Build A Fence Around Your Garden

Fencing is one the best way to save your garden crops. As they say Prevention is always better than Cure. Building a fence can be a great way to start living organic. It is a great alternative for traps, scare devices or repellents.

Depending on the types of animals you want your garden to protect from the fencing size varies. For example a 2 feet high chicken wire might work good for smaller sized animals but it will definitely not going to work against large animals like cow, deer etc.

Fencing Material:

Chicken wire: This is by far the most used form of fencing. It is cheap and provide good enough barrier to keep the pests at bay.

A 3 feet high chicken wire can save your garden from most of the small and medium-sized animals. Buy a chicken wire which is at least 4-5 feet wide. Bend it into a L shape. Position it around the sight in such a way that at least one feet of that wire should remain under ground.

Putting an underground barrier can save your crops from burrowing animals. Sometimes, animals become too persuasive and adding an electrical fence becomes necessary.

Here are some suggestions which you can do to reduce the cost of fencing:

1. Use recycled material which you already have in your hand or look for some give away materials from some junk dealer. It will definitely keep the cost to a minimum.
2. Use PVC pipes in stead of metal tubes.
3. Wire fencing is cheaper but can result in a larger sum in case your area is very large. Some times it is sensible to fence individual plants which are susceptible to pest attack rather than going for the entire area. It can really save your cost.

There are several other ways to built a fence than just using Chicken wires. Here is a look at the various other options which you definitely can try:

Hedge: A living fence or hedge can be a good and cheap option. They grow naturally and would keep other unwanted pests from entering into the garden.

Wood fencing: It definitely adds a charm to the surroundings but may not be a good idea if you are concerned very much about burrowing animals. Best solution for this would be to use it with chicken wire.

Brick or stone fencing:The best part of this form of fencing is that once it has been set up, it requires minimal maintenance. If larger rocks can be easily and cheaply accessed in your area then a dry stone wall is possibly the best option. It is a high security fence so if you are planning to move out in near future, this might not be a good idea to invest in it.

Bamboo fences: If you have a cheap supply of bamboos this can work very easily. Bamboos are strong and also look good aesthetically if used in fencing.

Picket Fencing: It is the most Traditional form of fencing. Look good aesthetically but the cost of maintenance can be very high. You need to paint it regularly to retain its charm and usefulness.

There are some cool tool available in the market to help you build a beautiful fence. You can buy them by from amazon

What do you think about the article? Share your thoughts.

Read More..

Gardening In the Rain

It is that time of the year when after a searing summer heat, the mercury has already come down and plans to dip even further in coming days as the monsoon clouds looms over our head. While rains evoke different moods for different people, it is also when it is raining that you get to tend to those beautiful plants in your garden, and watch plants grow faster and bloom in the glory of the rains.


Monsoons can be very tricky for Gardeners. With nature favouring the task, the plantation work turns easy. Introducing new plants into the garden, starting a new home garden, planning a terrace garden seems like the most obvious things to do. Crotons and flowering plants are the best to grow in monsoon and add a colourful tint to the lush green foliage.

Also, this is the time of the year when small errors in care or maintenance or neglect occurs and many times it gets overlooked by the green components of the garden. Since saplings and plants have needed water provided by the rains, they do not cry out of thirst even if you forget to water them for a day or two.

But just like scarcity of water is a problem for plants, excess of water can also be a big worry. In water logged conditions, the plants express this by wilting. Most of plants hate water logging and they need good soil drainage to survive and prosper. Some plants do enjoy water logged conditions but their numbers is small. Due to excess water algae get collected on top soil, and in absence of proper actions plants rot. Weeds, insects, Worms also flourish during this season. Stagnant water and worms can destroy the whole garden very quickly.


The following are some of the few points which we need to take into consideration for having a enjoyable gardening season in the monsoon:


1.The first and foremost thing is that you have to make sure you have a proper drainage system. If water got stagnant it will make the plants rot.

2.      To prevent the risk of fertile top soil erosion in the garden due to heavy rains use perforated sheets. It will allow the rain water to reach the plant as sprinkler. So the plants not get deprived of their natural nutrients available in the top soil

3.      In case of planting new saplings, plant only those plants that can adjust to the moisture of the monsoon season. The young plants in the garden and those plants which are too fragile should be sheltered adequately to protect them from the rains

4.      Avoid chemical fertilizers as far as you can, instead try natures own compost. Earthworms are a gardener’s friend. They not only aerate the soil by tunnelling down, they also fertilize it.

5.      Avoid pesticides altogether. As it will get mixed and transferred with rain and will cause huge damage to the garden. Instead try to use biological controller such as Toads and Frogs. They are voracious insect eaters and can be a very good friend to the gardener.

6.      Mix a good proportion of soil and compost manure for new plants.

7.      It is the right time to try your hand at indoor gardening. Also bring those plants outside so they can get the feel of the moisture in the air.

Perfect Solution for Rain

Read More..

