Gardening

[julius]

Does anyone else watch "Big Dreams Small Spaces"? I recently finished the first season (it's on Netflix) and found it so charming and encouraging that I just want to start something radical with the space I have and take care of some lovely greens. If anybody has a home garden that's focused on culinary herbs etc. (I'm thinking basil, thyme, rosemary, tarragon etc.), I'd love to see them. Or really, any personal big dreams in small spaces.

[oucho]

has anyone come across this? http://atlas-for-the-end-of-the-world.com/index_0.html I

it has some fun maps and some pretty interesting ideas:

Janzen's garden epitomizes the end of a certain scientific and romantic idealization of ecosystems as inherently inclined toward equilibrium and best kept free of humans.

:the state the planet's ecosystems were in 100 years ago was a brief and random moment in time that was hugely influenced by human activity and not necessarily something we can or should strive to maintain forever, we can actually manage landscapes in a way that promotes biodiversity (sometimes), whether we agree with it morally or not we are gods on the planet (being god doesn't necessarily mean intervening). So basically we need to garden the planet, or rather the planet is already our garden we just haven't thought of it as such

Richard Weller says that through satellites we can monitor what is going on in the planet's ecosystems and as a result the earth is now a self-conscious cyborg, I like this narrative because it places humans as part of earth and intrinsically linked to earth, I feel like the idea that we can just up sticks and move to other planets seems dubious. We don't function that well in cities on earth so how well are we going to function on another planet? I have no idea but I'm just going to believe that we won't function well on other planets because it fits nicely with my gardening narratives

all of this reminds me a lot of gilles clement who basically said a lot of this stuff already but he doesn't seemed to get referenced much by anyone

On a more colloquial note I'm growing some plants from seed

I have a lot of Orlaya grandiflora which is an annual I grew from seed last year, and then collected more seed from. It's pretty neat and if you start it in a pot in the sun you can plant it out in a shadier spot and it flowers a lot. Other highlights include: Althaea cannabina, Phlomis purpurea and Laserpitium siler which I am quite excited to plant in my mum's garden. I also collected some seed from an Oenothera stricta I bough for my mum from a garden centre and I've had a lot of germinations from those which is cool. None of my Peucedanum verticillare or Salvia glutinosa seedlings have germinated though which is a bummer, especially the salvia as I heard it can handle dry shade

I bought an end of season random mix of seeds from chiltern on the cheap so I'm also growing this rare alpine plant Soldanella alpina from seed:

I guess I'll try to get it to flower in a pot as apparently it's impossible to get it to flower in a garden in UK conditions

[IAustin]

Had anybody tried growing bamboo at home? Could you share the experience? I would really like to start growing this plant. Bamboo is good for decorating stuff and making different things like this bamboo toothbrush. I have everything for indoor gardening and I'll appreciate any advice on how to grow bamboo.

[bels]

Bamboo is probably pretty easy just buy some bamboo meant for outside and keep it inside. I think it'll need a massive pot though

[radicalbusiness]

Slowly been getting into vegetable gardening last couple of years. I live in a townhouse with no space/light to grow many things but my neighbor let me build a few beds on her vacant lot :D. Just finished second growing season here. Had mixed success, did pretty bad with tomatoes (super cold spring) and squash but had awesome greens, zucchini, chard, tomatillos, peppers, and corn!

I've noticed that the biggest factor associated with 'success' is how much attention I'm able to give to the land/plants. Hoping to continue to cultivate this and learn more over the winter.

Here's a couple pics of my winter prep - planted some clover and fava beans for cover crop as well as garlic. Still got some kale, chard, celery and mint in the ground.