Gardening for Geeks? 98
selan asks: "Spring has sprung, and this year I've decided to try gardening for the first time! I'm starting with a small container garden on my balcony and am planting oregano and parsley. I was wondering if any Slashdot readers enjoy this low-tech hobby and have any advice to share with a newbie."
Sounds cool (Score:1)
First thing to learn (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:First thing to learn (Score:4, Funny)
Sunlight (Score:5, Informative)
If you are growing temperate climate plants (thyme, oregano, etc) then watch the nightime temperature, they don't take well to cold nights (not even in Florida.)
If you have children over 5, plant mint, they can chew 1/2 leaf for a good fresh flavour and to help prevent tooth decay. (Be very careful about what you put on those plants!)
Avoid harsh chemicals and pest sprays. If it says non toxic, it can still make the plants taste like manure. Growing for food, organic takes more work but is well worth it. I love being able to grab a fresh bay leaf for soup right from the plant.
And always, always rinse under cool water before using.
I could go on all day, but that's a start for ya... yes, I do enjoy this archaic sport. Watching mints grow!
Re:Sunlight (Score:1)
Kids aren't the only ones who like mint. Several years ago our neighbor gave us a decent size mint plant. By the next day, my doberman had eaten the entire thing except for the root ball.
Re:Sunlight (Score:2)
Well, maybe if you brushed his teeth occasionally, he wouldn't have to devour entire mint plants to freshen his breath.
Oregano? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Oregano? (Score:1)
Re:Oregano!!! (Score:1)
Take it high tech... (Score:3, Funny)
Like under your house.
Get some grow lights, a hydroponics kit, and your in business.
Just don't get caught or they will take your house.
Accidental gardening (Score:2, Interesting)
As for gardening tips, if you remove the growing tip of the plant (just break off the very top of the plant with your fingernails) it will grow 2 more. Remove those to get 4, then 8, 16, 32... Of course, if
Re:Accidental gardening (Score:3, Informative)
Daniel
Re:Accidental gardening (Score:1)
Re:Accidental gardening (Score:1)
Herbs and houseplants (Score:2, Informative)
low tech?? Hydroponics is the way to go!! (Score:3)
For some serious advice:
Dont get hybrid seed. Get regualr seed, and reuse the most succesful ones for next year. THat way yore more likely to wind up with plants that are more adopted for your particular climate conditons.
This is especially true for things like apple tress.
ANd actually, hydroponics might be an intersting way for you to go. Im planning to try ot do the exact same thng in my backyard. I actually have a small indoor turtle pond, and i want to work the filtration system for that by using the plants. Ive done that before on limited basis, and the plants love it. Plus, im sure the turtle appreciates the filtration.
And if thats not a geeky enough gardening idea for you, youre on your own.
Re:low tech?? Hydroponics is the way to go!! (Score:1)
Re:low tech?? Hydroponics is the way to go!! (Score:2)
Um, no.
That may be partly true in the Steppes, and perhaps to a very slender degree in rural Appalachia, but no.
Apples, as we know them, are almost more a human-managed product than the milk we get from the knocked-up, cloned, hormone-pumped-up, antibiotic-guzzling, hooked-to-th
Indoor turtle pond? (Score:2)
a matter of taste (Score:1)
%-)
Re:a matter of taste (Score:2)
ISnt statements like these what anonomous coward is meant for?
Organic is the way to go (Score:2, Insightful)
Try to grow everything, tomatoes work well, corn if you have room for enough of it, herbs, vegitables.
You will get interesting friends at work trying to pawn off the vegitables you can't eat... bring those extra tomatoes in, let your non-enlightened friends share
It is a great life balancer, I love to sit on my ass all day at work and just think hard, go
Re:Organic is the way to go (Score:1)
Re:Organic is the way to go (Score:2)
Compost/garden resource DB (Score:2)
Drop me a line and I'll forward you a DBF (or tab-delimited file) of my links DB which contains, among other things, something like two hundred garden/green links and quite a few for composting.
I'm working up to (probably) opensourcing the whole shebang but haven't gotten around to it yet.
Anybody know a good overview of all the open source licences?
Rustin
Plastic Cover (Score:1)
As an experiment I've grown wheatgrass and catnip for my evil cat, as incentive for him to stay out of the other plants.
I've found that I had good results if I let the seeds do their initial sprouting and growth underneath a sheet of clear plastic wrap. The trick is not to get too eager and remove the plastic wrap to soon. The plastic wrap is a perfect way to even out the sporatic waterings that are inevitable when you're slashdotting.