Growing Radish Some basic Facts

Radish is one of the easiest crops to grow. This is ideal for the beginners who are trying their hands on gardening.

A pH of 6 to 6.8 is ideal for growing radish. You can add other growing media with the soil to make it appropriate if the soil nearby is not up to that pH range. A list of the growth media can be found here. In normal cases fertilizers are not that necessary if you have put compost in the soil before planting the seeds. Avoid fresh manure or material which are rich in nitrogen.

Radish plant required direct sunlight at least 6 hours a day. Plant your plant accordingly. Put the seed in the soil at ½ inch depth and cover it with soil. The spacing between the plant should not less than 2 inch. Once the seedlings have grown about 2 inches in height thin them up to 3 inches apart. Lack of thinning can lead to inedible and shriveled roots.

Keep the soil moist by watering regularly. If s the soil is very dry it can result in radishes with very pungent flavor, whereas too much water can make the roots rot. If want to know more about watering check out my earlier blog.

Radish plants are not very much prone to diseases, on the contrary it is much more beneficial to other crops if you are thinking about companion planting. Planting radish along with cucumber or squash can reduce the beetle which affects cucumber or squash. It also attracts leaf bugs away from spinach. Sometimes there are some larva which attacks the radish roots. Crop rotation can resolve this problem. You can also add a good amount of wood ash to prevent these problems.

The best part of a radish as far as the beginners are concerned is that it matures very quickly. You can harvest your radishes with 3 to 4 weeks depending on the species. In case you are not sure of its size pull it out from the soil in case you find the radish is still immature, you can always replant it. It is always better to pull out a little immature radish than to take out over-matured. Oversize radishes can taste woody and unpleasant to the tongue.

The storage of this is similar to that of carrots. You need to cut off the leaves to eliminate any chance of further growth. Store them in refrigerator. You can use them for one or two weeks.

Radish are not very much known more their nutritional value, rather they are famous for their tasty addition to salads.

What do you think about this article. Share your thoughts.

Read More..

Invest in Milking Microbes

 

From Bacteria to Biofuel, Invest in Milking Microbes

What if we could take a soil bacteria and tinker with its genes to create a biofuel much in the same way that a cow produces milk? Well, we can, or at least a team of scientists has figured out how to do it, and the next step is figuring out how to make it happen on a commercial scale.

The common soil bacterium Raistonia eutropha produces complex carbon compounds when stressed, and according to MIT, its scientists have engineered the bacterium’s genes to produce isobutanol, which can be substituted for or blended with gasoline. 

When the bacterium is stressed it stops growing and uses the energy to produce fuel, expelling the fuel rather than storing it up, which means that it scientists can figure out how to do this on a commercial scale it would be less costly than other ways of producing biofuel. Why? Because typically a microorganism producing biofuel is destroyed in the extraction process. This genetically tweaked bacterium simply expels and continues to produce.
Earlier this month, MIT scientist Christopher Brigham detailed the findings, along with his co-author, in the Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology journal. The team is led by professor of biology Anthony Sinskey.
According to Brigham, the bacterium is enters into a carbon-storage mode when its source of essential nutrients (nitrate or phosphate) is restricted. “What it does is take whatever carbon is available, and stores it in the form of a polymer, which is similar in its properties to a lot of petroleum-based plastics.”

So now that the MIT team has succeeded in tinkering with the bacterium’s genes enough to get it to convert carbon into isobutanol, the next step is to figure out how to optimize the process to increase the rate of production and design bioreactors to scale the process to industrial levels.
It’s all about transport, Brigham notes in the journal, and the most significant aspect of this discovery is that “we didn’t have to add a transport system to get [the fuel] out of the cell.”
Another key element of success is the production of isobutanol, as compared with other biofuels. The benefit of isobutanol is that it can be used in cars without modifications, as a direct substitute for gasoline, and in fact, according to scientists, has already been used in race cars.

What are the chances of bringing production to industrial levels? In theory, pretty good. In a press release, MIT quotes Mark Silby, assistant professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, as saying, “This approach has several potential advantages over the production of ethanol from corn. Bacterial systems are scalable, in theory allowing production of large amounts of biofuel in a factory-like environment.”
Furthermore, Silby adds, “This system in particular has the potential to derive carbon from waste products or carbon dioxide, and thus is not competing with the food supply.”

It’s a risky investment while the industrial-scale potential is still unknown, but sooner than later someone will figure out how to make this viable and then it will take the biofuels market by storm. The US Department of Energy has its money on success, as the research is being funded by its Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E). And we agree that while the risk is great, the potential is greater.

By. Oilprice.com Analysts

CCRES ALGAE PROJECT
part of 
Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES)

Read More..

Some System Updates!

Heres a quick update on the greenhouse aquaponics system in Delaware.  Unfortunately I havent been down there frequently enough to take care of it as much as Id like, but Ive got a radial flow filter built, and I just need a larger pump and tubing to hook up the sump tank and second grow bed.  Ill be working on that in the next few months.

