inthemindofdac

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https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/ghvt9g/research_has_found_gardening_at_home_had_a/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

[inthemindofdac]

Excellent documentary on using wood chips in the garden. Used as a mulch, they breakdown and feed the soil, retain water incredibly well, resistant to compacting, and is fairly easy to come by.

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An experiment with light cycles, and it's effect on plant growth, shape, and tip burn. Experiment preserves Daily Light Integral with light distance.

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I'm all for making life easier, no dig gardening seems as easy as it could be. Charles explains the importance of feeding the soil and not disturbing the life within the soil. A side by side comparison shows the difference in tilling and mixing compost into soil and merely just covering the soil with the same amount. Carrots fork much less in no dig, even with compost.

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A bit more on no dig gardening, touching on the Mycorrhizal Fungi in the soil and it's benefits to your crops and their roots. A side by side comparison shows the difference in how much no dig and surface composting and mulching can make in plant growth. Dedicated compost piles can reach some pretty impressive temperatures, it's nice to see that they don't always have to be turned more than once.

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Excellent idea for those who compost, having another source of compostable material is always nice.

In short, saving seeds that would otherwise be thrown away to be grown into sprouts for the purpose of harvesting tender sprouts for composting.

In this video, the commentary suggested melon seeds as an example but I wanted to highlight that as a gardener, sometimes crops aren't great for eating but great for compost. In cases where the vegetable is full of seeds, like tomato and bell pepper, extraction of seeds could be done to maximize on hand resources for composting.

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Here this couple talk about the ease of maintenance over their various permaculture garden. There really is something to working with nature rather than against it.

Their garden is really interesting as they're using a few different permaculture methods, and how well they do. The hugelkultur is conceptually my favorite for it's water retention, but it's a bit of set up work, also natural resource intensive if you live in an urban environment. If I had logs lying around, I would put in the effort for this method, but I don't.

The Ruth Stout method is my next favorite due to its purely simplistic method of just having a thick mulch. Set it up ahead of time, to allow for the bottom of the mulch to start to break down, and plant in the fresh compost generated by this method.

If starting a garden over a lawn, why not just flip the sod? Continue as Ruth Stout after. Easy raised bed.

That channel has plenty of interesting videos more specific to each permaculture method they employ, it's been quite enjoyable.

I have a pine tree in the back yard and haven't done much with cleaning up the needles in a while, definitely using that for mulch to reclaim my yard from the weeds and maybe starting some heat tolerant vegetables (IDGAF about maintaining a lawn).

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A pretty rounded guide on growing tomatoes, learning that cutting off the leaves up to the canopy of a seedling and planting deep in order to encourage more root growth up the stem was a new one to me, also his tip at the end really was a real gem.

Turns out making a solution of 600mg uncoated aspirin to 1 gallon of water, to periodically spray on tomato plants, stimulates it's distress response and immune system. Better fruit and root growth are some key responses, along with extra resistances to diseases.

[inthemindofdac]

So.. I'm into the idea of gardening again

I forget what triggered the itch again, probably seeing an artist who's kitchen sponge surprise sprouted a few tomato seeds. I thought it might be an easy experiment to see how well cheap sponges do as a hydroponic growing medium.

My previous growing adventure ended in failure after the plants, in my best estimate, were starved for light as I only had one 30W full spectrum LED bulb to spread light across many plants. I also took too long to do anything with the plants in the small pots they came in.

I currently have a few things going on in my grow tent, pictures will come if successful. There's a basil plant from the 99c store in which I tried my hand at washing out the soil and transplanting into hydroponic, couple of bell pepper seeds sprouted in a sponge, and a couple of grape vine cuttings rooted. Waiting on wild flower seeds and a spinach seed to sprout currently.

Anyway, I thought I could start logging all the interesting videos that taught me something new or unique, I've watched quite a few recently and should have something to show for it.

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do u guys understand how creepy the pledge of allegiance is though like every day when ur a kid everybody just chants how great america is every morning it’s creepy

[inthemindofdac]

Today I learned about a couple that decided to rebuild their deserted piece of land of 600 hectares in Aimorés, Brazil. They planted more than 2 million tree saplings. As a result, the site has 293 plant species, 172 bird species and 33 animal species, some of which were on the verge of extinction. It only took 18 years!

In the early 1990s, Brazilian photo-journalist Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado was stationed in Rwanda to cover the horrific accounts of Rwanda genocide. The on-ground experience left him traumatised. In 1994, he was returning to his home in Minas Gerais, Brazil, with a heavy heart, hoping to find solace in the lap of a lush green forest, where he had grown up.

But, instead, he found dusty, barren land for miles and miles, in place of the forest. In only a few years, his beautiful hometown underwent rampant deforestation, leaving it fallow and devoid of all the wildlife. For him, everything was destroyed. “The land was as sick as I was. Only about 0.5% of the land was covered in trees,’ he shared in an interview with The Guardian. Salgado was shattered.

Saldago’s Wife Wanted to Recreate The Forest

It was at this time that Salgado’s wife Lélia made a near-impossible proposal. She expressed her wish to replant the entire forest. Salgado supported her idea, and together the couple set out on a heroic mission. Brazil Photographer Forest

Salgado bought an abandoned cattle ranch from his parents and started building a network of enthusiastic volunteers and partners who would fund and sustain their mammoth project. In 1998, the couple founded Instituto Terra – the organisation which tirelessly worked to bring a forest back to life.

