Interest in alternative gardening techniques?

I am wondering if there is enough interest to start a forum to share info strictly about techniques, such as companion planting, gardening by the moon, square foot gardening, no-till methods, etc? Just the non-traditional things some people like to experiment with. We could experiment together and share results...

that sounds interesting!

We could also recommend books to each other, or maybe even trade books...

Yes, I'd really be interested in "alternative" methods, especially seeing what works and what doesn't work for other people.

Some other non-traditional things would be:
lazy-gardening (Ruth Stout)
four season harvests (Eliot Coleman)
cold frames
movable greenhouses
beneficial crop rotations
raised beds
european style
growing under lights
planting in blocks
lasagna gardening
unique trellises
types of mulches
growing native things that are edible or medicinal (like weeds, but not WEEDS)
using supplies that are green-friendly
unusual varieties of plants
Please, help with some ideas here...

I'm in! Sounds interesting. Always looking for easier, more efficient use of available space, actually, all of the above.
Thanks for the suggestion!

I'm not sure I'm using the right words here, but I think I saw something once on using plants as a water filtration system??

What is European style please?

Whew,
.......Reading the first post , I thought you said Gardening 'ON ' the moon ..... lol,


After reconsidering my answer I really do not think this forum would be necessary
Considering that we already have Organic , Soil ,and Disabled Forums .
Probably more that just escape me for now =)

So I will change my vote to *NAY*

This message was edited Aug 6, 2004 5:55 PM

This site refers to companion planting as French Infusion Gardening.
http://www.frenchgardening.com

I have seen books about "european style" and assume they refer to short rows of raised beds with particular crop rotations, but I have never read one. Maye YOU could tell US more about the ways you have learned to garden from books, other UK gardeners, or traditions passed on from your ancestors??? I'm all ears...

Cornius

I'd be interestid in this kind of a forum ONLY if Dave could find and move ALL the old posts in various threads that pertain to these topics. There are LOTS!

aYes, I too would be interested in alternative gardening including organic. Donna

There is an Organic Forum now =)

I think there are a lot of gardeners who try to garden as organically as possible, but can't manage it at times in their growing areas. I like to know and use organic methods, but that topic does not really address beneficial companion crops and crop rotation. This is a means to use more organic methods, but a much more complex one. I'm still for a separate forum about alternative gardening techniques.

TamaraFaye

Thanks! Your description sounds like a French potager to me but I may be wrong. I'm not big on rows of things unless it's a queue of people wanting to give me money for free ;) Every country has their own way of doing things, I was surprised to hear there is such a thing as European style, perhaps it's more the French and Italian styles it refers to? Both countries grand garden designs that have been taken on by other European countries to suit the fashions and fads of the time.

Tamara, I think you have a great idea and maybe enough topics for more than one forum--I love the french gardening site www.frenchgardening.com you mentioned and believe there is enough there for a good chat alone. (She is from Indianapolis, by the way!) All the other topics fascinate me, too, and I would love to know more about them. Thanks for bringing it up. t.

It sounds good. I garden organically but some of my planting methods and experiments would fit into this proposed one although I have put them in various places like the Vegetable Gardening forum, and Garden Talk.

Thats sounds good to me, although it might take away from the organic forum?
Maybe make the organic forum, the 'organic/alternative' forum? It is a little slow in there.
I'm always messing around with something, all organic.

Hey MaryE, not too far east of me :)

Yes! Always interested in what works for folks, whether traditional or new. We regularly exchange ideas with a dear neighbor and long time farmer/gardener... he could be our Dad, and we're not exactly young... lol! He looks at what we've tried differently from him and admires the difference from his garden, picks up new ideas himself and tries them (never too old to learn, from his standpoint), and we all benefit from the knowledge and sharing. :)

Donna

There have been many interesting posts spread throughtout different forums that relate to this topic. I hope people do more than read this. Please post your opinion... All DG member/subscribers have valuable info to share with others. So many times that info is lost because of so many new threads, and then we forget where the info is, and new people don't know how to go about searching for it. I believe we can all benefit so much from starting an individual forum which focuses on these unconventional gardening methods. Please, SPEAK UP SO DAVE CAN HEAR YOU...