My buddy Graham in Trenton, NJ has been working on his indoor IBC tank setup.  Here are some photos that I took.

Also in Trenton, my friend Jon built this really cool bookshelf with an integrated fish tank.  I talked to him about making the bookshelf above the fish tank into a small grow bed with lights mounted under the shelf above.  That would make a slick bookshelf / aquaponics system.  Check it out!

Read More..

Organic Pest Control

Organic Home Pest Control Spray - click here to buy

This article is an follow up of my earlier article on organic gardening. I have already discussed what it means to be organic and the benefits of going organic. Most of us start with being organic in mind and start growing vegetables organically. But once they see some aphids or other insects in their garden all the initial hard work with organic manure or compost goes in vain and to prevent pest from eating away the vegetables they take the help of many chemical pesticides. I would request you before opting for that option, please give a try with organic pest controlling. And this blog will definitely help you to do so.

Your Garden is always full with life. A home where the door is always open for various insects and other critters as it is a source of food. I can always feel your frustration while you spot a bug on your favorite vegetables for which you have spent so many hours in the sun. But don’t worry, many insects which are in your garden is not necessarily bad for your Garden, rather some of them might help you in controlling or reducing the impact of other potentially threatening insects.

The first thing you need to understand while practicing Organic Gardening is that everything in nature are in balanced condition. So many garden plant have their own way of self defense and they are a lot tougher than what we might think. They can even tolerate little bit of damage and still produce good quality fruits and flowers.

A healthy plant is the first thing you should focus to grow. Good soil(or soil-less mix) produces good quality plant. Their carbohydrate, protein and fat ratios are in proper balance. If the soil is not proper it can result in plants which are undernourished. This type of plants usually produce more Carbohydrate(sugar) than other two components. More sugar always attracts more insects as they thrive on sugar.

Once you take all the necessary steps to produce good and healthy quality crops now its time to shift your focus towards protecting those. But spraying pesticides on plants is not an option if you also want to protect the environment you live in. In a dilemma like this organic pest controlling techniques comes as a savior to us. By following these techniques we can battle most of the destructive insects and protect our food.

As it says preventions is always better than cure. Build up barrier such as collars, and netting to prevent pests from attacking the plants. You can also handpick some of the bugs and remove it in case they are shown on the plant.

It is always a great option to try companion planting. Some plants have beneficial impact on other plants in terms of pest removal and so planting them close by can definitely reduce or eliminate the pest attacks. Find the details of companion planting here.

There are several insects like lady-beetle, ground beetle and wasps in your garden who fed on many aphids and worms. Don’t make use of mass killer and destroys those beneficial insects also.

Don’t water your plants in the evening it can increase the pest infestation in the plant. For detail guide on watering your plants click here.

You can use neem oil to remove pests. It is a very well known organic mode of pest control. Apart from neem oil, insecticidal soap, different horticultural oil are also helpful. Garlic, tobacco and several other plants have strong smell which deter pests.

Using sticky and light traps are helpful to catch bigger insects and moths. Some birds also fed on those insects.

These are some of the steps which are most popular tricks in controlling pests organically. There are so many other steps which have been n practice for different countries from ages. Please let us know if you are currently using or aware of any such technique.

If you found this blog helpful please share it with your friends.

Read More..

CCRES Low Carbon Fuels in Aviation

 photo by CCRES  

Flasks of Algae at the CCRES Lab in Zagreb,Croatia

Biofuels are key to industry’s future

 In a bid to reduce its dependency on imported oil and tackle global warming, the EU has committed to raising the share of fuels from renewable sources in transport to 10% by 2020 – including biofuels, hydrogen and green electricity.

For the growing aviation industry, the switch to plant-based fuel is seen as not only environmentally smart, but a sensible financial move in an era or rising conventional fuel prices and worries about supply security.

Biofuel use in passenger aircraft is still a novelty, and industry officials are urging governments to help lift supplies, much as policies in the EU and United States have created a flourishing market in plant-based oils for motor vehicles.

The industry contends that sustainable fuels will reduce emissions even as passenger traffic grows. The airline sector has committed to meet 10% of its overall fuel consumption with biofuels by 2017 – though the goal is ambitious given that it is to account for just 1% by 2015...

Meanwhile, more doubts are being raised about the environmental benefits of biofuels.

The United Nations Environment Programme has warned that even though burning plant-based fuels can produce significantly lower levels of carbon emissions, production and land clearing to make way for new crops “may reduce carbon-savings or even lead to an increase.”

European conservation groups say the EU and European governments should wait to embrace aviation biofuels until there is proof of their environmental benefits.

