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Post by johno on Dec 18, 2009 0:44:19 GMT -5
I’m floored by the volume of quality responses this thread is getting. I just sat down with the time to go through the whole thing and boil it down to the main points, and I find that Jo has already done it! What a super bunch you all are - that‘s what makes this the gardening forum of choice. Which says to me that a revamp isn’t entirely necessary, but since it has been asked…
I see a lot of ideas here that I don’t know enough about to comment on, other than they seem like good ideas. And I see some things that I wish I thought of first. ;D But I have a few additional suggestions.
Home Page Structure:
Simplify the headings, a little bit.
*Use common names more visibly in the plant family sections. It’s all there already, just make them more uniform, something like: Brassicaceae - Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Kale, Etc. / Fabaceae - Beans, Peas, Etc.
*Combine the three seed-saving sections into one.
*Combine …Medicinal Herbs, Other Vegetables and Flowers including Exotics, and Tobacco sections into one section.
*Combine Barnyard, Home Brewing, Country Cooking…, Beekeeping, Homesteading, Hunting and Fishing, Home Cures, and Bird Watching into one section, named? (Homesteading-related)
*Combine Spotlight on Homegrown Goodness and Members Blogs and Sites into one section. (‘Spotlight on Homegrown Goodness Members‘?)
New Items:
*There are themes that permeate throughout the threads that don’t need a section of their own, but could use definitions, such as permaculture and breeding for target microclimates. Maybe we need a glossary section of sorts? Maybe in with the ‘Sum of all Knowledge’ section? This could be another way to be user-friendly to new people.
*Maybe have nominations and votes for Picture of the Month? I saw this on an Irish gardening site and thought it was neat. Maybe also occasional give-away contests similar to those Love Apple Farm’s blog has? These fun little interactive things might even encourage lurkers to post and become members.
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Post by dirtsunrain on Dec 18, 2009 9:28:34 GMT -5
I would just like to say thanks for this site and the warm welcome that I have received. I hope you can imagine just how thrilled I was to find a community who also knew what bokashi is, who taught me about terra preta and wont haul me off to the loony bin for confessing that I pee on, in and around my garden. I wrote my Master Gardeners in 2002 and tho I would love to keep it going, the nearest monthly meeting is now a 6 hour round trip for me. This board is a wonderful substitute.
It's the busiest time of year for me as I'm a social worker and the holidays bring on all sorts of anxieties and family drama. I am only finding time to just read thru every day. I have a notepad where I jot the down the threads that I want to return to with my questions.
The most enjoyable thread for me so far has been the history of wheat In Iraq. I'd like to know more about the state of decline of valuable food crops. I got a cataloque in the mail yesterday and it has almost no heirlooms anymore - very disappointing.
I'd like to see more promotion of people who are trying to bring these heirloom foods back to the publics attention. Owen just had a nice little writeup in the Canadian magazine SmallFarmCanada, as did Andrea Berry of Hope Seeds in New Brunswick. I sell heirloom seeds very locally, collect locally and would like people to know there are are alternatives to the big seed cataloques. Anyone who visists me gets pestered to take home seeds and try them out.
I'd like to see a wild forage section, if anyone else has an interest as well. I blend a lot of teas from wild gatherings. The Prodigal garden link was a delight, thank you Telsing.
Finally, I breed heritage poultry and I hope that those sections of the board continue to expand. No interest in politics since I dont own a TV. This board is international enough that we should be discussing the issues affecting what we grow but nothing beyond that.
Thank you for your interest n what I have has to say so far. I feel like the kid clinging to the fence, watching the "cool" kids play. I hope I can participate more soon with my cold season plant breeding and heirloom protection efforts.
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Post by Darth Slater on Dec 18, 2009 10:18:19 GMT -5
I think an illustrated disease guide would be helpful also and a bug identification thread. And how to deal with both, in picture form.
Darth
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Post by mnjrutherford on Dec 18, 2009 12:18:22 GMT -5
Karen, I've really been pondering your suggestion as it may apply to us. I a sort of freak about standardization when it comes to compiling data. So, I really like forms. My thought is that the "daily" data, temps, weather, etc. could be captured on a calendar. On the back of the calendar we could record "diary" info such as planted potatoes, killed 2 chickens, harvested 3 lbs garlic, laid out 50 yds oak leaves. What do you think? Can you give me a concise list of ALL the data you would like to be maintained IF you like this idea? This will become part of our sons' scholastic program. We want them to be farmers and I've been contemplating implementing just such a program but I wasn't able to "coagulate" the parameters as neatly as you laid them out.
