Growing at the MG Spring Symposium

  • Post published:03/21/2011
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There was a great crowd at the Master Gardener's Spring Symposium on Saturday. The arrangements were wonderful with a delicious and energizing breakfast buffet, fruit, muffins, juice, coffee and tea - all free.  And later a yummy lunch and great conversation with our fellow gardeners. There were all manner of workshops from fruit tree pruning to roses!  Naturally I went to hear Tracey Culver, who is a head gardener at Smith College, talk about the roses she grows…

First Mycotecture, Now Helioculture

  • Post published:03/03/2011
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Joule Unlimited is a biotechnology company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It "produces clean, infrastructure-compatible fuels directly from sunlight and waste CO2 in a single-step, continuous process that requires no costly biomass intermediates, processing or dependency on precious natural resources." I become more fascinated by some new technologies at the same rate I become afraid of other energy technologies like 'hydrofraking.' We need to look at the implications of the whole system and hydrofraking puts our water supply at risk.…

Three Dreams for Thursday

  • Post published:02/24/2011
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Every year I add a few roses to my garden. The Rose Walk has expanded, the Shed Bed was added and now I have a Rose Bank. Many of the roses are shades of pink; Blanc Double de Coubert, Mount Blanc and Madame Plantier are white, but aside from the spiny Harrison's Yellow, yellow roses have been missing. I am trying to add  that range of color this spring. April Moon is a soft yellow Griffith Buck hybrid…

Worm Farm Review

  • Post published:02/21/2011
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In July of 2008 my grandsons and I put 1000 red wigglers into a bin we had prepared. We were worm farmers. I wanted worm castings, considered very fine compost, to use in my garden.  The process of making that compost has been a slower process than I expected. Red wigglers are not earthworms. They need to be kept warm - at least warmer than 50 degrees to thrive.  I did not want to keep the worm bin…

Ford is Growing Car Parts

  • Post published:02/07/2011
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Could we be making our cars out of mushroom roots, mycellium, instead of petroleum based plastic? Maybe soon. One of my most popular posts is about Mycotecture, making strong, rigid insulation out of mycellium from Ecovative, and now David Pogue, host of the PBS Nova series Making Stuff, learns that the Ford Motor Company is making plastic parts for their cars out of wheat grass, and mycellium. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqTBFd-qRJU I wonder whether mushroom/mycellium farmers will be able to get…

“Water” on Muse Day

  • Post published:02/01/2011
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Water What is the vitality and necessity of clean water? Ask the man who is ill, who is lifting his lips to the cup. Ask the forest. Mary Oliver from "Evidence" Water is almost everything. We are water. Water is essential. Water is so important that I cannot find the words to encompass it.  Right now the news is full of reports about devastating floods. Other times the news is of drought. We gardeners have our own experiences…

Sustainable Living in the Hills

  • Post published:01/29/2011
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Nancy and Haynes Turkle have been concerned about the environment and the ways we affect it for a long time. Nancy’s graphic design company even worked for the Department of Environmental Protection for 15 years creating educational recycling materials. During their 20 years living in Groton they were involved in many community activities including helping to found a community garden. As the garden thrived so did  cooperation between the members of the garden and the wider community. They…

Worms in the Kitchen

  • Post published:01/21/2011
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You have to look really close, but the worms are more than surviving in my worm bin, which I said I would never keep in my kitchen. I was afraid of fruit flies. When it was time to bring the worm bin in from outside  in September I put them in the Great Room which is not heated except for lots of solar gain during the day, that kept temperatures above 50 at night. That did not last.…

En Francais – s’il vous plait

  • Post published:01/18/2011
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With all the trouble we bloggers can have with scrapers stealing our stellar images it is good to know that there are honorable people all around the world.  I received an email from M. Frederic Douard from a French bioenergy company asking to use my Hawley firewood image on their website. Permission was given, d'accord! And I am the photo du jour!  You can't really see it on this screen shot, but when the cursor hovers over the…

Jere Gettle and Comstock, Ferre Seeds

  • Post published:01/17/2011
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Fourteen years ago, at the age of 17, Jere Gettle put together his first list of heirloom seeds and mailed it to 550 gardeners. Now he oversees a veritable empire consisting of the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, the Bakersville Pioneer Village complete with seed store, bakery, restaurant, jail, herbal apothecary, music barns with monthly festivals and more in Missouri, and the Petaluma Seed Bank in California, which opened last spring. Most recently he bought the Comstock, Ferre…