Michael.
Treasure [michael-forman.com]
RTFM, of course! (Score:3, Informative)
Along with this, keep in mind that seeds will also have instructions on how to plant. Naturally, this is a little beyond simply dropping your seeds in dirt and doing the slashdot three-step (1 - plant and water, 2 - ???, 3 - profit!).
If you're concerned about mineral content of the soil, your local city office might have assay information. The books will also show you how to deal with this.
Rotate your soil bases, especially if you are doing this yearly. You know how production farms will let a field rest for a year after using it a few years? It's to prevent depleting the soil. Barring this, be prepared to replenish the soil with commercial fertilizers or cattle manure.
(To wit, cattle manure is not straight fecal matter from bovines, it's decomposed cattle waste. Broadly speaking, manure is anything that fertilizes the soil when worked in - including commercial fertilizers if you want to reach. Decomposed cattle waste is fairly common, though.)
Lastly (and speaking of manure), one thing my father did back in the early 80s was get some straight up manure-based soil (like what some people put on their lawns to fertilize). It smells horrible, but your crops will taste fine, and they will also be extremely healthy - but again, be prepared to replenish after a period or your crops will start losing .
You've got step one right! (Score:2)
Well, you've already beat me on step one: Don't live someplace where you're getting the third snowfall of the month on April 7th!
Since moving into a place with a garden, I've given it a try the last two summers. My newbie's experience -- growing from seeds is fun but difficult. Be careful with moving seedlings outdoors. Put them outside for a few hours during the day, keeping an eye on them, then overnight when you're absolutely sure they'll be OK and only then transplant them. And whe
Re:You've got step one right! (Score:2)
Re:You've got step one right! (Score:2)
This winter has made me want to move somewhere, anywhere, where winter is less than 1/2 the year (it's already been 24 weeks here).
Re:You've got step one right! (Score:2)
Compost piles? (Score:2)
I've started gardening recently and have a lot of yard waste. I'm curious about creating a compost pile. Any tips or bad composting experiences? I remember someone here on Slashdot mentioned a rodent-free, odor-free composting product (from the UK?).
How do you know when your pile is done? Some web sites I've read say "6 weeks to 2 years." Gee, that helps a lot..
Re:Compost piles? (Score:1)
Make sure you turn it regularly, the more air the faster it will compost.
Try to get a good mix of what the author classified as carbon rich, vegetables and other food wastes, with nitrogen rich plants, such as grass clippings leaves and others. It will work at 80/20 either way, but it will take longer, and the ti
How stuff works: composting (Score:2)
Re:Compost piles? (Score:2)
Rustin
Cabbage. (Score:3)
companion plants (Score:5, Informative)
My fave is the Marigold [google.com]. Its a pretty flower, easy to grow in a small pot, and fairly hard to kill (that's important for me
Also check out Container Gardening [google.com] for many many more links on growing things on patios, small spaces, in containers, etc.
And finally, a safety tip. If you go for anything larger, like say a couple of tomato plants in one of those big terracotta pots, PLEASE get one of the wheeled bases for it. A 3' tall pot full of plants and wet soil is a biatch to move. I don't care how sweet the tomatoes are
Re:companion plants (Score:2)
Re:companion plants (Score:2)
That is actually a whole related issue
Re:companion plants (Score:2)
Rustin
Voluntary Simplicity (Score:1)
It serves a whole range of people from a whole range of backgrounds, from neo-hip
i you're truly a geek... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:i you're truly a geek... (Score:1)
Re:if you're truly a geek... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Try Tomatoes.. (Score:2)
Once you get the hang of it, you might try topsy-turvy [davesgarden.com] gardening.
Re:Try Tomatoes.. (Score:2)
So a salesman is selling tomatoes in different cities. He realizes that, by plotting his route, he can figure out how to grow any non-determinate tomato plant to a polynomial size.
Re:Try Tomatoes.. (Score:1)
If you do try them, be sure to get a determinate tomato plant (the non-determinate ones keep growing and can get up to 8 ft long.
Yes, but they can be managed with a bit of care. RTFM. You take out the side-shoots as it grows and the top when you're happy with the quantity of fruit on it. Fine for planting outside or in a greenhouse and tying to canes; probably not so good if you live in a 1st floor flat, though.