If you think about it, I think our lowest common denominator here is comfortable survival. I had always thought that everyone thinks of this in the same way I do. One day, I mentioned survival to my brother-in-law and he sent back a response that I found both astonishing and shocking. His response was that if he had to strap on a knife and a backpack and head to the hills to survive, he would rather just die and be done with it. On one hand I was appalled. Then I looked at the fact that this was from a man who had a vasectomy at a very young age purely to guarantee no progeny. He is focused on "aloneness" although he has always had a wife type person/companion.
To me, survival means devoted children, ample food, clothing, medical care and shelter without needing to go to sources outside the family should society fail due to malevolent events either man made or natural. To achieve this goal, one needs to be constantly educating (that's why we have the motto of "no question is a stupid question"). We need to be constantly exchanging data with an eye towards evolving. We need to be constantly trying different ideas and techniques because our planet is constantly in a state of flux. We recognize that the greatest failure would be to not recognize or acknowledge failure. And, I very strongly believe that we all have a very deep love and respect for our planet.
Now, those are some rather sweeping statements but they are my perception based on my interactions here.
I like Darth's suggestion and I think it would go well with the suggestion I made regarding the format for reporting on plant varieties.
Johno, I tried what you said with the 100 responses and it worked a charm. I'll have to try and write an instruction for it. Thanks!
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Post by plantsnobin on Dec 18, 2009 13:42:22 GMT -5
Jo, I hadn't thought about it from the perspective of involving children, thought that it would be easier for someone without kids. But put into the perspective of home schooling, it would be perfect!!! It's so true that our perception of things can be SO radically different, even for people who were basically raised the same way. Personally I would probably agree with your BIL-if society broke down to the point that you had to shoot someone to keep them from stealing your food, I don't want to live either. I keep typing stuff then backspacing here, don't want to get too carried away, I'll just say that what I am talking about is cold hard facts, cost analysis, no agenda kind of stuff. So that when agribiz says we need 'stacked traits' to feed the world's population, we can say, excuse me, but we have facts here to show just what it really does take to feed x amount of people. Now, it is near impossible for most people to provide all their food needs, especially if they are in the city, but what I am talking about is at least a local food system.
As far as the record keeping, I really am talking about time studies for everything to be done. Like a worm bin for example. Keep track of every second you spent on it, from assembling the materials to feeding and watering to harvest and packaging the compost. How much money was spent for those materials, even if they were scrounged, how much would it have cost new retail. It doesn't matter that you got it free, you need to keep everything as if someone else would be purchasing the inputs. Only then can you see what that vermicompost really 'cost' you to produce. Everything should be done as if you were running a business, because if it is to be sustainable, it needs to be profitable. I am not a technical type, but I bet we could come up with a template of sorts, trying not to leave out anything important. Even property taxes would need to be included, and probably lots more things that I haven't thought of. It would really be an interesting long term school project!
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Post by Alan on Dec 18, 2009 18:40:41 GMT -5
A few changes have been made, still a lot more to do, but give it time, check out what has been changed and we will go from there.
As far as the Karen/Jo self sustainability study, do we want a section for this in the Sum of all knowledge.
As far as changes I already made, if there are any major ones I haven't already made or any new ones post them here guys so I can do it.
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Post by plantsnobin on Dec 18, 2009 18:51:34 GMT -5
Wow, that is a lot of moving Alan! Looks good. Sorry that I got so long winded and off topic-I guess the winter is getting to me.
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Post by johno on Dec 18, 2009 19:03:09 GMT -5
Looking good, Alan. I like the changes and streamlining.
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Post by pugs on Dec 19, 2009 8:31:46 GMT -5
I'm impressed with all the ideas. I tried to read this whole thread, but I'm not very focused right now, so these maybe repeats.
Some printable HOW TO sections on such things as potato growing, seed saving and cleaning, three sister gardening, etc.
I ask for this because most of what I find, either in books, or on-line doesn't help me much. For instance growing corn to save seed from. Everyone tells you that you need to isolate it by time or distance, or hand pollinate, but they don't tell you how to isolate by time. How long does it take corn to start tasseling? Is it mostly the same for all corns? If you start the corns 2 weeks apart, is that enough isolation time? How long do the ears need to stay on the plant to get viable seed? Potatoes, when do you know to dig, how to cure, how to store? Something that is distilled into a page or two, that can be printed.
