What's your favorite color?

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Xan
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Re: What's your favorite color?

Post by Xan » Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:11 pm

Maddy, below the place to write the body of your post, there's an Attachments tab. That'll let you upload pictures directly to this site and your post without having to put them somewhere else and link to them. Does that work for you?
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Re: What's your favorite color?

Post by vnatale » Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:27 pm

Maddy wrote:
Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:07 pm
I still haven't conquered indoor gardening, but this fall I did some major rethinking of the outdoor garden. One of the things I experimented with was a material called "plastic mulch" (a/k/a "black mulch"). It's a very thin, stretchy plastic that you stretch over a raised row, backfilling over the edges as you go. Drip tape goes underneath. You then cut small "x"s and plant right through the material.

Being black, it really holds the heat in, so you get a real jump start in the spring. It's also great at keeping vegetables off the ground and, conversely, keeping mud from splashing up onto things. Pests like whiteflies and aphids are reduced because their eggs normally overwinter in the soil. From what I understand, they also make a shiny silver plastic mulch which is made specifically to deter aphids.

I created this particular row, along with two others, for the garlic I planted this fall.

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Well, so much for my attempt to post pictures.
1) I bought this book several years ago....https://www.amazon.com/Square-Foot-Gard ... l_huc_item All New Square Foot Gardening, 3rd Edition, Fully Updated: MORE Projects - NEW Solutions - GROW Vegetables Anywhere 3rd Edition (actually the 2nd edition buying this updated one now). With great assistance from a friend built two of these boxes. Works quite well as the book describes. Scroll down to see more about the book on the Amazon page.

2) I still have a fairly large traditional garden. I used to pride myself on keeping it weed free by hoeing all the dirt surrounding the plants. A friend stopped by one year and said I was doing it all wrong, that I should be covering all that dirt with the leaves on my property. I immediately started doing that and have done the same since. Does take a fair amount of back breaking work to rake all the leaves on my property and then spread it in the garden. But it definitely reduces both time AND water on the other end. I water the plants when I plant them. And, the next two days tops. Never water them again for ANY reason. The leaves just hold the moisture in the ground. We had one summer where there was hardly any rain for a long period of time yet those plants all still thrived with all the leave covering on top of them. Also, cuts way down on the time needed to weed.

Vinny
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Maddy
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Re: What's your favorite color?

Post by Maddy » Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:35 pm

Xan wrote:
Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:11 pm
Maddy, below the place to write the body of your post, there's an Attachments tab. That'll let you upload pictures directly to this site and your post without having to put them somewhere else and link to them. Does that work for you?
I tried that, Xan, and they did appear to upload, but in the "status" column there appeared a warning icon that said my files were "invalid." ???
(I hate technology. Hate it, hate it, hate it.)
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Re: What's your favorite color?

Post by Xan » Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:44 pm

Maddy, I've tweaked the settings on the forum (primarily increasing the upload file size limit from 2MB to 10MB). Can you try editing your post and attaching again?
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Re: What's your favorite color?

Post by Maddy » Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:47 pm

Xan wrote:
Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:44 pm
Maddy, I've tweaked the settings on the forum (primarily increasing the upload file size limit from 2MB to 10MB). Can you try editing your post and attaching again?
Still getting the same "invalid file" message. BTW, the file size was 6 MB.
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Re: What's your favorite color?

Post by Xan » Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:51 pm

Maddy wrote:
Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:47 pm
Xan wrote:
Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:44 pm
Maddy, I've tweaked the settings on the forum (primarily increasing the upload file size limit from 2MB to 10MB). Can you try editing your post and attaching again?
Still getting the same "invalid file" message. BTW, the file size was 6 MB.
I'll dig into it further. Still might be a file size issue somewhere.
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Re: What's your favorite color?

Post by Maddy » Thu Nov 14, 2019 9:11 pm

At your leisure, Xan. And thank you.
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Re: What's your favorite color?

Post by dualstow » Fri Nov 15, 2019 10:10 am

Kriegsspiel wrote:
Thu Nov 14, 2019 7:27 pm
I just realized I forgot to mention the rhubarb wine I have bubbling away on the dinner table.
Wow! I've always wanted to make dandelion wine. And no, not because of the song. I heard about that later.
I just like dandelions. The leaves, too.

I bought a massive book on fermentation a few years back. Probably posted about it here.
I haven't put most of it into practice. It's easier to just buy kimchi and sauerkraut. I did make clabbered milk.
RIP Marcello Gandini
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Re: What's your favorite color?

Post by Maddy » Fri Nov 15, 2019 10:34 am

Sauerkraut is a cinch to make. If your only experience with it comes from a jar on the grocery store shelf, you've got a treat in store for you. When made fresh, it retains a wonderful crunch, quite unlike the soggy stuff that generally ends up on hotdogs.