PNHR Bulcão Farm | by Weverson Rocio – 2012

Salgado sowed the first seed in December 1999. The couple hired around 24 workers in the beginning and was later joined by numerous volunteers over the years. They worked day and night – from uprooting the invasive weeds to planting new seedlings. Soon, their hard work bore fruit as tropical trees native to the region started flourishing in the area. They received a donation of over one lakh saplings which gave rise to a dense forest. The handcrafted forest comprises mostly of local arboreal and shrub varieties. Latest satellite imagery revealed how a soothing green forest cover has enveloped the area which once was a devastating arid eyesore.Since 1998, they have planted more than 2 million saplings of 293 species of trees and rejuvenated 1,502 acres of tropical forest. The biodiversity-rich zone has recently been declared as a Private Natural Heritage Reserve (PNHR).

The Impact of Salgado’s Forest

The afforestation project, which is undoubtedly one of the greatest environmental initiatives in the world, has also helped to control soil erosion and revived the natural springs in the area. Eight water springs which once dried up, flow at around 20 litres per minute at present, relieving the drought-prone region of its woes. Salgado’s forest also happens to solve the much-debated notion about climate change, proving that the trend can be reversed if tried. His forest has resulted in causing more rainfall to the area and cooler weather, bringing a drastic and desirable change in the climate.

Instituto Terra’s Fauna | by Leonardo Merçon – 2012

The most important positive aspect of the forest till now has to be the return of the lost fauna. More than 172 species of birds, 33 species of mammals, 15 species of amphibians and reptiles have been spotted in the forest interiors, something which was beyond imagination two decades ago. Many of the plant and animal species in his forest actually feature on the endangered list.

Efforts For Good

Climate change is a harsh reality. Mankind is bearing the brunt of the relentless destruction they inflicted on the planet. Yet, people like Salgado and Lélia fill us with hope, proving that patience and persistence can be our keys to heal the wounds of nature. If two people can create a 1502-acre forest in just 20 years, then imagine how much can be done if everyone comes together to protect the environment. It must be reminded that for every tree we plant, we are adding 118 kgs of oxygen to the air every year, and reducing the carbon footprint by 22 kgs.

Efforts For Good urges all the readers to actively engage in planting trees and gradually turn this into a fixed habit.

Sources: http://www.scienceinsanity.com/2019/03/brazilian-couple-created-1502-acre.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/bg0ebn/a_couple_decided_to_rebuild_their_deserted_piece/

[inthemindofdac]

source

[inthemindofdac]

The point of voting blue in 2018 isn’t to make the US perfect. We cannot accomplish that in one fell swoop. There’s gerrymandering, voter apathy, voter suppression, and generations of older party-line fucks we have to deal with.

Voting blue in 2018 is to make it less immediately threatening for PoC, LGBT+ people, the disabled, and any other marginalized demographic. It’s a stopgap against Republicans who are aligned with Nazis, white supremacists, and sexual abusers.

Correcting politics in the United States is going to take decades of new voters staying on top of politics and not falling prey to apathy, like our predecessors. 

People telling you not to waste a vote on 3rd Party this midterm aren’t saying “never vote 3rd party.” Republicans have united behind one utterly heinous front. We need to unite behind Democrats, for the time being.

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Susanna and the Elders, Restored (Left)

Susanna and the Elders, Restored with X-ray (Right)

Kathleen Gilje, 1998

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this is such a fucking power move

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I grew up hearing the phrase “you never stick with anything, what’s the point” a lot. I’ve always been attracted towards seemingly disconnected interests, and gone through phases of being really into something. But eventually my interest would fade and I would move onto something else. 

Or at least that’s always how it’s been phrased for me, by others. Now I realize that my interest for the old thing didn’t fade so much as my interest for something new outshined it, and that’s vastly different. 

I was always made to feel bad about it, with every abandoned endeavour I was told I needed to stop starting things if I wasn’t going to stick with them. I was told I was wasting time and money picking up these random interests and abandoning them after a year. 

So eventually, I stopped picking things up. I told myself “what’s the point, I’m going to give up in a year anyway”. Even worse, I started dismissing every new interest, because I had no way of knowing if my interest was “real” enough or just another passing phase. I stopped trying new things, I stopped looking up stuff that piqued my curiosity, and having chronic depression made it really easy to leave everything on the dirty floor of neglected ideas. The more they piled up, the more depressing it was. All these things that could be nice, but I just can’t take care of them. 

I realize now how bullshit that kind of thinking is. So what if I stopped doing karate after a year? That’s one more year of karate than most people I know. And in that year I learned discipline, I learned to listen to a teacher, something I had never done before in all my years of private education. I learned the true meaning of respect, that it’s something you do out of faith at first and maintain as it’s reciprocated, not something you do blindly and regardless of how you’re treated. 

It gave me the foundation for the determination and grounding I needed to practice yoga. Another year. Not enough to be good at it maybe, but again a year more than most people I know and a year that is not lost, but gained. I learned balance, I learned to listen to my body, I learned how to let go of emotional tightness through physical stretching. 

And then iaido, only a few weeks because I couldn’t afford to keep going. The year of yoga I had done a couple years previous had given me a better starting point than the other newcomers to the class. I already had balance, I had strength in my legs and I had better posture. In those months I learned the importance of precision, the true definition of efficacy, the zen state that is incessant repetition. 

Did I practice long enough to get good at iaido, and yoga, and karate? No. Of course not. It takes years to become proficient and decades to master any of those things, but I learned other skills and those skills were an invaluable part of my growth both spiritually and emotionally. Likewise for my forays into painting, sewing, graphic design, film. I’m a photography student now heading into my second year of school, and every single second of practice I have in those other disciplines has given me more experience in those areas and made learning easier. 

Skills carry over. They intersect and connect in ways that are sometimes unexpected. Nothing is ever lost, experience is never a waste of time or worthless or stupid. Allow your focus to wander, reflect on what you learn, and consider how you can keep using it in other aspects of your life. Stop telling people their interests aren’t worth their time.