Random stuff

August 24th 2008

I have some yams in my garden and one on my balcony. I was told that yams dont work in vancouver. Well i planted mine mid july and the one at home which does not get as much light as the others is doing great. Few reasons i think it is doing better; loose soil, heavy mulching and last but not least is the fact that my balcony gets heat from the room below it. Either or, I think
yams will do pretty well in vancouver if planted outdoors after last frost. Give them a mulching to keep the surrounding ground moist yet warm. I am not absolutley sure but fairly comfident that if your younger growth is purple then it is a bit to cold.

July 31st 2008
If you have plants that cant withstand colder temperatures putting them high in the room may help. By putting a heater in a cold room you create a breeze, usually very subtle, watch your plants they will likely be your best indicator unless your set up. But this can affect variables, for example humidity. If you put a heater at the medium temperature barrier pushing heat up, you can create a hot air pressure zone pushing the cold down keeping your plants that need less heat at an appropriate temperature. If you have your heating source in an appropriate spot you can box the heat in the room up high while keeping a window open for air flow, i do not recommend that as its a waste of resources, but if you have no other option in a drafty place it will help to stabilize a variety of close quarter ecosystem.

July 29th 2008

Today i harvested evening primrose, i only toped the areas of the plant that had been filled with fresh seed pods. I have made it into 4 litres of oil so far. My evening primrose is grown in a patch that is 1.5 feet by about 3 feet. It has only been fed dandelion greens and evening primrose.
1st batch was entire plant leaves stock seed pods flowers. 2nd batch is aprox 98% seeds + pods 1% flowers and 1% leaves.

I also harvested oregano flowers today to make into oil but i think it may take to long, likely soak over night since i really only sleep 6 hrs a night.

Tomorrow i have planned lemon balm vinegar.

July 20th 2008.

As an apprenticing herbologist often i am concerned with the health of my community, i live on the downtown eastside so i do get the opportunity to see a lot of health issues surrounding some of the most un-healthy people in Canada. Last winter i had some left over roasted chicken so i concocted a chicken soup with the fallowing herbal ingredients. Yellow dock roots, echinacea, willows bark and coconut. The idea was to go out late at night and serve it warm to people sleeping in the streets. Yellow dock promotes healthy liver and blood. Echinacea increases the immune system, willows bark is where aspirin comes from or at least is similar it tends to not kick in as soon but last longer. The cocunut was for sugars, oils and it seems to blend well with the thick flavor of Yellow Dock.

Winter Gardening
winter, believe it or not is an essential period to gardening, besides being a season.
Here are some ideas for those who cant get enough.

Building a green house; Be able to grow cold resistant plants during winter, get your plants out of the house sooner or start in the greenhouse earlier then you could outside. Balconies and external walls of buildings are excellent in urban situations for an atrium or greenhouse. They retain more heat and are easily accessible.

Pruning; Dont forget when pruning that you may be tossing valuable clones.
Don't limit pruning to much be artistic and by the way winter is a great time to pull off some thorns on those rose plants if you have kids.

Indoor plants: If you don't have any ask i will give you some. Benefits include but are not limited to; Improved air quality, aesthetic design, a facet for knowledge and your very own responsibility.

There are a myriad of plants that can sustain life and some intently flower in vancouvers mild winters. Eventually i will get around to putting a list up of those plants. If you would like to add to this or the list, i always welcome comments.

July 13 th
Learning from Grow ops.

Pot heads are incredibly inventive and innovative when it comes to gardening and growing their ganja. It helps they have a hardy resilient plant that when in doors is in a controlled environment. Hell i made it rain once in someones grow op, little cloud and everything.
They utilize many techniques such as; Carbon dioxide emissions fed to the plants at appropriate times, Air layer cloning, Aeroponics, hydroponics.

Marijuana growers , because they are usually dealing with one species of plants usually end up studying the biology of their plant. All layers of the bark and stock. The molecular level of their flowers the chemical names of more then just tetrahydrocannabinol and the infamous CBDs. Most growers either A) are politically active and know the medical information or B) can't be politcly active or spout on about medical benefits because they don't want to draw attention.

Lets not forget to mention the Marijuana breeders. At a price of anywhere from $5 - $35 you can by clones of someones plant. Lets quickly put that in perspective. If you grow a plant tall, then tie it over on its side every node will grow a new top or two. Hmm lets see 1 plant 3 feet tall, nodes every two inches on average lets say = 36 tops, if you then tie each of those down at three feet tall you then have about 436, clones @ lets say on average $15/clone and to make it easy math lets say 36 clones died during the first week $6000. Breeders will actually put aside a year to try to get the qualities a grower wants. Lets not forget to mention that marijuana is one of the few plants i know of that is bred in a way that keeps its diversity.

Aeroponics outdoors won't work to well unless you have a high water level or your close to sea level. But with a resilient plant and/ or some shade it is not only possible but viable in most regions of b.c. in the summer, in the winter most plants roots will die. Stagnant air and water within the system become an issue due to molds and the environment being appropriate for disease. So if you're building it out of a hole in the ground and some wood or something keep that in mind. If your utilizing pcb piping or something, a water tower and angles, pressure (psi)are important to know.

In considering it is summer and water waisting is un-ethical in my opinion i will not give any one ideas about doing Hydroponics, as it is a great system but unless its a vary viable solution to something its not necessary.

Update july 16th
An interesting aero/hydroponic idea would be to take to plants with varying root space and create separate root chambers within the same humidity/ water system.

GATHERING SUPPLIES

I walk a lot. There use to be a time when i would dumpster dive if it wasn't to bad. I still would if on the top of the dumpster was half of someones stuff, as that happens often middle of the month and end/beginning. The things is by walking through alley ways and streets anyone could find a lot of stuff. The few things that i will struggle to carry home with are computers and plants. But if i have my computer gear on me ill just dissect it and leave the rest to be recycled, only because i've gathered so many that i've had to pull the mother boards out and recycle the boxes.

You don't have to be standing in a dumpster to find great supplies around vancouver. I find plants and stuff usually outside infront of someones house or behind in an alleyway. Many supplies like wood can also be found ditched in an alley, for example pallets, or at stores/ lumber yards often they will allow you to take some scrap wood.

By walking everywhere i also learn wha a lot of plants are, often all it takes is asking the person tending them. I am also a wildcrafter so through out the year i will collect seeds and random plants to then grow into enough to be useful.

If you chose to wildcraft please try not to take any more then 10 percent of what is there. It is better to grab one plant and start your own gorrilla patch then to leave only one of something and not be able to get more, or anger someone else.