Questions tagged [gardening]
the sustainability aspects of domestic or commercial gardening: the cultivation of plants and fungi, landscaping and garden design.
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How to prevent rust on garden tools
Without using chemicals that I cannot easily produce myself, is there a way to prevent garden tools from rusting? They are bound to stay* outdoors, protected from direct rain.
I tried sunflower oil, ...
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Budget stand for an IBC (1m or higher)
I have some IBC's to be used for rainwater storage - but I want to elevate them so I can water directly from them with a hose.
Has anyone got any cunning/clever ideas on how to elevate them at minimum ...
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What are the benefits of clover instead of grass lawns?
I want to convince my neighbors on the idea of adopting a (white) clover lawn.
drought-tolerant green ground cover that uses less water
fixes nitrogen from the air for better soil and chokes out ...
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How to gravity feed differently sized rain collection tanks at equal rates?
I recently purchased two 300 gallon tanks to supplement my existing two 55 gallon barrels, allowing me to do some more legitimate rainwater harvesting. I've been really intrigued by manifold system ...
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How to find out if a plant is native to my area?
I recently removed some goldenrod that had started to take over the pollinator habitat in my front garden. In researching plants that will do well to replace it, I'm having trouble determining what ...
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How would a garden adapted to drought look like?
Hypothetical question, since I neither have a garden, nor live in a region seriously affected by drought (yet).
In context of the current drought along the western US coast, experts and scientists ask ...
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Renewable garden watering system - 12v battery system (solar recharged) to ensure there is 50l of water at 20ft twice a week
I have a load of water butt rainwater storage linked to my gutter downpipes for my garden water needs, but I can't stand around waiting to fill watering cans from taps on butts, so occasionally (once ...
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Is Privet Hedge a "Living Desert"?
A friend of mine who is working for a big gardening center helped me lately to cut my green waste for the compost and realized the branches were Privet.
He claimed a Privet-Hedge would be a "living ...
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Should leaf composting be separate from food waste?
The city where I live is running a campaign to keep leaves out of the streets, where they contribute to phosphorous in storm water run-off causing lake pollution.
I'd like to avoid the need to send/...
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How to make extracts and fragrances from fragrant plants like Sage
I'm looking to try using more natural products/solutions in our day to day life and some things that I am considering are fragrances, soaps and essences (food). I have read that Sage plants are edible ...
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Is it possible to make homemade bone meal?
Like many people, we eat some meat, and the resulting bones need to be dealt with after the hens have finished cleaning them or they have been used for stock. I have been burying some bones but am ...
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What's the environmental impact of industrial sources of store-bought bagged soil? Is it a 'net positive' in terms of building soil & storing carbon?
To help grow lots of trees and ecologically friendly gardens, I've bought lots of bags of soil over time. There are better, more local sources of soil/mulch/compost, but nevertheless I go the route of ...
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How big a garden to feed one person?
In know this will vary by soil and growing season. But say you have a 4-6 month growing season and there is farming in the area so soil must be OK. A small green house for like lettuce and herbs. ...
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UK - would there be any problem with keeping bees on a plot if the neighbours have horses
I am looking to get into beekeeping. I have a plot of land ~20x50m that I would like to put some hives on. There are multiple nearby fields with horses - minimum distance ~ 50m to nearest such field.
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Baking Soda and Slugs
Yesterday I went through my garden and removed the first slugs of the year from my tomatoes. The same question as every time: What to do with them?
Throwing them into a bucket of water is no good; ...
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How to manage a largish hugelkultur?
As part of the site clearance for the in-fill house I'm building at the rear of the section I have had to remove a 100 year plus old pine ( which the neighbour wanted to remove as he felt it was ...
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Garden fence - order options by most sustainable
Our new house has a garden, and part of the fence needs to be replaced. Part of what needs replacing is the pole that holds the lock for the garden-door.
Last year, we replaced that part of the fence ...
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Can a bag of non-organic potatoes that have gone bad be used to mulch an organic garden?
I have a big bag of potatoes I bought that aren't organic and I didn't eat all of them. They have reached a point where they really aren't worth the trouble to use for food. Can I cut them up and ...
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Can you use worm bait for a garden
I'm starting a garden and wondering if worm that are sold for fishing bait can be used in a garden? I'm adding corn meal peels, manure, etc, into the soil.
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Useful plants to grow in garden [closed]
I am a guy living in Kerala, India. I have a plot of 5 cents (about 200 square meter) in my backyard. I would like to know which plants would be helpful for planting in the plot (edible fruits or ...
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What commercially printed paper is safe to compost?
I like adding carbon to the scraps I compost by mixing in some shredded newspaper and Yellow/White Pages books (bot not glossy magazines).
What should I check for to make sure I am not adding ...
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What type/breed of animals do I want for food forest maintenance?
I'm currently building a food forest that I plan to gate in to protect animals. What type/breed of animals should I look into for keeping the forest floor clean?
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What breed of chickens would make the best lawn mowers for a food forest preperation?
I'm looking for a type of chicken that I can use in a chicken yard to keep my grass mowed, will grow quickly, stay in their yard to clean all of the grass out. What breeds would you recommend that I ...
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Best vegetables for roof top garden?
I have a small garden on the roof of an appartment Building, and I have an area of 3 square meters to plant crops. Last year I planted carrots and got around 100 distributed over the year.
This year ...
