Nature and Gardening

The other way I've heard this called is "chapote prieto" by Spanish-speaking people

Edit: the fruits are unripe now, they will ripen to a black/purple color

We planted 3 pepper plants (poblano, jalapeño, and Anaheim) in a raised garden bed. Tomatoes in the same bed are doing just fine. We feel like they are getting enough watering but any help would be appreciated!

Cute little fella, soon as he spotted me he lifted up and stayed like that, motionless, looking at me as if I were rather sus!

You can just make out the top of keopuka rock.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/335542

Nearly 100 years old and still a decent resource. Able to be downloaded as a PDF or epub. Further info below.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289765978_Tree_Crops_a_Permanent_Agriculture_Concepts_from_the_Past_for_a_Sustainable_Future

J. Russell Smith (1874–1966), a professor of geography at Columbia University, witnessed the devastation of soil erosion during his extensive travels. He first published his landmark text, Tree Crops, A Permanent Agriculture in 1929, in which he described the value of tree crops for producing food and animal feed on sloping, marginal, and rocky soils as a sustainable alternative to annual crop agriculture less suited to these lands. A cornerstone of his thesis was using wide germplasm collection and plant breeding to improve this largely underutilized and genetically unexploited group of plants to develop locally adapted, high-yielding cultivars for the many climatic zones of North America. Smith proposed an establishment of “Institutes of Mountain Agriculture” to undertake this work. For a variety of reasons, though, his ideas were not implemented to any great degree. However, our growing population’s increasing demands on natural resources and the associated environmental degradation necessitate that Smith’s ideas be revisited. In this review, his concepts, supported by modern scientific understanding and advances, are discussed and expanded upon to emphasize their largely overlooked potential to enhance world food and energy security and environmental sustainability. The discussion leads us to propose that his “institutes” be established worldwide and with an expanded scope of work.

The place is full of humidity and water, so I had to build some water flow paths.

I'm pretty sure it's a "dot com", although I could be wrong. It currently has 6 open flowers, and I'd love to cut it, but after seeing a hummingbird drinking from it I've been holding off.

Helen Atthowe is one of the greatest regenerative gardening educators we're aware of - anyone looking to create ecologically functional systems with their garden practices should definitely check out some of her lectures. This is a conversation between her and John Kempf, founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture.

Image description: A close up shot of a hand holding two cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes are about the size of a US quarter, and are mottled red and brownish-green.

Extremely pleased to have harvested my first tomatoes of the year just now. This variety is called Chocolate Sprinkles, and is the only cherry-sized tomato I planted on purpose. I also have Mr. Stripey and Cherokee Purple tomatoes for slicing, some San Marzano (-style) for paste/canning , and some volunteers that haven't fruited yet, but I suspect they are Yellow Pear and/or Sungold cherry tomatoes.

I gave these a quick rinse, then sliced and sprinkled with a little salt. Really looking forward to the rest of the summer.

(a mushroom!)

I love these guys. Grab a few seeds from a local park, take them home and watch them sprout.

The Moreton Bay Chestnut (aka black bean tree, or three bean tree) is native to south east Queensland and grows into a large tree, unless kept in a pot.

The most we've gotten so far.

I noticed today that one of my struggling garden plants is absolutely covered in bugs. I have no idea if those two things are related (we had a massive drought), but I wanted to find out what these little dudes are, and whether they're friend or foe. Any thoughts?

Edited to add: located in western Europe.

My astro put out a beautiful bloom today in my greenhouse. I guess it is happy!

Bought her without knowing how finicky calatheas are... she's doing okay!