D-D-D-D-DA-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVVVVVVEEE!

Thank you Judith.

Now if one new person says that every day for a few weeks, we might get his attention, now that he is finished with his beta project (BTW, LOVE V 2.0)

What sort of things are you doing differently, Judith???

Oh, I'm always experimenting with something or the other! Most aren't very successful, but fun to try anyway.

I'm very interested in the "poor man's hydrophonic system" I read about on Hydrophonic forum right now. I couldn't use the soil or grow box methods, but am trying to figure out if I can adapt it to container gardening. I don't have a lot of growing space to work with, so "growing things upward" rather than outward is pretty much necessary. I can't lift, walk very far, bend, kneel, stoop, or reach across even a higher raised bed. Sounds pretty futile, huh. But it's my hobby, it relaxes me, entertains me, and sometimes I get lucky and something works!!!

I'm not very mobile anymore, so I've been trying to use hanging baskets and containers that I can plant inside and either carry outside (if light enough) or get DH to carry out for me. ;)

It's pretty wet much of the time here in FL, so I'm having a lot of problems with seedlings damping off, but I'm learning. Sort of new to this sometimes tropical, sometimes temperate climate in NW FL.

Well, surely you have heard that you can frow tomatoes and cukes upside down hanging from the bottom of buckets???

I read that here somewhere, maybe you could do a search. You would just need some help getting them started, and hang them low LOL

Yeah, I read about that and considered it, but decided to try them in hanging baskets first, with cherry tomatoes and salad cukes. Some success, but got a late start this year. The heat in July kind of cooked everything. I'll try earlier next year.

I'm also interested in growing companion plants. We have so many bugs and diseases to fight, I'd like to at least put plants together that are beneficial to each other.

I think I can probably adapt some of the no-till methods and square-foot (literally) gardening. I have some fairly large pots plus many other sizes as well. Might as well use them. I can at least move them out of direct sun when it's so overbearingly hot, at least to give them a rest. I can use trellises, etc.

Oh, we also have deer, squirrels, rabbits, armadillos who feel that it's their garden. When you're not growing much anyway, you really don't have any to spare for them! Hanging baskets help with this, if they're high enough!

At present, it's a little hazy on what subjects would be covered. What would be your main aim for the forum?

On a personal opinion, I don't think Organic gardening could be placed here, we already have a long standing forum for that. A lot of what has been discussed as including, such as cold frames and mulches are already covered in other forums like Greenhouse and Soil

I would not have looked for coldframe info under greenhouse, and I have been thinking of looking for that info, it just didn't occur to me to look there. And I have never been to the soil forum either, so wouldn't have looked for mulches there... One of the problems I have with searching for info that I have not previously read, is that there are so many "references" to what I am searching for, and I have to read thread after thread, only to find that it doesn't answer my question. Mainly it is because I am new. It would be interesting to know what info the new people that sign up every day are here for. ??? Maybe that could be something for the voting booth, though it is a pretty broad question.

I guess I would have to refer back to Darius' vote, which is:

"I'd be interestid in this kind of a forum ONLY if Dave could find and move ALL the old posts in various threads that pertain to these topics. There are LOTS!"

It only makes sense that the knowledgable people who answer so many of our questions, have also likely been here for a long time, and answering the SAME question uses their time and Dave's server space. Maybe this new forum could start as an archive, and as new info on this subject comes up in any forum, it could be put here for easy access... whew, that sounds like too much work though...

Often I see someone like Shoe add in a link to a thread to answer someone's questions. He can find it so quickly because he remembers it, or he posted in it, maybe even started it, so there is not such a broad search. I can only imagine what I would come up with if I did a search on the term "mulch" or "cold frame"

I think I will do that and report back...