(In)determinate (Score:1)
The other great thing about tomatoes is that you can buy actual plants of various sizes and varieties instead of starting seeds on your own. (They say, though, that you might as well buy smallish plants, because they'll catch up to
Re:Try Tomatoes.. (Score:2)
Like hell. I tried my first tomatoes last year. Two things you must do:
1) When they grow too large for the seedling pots, put them in something larger. Don't leave it for 3 months and then do it.
2) When it's nice and sunny, make sure they're watered.
3) If you don't put a solid stake in the ground, they tend to wander around and then fall over.
Guess which 3 things I didn't do
I've still got their dried up stalks in the plant pots - haven't come around to remove them yet. I
BSD gardening (Score:1)
Re:BSD gardening (Score:1)
The first step... (Score:2)
arghhhhh (Score:2)
Re:arghhhhh (Score:1)
Give in. I just made an NP-complete joke a few posts up.
Permaculture! (Score:1)
The geekiest garden approach is permaculture. This is a systems and pattern-oriented approach to producing food and other agricultural products and I keep wondering why it isn't growing [*groan*] more rapidly as a philosophy.
Reasons for geekiness:
Tomacco! (Score:2, Funny)
Correction. (Score:1)
The correct code word is... (Score:2)
I may not know much but I remember from my college days, the correct code word is "tomato plants."
Hrmm... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Hrmm... (Score:2)
It'll still be a major pain, though.
Re:Hrmm... (Score:1)
Mecha-Tomato (Score:1)
What would you use for detecting the moisture content of the soil and deciding when to add more water? Perhaps measure the current flow through the soil (shock the little plant roots)?
What could you use to control the water supply?
Surely there's something plant-wise that I can use my computer for! Can I actually control my whole garden with a computer?
Maybe I can scare away pests with some motion detection on a camera and a loud s
Spring has sprung??? (Score:1)
Herbs and flowers on the balcony (Score:2)
I live on the 3rd floor. It's a great balcony but I used to war constantly with the squirrels. They'd top the basil and some flowers. Seems they daily would look for acorns like Iraqi's looking for banned weapons hidden during the first Gulf War (neither has a clue where they might be buried, IF they might be buried, but since neither has any command and control, there might as well be none).
Then I went to the local garden shop and they recommended a fertilizer made from organic pelletized chicken shit. I
Plant lifetimes (Score:1)
Sprouts? (Score:2, Informative)
Pot sizes and flowers (Score:1)
Re:Pot sizes and flowers (Score:1)
Tomatoes and herbs are nice to have, but don't ignore flowers: petunias, marigolds and geraniums are good and are in flower for ages.
Nasturtiums look nice and can be used as a salad vegetable. Not that I know of anyone who's ever eaten them, but it's a theory. Runner beans (string beans in Merkin?) were originally grown as an ornamental plant, too - they have scarlet flowers and lots of foliage. And chives have bright blue-purple flowers.
New Hobby (Score:1)
My favorite container plant... (Score:3, Informative)
Speaking from experience, try a strawberry plant. Keep it from getting frost, and if you're in a hot climate, keep it from getting direct afternoon sun. For a whole year, it's just a green plant. The next year, it'll bear fruit. The sweetest fruit you've ever tasted. There's nothing like a strawberry vine ripened and still warm from the sun.
My new problem, however, is that my wife won't eat strawberries from anyplace else now. Like oranges, when you've had fresh off the plant from the right plant, nothing else just can compare.
You asked specifically about two plants. Your number one enemy, from my experience, is severe spider infestation. Mist your plants if they're too delicate to handle direct hose water. Don't use pesticides, but try to keep as many nasties off as you can. There are some nice organic solutions, including using cedar. It seems to work pretty well to use cedar mulch on top of the soil. If you have the right window exposure, you can grow good plants indoors. My strawberry plant grew well in a Vermont window with a northwest exposure.
Also, stay away from plastic pots. They hold moisture too well, and even with the right drainage, it's tough to keep mold / mildew from growing in it. Same with heavily painted terra cotta. Stick with bare terra cotta and you won't go too far wrong in the drainage department. Of course, you will still have to monitor moisture (Wal-mart sells hydrometers for like $5 or less), but it's tough to overwater a terra cotta pot with a hole in the bottom.
Re:My favorite container plant... (Score:1)
Also, stay away from plastic pots. They hold moisture too well, and even with the right drainage, it's tough to keep mold / mildew from growing in it.