 ”Given the right conditions, algae can double its volume overnight. Microalgae are the earth’s most productive plants –– 10 to 15 times more prolific in biomass than the fastest growing land plant exploited for biofuel production. While soy produces some 50 gallons of oil per acre per year; canola, 150 gallons; and palm, 650 gallons, algae can produce up to 15,000 gallons per acre per year. In addition, up to 50 percent (or more) of algae biomass (dry weight) is comprised of oil, whereas oil-palm trees—currently the most efficient large-scale source of feedstock oil to make biofuels—yield approximately 20 percent of their weight in oil,” says Zeljko Serdar, President of CCRES

 Airlines have committed to ramping up their use of biofuels in the belief that they can contribute to achieving the sectors pledges on carbon-neutral growth. For 2050, the EU foresees 40% use of "sustainable low carbon fuels" in aviation.

Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES)

Read More..

AES Mini Fish Farm Instructional Video

CCRES AQUAPONICS

Instructional Video for the Mini Fish Farm by Aquatic Eco-Systems.
Small scale aquaculture system.



CCRES AQUAPONICS

Read More..

Fizzy legs

Well what a weekend! Yesterday we visited the Butterflies in the Greenhouse exhibition at RHS Wisley which was absolutely beautiful with butterflies fluttering around everywhere and lots of flowering tropicals and orchids. But a word of warning-get there early as its very popular with young families and much as I love kids......enough said!
So today I have been very busy sowing seeds for the nursery, including lots of Echinaceas,Salvias and Phlomis as well as taking the Chillis we sowed last week out of the propagator and onto a warm windowsill as they have already germinated!!And this afternoon we took our men to see the greenhouse that we hope to be setting the nursery up in and they both seemed reasonably impressed by it and couldnt find a single negative so hurrah to that! Im am so excited about all this that I seem to have permanently fizy legs just like you get before Christmas when youre a child who still"believes!"

This is a picture of Echinacea purpurea Pow Wow Wild Berry,one of the echinaceas I sowed today.
Plans for the week-keep on sowing!!

Read More..

Growing Cauliflower Some Important Points

Most of the people are really not sure about growing Cauliflower in their garden. Some might think it is too difficult for a beginners to try their hands on cauliflower and only an experienced gardener can come up with  great results. Though I agree that it is not as easier as some of the other vegetables which I have discussed earlier, it is also not a very hard nut to crack. Follow the points discussed in this article and I am sure you will not be disappointed.

 

Though primarily it is a cool weather crop, they are very sensitive to extreme temperature so it is sensible to start with a transplant. In case you want to start with seed plant them indoors in coconut coir or other media and make the seedling and then transplant in the garden. Using paper pot also helps preventing root disturbance while transplanting.

A pH of 6.5 to 7 is best for cauliflower. Just like Cabbage, Cauliflower also flourish in nitrogen and potassium rich soil. A little bit of organic matter from time to time will definitely help the plant. Make the soil loose up to a depth of 15 inch by using a tiller and mix 2.5 inch layer of compost with it. Plant the seedlings 20 inches apart. Like most of the vegetables it also require minimum 6 hours of direct sunlight everyday.

Make sure your soil has enough moisture. Don’t wait for the soil to dry out before giving water(want to perfect your watering techniques? Check out this article). This will cause the head to open up and become unpalatable. Whereas constant moisture would make large but tender head. A thick layer of mulch will also help to keep the moisture intact for longer period of time.

Once the head(also called “curd”) become the size of an egg, it is important to cover it(also called blanching) and protect it from the direct sunlight. This is important because it will make your cauliflower milky white in appearance. Missing this step can cause brown or yellow head, which may not taste so bad but definitely less aesthetic visually(don’t cover the heads in case you are using colorful varieties of cauliflower or it is of the self blanching type). While covering use plant’s own leaves, and tie them up using a rubber band or plastic tape. While covering the head don’t forget to leave some space for air circulation and future growth. Make sure the leaves you are using for covering the head is not wet. Otherwise it can cause rotting. So it is better to cover the head in the afternoon when the plants are usually dry. From time to time unwrap the covering to check on the growth of the head and any possible pest attack.

Cauliflower matures within 50 to 60 days. Though it depends on the variety of the plant, generally a mature head ranges from 6 to 10 inches in diameter. Once you find your desired size cut them with sharp knife below the head with some leaves to protect the head. Though it is best to eat right after the harvest, you can also store them well. Cover it with perforated plastic bags and put it in the refrigerator. For more on “storing vegetables” check out our earlier blog.

Read More..

Disaster Tank Overflowed

It has been raining heavily for the past few days. Which means raining season has arrived and that means bad news for my aquaponics system. In the past, the storms in my area had drowned my seedlings, damaged my plants, carried my guppies into the drain outside my house, uprooted big trees, blew roof tiles off houses, and damaged my verandah.

Yesterday, I found 2 tilapia laying motionless at a very wrong place:

A group of black ants collectively planning out how to dissect this piece of flesh

No ants on this one

Palm sized tilapia. Could have been fresh on my dinner plate.