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Rye cultivation and rye flour
In view of the possibility of cultivating rye to become self-sufficient in bread and flour, I am looking for a good estimate of the following quantities:
the surface of area planted with rye needed ...
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Transplanting mature high bush blueberries
This past spring I was given 2 mature high bush blueberry plants. They were around 6 feet high and 5 feet wide. They did produce a decent amount of berries too.
A gardening friend told me that, ...
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What depth of soil is required for a roof top garden?
What depth of soil is required for a roof top garden?
In particular I am looking to grow plants that will produce food without requiring re-planting yearly (like strawberries and chives). However I ...
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If permaculture is a solution why are others holding back on making a contribution toward?
My point... conventional gardening, and conventional farming for that matter, is based on known systems that are failing the consumer and even the producers. Why are those failing systems continued to ...
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Fruit peels as alternative to store-bought fertilizer?
I've read somewhere that (organic) banana peels make a good fertilizer. You simply cut them up into small pieces and bury those around the plants in your garden.
But how effective are banana peels ...
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How can I tell if the flower bulbs I buy contain neonicotinoids?
Are there neonicotinoids in dahlia flower bulbs?
I am starting to keep bees and I am concerned about the pesticides in my bulbs. Can you help me?
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How can we reduce kitchen waste for vegetarian family?
Everyday we cook something and produce naturally decomposable wastes. For example unused chopped onions, potatos, tomatos, roots, or old food. This creates waste of 200-500 gram daily. I was thinking, ...
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Renovating old pears trees vs removal and replacement with new trees?
The Gardening StackExchange question Renovating mature pear trees
asks about the techniques for keeping existing old (75-100 years) trees alive.
How does the choice between renovating old trees vs ...
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How can I can sustainably use the biomass of garden weeds?
When pulling out weeds in the vege patch, I want to think of more ways that I can put it to good use that might be even better than merely letting it break down above the ground on its own (assuming ...
user487
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Deciding when to stop patching a hose
When you live in the country and have hoses that are kept outside, they will occasionally get chewed on. I fix them when that happens, with a hose repair kit:
If you haven't used one of these, you ...
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Chemicals From Pressure-Treated Wood
Previous owners of our property used pressure-treated wood for their raised-bed vegetable patch. I have seen warnings about chemicals from PTW going into foods. How real is the danger?
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What items can I reuse to make my own homemade rain barrel on the cheap?
I want to set up a rain barrel to collect water to use in my garden. Any ideas on how I can do this using only or mostly upcycled materials (cheaply)?
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Getting rid of immature windfallen apples
What are the (easiest) sustainable ways of getting rid of immature (windfallen) apples?
Is it OK to put them into a compost?
What part of compost can they make?
Is it good to crush them before ...
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Are there any experiences with small-scale duckweed farming using domestic wastes or wastewater?
Duckweeds are among the fastest growing higher plants, edible and rich in protein. They grow in lakes that are rich in nutrients, for example from fertilizer runoff. They have been used as tests for ...
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Best sustainable way to keep squirrels from eating our tomatoes
The internet contains answers to this question that don't take into account sustainability. This Mother Nature Network article probably comes the closest I've found. The last resort method they ...
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Growing and harvesting rattan
I have been harvesting and processing bamboo for crafts (mainly household items) and am interested in rattan, which is more flexible than bamboo and can be used where otherwise one might use plastic ...
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How can I keep foxes from digging in my garden beds?
My front yard consists of five vegetable beds surrounded by gravel. There are no fences, and we do not want to put any in. Most years, my main wildlife problem is with deer that wander through and ...
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Is it sustainable to bury dead animals next to plants?
I heard that dead animals can be used as fertilizers and can be helpful for making a tree grow taller and more healthy.
Once I had buried a dead dog under a lemon tree, which at first did not result ...
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What are the larger-scale options for storing rainwater?
This question is asked in the spirit of "I don't know what I don't know".
I have three raised-bed gardens, and I'd like to stop watering them with municipal water and start using collected rain.
...
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Indoor Urban Garden Lighting
Is there a specific type of light source that outperforms others for indoor urban gardens?
This could be a combination of power usage and its effect on growing plants (i.e. spectrum it produces).
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In-place composting around flower pots and allelopathy
Because of limited space for gardening, we have a fairly large number of trees and plants in flower pots. In particular I have found that citrus trees seem to demand a lot of mulch around them and so ...
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What benefits and detriments might frogs have for home gardens?
Living in suburbia I rarely see any frogs, but I understand that creating a small but unpolluted pond in my backyard is likely to provide a desirable habitat if there are any frogs in the general area....
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What is BioChar and can I use it to improve my garden?
A 2010 NYT article using BioChar to sequester carbon and improve soil quality.
What is BioChar? Is it possible to use it in a small scale to improve my garden? How do I figure out the best amount to ...
user141
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What are the challenges in mixing food production with living spaces?
Some of the other questions have discussed the differences between localization and sustainability, for example, What is the Relationship between Localising the Economy and Sustainability?
A lot of ...
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Is drip irrigation more water-efficient than conventional watering?
I have set-up a rooftop garden at home. I am too lazy to water it every day so I am planning to set up a drip irrigation system. But the question remains: is drip irrigation more water-efficient than ...
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Reusing buckets for flower pots?
Is reusing old food buckets as flower pots actually a good sustainability practice or a bad one since I'm ruining good buckets by poking holes in the bottoms?
I get the buckets for free from my ...
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