I get white mould on the soil surface of pots, but ime it's never caused the plants a problem. Perhaps you worry too much? ;-)
Hot Peppers! (Score:2)
Pepper Joe's Seed Catalog [pepperjoe.com] (I buy all my seeds from him, they always give you FREE seeds with your order, great way to test and see if you like the flavor of a pepper you've never heard of before)
Pepper Joe's Gardening Tips [pepperjoe.com]
EXCELLENT h [batnet.com]
WTF!!! (Score:1)
Re:WTF!!! (Score:1)
cbd.
Limited space gardening... (Score:2, Informative)
And now for something completely different... (Score:1)
Cooking for Geeks
Look for local expertise (Score:1)
Where I live, they offer a "Master Gardener" program , which lasts about 9 weekends. The cost is basically buying the book for the class and helping tend some public gardens for 1 or 2 weekends.
Another good resource is a locally owned garden center or nursery. Don't expect the people at places li
Chives. (Score:1)
I've had the same $1.59 clump of chives growing in my yard
Other unkillable plants (Score:2)
This, btw, on a windy west-facing terrace in New York City.
The onions have become a staple in my cooking as I have long-since gotten in the habit of going out to the terrace while, say noodles are draining, ripping off some green shoots, and mixing them in. Yum!
Rus
Hops are great for the Beer Geek (Score:2, Interesting)
I have 2 varieties (Cascade & Nugget) that have now grown about a foot each in the last 2 weeks (3 weeks ago they weren't even visible). If their performance last year was any indicator, they should be doing 1-2 feet a week shortly.
Now if I just had time
All I needed to know... (Score:2, Funny)
my experiments with indoor plants (Score:4, Informative)
For several years now, my friends have watched as I geek out over some house plants. I have had a great deal of fun watching several of my plants grow.
Amaryllis [ncsu.edu]
About 7 years ago, I was given an Amaryllis. A flowering plant that has a bulb. When I received the bulb, it was already on the way to flowering. When it flowered, I took a q-tip and cross polinated the flowers against one another (not sure what the correct term is). I left the flowers on the plant until they dried out and fell off. After a few weeks, the stem on which the flowers grew turned into a small bulb that obviously contained seeds. I have since re-planted the seeds and given away about 10 small amaryllis plants to friends. Unfortunately, I have not been able to watch any of the small plants grow large enough to flower again, but hope to do so with my most recent bunch. I have also had the original large bulbs split into separate bulbs several times. I now have four large bulbs from the original (plus the many small plants that have grown from seed).
Ficus [ivillage.com]
When I finished school, I purchased a small ficus tree. It grew quite well sitting in the window. When it out-grew its pot, I trasferred it into an overly large Rubbermaid container [rubbermaid.com]. Once it was in the too-large container, the extra soil space allowed it to grow out of control. As I was living in a small, urban apartment, I decided to plant my own "lawn" in the pot. I was able to sustain a small patch of green grass along with the tree for an entire summer (all indoors). I learned a great deal about small ecosystems (clippings must be VERY small to not matt down new growth) and potting soil from bags (these bags contain bugs- if the plant is indoors, the bugs will be indoors too).
Worms [cityfarmer.org]
One of the things that I learned from the Ficus-lawn experiment (see above) was that a small potted-plant system does not break down organic matter very quickly. I spoke to several friends, gardeners and academics. They all said that the possibility of getting the lawn clippings to compost properly in the large container was fairly slim. However, they said that if I was interested, I should look into getting some worms to help out. They also said that the worms would help with small bugs. On several occasions, I gathered earthworms that appeared on the sidewalks after rains, but I am not sure that any of them survived for long in the soil system (I believe that worms require fairly loose soil and potted plants generally end up with fairly dense soil).
I have also played with various other herbs and flowering plants. I have 4 calla [gardenbytheseason.com] lillies [betterlawns.com] that I have grown from the same cross polination "technique" that I used with the amaryllis described above. The callas live happily in my office windowsill with a cyclomen [cyclamen.org], hyacinth [inthecount...dgifts.com], and several pots of amaryllis (at various stages of maturity). They all seem happy enough living in a windowsill.
All that said, there is a wealth of information out there on how to grow plants of all varieties. As useful as the information is, I have always found it more interesting to experiment on my own and see how much I recall from high-school biology and geolgraphy courses. A bit of common sense can keep almost any plant alive; a bit of experimentation and work can grow a single plant into many or
Basil is a good idea... (Score:1)
Potatoes! (Score:1)
It's fun, very tasty, come in a variety of colors (iSpuds?), and you don't even have to wash the dirt off this way.