Normally, my system works fine under heavy rain and all. Any extra water will flow out through the overflow at the side of the tank. But things are different now, I have an additional grow bed which adds to the surface area collecting rain. The tank outlet, which has strainer holes, probably got clogged by poop and couldnt let water out faster than the input from the rain. Over time, the water level will rise till the rim of the tank. Also with the addition of the second grow bed, there is a rare chance of both grow beds flushing at the same time. When this happens, the tank water will rise by 10 centimeters in less than a minute. With the water level already at the rim of the tank, a double flush will create a surge strong enough to push even large tilapias out of the tank.

Although there is a slight rotting smell, they looked fresh with their gills still red. I decided to freeze them to make food for stray cats in the future.

Thanks for reading!

Read More..

The Making of a Soil Declaration for a city

For the last 8 Saturdays Bristol has been home to Soil Saturdays, curated by the Soil Sisters. It has seen many people come together to talk about soil and art and it has made me, amongst many others I am sure, aware how powerful art is as a medium to bring other issues to the fore in a safe and inclusive way. 

The joy of Soil Culture at Create for me has been the opening of a space for discussion around soil, it’s true importance in all of our lives and how it is so important for many of us across the city who make livings from or support soils and soil health and wellbeing in everything we do. My career of the last 20 or so years has been based around soil, my life based on the rich brown earth beneath our feet and to be able to meet and converse with people over that is something that is rare and beautiful.

The idea of a city creating a declaration for it’s own soils is at once powerful and brave. To do so says not only do we, as a group of individuals, care deeply about the soil in our city but we also care about food, people, education, agriculture, health and wellbeing, children, community and the city itself and it’s wealth and health. It says we care not just about today, but about a future for our forebears where they can have access to healthy food, outdoor space and recreation land in a city that is becoming more and more intensely populated. It speaks of a wish to create the most resilient city we can, going into a future that is unknown but is certain to be different from the now. 

Many have questioned why we might feel the need to create a declaration for soil, and some have asked why we might think it necessary. My answer is always that as a city we need good housing and transport links, excellent schools and services for all communities across the city, as well as a plan to feed all those people and to keep our local economy thriving. Creating a declaration for our city’s soil creates an opportunity to ensure that food growing and production is factored into the future planning of the city and creates a future of more certain health and wealth.

In order to create this declaration there was a hope that many people from many walks of life within the city would come together to work co-productively to create this document. This type of gathering is rare, but we were fortunate in our wishes and there were a whole mix of people, ranging across city council strategic directors to members, food policy council members, permaculture and growing professionals, members of nationally important organisations and people who are interested and care about the future of food and access to land in our city. At one, very powerful moment, there was a table working together that was made up of a city strategic planner, a university professor and soil activists from Rising Up who spent much time protesting around Bristol’s Blue Finger in February and March this year. To create a space where that is possible is remarkable and to be a part of something so powerful makes the whole event a day to remember.

The Soil Declaration itself is still being brought together by the facilitators of the day but what we came up with was a series of statements around soil’s importance in the city and its hinterlands that focussed on beliefs and actions to be taken around those beliefs. Having openly talked about this on social media it is clear that not only is Bristol the first city to embark on such an important piece of work, but that it is possible, and likely that others will follow suit.

For Bristol it is vital to protect land that is already being put at risk by development and to ensure that various things that have happened on our most precious soils, are stopped from happening again. Our Blue Finger of rich and fertile best and most versatile soil, that manages crops in all extremes, needs protection as does all BMV soil countrywide. By creating this Soil Declaration, Bristol is putting itself, in a citizen led movement, at the forefront of this enormous change in the way we look at our precious resources, and that is a hugely powerful and brave move. It should be applauded.

Read More..

Expanding our environmental view

This is a piece I wrote for the Peoples Republic of Stokes Croft but Ive also shared it here as I think its an interesting topic that many dont quite see. The environment is not just land in the countryside, or parks and gardens, but its avery space we inhabit, icluding our homes and so we need to expand our view of environmental issues to cover everything that covers. Which, I might add, is pretty much everything.....

In 1980 the right to buy council housing became law in the new Housing Act and thousands of people up and down the country achieved what they had never thought possible-a home that they owned. Little wrong with that  I hear you cry but in reality what happened was that, instead of reinvesting the monies raised by building new social housing for a population that was growing exponentially, that money was ring fenced by the then Tory government, and the growth of building of social homes has steadily declined ever since, whilst the prices of housing has risen at rate that is almost unbelievable. With land being seen as an asset, it’s cost has risen and average house prices, which includes the prices of all those once council houses, have risen alongside that at a rate that soon will make home owner ship by anyone other than the wealthy impossible. Average house prices in 1977 were still less than £10,000 where today the average price is around £190.00 nationally and in London and the South East that figure rises to just over £400,000.

