Claude Thompson

A planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature that identifies even the wildest garden is control.

Organic gardening is a sustainable agricultural system that relies on ecologically based pest controls and biological fertilizers made from animal and plant wastes. It also encourages biodiversity to help protect and enhance soil quality.

Removing weeds is a chore few gardeners enjoy, as it typically involves long sessions of kneeling in the dirt and digging around for anything you don’t remember planting. Herbicides also work, but spraying poison all over your garden comes with its own problems. Luckily, there’s now a third option: [NathanBuildsDIY] designed and built a robot to help him get rid of unwanted plants without getting his hands dirty.

Constructed mostly from scrap pieces of wood and riding on a pair of old bicycle wheels, the robot has a pretty low-tech look to it. But it is in fact a very advanced piece of engineering that uses multiple sensors and actuators while running on a sophisticated software platform. The heart of the system is a Raspberry Pi, which drives a pair of DC motors to move the whole system along [Nathan]’s garden while scanning the ground below through a camera.

The Pi runs the camera’s pictures through a TensorFlow Lite model that can identify weeds. [Nathan] built this model himself by taking hundreds of pictures of his garden and manually sorting them into categories like “soil”, “plant” and “weed”. Once a weed has been detected, the robot proceeds to destroy it by concentrating sunlight onto it through a large Fresnel lens. The lens is mounted in a frame that can be moved in three dimensions through a set of servos. A movable lens cover turns the incinerator beam on or off.

Sunlight is focused onto the weed through a simple but clever two-step procedure. First, the rough position of the lens relative to the sun is adjusted with the help of a sun tracker made from four light sensors arranged around a cross-shaped cardboard structure. Then, the shadow cast by the lens cover onto the ground is observed by the Pi’s camera and the lens is focused by adjusting its position in such a way that the image formed by four holes in the lens cover ends up right on top of the target.

Once the focus is correct, the lens cover is removed and the weed is burned to a crisp by the concentrated sunlight. It’s pretty neat to see how well this works, although [Nathan] recommends you keep an eye on the robot while it’s working and don’t let it near any flammable materials. He describes the build process in full detail in his video (embedded below), hopefully enabling other gardeners to make their own, improved weed burner robots. Agricultural engineers have long been working on automatic weed removal, often using similar machine vision systems with various extermination methods like lasers or flamethrowers.

Source: hackaday.com

Seeds, Fertilizer, Variety

A perennial flower that is also often grown as an annual. Tolerant of frost and heat. New cultivars with vibrant colors and different plant heights available.

Carnations are bright and cheerful and their long association with motherly love makes them an ideal gift for Mother’s Day. They also work well for sympathy flowers.

Geraniums are known for their long-lasting blooms in shades of pink, red, white, orange, and purple, says Stuppiello. Though, he notes, “The flowers we often call geraniums are actually pelargonium, still beautiful,” and still easy to care for. “Attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds, they’re great for mixed gardens and containers. Plant them in full sun and keep withered blooms picked off for more flowers.”

Shop Geraniums

Source: prevention.com

About Starting A Vegetable Garden

Anyone can grow vegetables in their own garden. It doesn’t take a lot of space, money or talent.

The key to success is planning ahead. Start by learning about varities, zones, seeds and location. Choosing the right soil is important – ideally loamy. Water new seedlings and transplants daily until established. Water mature plants as needed, based on rainfall and temperature.

Gardening or any other form of agriculture certainly is only some people’s cup of tea. Nevertheless, this ‘dirty’ task could save you a lot of money and time and considerably improve the quality of your life, thus saving your life. Fortunately, more people are accepting this fact and gearing towards growing their food.

According to the National Gardening Association, about 67% of adults are growing or intend to grow edible plants, including herbs, fruits, and vegetables. They acknowledge the accomplishment of putting fresh produce on the table, a feeling that often overshadows the effort that goes into it. Here are more reasons to start creating your vegetable garden.

1. Gives You Control Over What You Eat

Processed foods have crowded shelves in grocery stores, convenience stores, and our pantries. This is because the commercial agricultural center, the primary food source for most, has taken a turn over the years. Most of the food entering the market is either over-processed, modified, or relatively of poor quality, hence the countless health effects on the consumer.

2. Long-term Cost-Efficiency

According to a report from the CDC, about 90% of Americans do not eat enough vegetables. Although most people do not like veggies, their measure of annual supply is partly to blame. Most food commodities moving through marketing systems are raw and semi-processed foods. Starting a new vegetable garden saves you the trouble of sifting through products and wondering which one is safe. It also gives you a chance to enjoy fresh produce from the convenience of your home. Additionally, you would never have to overstock your refrigerator with vegetables as you can pick fresh ones straight from the garden. Saving you refrigeration costs and frequent trips to the grocery store.