Some people specialize in some things, like G & G or Martin with tomatoes. Maybe a place where people have big collections of things and are willing to sell their seeds (or trade, or whatever) can list them. Kind of like the maintainer of some collections at SSE. Or maybe instead, a list of things that people will have year after year, even if it is only regrown every few years. Maybe this is asking too much of them. I don't know, I don't have that big of a collection to offer.
That's all I've got for now. Alan, I like the changes you made so far!
Pugs
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Post by Alan on Dec 19, 2009 15:49:32 GMT -5
I'm impressed with all the ideas. I tried to read this whole thread, but I'm not very focused right now, so these maybe repeats. Some printable HOW TO sections on such things as potato growing, seed saving and cleaning, three sister gardening, etc. I ask for this because most of what I find, either in books, or on-line doesn't help me much. For instance growing corn to save seed from. Everyone tells you that you need to isolate it by time or distance, or hand pollinate, but they don't tell you how to isolate by time. How long does it take corn to start tasseling? Is it mostly the same for all corns? If you start the corns 2 weeks apart, is that enough isolation time? How long do the ears need to stay on the plant to get viable seed? Potatoes, when do you know to dig, how to cure, how to store? Something that is distilled into a page or two, that can be printed. Some people specialize in some things, like G & G or Martin with tomatoes. Maybe a place where people have big collections of things and are willing to sell their seeds (or trade, or whatever) can list them. Kind of like the maintainer of some collections at SSE. Or maybe instead, a list of things that people will have year after year, even if it is only regrown every few years. Maybe this is asking too much of them. I don't know, I don't have that big of a collection to offer. That's all I've got for now. Alan, I like the changes you made so far! Pugs Howdy Pugs, added a seed saving tutorial section. Any of the mods out there who have the ability to move posts, which should be all of you, feel free to look through posts in the seperate sections which are of high intrinsic knowledge value and move them where you think they are appropriate in the sum of all knowlege areas. Or just copy and past them. |
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Post by Darth Slater on Dec 19, 2009 17:53:07 GMT -5
If I may be so Bold!! Some people me included ,take a person by their word. I f I tell you I will do something for you , you will be the first person I attend however , life happens!! And perhaps dictates certain objectives.In my travels across the globe playin hard Rock and roll . I have met alot of people!! Being young is not a curse being right is a commitment. Perhaps I sound like Michael Johson, God Bless the Queen but not Damn America!! He is another of our colorful people!! Do you realize that if the world was run by horticulturist there would be total peace and an ass load of questions? At twenty five I played at Cobo Hall warming up TESLA my band was Blackout then. I am and always be the elite of Detriot!!!!
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Post by Ecophreek on Dec 20, 2009 10:51:07 GMT -5
How about adding a tutorial on how to obtain seed from GRIN, and other institutes, to the How-to section? I tried once, and found it daunting. There are several members here who do it on a regular basis, maybe they could provide this information? If they had time of course. Lots of ideas for How-to's and "Why-come's"  Sorry if this has been already suggested, there is an awful lot to read through.  ot: Hey Darth... nice sig ;D |
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Post by ozarklady on Dec 21, 2009 19:52:39 GMT -5
Hi forum,
I am brand new here, but not new to gardening. This site is scary, I bounced off a couple of times! One big help, can't you talk in English for those of us who don't speak the Latin names of plants? I see you talking about something, and I have to stop and go wikki it to see what did they just say, about what? You could maybe use the common and latin names to not confuse anyone in just what you mean. But, too often once I go Wikki, I am off and running on links there, and just don't manage to get back here.
The first toughy with this site is what zone are you in? Who knows, somewhere I'm sure is a reference. It said on the page is zone locator, I never found it, so I just picked a nice middle number. So, please ignore my zone, as I must do also. Since, I can't seem to determine it.
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Post by johno on Dec 21, 2009 20:22:43 GMT -5
Hi ozarklady, and welcome. Here's a link where you can find your location and your plant hardiness zone. Click on your location as best you can tell for a close up of the area. www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html |
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Post by grunt on Dec 22, 2009 0:29:39 GMT -5
Mary Ann, good to see you here!
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