Of course for the generation that were able to buy their council homes this has lead to the possibility of making huge sums of money on homes that were sold for enormously more than they were purchased for and these homes are now a part of the national housing stock and sold as such, meaning that they are now generally not affordable homes at all. Indeed the governments’s idea of an affordable home is one that is 20% less than its average cost which is still completely out of the average wageholders budget of £26,000 per year. With mortgage companies generally asking for at least a 5% deposit and often far more we have created a situation where we will have future generations renting and never being able to get onto the property ladder, already saddled with huge debts from university fees and relying on more and more unscrupulous landlords as need for housing outweighs availability.

Constantly we hear the cry that we must leave the world a better place for our children and our children’s children. That we must care for greenbelt, encourage more conservation areas and SSSI but rarely do we see housing mentioned as a part of this. However, how can it not be? Our environment is not just the outdoors, the countryside or parks, but it is everything we live in. It is our cafes, those areas in city centres between buildings, that grassed area behind the fence on an estate. Our environment is the space in which we live.

So on Stokes Croft, Bristol’s independent district where creativity is at the centre of so many lives, how can we look at a building that is threatened with a London developer’s plan of gentrification as any other than an environmental issue. Stokes croft, the area known for its incredible squats, its street art and its independent spirit, who fought as a community to keep Tesco at bay cannot be the place to put a gated community in any way. In fact, frankly, gated communities, designed with mainly safety and security as its main criteria, cannot possibly help maintain any form of independent spirit. The fact that only 7% of the dwellings will be affordable and that is likely to be just the 20% lower rate rather than social housing, in an area where the housing crisis can be seen every day, on the streets, ought to be seen as a scandal and a disaster for our future generations, rather than a positive solution to a building that has been crumbling for many years.

Positive solutions need to be the way forwards, looking at how we ensure people are safe and secure in homes they can afford and in communities where they feel they are safe and secure. Rather than continually looking at constant development at the outer edges of our cities of box type homes, we need to look at the building stock within our cities, leaving the greenbelt alone for our ever growing population, and looking at the amount of buildings that could be turned into decent homes within the city, where people will be able to be car free, and rather than looking at bus routes that stretch ever further out of the city, the routes can concentrate on the areas that are already populated. With a larger population living within city boundaries, parks budgets and budgets for urban landscaping could increase, helping the city to cope with rising temperatures due to our changing climate. 

With all this in mind surely at the centre of the Carriageworks plan should be community. The Carriageworks Action Group and Knightstone Housing have put together a plan with community at it’s heart, and that must be the plan that is implemented at the very least. Imagine a beautiful city centre community building, with homes that are affordable and with the quantity of social housing that Bristol city Council recommends in all housing schemes of 30%-40% available to people struggling to pay the ever increasing private rents in the area. Imagine that it has beautiful and productive gardens that are open for the entire community of Stokes Croft to use and which people can safely use as a path through to the area at the back of the building 24 hours a day. With small shops and workshops built in at affordable rents on the ground floor, it can also become a centre for micro businesses to begin and flourish, creating a truly local economy and holding the money spent within that economy, adding to it’s wealth, both financial and creative.

This should not be a dream. This is the vision of green and sustainable living that we must move towards if we are to create a world that we are proud to leave for our children. As a species we must stop looking at houses as assets and begin to look at them as homes. Only then can we leave a planet that we are proud of for future generations.

Read More..

Theres No Tomorrow

This video is hands down the best I’ve seen yet at covering all the bases of our present converging dilemmas in one quick (35 minute) hit. Over the years I’ve presented all of the issues covered in this video — hitting them from various angles and in different ways to try to drive the point home — but it’s excruciatingly difficult to cover each element sufficiently whilst giving the casual or intermittant reader a full overview simultaneously. The excellent use of imagery has enabled the creators of this little video to touch on each subject whilst joining up all those dots into the fuller picture.

CCRES AQUAPONICS
project of NGO
CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES (CCRES)

Read More..

Love for Love Square

Recently I visited Sheffield. I visited because Ron Finley, of Gangsta Gardening fame was visiting Sheffield to give a talk and Nigel Dunnett, of Pictorial Meadows fame, had alerted me to that and I had immediately booked a ticket, as I was also invited to an evening event around Guerrilla/community gardening later on in the week. This gave me the opportunity to spend 3 days in Sheffield finding out what was going on in the community sphere up there. What I didnt know was that Nigel had arranged for me to spend 3 days actually with Ron and the team, visiting several community based projects and meeting some people who in all honesty, have blown my socks off with their commitment not just to particular community projects but to the communities themselves.

Anyway, I digress a tad, and there will be further pieces about the community spaces I visited and how amazed I was by them. The point of this piece is to talk about the visit we took to a patch of land that will become Love Square.

In all cities there are pieces of land that are unseen. They are spaces people use everyday, whilst looking at their mobile phones, listening to music, thinking about a million other things, and they get walked through by people with their heads down, ignoring the environment and the space they are using on a daily basis. Standing on the site that Love Square will be in, an old bus and tram exchange in West Bar, we witnessed just that behaviour. As Ron did a piece to camera, people trundled through, heads down, barely even taking in that someone was filming there, let alone looking at the space they were using, and probably used once or twice every day due to its location as part of a transit route throught the city for pedestrians.

