Nature and Gardening

This is the entrance to the "wild" part of our garden. I'm lucky to have access to woodland close by that the council haven't maintained, so there were lots of branches from past storms this winter. The plan is to grow honeysuckle either side and hope it covers most of it, providing food and shelter along with the hedgerow I've planted on the left behind the ladder. The pond I posted earlier last year is made out of an old water tank someone was throwing out.

About a year ago I rescued a native Earina autimnalis orchid that had fallen on to the road. I placed it on a tree with some sphagnum moss behind and watered it occasionally.

I was worried it wasn't happy, but then new shoots started growing, and before I knew it, flower spikes emerged!

A conservation friend of mine, who has cared for native orchids, said she's never seen them flower in captivity. So I wasn't expecting much from the spikes.

Then today when I checked how the orchid was doing, It was flowering with some of the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen :).

Here's my current record for most ferns growing on top of each other!

A tree fern called a ponga (Alsophila tricolor) forms the base, growing on this tree ferns trunk is a hen and chicken fern (Asplenium bulbiferum).

Hen and chicken ferns grows little bulbils (baby ferns) on its fronds, when the bulbils are old enouph, they drop off to become a new hen and chicken fern.

These bulbils make up the final layer of ferns of my fern stack, making it a magnificent 3 layers of fern.

Dendrobium cunninghamii, in Puketi Forest, New Zealand. In full bloom :). Its indigenous Maori name is Winika and a Maori canoe (Waka) is named after it

"In the fork of the tree grew a type of orchid known as ‘te winika’ which blooms with masses of white and green star-shaped flowers, evoking the huia feathers worn by high ranking rangatira (chiefs). This led to the auspicious name being given to the waka taua, that served Maaori royalty for many purposes, from transport to ceremonial duties."

-50 years of majestic waka at Waikato Museum Source

Image by me

I found this while walking through the Bush it was on the track with its exuviae right next to it. They are bloody deafening at this time of year but I still love to see them. Unfortunately I couldn't get any photos with the eyes properly in focus (as well as the exuviae) and my dog was desperate to carry on walking so this is the best I got.

Edit: spelling

The movement to restore Black agricultural heritage has boomed alongside urban agricultural (UA) research, as Black communities in urban areas become litmus tests and basecamps for UA projects. This is often due to a combination of the higher rates of food apartheid and environmental racism experienced by Black communities and the ways that community green spaces have become creative resistance efforts. Efforts to reclaim Black land are also efforts to reclaim Black belonging and expertise in tackling agricultural issues. While there are now many stories across the mediasphere focused on the empowerment, agency, and resistance of Black communities fighting inadequate urban food systems, Black Americans’ cultural roots in agriculture descended from the South and did not vanish as part of the Great Migration. It is common for Black American descendents from the South to have seen their elders garden with whatever space they had, which is why collard greens and tomatoes are still commonly grown in Los Angeles backyards.

On its own, Turtle Island can feed 85 families consistently over 12 months. Those 85 families average one adult with 2.5 children, which, by his metrics, comes out to about 250 to 300 people who rely on food from the farm each year. Once the greenhouse is up and running, his yield should be threefold.

A partnership between Turtle Island and Serenity Urban Wellness allowed Serenity Urban Wellness to apply for grants to purchase meat and other food. They’ve also become authorized Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) retailers, but for the most part, the food they offer is free, and they’ve never asked the community they serve for donations.

We have a bunch of these ceramic pots which often come as gifts when people give us plants.

No drainage holes. What use are they? They’re so small I think only succulents would be an option, but wouldn’t they just rot in water?

A nice day for a hike to around the craters and to the top. Snow shoes required!

Looking out over (from left to right) Bifröst (town), Hreðavatn (lake), Grábrókarfell (crater), Hraunsnefsöxl (mountain peak). The mountain range in the background has been seeing increased seismic activity over the last couple of months.

We moved into this house about a year ago. I've been making an effort to have a mix of wild and cottage vibes for the garden, as this was our first winter I've been able to get some decent designing down. Last year was a bit of a panic as we didn't know how the sun would lay and with moving in, our planting was done really late. But this year is the year I establish hedges as even though we're in a wood no one has anything in their front gardens and not much in the rear including mine.

I put a pond in last summer after liberating a water tank out of a skip which lives in the wild part of the garden. So the plan is for the native hedging to run the length of the garden, with intermittent decorative ones like the sweet briar for the parts closer to the house.

The front of the garden is going to be the nepeta as it'll be easy to control it from spilling onto the path. It also allows people to see the front garden while giving us a bit more of an established boundary that grass alone doesn't really do.

Are there any tips or suggestions for anything I might be missing?

Now independently run, the MnSeed Project continues to create a free, locally adapted native seed economy through collecting, saving and preserving seeds. The group are so passionate about this that all the seeds they collect are given away for free at workshops they host and events they attend, such as seed swaps.

For Tchida, seed saving is a natural outcropping of her lifelong exploration of finding ways to support the environment. “This is such an obvious and easy way,” she says. “The connection you make intrinsically with the plants throughout their whole growth process is so much fun.”

Are you planning big changes, or minor tweaks to a working system? Are there new-to-you plants you're excited to try your hand at? Let's share our dreams and goals and inspire each other!

Stepping on @LallyLuckFarm's toes because I like these posts

It's been a frigid and gusty week here in New England, I needed two pairs of gloves for my bike ride to work yesterday! Just a couple of kale plants hanging on in my garden outside, but inside my potted camellia sinensis recently flowered for the first time! I'm currently battling a spider mite infestation and it did not enjoy lack of watering while I was away for Thanksgiving, but hopefully it'll bounce back in the spring.

What's growing on for you all? I hope all you southern hemisphere folks are enjoying the peak of the season!

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/23382188

The study, which was published in 2023, found that daily dietary fiber intake for the gardening group was 1.4 grams higher than the control group. This may not sound like a lot, but dietary fiber, found in plant foods such as legumes, fruits and vegetables, is linked, for instance, to a lower risk of cancer. And the health benefits go beyond the nourishing food that gardens provide.

Katie McGillivray, a horticultural therapist with Ottawa-based Root in Nature, confirms that these are among the benefits of the practice. “Gardening naturally encourages physical activity, from gentle movements like walking, watering and weeding, to more vigorous tasks like digging, raking or hoeing,” she says.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends a weekly goal of 150 minutes of moderate-intense activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intense activity. Only 22.5 percent of adults, in 2022, met guidelines for both muscle-strengthening and aerobic physical activity. McGillivray and the CDC agree that chores involved with gardening burn calories and improve dexterity, muscle mass and bone density.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/16130943

My mom was complaining that the city has limits on how many leaves that they'll pick up, and she's got bags and bags of leaves stuffed into black garbage bags. This seems like a problem that should have some kind of backyard solution.

I've done a cursory search, and see that leaves are very compostable. They can also apparently be turned into "mold", though I don't fully understand what this means.

But I also see that there is a lot of variety in compost bins, and they're quite expensive. So I'm wondering: what's the best strategy for making leaves go away? She's not specifically interested in the product of the leaves, she just wants to find somewhere to put them after she rakes them up. Any ideas?

cross-posted from: https://pixelfed.crimedad.work/p/crimedad/768208296088675514

I guess this old glove isn't mine anymore.

Glad I noticed the new residents before trying to put it on. Any guesses as to the species? Maybe some type of mud dauber? I guess I'll just leave it alone and see if they emerge in the spring.

#bee #wasp #bugs #insects #pupae

@crosspost@lemmy.crimedad.work