BTW, I should have started this post by saying, it is not what "I" want on the forum, it is:

What will "others contribute"?

What is their experience?

What are they willing to share to teach others?

And how many others are looking for that info?

"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear".

So I think the "main aim for the forum" is completely up to the student and the teacher. That could be construed as hazy,... OR it could allow A LOT of interesting contributions...

TF, May I make a suggestion? When it looked like there was a potential for a canning and freezing forum, I did a lot of searches using the DG search box, read a LOT of threads, copied the links for the ones that seemed to fit. Then I emailed that list to Admin and when the forum started, Admin transferred all those threads to the new forum.

Admin has a heavy load so I wouldn't EXPECT them to hunt for the threads, but you could do it. Maybe just a few each day, keeping a list of the links.

The DH search box is quite good but you will gave to search by a number of different words, like "Ruth Stout", "Coldframe", "Cold Frame", "Lasagna" and "Lasagna gardening" "lasagna method" (in all various forms and spellings but you'll get recipes, too), plus many, many others.

It will be a HUGE undertaking but may make a package that could halp LOTS of gardeners.

Thanks TamaraFaye

I understand about new members finding a huge array of answers in a search for something like mulches for example, it must be overwhelming! Sometimes it's easier to just start a new thread, not so easy for shy members, but they will need to come out sometime ;)

I do feel that any newly proposed forum needs a basic framework or definite subject, if my above posting said that wrong, I apologise, converting one English to another is trickier than one might imagine *G*

I'm for seperate Forums as it stands now.

These Forums Are Categories to assist in finding your answers.

I cannot see where combining them into one would help at all.

It would be a GIANT STEP BACKWARDS.

JMHO

No matter what kind of Forum you are using, It is only human nature for the thread to wander ( quite far at times ) and this can bring up items of interest that are also helpful .
I love this place and the peeps as they are.

New Forum Fine !

Taking our already established Forums from us and throwing them all together in a big pile , for us to re-sort ????

Grrrr !

Luv Yous,
Shirley

So Darius, you're the one that helped get the Canning and Freezing Forum populated initially? THANK YOU! I've wondered if supplying a list of links to threads spread all over Forums might help get them relocated to some of the newer Forums; you just answered that. :)

Baa, it's encouraging to read that it's okay for a novice to start a new thread about a topic that has already been addressed, but which they couldn't easily find. I've done that a few times already, and the members were fabulous in providing helpful links along the way.

As already mentioned, some of those keyword searches are exhausting! ;)

*then settles back in her chair, happy whether there is a new Forum or not*

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to search the thread titles and the body text both? ; )

Frankly, I just wanted to see if there were others like me trying these things, I wasn't wanting to start controversy, rearrange other forums, or take on a huge task of finding all the old threads. I would be happy starting over, just didn't think it was very feasible.

So, first, let me quote my original question, maybe that will narrow things down a bit...

" am wondering if there is enough interest to start a forum to share info strictly about techniques, such as companion planting, gardening by the moon, square foot gardening, no-till methods, etc? Just the non-traditional things some people like to experiment with. We could experiment together and share results..."

I am excited about the interest shown by all thus far, both positive and negative, please let me address the recent posts in order... ( I love cut & paste)

Darius said: Admin has a heavy load so I wouldn't EXPECT them to hunt for the threads, but you could do it. Maybe just a few each day, keeping a list of the links. It will be a HUGE undertaking but may make a package that could halp LOTS of gardeners."

My response: I absolutely wouldn't expect Admin to do this, even though it was your suggestion. The way you went about it for canning and freezing was great! I am not the most organized person in the world, but could get started on it... anyone want to help? I am divorced with two small boys, and working at home to raise them. I started a small garden to turn into a truck farm, and I have to do EVERYTHING here. Since I know very little, I need answers right away, and DG is often faster and more thorough than searching through my library or online, and it is so nice and personal and warm here, so this is my only time for myself after the kids are in bed. I will do what I can to search through the links and save that info for Admin, but who is to say I would get everything YOU want to read about. I personally think more than one person should be involved in that. For instance, I did a search and got: mulch-2219 threads;moon-2262 threads;cold frame-331 threads;companion planting-40;Ruth Stout-32;lassgna-187.