So the plan for Love Square is to create a space where people stop. A space that shows best practise of urban space that otherwise just becomes wilderness. A cafe in a shipping container, gardens, lawns and meadows and Grow Wild Modules filled with meadow planting and trees. A space for people to stop, breathe, socialise, read, be quiet or be loud. But mostly a space that people love and that shows people love back. A space that changes the community.

Working in Bristol on a very similar project, The Bearpit, a sixties sunken roundabout with anti social behaviour issues and a reputation it frankly rarely deserves, I have seen at first hand how this type of change of use can work, if at the moment on a far smaller scale. We recently, alongside the girls at the Bearpit Social cafe, whose home is a shipping container, planted up some bright containers with wild flowers as part of the Grow Wild project. The containers double as seating and within moments of the planting being finished the space was being used by people, sitting, meeting, drinking tea and just being. The Bearpit space is ongoing and will end up with forest garden, urban art and more businesses running from more shipping containers. A space that was avoided becoming a destination, a stop off point, a place that feels love and gives love to its community.

Both these projects are part of Kew and the National Lotterys Grow Wild campaign. The difference is that Love Square needs your vote as it is one of five projects that is in the final to win £120k in order to make its vision become reality. My belief is that in order for us to make city centres feel loved and encourage these spaces to be used and therefore kept well by the groups looking after them, these projects need to be seen as models of best practice. They are bringing biodiversity into the city centres, encouraging people to engage with nature, plants and the natural environment and ensuring that place is accessible to everyone. As more and more of us live in the urban landscape, with an estimated 70% expected to live in cities by 2050, these spaces will become more and more vital, both as green lungs but also as spaces where people can volunteer and garden themselves.

Below is a link to the Love Square site and the link to the vote will be added as soon as its live. Imagine the difference this type of planting and use of space would make to a town or city near you, and please vote for Love Square. It is, quite simply, what the future of our cities should look like.

Ron and Nigel at what will be Love Square

Imagine this land designed into a useable space.

For more info on Love Square and how it will look once the project is complete, here is the link to its webpage. Please take a look and see what an enormous difference this would make to the people of Shefield, but also to us all as we try to change our inner cities from concrete jungles to spaces that are well designed as urban landscapes. And please vote from October 7th-the decision is down to you.
Here is the link to vote

The future of our cities? Lets hope so!!

Read More..

Greenhouse with tilapia lettuce herbs and cucumbers

A completely integrated food production system using retractable roofs to create optimal growing conditions using the advantages of the natural outdoors and a greenhouse.


Green Sky Growers, a rooftop farm, is located on top of the Garden Building in Winter Garden, Florida, and is the first Certified Green building in the world with commercial-scale, Aqua-Dynamic farming on the rooftop. Green Sky Growers produces tons of fresh vegetables and fish on an annual basis without the use of harmful pesticides.

• Environmentally friendly growing practices include the harvesting of rainwater that is recycled in the Aqua-Dynamic growing systems. 
• All the growing systems continuously recycle 100% of the nutrients and water.
• The majority of food produced is available to the local Winter Garden community, thus providing healthy, locally grown and low carbon-footprint food.
  
  
  

  CCRES AQUAPONICS 

  project of NGO

  CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES (CCRES)

Read More..

Backyard Garden Update

Expanded Garden

I recently expanded the garden to make room for some more crops.  I extended the existing in-ground raised bed, and dug two more.  I planted lettuce and carrots in the 1st extension, chard and onions in the 2nd extension, and kale in the 3rd extension.  Im seeing a lot of grass pop up in the 2nd extension, rather than chard and onions, but well see how it goes.  The lettuce is growing well, and nothing yet in the kale bed.  I pulled back the cucumbers, no more of those for this season.  Im still harvesting chard, tomatoes, peppers, and sage.

Three new beds dug and planted.

Before the expansion

The basil seems to have some sort of nutrient deficiency.  I thought it might be calcium or potassium, so I made a solution of crushed egg shells and water, shook it up well, added some wood ash for potassium, and poured that around the basil roots.  It hasnt helped yet after two days.  I think the other basil plant looks like it needs nitrogen, so Im going to get some of that in there (biochar charged with pee, or just pee).

Sad Basil

Happy Tomatoes

Fermenting Wood Chips for Stropharia 

Hopefully Ill be seeing these in my garden soon!