It's also being given some press for its alleged probiotic properties. It's apparently helping many people with gut microbiome issues.
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Re: What's your favorite color?

Post by Greg » Fri Nov 15, 2019 2:36 pm

whatchamacallit wrote:
Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:00 pm
Undecided between gray or grey
Depends on if you live in America or Western Europe. America starts with an A = gray. England and Europe start with E = grey.

Personally I'm a fan of griy (Iceland's version of Gray).
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Re: What's your favorite color?

Post by dualstow » Fri Nov 15, 2019 3:27 pm

Maddy wrote:
Fri Nov 15, 2019 10:34 am
Sauerkraut is a cinch to make. If your only experience with it comes from a jar on the grocery store shelf, you've got a treat in store for you. When made fresh, it retains a wonderful crunch, quite unlike the soggy stuff that generally ends up on hotdogs.

It's also being given some press for its alleged probiotic properties. It's apparently helping many people with gut microbiome issues.
Love the crunch, hate the soggy stuff. I found some storebought stuff that I liked, Mother-in-law 's brand kimchi, which used pickled daikon instead of napa cabbage. Now I only see the napa. Plus, it was exploding on the train due to temperature or pressure changes. Should always take of the lid and released the gases before taking it on a trip.
https://theshopgiant.com/products/mothe ... dish-16-oz

Greg wrote:
Fri Nov 15, 2019 2:36 pm
whatchamacallit wrote:
Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:00 pm
Undecided between gray or grey
Depends on if you live in America or Western Europe. America starts with an A = gray. England and Europe start with E = grey.

Personally I'm a fan of griy (Iceland's version of Gray).
In Stephen King's 'Dreamcatchers', the movie version, they have Damian Lewis (Homeland star) playing an American named Gary who is infected by an alien, Mr Gray. I wanted it to be Grey because Lewis uses a British accent when it's the alien speaking, but only Gray is an anagram of Gary. Does not compute, does not compute (steam is coming out of my ears)
RIP Marcello Gandini
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Re: What's your favorite color?

Post by Maddy » Fri Nov 15, 2019 3:57 pm

When I was first learning to read (ca. 1963), the phonics-based readers ("See Spot Run") often had little stories about "Mrs. Gray." In later life, I was always pretty good at spelling, but, try as I might, I never was able to shake that early learning experience. To this day, I have trouble remembering whether the color is spelled "grey" or "gray." Finally I am vindicated!
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Re: What's your favorite color?

Post by WiseOne » Sat Nov 16, 2019 9:40 am

Kriegsspiel wrote:
Thu Nov 14, 2019 7:27 pm
I just realized I forgot to mention the rhubarb wine I have bubbling away on the dinner table.
Yum! Maybe we should all drop by for a taste.

I've got small Aerogardens (Sprout LEDs) that double as undercounter lighting in my kitchen, and a regular soil pot growing arugula under lights. The Aerogardens are growing basil, cilantro, thyme, mustard greens, and beet greens. They are all doing very well so far! I've been using a powdered nutrient, which didn't do so well last time on its own, but this year I added a rooting compound which has made a huge difference. I suspect that the Aerogarden nutrients have a combination of the two, which is why the plants started out well but then became root bound very quickly. You're only supposed to use that stuff for the first few weeks.
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Re: What's your favorite color?

Post by Maddy » Sat Nov 16, 2019 1:25 pm

WiseOne, what kind of light do you need for a countertop garden? LED, fluorescent? How many watts? I've looked online at the various "grow light" options, and what appears to be most popular is a ceiling-hung set of LEDs in various shades of pink/purple. I think I'd go stir crazy if I had to make coffee in that light!
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Re: What's your favorite color?

Post by dualstow » Sat Nov 16, 2019 2:22 pm

Wow, WiseOne. Sounds great. Cilantro is one thing I would grow if I ate it, since it is reportedly extremely dirty. (No offense, Mexico). It’s probably the one natural food that I don’t eat, and I’ve — I just found my tablet open to this page, and I have no idea how I was going to finish the sentence.
RIP Marcello Gandini
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Re: What's your favorite color?

Post by WiseOne » Sat Nov 16, 2019 8:55 pm

Maddy wrote:
Sat Nov 16, 2019 1:25 pm
WiseOne, what kind of light do you need for a countertop garden? LED, fluorescent? How many watts? I've looked online at the various "grow light" options, and what appears to be most popular is a ceiling-hung set of LEDs in various shades of pink/purple. I think I'd go stir crazy if I had to make coffee in that light!
Yes, I looked into LEDs and they are designed to grow a certain cash crop in a grow tent, not exactly what I'm going for. I went with tried and true T5 fluorescent tube lights - I got a 2 foot long, 4-tube fixture mounted on a pulley system so I can raise and lower it to keep it close to the plants. They don't use much more electricity than LEDs and they're a lot cheaper.
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