3. Promotes Sustainability

Growing a new garden is a step closer to promoting a greener future. The activity combines numerous organic gardening practices with resource conservation, thus creating an eco-friendly environment. This is inherently possible through sustainable gardening practices like installing drip irrigation systems, rain-scaping features, compost piling, and reusing plastic, glass, and clay pots in the gardens.

4. Improves Mental Health

Aside from the peace of mind that comes with knowing where your food comes from, gardening can be very therapeutic. According to scientists, soil microbes contain anti-depressing properties which improve mental health. Mother nature provides unique bacteria that increase serotonin levels, releasing a relaxing effect and lifting your mood. Working in the garden also allows you to clear your mind, decompress, and enjoy other exceptional elements of nature, like insects and weather.

5. Increases Property Value

A nice kitchen garden can significantly increase the value of your property. While making your home stand out in the neighborhood, other garden buildings like sheds, studios, or a separate storage area for your tools could be a bonus for you regarding saleability and entice potential buyers. According to Bankrate, professional landscaping can increase the saleability potential of your home by about 15 to 20% for resale. A well-maintained vegetable garden can also create a sense of privacy and security on your property. Simple details like basic fences and well-trimmed hedges will ensure you get the maximum value for your property.

6. More Reason to Spend Time Outside

It is an excellent alternative or complement going to the gym as you will be lifting, digging, bending, twisting, and squatting the entire time. Gardening gets your body working, thus keeping you physically fit. Furthermore, enjoying and staying productive is considered a green activity. Gardening is also a chance to engage others and create memories. If you have a child, gardening is a fun activity, as is surfing, sailing, and boat pedaling. The earlier you can introduce your children to gardening, the easier it is for them to adopt the new lifestyle.

These points are sufficient if you want excellent reasons to start your mini-vegetable farm. You can start by turning a small portion of your backyard with your favorite greens and gradually expand it to include more plants. According to Allstate, once-a-year tree trimming may help keep your yard beautiful and safe for years to come. Keep this in mind for your yard as a whole. Optionally, take advantage of the countless space-saving tips like growing vegetables vertically or renting out a space in your community garden.

Source: therockfather.com

Seeds, fertilizer, varieties, spring, fall

Muscari resemble a miniature version of lilac and are often used in wedding bouquets. Symbolizing friendship, daffodils are also popular in the spring. Paperwhites are a narcissus variety that’s white in color and offers a nice alternative to yellow daffodils.

Editor’s note: Throughout the growing season, Mike Hogan, OSU Extension educator for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Franklin County, will answer gardening and home landscape questions submitted by Dispatch readers. Send your questions to hogan.1@osu.edu.

Q: We recently moved to a new home and have inherited flower beds which are inundated with thistle. We have weeded these beds several times, but more thistle just pops up. How can we control this dreaded weed?

A: Canada thistle is particularly difficult to control because of the extensive root and underground stem system of thistle, which can be 3 feet below ground. Each time you pull new shoots that pop up, the underground stems form new above-ground shoots. Each new shoot that comes out of the ground can produce up to 40 flower heads and 1,500 seeds in just one growing season.

systemic herbicide. Monitor your beds every day for small new shoots and apply the herbicide to each new shoot. You will need to apply the herbicide to each new shoot that pops up. Whenever you use an herbicide, be sure to read and follow all label directions and wear appropriate personal protective equipment.

Ask the Expert:How do you protect your tulips from pests?

organic herbicides that can be applied to thistle, but they tend to burn the above-ground shoots and do not kill the root system. If you use an organic herbicide on thistle, you will have to make repeated applications until you deplete the root’s reserves. This can take more than one growing season. Cultivation and hand-pulling of this weed without application of an herbicide will provide minimal control. To read more about this plant and control options visit: go.osu.edu/canadathistle.

Q: The lower branches of a beautiful Colorado blue spruce in our front yard have died over the past two seasons. The needles turned a purple color and then a bright orange before they fell from the branches. Should we have the tree cut down?

A: From the description of the symptoms, the culprit sounds like a needle cast disease called Rhizosphaera. This disease causes needles to turn brown or — in the case of the Colorado blue spruce — a purplish-brown and fall from the tree prematurely. Needles of any age and on any part of the tree may be infected, but the disease often starts on year-old or older needles on the lower branches of the tree, attacking several branches at one time. Lower branches are commonly affected because the foliage is denser and shaded, receiving less air flow and holding moisture for longer periods of time compared to higher branches. If conditions are conducive in the following years, the disease will spread within the tree from the bottom up and inside out.

What is the best way to control moss in your lawn?

remove a potential source of inoculum of the pathogen and also improve airflow near the base of the tree. Be sure to disinfect all pruning tools after use.

The disease can be effectively controlled by applying fungicides containing chlorothalonil. New growth can be protected, and the tips of branches will continue to grow and mask the older, defoliated stems and branches if the disease is detected early. Older needles that are already infected may continue to be cast, thus it may take several years of treatment for the tree’s appearance to improve. More information about this disease can be found at: go.osu.edu/Rhizosphera.

Source: dispatch.com