Ive been interested in mycology for years, experimenting with oyster mushrooms, lions mane, and listening to lectues by Paul Stamets in my free time.  I even got to see Paul talk at Burning Man in 2013.  I saw him talk again in Philadelphia in 2014, and one of the things he talked about was his "mycototes."  Its a system where he ferments wood chips, submerged in water, for about a month.  Then he drains the water, and the result is a fungus substrate that can be rapidly colonized by mycellium, especially Stropharia, (garden giant, or winecap mushroom).  I know some guys starting a gourmet mushroom cultivation business in Philadelphia, who traded me some stropharia spawn on sawdust for some bricks of coco coir that I had.  I soaked some woodchips in a trashcan for about a month.  The trashcan had a leak, so I had to refill it frequently, and occasionally the water level dropped and left the wood chips unsubmerged.  However, the experiment seems to have worked.  The fermenting woodchips were colonized with anaerobic bacteria, which died off when exposed to air after draining the wood chips.  I filled a burlap sack with the wood chips, mixed in the stropharia spawn, dug a hole behind the shed, and dropped the sack into the hole, and covered it lightly with a tarp.  Ive been watering occasionally, and the burlap sack is now filled with mycellium.  Ill save some of this for future spawn, and Im going to mix the rest in around the woodchips in my garden.  Hopefully well have lots of garden giant mushrooms popping up and going into our dinner!

Beautiful!  Look at all that white stringy fungi mycellium.

Drying Herbs

My Girlfriend got me a dehydrator for my birthday, so Ive been drying herbs from my garden and my parents herb spiral.  Right now Ive got some thick leaf oregano drying.  Fresh herbs in homegrown tomato-basil sauce for the win!

Plans for solar dehydrator

I saw a neighbor of mine was getting rid of some old windows, so I grabbed one and am planning on using it to make a solar dehydrator like these here:

Sprouts

My girlfriend also got me a sprouting kit for my birthday.  Sprouts are tasty on sandwiches, and can be grown year-round indoors without light.  Super cool!

Read More..

New Growth in my Windowfarm!

I was pleasantly surprised to see my strawberry plant flowering yesterday!

Im also seeing some growth in the Basil planted in the windowfarm.

The green onions are doing really well, and I cut one to mix with my eggs for breakfast this morning.  This marks the first time Ive eaten anything that Ive grown.  Awesome!

The lavender on my windowsill is also starting to grow.

My little garden is coming to life!  My betta, Tarzan, is happy!  Our frog Henri is happy!  Our cat, Alex, is happy!  And, Im super happy!

Read More..

Lone Duck Farm CSA Shares Now Available!

Some people know all about CSAs (and might even school us!) and others are left scratching their heads about what this acronym could possibly mean. So just in case youre wondering, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture (a buying agreement between the farmer and his or her community). CSAs provide pre-paid "shares" of the farms produce to individuals/families, who then pick up their box of produce on a set day (usually once a week). This allows the share holder to get to know his or her farmer, to have a stake in the growing process, and to have access to the freshest food available; it also allows the farmer to know how much and which types of food to grow, guaranteeing him or her a market for their hard work. Financially, shareholders/members pay less than they would if they bought each item individually, though there is some risk involved- CSA farmers may sometimes need to substitute one item for another, depending on growing conditions. And did we mention that when you pre-pay for your veggies (and can plan for a set amount of produce to enter your house each week), you might just find it easier to actually eat the recommended amount of vegetable servings? :)


Lone Duck Farm is about to embark on the whole CSA adventure, and wed love it if you came along! Were starting out with two share options- a full share and a half share, available weekly. Share holders can sign up for a three month season, and our first season will be starting in October and ending in December (14 weeks of delicious, fresh greens!). After that, shareholders can decide whether to commit for another three months, let their share expire, or to extend their share for even longer than just the next season! So what can you expect from each option?

Full Shares ($30/week = $420/season) include:
3 heads of living lettuce
1 bunch of kale OR swiss chard
1 bunch of watercress OR purslane
1 bunch of arugula OR endive
1 bunch spinach OR mizuna (a delicious, mild alternative)
1 head of pak choi OR celery
2 bunches of fresh herbs (basil, oregano, mint, chives, parsley, or cilantro)
1 seasonal item (see list below)

Half Shares ($18/week = $252/season) include:
2 heads of living lettuce
1 bunch of kale OR swiss chard
1 bunch of watercress OR arugula OR purslane
1 head of pak choi OR celery
1 bunch of fresh herbs (basil, oregano, mint, chives, parsley, or cilantro)
1 seasonal item every other week

Seasonal items may include: rhubarb, peas, mulberries, radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, kohlrabi, garlic, leeks, beets, onions, potatoes, or Brussels sprouts.


**As an added benefit, were also offering a discount on tilapia to our CSA members- about 15% per fish! And members get first notice of any other products that may become available as we expand our offerings.


At this time, were offering CSA shares on-farm, meaning that youd need to stop by the farm between 3 and 6 p.m. on Tuesdays to pick up your share for the week. If we happen to have multiple shares headed to the same area of town, we can discuss setting up a delivery option.

So does this sound interesting to you? Wed love to answer any questions you have or send you a sign up sheet! Drop us a line or give us a call- were excited to hear from you!

Read More..