u/rroowwannn

In general I'm curious about ancient salad dressing.

... More than half the content is about the importance of locally appropriate native shrubs in the landscape

When they talk about an invasive plant in any way there's an asterisk that leads to a list at the end of the magazine, of states that have banned it

This magazine publishes four times a year and every single issue has a section called "Native Alternatives to Overused Shrubs For Your Region" for seven regions of the US. Seven lists, four times a year, every year.

Sure, half of it is about the latest hybrid hydrangea or whatever, but the other half? Well, there's the latest hybrid redbud, I guess. Look, it's marketing material, mostly aimed at designers, they want to sell plants. But I think it's REALLY GOOD that they're trying to sell designers on native plants. I think it's a really good magazine I'm accessing for free and probably you can too and I want people to know about it.

Hi, so I help advise and teach kids at a greenhouse attached to a high school. It's part of the disabled kids learning job skills program. I want to grow flowering kale "roses" for a Valentine's Day fundraiser, and I am trying to figure out what other flowers can go with them, grown in a cool greenhouse (40-55) and flowering for Feb.

It's not hard to find info for overwintering in high tunnels but it doesn't seem quite applicable when the temps aren't dropping below freezing at all.

I'm thinking I'm just going to have to learn by trying it out, but I would love any advice.

I just found out it existed last month. A scout troop installed it and kept it up for a few years, then the kids didn't need service hours anymore. Enter me, a horticulture student. The lady at the food pantry said I could take it over, and together we recruited a few people to pull weeds with us. Today was the first day.

After the weeds were out we planted green beans, potatoes, pepper plants, basil, Swiss chard, and lettuce and mesclun in the shady beds.

Planning for garlic, radishes, cabbage, peas, cilantro , and more lettuce for the fall.

Growing food is actually kind of new to me since at home there's this groundhog that eats just about everything I try. So this is an exciting opportunity to garden with new plants, make friends with the community, etc. and use what I've been learning in class. I'm so stoked I just had to share here.

Every month in gardening subs someone posts wanting advice on growing their own food to reduce grocery bills, and everyone responds with pessimism, saying it's not practical for a beginner to grow a substantial amount of food on the average suburban lot, and that it's not a cheap hobby.

That reflects a modern reality of very effective farming that has made food relatively cheap compared to most American's labor, as I understand it. Industrial farming is so effective that it makes individual action seem puny. Also, growing food takes some knowledge and skill.

This makes me curious about whether victory gardens were at all effective. I'm curious about the economics of it particularly. Also my intuition is that anyone who had the land and ability to grow food was already doing it without the government asking them to.

In the coming year I'll be running a small community garden by the town food pantry. Peppers are one of the things requested ... Never grown peppers before! Since it's a small plot I want to choose the varieties carefully. I think I can fit 10 pepper plants or so.

This is in NJ with a frost free period from April 20 to October 20.

I don't have any more details about the clients or what peppers they would use except they're mostly Hispanic. That's all I got.

Would love to hear about any particular challenges of growing peppers, compared to tomatoes which I've done.

I live in central NJ with a growing season from April 20 to Nov 1. I want to grow a climbing vine up a netting to shade my porch which gets deadly in the afternoon sun (but morning shade). I tried cucumbers this year but the animals got them.

So far I'm considering maypops (passiflora incarnata), apios Americana, and the native honeysuckle. Or maybe more cucumbers if I get rid of the groundhog.

Does anyone have any experience to share or other plants to recommend? I'm worried the maypops would get started too late and not enjoy the urban clay. And the apios I'm growing isn't very vigorous.

What I've read about native Americans is that they lived in harmony and saw wild animals as their kin. Simultaneously they lived on a continent with some nasty insects! How did insects, particularly ones we see as pests, fit into their cosmology?

I'm a horticulture / ag student who's learning about these pests and I'm curious how they dealt with them on a practical level, but also a sociological way. I'm curious about seeing the world in a different way.

All the advice Google is giving me is too vague, just saying "it's a good substitute for cinnamon or allspice", but a) I don't use those ingredients much to begin with and b) I'm not sure about whether I should be using the flesh of the berry or the seed or what.

My initial thought is to make snicker doodle cookies since that would showcase the flavor well. But I want to hear your ideas too!

I want to grow them in the coming year, but before I put in that effort I bought some online from a farm (Integration Acres in Ohio) to try in recipes.

I tried making plum ice cream at home once and it was amazing. Haven't been able to replicate the process since then so I was looking for plum ice cream online and I can't find any! And now that I think about it, I've never seen any blueberry, raspberry, or other fruity flavors except strawberry. Why is there this huge gap?