Notes
Squash talk
- Cucurbits have a lot of pests
- Squash bugs are a pain for folks in the west
- Vine borers are a pain in the east
- Back-alley squash surgery can help
- Suggestion to use a light at night to see where the worms are in the stem, and use a needle for a more nuanced and less destructive approach
- Fuzzy melon’s are awesome
- A type of gourd, eaten like summer squash
- Black Beauty zucchini do well for folks with a shorter, cooler growing season
- Dutch White Cucumber does very well in my zone 5b eastern-north-american garden
Quacks and cluckers
- In cold regions (shout out to @brightabyss!) one may need to bring their chickens into the house through extreme winter temperatures
- Requires constant cleaning
- Can use large dog kennels for short periods
- Loud
- Muscovy ducks are great foragers
- They like to hide their eggs like it’s Easter all year round
- They’re big
- They like to eat amphibians
- Solid ducks for meat and slug control
General
- Finding concensus around the importance of a clean and functional watershed should be a priority, but many don’t understand nor take it seriously. How do we work together with these types of people?
- Pawpaws can take months (or years) to germinate
- Some folks experiences pawpaws germinating in August
- Some had seeds break dormancy the following year, even after cold stratification!
- Making the best of what grows well
- Sometimes we can’t get our favourite foods to grow as easily as we want
- Some things just grow well (see: green beans), so we should make the best of what we’ve got
- Wood chips: Do they rob soil of nitrogen?
- University of Saskatchewan says “NO!” (but kind of yes, too):
The nitrogen deficiency does not extend past this very thin layer so it won’t impact the roots of plants
- University of Saskatchewan says “NO!” (but kind of yes, too):
Upcoming
- There were some inquiries about home-grown mushrooms and we talked fungal experiments
- If anyone has experience growing backyard mushrooms, let’s jam on it in a future session!