{My three year old has gotten out of bed three times while I typed this far, now he is crying, he is not feeling well and I can't afford for him to be sick tomorrow when I am supposed to deliver produce, so I will take this up again some other time. Baa, no apollogy needed, and scooter, I don't want to mess anything up...}

TamaraFaye,

I like the idea, and would be interested. However, we appear to be stepping on the toes of other gardeners and forum topics. I agree that it would be better to have all the alternative options in one place, at least referenced for us relative newbies back to other threads in the other forums.

I would suggest that you set up a thread, possibly on the Garden(ing)/(ers) Forum for those of us who are interested to begin to research and assemble this information. Eventually, the thread could become it's own forum, if there is enough interest. (Edited to say the forum I meant is Garden Talk, now that I've checked)

I have noticed that some threads have become "ongoing," i.e., continued on subsequent threads, such as Alternate Gardening Methods I, Alternate Gardening Methods II, etc. If enough information is gathered over time, it would then be easier to turn it into a forum.

The information already on other threads does not have to be moved, just linked from the original forum.

Now, having said that, I have to acknowledge that "hyperlinking" is not a skill I have mastered yet on my Mac. So maybe I'll just have to post any links of interest and hope that you can put in the link for me ;) Or some such.

Anyway, I still think accumulating the info into one linking thread would make choosing which one, or combinations, would work best for you.

Off my soapbox now!

I'll keep watching for the outcome.

Welcome, BTW! Sounds like you have your hands quite full with your little ones and home and working responsibilities. Maybe this type of linking thread will make things easier for you. It would for me.

This message was edited Aug 14, 2004 1:20 AM

Tamarafaye .. I, too, have wondered the same ...
I've been just sorta sitting back and reading the posts from you guys.. and have really been waiting quite anxiously, to see a new 'subject' crop up in the Forums, maybe labeled 'Lunar Gardening' such. In all sincerity tho', I was concerned that you may feel that I was trying to jump or dive into the middle of 'your' endeavor ...
I figured since you'd mentioned it elsewhere about hopin' for such ... that Dave, or some of them .. would've long realized by now, that it would be a most relevant and significant 'subject' to add to the Forums list. You, may have already submitted an email to Dave yourself, about this .. And if so, it'll be at least 2 that he's gotten, on this subject. hee This morning, I requested that he give serious consideration to establishing a new subject, such as the moon or lunar gardening ... as a 'subject' to the forum list. For I agree .. it would be of most valued importance to all of us here. Just hope he gets it, and that it helps to influence him to do so. I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed ...

Historically, Dave has been happy to start new forums when several people express interest in a particular topic. (He also occasionally "weeds out" the forums that are inactive ;o) I think the reason a new forum hasn't been creatd yet is because there isn't a clearly-defined subject and it seems that some of the potential topics might intersect/overlap existing forums.

If I could suggest something: why don't y'all start a few threads with questions/ideas focused on some of the topics that have been mentioned in the Garden Talk or Vegetable Garden forums? Not a "call to arms" but if you have questions about a particular aspect of lunar gardening or french intensive gardening, post your question. If those threads take off and become sustained "hot topics" with lots of different people posting to them over a period of several days or weeks, then the argument for a separate forum will become more compelling and the focus of that forum will be more clearly defined.

I think "moon or lunar gardening" would be a ghost town!

"Alternative Methods" or similar, would encompass a much broader range of subjects that currently don't have a home & hopefully provide enough traffic together, to warrant a new forum?

I just suggested tacking it on to the Organic forum, because organics are sadly still an "Alternative" method.

just my 2 pesos =)