Farming goes Sci-Fi

"The perfect crop field could be inside a windowless building with meticulously controlled light, temperature, humidity, air quality and nutrition. It could be in a New York high-rise, a Siberian bunker, or a sprawling complex in the Saudi desert."

Researchers in the Netherlands are working on perfecting completely artificial growing techniques in buildings that have essentially no contact with natural environments. They use LED lighting with specific UV frequencies and timed to optimal growth periods tailored to individual plant types to boost growth. These buildings take the greenhouse concept (where food is grown in environments that it normally would not, with the help of protection from a building) to whole new heights where sunlight (and the energy that plants waste to combat the destructive, non productive wavelengths there of) is out. 

It's sci-fi farming for the moon folks!

Yet the researchers say yields are up, resource usage and water waste is down, locations are flexible, and that this is the future of food - grown locally in high-rises and warehouses, year round, with near infinite options. Read the entire article here on NPR, and then decide for yourself: is going organic in probably the most unnatural way you can think of good for food, for us, and for the planet?

My garden update

My garden is actually in complete shambles, for many reasons really, the biggest of which is probably that I don't know what I'm doing and I don't have much time to do it. I've got a decent sized aphid problem on my daisies, jasmine, and even on my sage. Leafhoppers are making minced-meat out of my herbs - rosemary is infested, oregano is getting there, and they're even going after my mint! My lantana has fungus and has grown to look like a big spider. And my daisies have decided that they are going to make a power play to take over the rest of the garden, aphids and all.

Yet.... despite all of this... I have good news to report. I opened the door yesterday to go get the mail, and when I did, I was startled to see something big move into my field of vision. It took me a second to adjust (I didn't know whether or not to run at it or away from it) but then I realized - I had a hummingbird floating right in front of me. What a feeling! He stayed for only a few seconds before taking off. I was sad that I scared it away, but I was pretty happy to have seen it in my garden. Perhaps I AM doing something right after all!

I just wanted to share. :)

Give your plants a caffine high

Everyone who knows me, knows that one of my favorite things to do when coming back to LA is to work in my Mom's garden a little bit and see how my plants have been faring and add new ones when the infamous Family Brown Thumb strikes again. This time has been no different, and I've already cleared out a few old and dead plants and begun to replace them with new ones.

One of my biggest struggles when looking for new plants is trying to find plants that are native (non-invasive, aggressive or otherwise) to California and will thrive in my climate and the limited sunlight I get in my garden. Unfortunately, it's rather hard to get native species without going to highly specialized nurseries where costs can be prohibitive - especially for those not gifted with the touch of an angel.

A second struggle is fertilizing. Most gardening websites will give suggestions on regular fertilizing schedules and pest control measures. However, wanting to be as environmentally friendly as possible, I continuously try to encourage my mother to not use fertilizer. Her sisters tend to do the opposite. It's an uphill battle, but one that I'm making headway in. I was very pleasantly surprised to find this page when searching on what I can use to replace commercial fertilizers.

Apparently, used coffee grounds are some of the best fertilizers around. Most websites say they are especially good for acid loving plants (although I've also read that this is just a common myth). Whatever the details may be, it's almost universally accepted that tossing some coffee into your soil (amend in garden-speak) is a good thing for plants. Its easy too. Just save your coffee grounds. Or, if you don't have enough or don't drink coffee, run out to your local cafe and get them to stop dumping their grounds and take them off their hands. For all the Starsuckers out there, take it easy on them - Starbucks has a corporate policy to give away coffee grounds to anyone who asks for them. Coffee grounds apparently also makes for great compost.

So don't add those used coffee grounds to your local landfill - use it for your garden, your plants, your compost, or give them to a neighbor. Or apply it to your hair. (See the first link!)