This is an awesome set up. Good variety, lotta fun stuff. Be violent and cut the hell out of the mint or it will sense weakness and seek to dominate you
Do you get rabbits? This is my first year gardening and have had issues with them. I considering raised beds like you’re doing but I’m not sure if they’re tall enough to keep rabbits out.
I couldn’t tell you but absolutely should, I should set a camera up. Couple years ago we got voles, but the cucumbers were fine last year.
We are right by a natural preserve, so lots of wildlife, but the bunnies/rabbits (some domesticated became wild iirc) seem to be more prominent in other communities.
We’ve had deer in the front yard, but my backyard lilies have been fine, there’s a small gap under my gate that smaller stuff can get in, like rabbits, beavers and raccoons. All the trees in the community have little cages to stop beavers.
Not less steps; this is the OG aquaponics method and has been around for hundreds of years. Everything else is just refining for efficiency and space limitations.
That was my first thought, along the lines of 'how much plant mass will you need to significantly reduce N in the water, enough so that it has sufficient reduction of unwanted photosynthesis'? I look forward to reading of your progress.
The projects they are doing in Florida say they are targeting 10% surface coverage, that would be unrealistic in our situation, so we're just going to do our best and balance cost/looks/effort with effectiveness.
Interesting, so less than 10% might be sufficient for your needs? That dosen't sound too onerous. I was at Fairchild Tropical Garden in Miami, FL some years ago. They had a small pond, roughly 20X30 feet more or less, with Amazonian plants. Initially the local algae was interfering with the Amazonian species, so they put black dye in the water to inhibit the algae. At the time, there was also a showing of Dale Chihuly's glass work in the garden, including several 1-2 ft. multicolored spheres floating the the black water of the Amazonian pond; looking like alien planets floating in the darkness of space. It may well have been this pond, pictured.
Well, to get to 10% coverage on this pond, we would need 700 of these islands (assuming they were all the same size), which would mean we needed to prep around 37,000 plants every winter to install every spring.
We'll probably shoot for a more realistic target to start with.
Yep, hemp has been long known to rejuvenate soil. It's been used for decades (or more) as a rotation crop to restore soil after something like corn or wheat sucks up all of the nutrients.
For soil rejuvenation you mulch it back into the soil for compost I thought, you can’t do that if you’re using it for remediation to pull stuff out of the soil as you would be just be putting it right back in again.
You are correct but I think hemp is similar to clover in that there is some symbiotic relationship with other organisms that help rejuvenate the soil even if you don't mulch it back it in. I could be wrong here but I know that plenty of farmers grow hemp between other crops and likely don't "waste" it by mulching it back in.
If you are looking to pull bad stuff out of water, I'd think that growing anything that would hold onto the bad stuff as it falls to the bottom of the river or lake and stores it there would be a solution as well as harvesting and transporting it elsewhere.
There would be some benefits to growing hemp, but in our situation, it wouldn't apply. We aren't looking to add nutrients to the water, we're looking to remove it.
We aren't concerned about other toxins that the hemp would absorb, so while it might be useful in some areas with more industrial pollution, it doesn't apply to this project.
Cannabis can be used for rejuvenation and remediation, it pulls out toxins and nutrients, but can also add nutrients. It can do anything, it’s just how it’s used, so yes it could maybe apply to your project.
Love it, but we're not as concerned about metals or toxins as we are about excess nutrients.
The papers I listed have plants that they've been using for their remediation, and we're following those lists. I know some of the researchers on those projects, and we'll modify our plant list based on any changes in their recommendations.
Cannabis would pull out excess nutrients as well, I’m just saying there’s probably other options if you wanted to do a little research, but apparently no one wanted to discuss this topic.
Well you rebuffed and turned additional avenues I gave you to look up, it didn’t sound like you were willing to do anything additional. Cannabis does all of those things you are looking for, so clearly there’s more than what the researches you’re using for options.
Usually when someone shares a topic they want to talk about it and learn more, is that not why you posted?
I'm not sure why you're acting like I didn't respond to what you posted. Your paper discussed heavy metal toxicity and I responded that this wasn't a concern in our situation.
I'm not sure why you are offended at my post, because I responded directly to the topic you were discussing.
Through discussion, which was extremely hard, you found out that it can be used for both, and there is potentially other options you can find out for your floating garden.
Why do you think I was offended by your post? I was trying to start a discussion and you apparently immediately thought I said you didn’t do any research.
You are coming across as argumentative and rather rude about your insistence, when OP has already said whatever you want them to look into is beyond the current scope of the project, which roughly translates to “thanks, but I’m not interested in doing that right now”.
And in response to that, to telling you it’s not in the current scope of a trial project, you are implying they are not doing research or learning or whatever it is (you literally said in your second comment “if you want to do a little research” which does indeed imply you feel they didn’t do enough). When really, you just want them to do something with their time that they don’t want to do, and frankly don’t need to do at this first stage of trial. And you seem to be getting butthurt that they aren’t interested in doing what you want them to. The condescending tone in the comment I’m replying to is a dead giveaway.
Besides which, not everyone wants to deal with growing weed or hemp which looks identical. In fact, most people don’t want to deal with it (obtaining licenses, dealing with theft, etc.). So your focus on that specific plant through your comments seems really genuinely weird, like you can’t fathom people not being stoners or something. That’s quite off-putting.
If you were genuinely trying to start a conversation, you may want to look at how you approach that. When someone says they aren’t interested, like OP did, you can say “ok, well if anyone else is, or if it interests you in the future, here’s the info” and someone will probably reply to it if they want to talk about. You can’t just unilaterally decide what people are going to talk about and force them to participate if they don’t want to discuss it, which honestly seems like what you were trying to do.
I don't know how deep your buckets are, but after three years of growing sweet potatoes, I found out they'll grow down 24"-36" . So a deep bed is best.
That's actually just a section of cattle fencing with some landscaping fabric around the bottom to hold in my growing medium (3:1 compost/native soil). Kind of a raised bed/cage situation
I got decent results last year in tubs, but there were some drainage issues. I'm hoping, as you said, going bottomless gives me more room to stretch and won't give a a bunch of rotten potatoes
Kale and broccoli coming up nicely. Bush beans starting to really take off. Peppers are kinda finding their footing. Onions and garlic in the back bed are struggling a little bit, but I should get something out of it.
And finally, the mulberry! I got a cutting from an event at a park near me and I put it down the same day. Of course the ferals had to fuck with it, so I was worried it wasn't gonna make it but here we are!
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