Pondering 2017

The first seed catalogue came the other day Veseys.com is an east coast company and has a good organic seed section. I have purchased seeds from them for a number of years. It is usually the first of several seed catalogues that arrive via mail. I access others online and in a future blog I will talk about the companies I like best.

I enjoy having a seed catalogue in my hands. I can readily mark pages and flip back and forth. Vesey's catalogue gets my mind pondering the possibilities and that is how the new season begins.

It is still early and planting out even in the greenhouse is many months away. As the months, pass, the seed catalogues will become dog-eared and fragile but still full of hope and possibilities.

Next post: "How much do you need to know about soil to create a thriving garden?

A Basic Guide to Houseplants

Getting Started: Plant Placement

Step One: Light

Know your space; where will the plants live? Windows are the main source of natural light for indoor plants so which way do the windows face? If you live in the northern hemisphere, the sun will move in the southern sky which means that a window that faces north does not get direct sun; while an unobstructed southern window will get direct sunlight all day long.

An east facing window receives morning sun and a west facing window will see sun in the afternoon.

Step Two: Temperature

Plants, for the most part, will require a drop in temperature at night, why/ The nighttime temperature needs to be 8 to 10 degrees cooler than the day as during the day, the leaves of the plant manufacture their food and it is only the lower temperature at night that allows them to distribute it to the roots and other growing parts.

Step Three: Humidity.

House can become very dry especially in the winter time when the heat is on and plants will simply dry out. Humidity is the amount of water vapour in the air surrounding the plant; this affects how a plant transpires. Transpiration is how the leaves and stem of the plant give off water which then evaporates into the surrounding air.

If the air around the plant is dry, the plant will then give off too much water and may wilt.

Mist your plants on a regular basis especially in the winter and you will have few problems.

You can also arrange your plants into groups which will then increase their combined transpiration and humidity which will increase the water vapour.

Soil:

I recommend buying a potting soil, preferably organic to grow your houseplants in; there are specialised soils for African violets and succulents for example.

You now have enough knowledge to get started. There is only one thing more to do and that is  to determine how much time you have to devote to the indoor garden. There is work to do and if you start too big the chances of failure increase, start small, get used to the garden and then expand. I have seen a room go from 2 plants to be so full with plants that it was necessary to remove a chair and an end table.

This is fine if you can manage a garden of this proportion but a nightmare if it dominates all your time.

Indoor gardening is a great way to unwind; to slow down and enjoy, do not let your indoor garden outgrow you.

Health Care: Care for the Earth

We cannot be healthy if the food we eat is not healthy. Whether you eat meat or are a vegan, the quality of the food you consume is directly related to how healthy you are. There are other factors, exercise, for one, plays a major role in health care. Getting up off the couch and going outside, even just for a walk, matters.

The issue becomes more complicated when we look at the health of the environment. If the air we breathe is polluted, the water we drink despoiled, the soil our food is grown in contaminated, then it matters little how many green, orange and purple foods you eat. Vegan or carnivore, a polluted foodscape infects the food choices you make.

Soil health, air and water quality are major environmental issues, but they are also major health care issues. We need an healthcare system that understands this relationship.

The Value of Soil

From my September 25 article in the Tribune:


"In order to understand the relationship between good health and food, it is necessary to look a little deeper than the food itself, into the substance within which the food is grown, the soil.

When we talk about soil we are, from a gardening perspective, referring to topsoil. Topsoil is found, most frequently between 5.1 cm (2 inches) and 20 cm or (8 inches) and is the first layer of soil we reach when digging. "

The Soil Daily

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Soil

When was the last time you thought about soil? When was the last conversation you had or even overheard about soil? Without soil there is no life. let us get talking soil. For more visit  this site.

The Soil Daily- January 17, 2015

"Our soils are in danger because of expanding cities, deforestation, unsustainable land use and management practices, pollution, overgrazing and climate change. The current rate of soil degradation ..." More


The Soil Daily

Ecocentrism

Ecocentrism is how I view the world we inhabit, in other words, non-living things are of equal value to living things, and that the functioning ecosystem is the most important. Consider soil, soil is created through the interaction of rocks and weather, without soil we would not have vegetation, at least as we know and depend upon it.

The stories I will be sharing here are set within this context.

The Soil Daily: Sept 19, 2014

"Does an apple a day really keep the doctor away? Not anymore, according to soil health experts—unless the apple comes from a tree grown in healthy, organic soil. According to Australian soil scient..." More, read the Soil Daily

The Soil Daily, August 18, 2014

"- In her book The Soil Will Save Us, writer Kristin Ohlson interviews farmers, soil scientists, and agronomists and concludes that the low-cost, low-tech solution to climate change..."



The Soil Daily

The Soil Daily: August 15, 2014

" University of Oregon-led analysis in prairies of the Pacific Northwest could be a roadmap for the conservation of native plants facing stresses from projected climate adjustments"  More on The Soil Daily

The Soil Daily

" Conventional agriculture destroys our soils, pollutes our water and is a major contributor to climate change. What if our agricultural practices could stabilize, or even reverse these trends?"

Read More

The Soil Daily

The Soil Daily: August 5, 2014

"Where is soil pollution at its worse, what pollutants are being found and what are the health impacts? : Read more in the



The Soil Daily

The Soil Daily: August 4, 2014

"THE PLANET’s soils are being degraded and lost at an alarming rate as a result of agricultural over-production, poor management, loss of biodiversity and fertility and most worryingly the impacts..." Read more at


The Soil Daily

The Soil Daily August 2, 2014

"Soil erosion is the movement of soil by wind or water, and it's through erosion that soil is "lost."

read the Soil Daily.


The Soil Daily

Eat Dirt: It is Good For You

Good gardeners grow soil because when the soils is healthy, the food grow in it is healthy. Why, read on.


"For example, using DNA sequencing technology, agronomists at Washington State University haverecently established that soil teeming with a wide diversity of life (especially bacteria, fungi, and nematodes) is more likely to produce nutrient-dense food. Of course, this makes sense when you understand that it is the cooperation between bacteria, fungi, and plants’ roots (collectively referred to as the rhizosphere) that is responsible for transferring carbon and nutrients from the soil to the plant—and eventually to our plates."


he Surprising Healing Qualities ... of Dirt by Daphne Miller — YES! Magazine

Soil and Compost

Tomorrow, Friday, May 30, we will be spreading the soil and compost on top of the cardboard at the high school garden. Photos will follow.