pick it off the plant. One of these critters can devour > the better part of a tomato plant in a day. I used to grab them off the > plant, and try to fling them into the underbrush before my gag reflex got > the better of me. The moth that lays the eggs that become the hornworm, is > about the half the size of an attack helicopter and almost as noisy. The > first time I saw one, I gave up organic gardening for a year. It was so > horrifying, that garden defense required a 22 rifle. I would rather go > hand to hand with a raccoon than touch one of those things. > > Nick ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
|
|
In reply to this post by Nick Thompson
Nicholas Thompson wrote:
The Tomato Hornworm is about the size of your thumb and writhes sensuously when you try to pick it off the plant. One of these critters can devour the better part of a tomato plant in a day. I used to grab them off the plant, and try to fling them into the underbrush before my gag reflex got the better of me. The moth that lays the eggs that become the hornworm, is about the half the size of an attack helicopter and almost as noisy. The first time I saw one, I gave up organic gardening for a year. It was so horrifying, that garden defense required a 22 rifle. I would rather go hand to hand with a raccoon than touch one of those things. Hornworms: My wife (accidentally) trained our 100lb Yellow Lab to "deworm" our tomatoes one year. My wife would go out first thing in the morning before the sun drove them into the deep shade and would pick them off and toss the into a bucket. One day I came out and found our dog snacking on the little buggers right out of the bucket. By the next day, she was going around to the tomato vines with my wife looking for them and nibbling them directly from the plants. She wasn't very thorough, but she was a help. We love our "hummingbird" moths, not all species of which are tomato hornworms in their larval stages. I understand their are something like 30 species of "hummingbird", "hawk", or "Sphinx" moths. I am lead to believe that those moths who would be tomato hornworms are nocturnal and the ones you see by day are not associated with tomatoe/tobacco. Squash Bugs: One winter, my wife threw a dead pumpkin into our garden along with a bunch of other compost (I don't know why she didn't throw it on the compost pile, it is only a dozen steps away). That spring, I thoughtlessly tilled the pumpkin into the garden with my tractor. By early summer we had hundreds of pumpkin vines throughout most of our 30' diameter round garden space. My wife being the gentle gardener that she is, could not bear to prune any of them. She just planted around them. By mid summer, we had tens of thousands of squash bugs. Not being strict organic farmers, but not being interested in using industrial chemicals for the most part, we tried the simple remedies such as a fine mist of dishwashing detergent mixed with cayenne pepper, etc. This did slow them down a little, but didn't stop them. Meanwhile our squash and other cucurbits were being assaulted as well. The pumpkin patch was a breeding ground. We never won the battle, but did hold the line, yielding more squash (isn't it always the case) and definitely more pumpkin (go figure) than we could possible use ourselves. The next year we planted no cucurbits, understanding that the squash-bug eggs can winter over at least one year, but giving them nothing to keep them around, they will "go away". After that, I planted no more squash or pumpkin in the garden, instead I planted them in the tree wells around our property, more in the spirit of "One Straw Revolution". We haven't seen any squash bugs (in quantity) since. Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University ([hidden email]) http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/[Original Message] From: James Steiner [hidden email] To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group [hidden email] Date: 3/24/2009 10:13:11 AM Subject: Re: [FRIAM] home gardening On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 11:46 AM, Parks, Raymond [hidden email]wrote: ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
«
Return to Friam
|
1 view|%1 views
| Free forum by Nabble | Edit this page |