GardenArtist Posted September 2015
Gardening as therapy.
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I am excited about my orchid. I know this is an indoor plant or a greenhouse plant...but I am excited that it is growing a blooming stem.
I would never rely on hybrid seed for vegetables that I absolutely have to have.
Sharyn, research natural methods to control white flies. Organic neem oil might be one way. If you're planting the cosmos in the same area and they repeatedly are attacked by white flies, try another area. That's one thing that organic gardeners do is rotate their crops.
Of course, that doesn't help if you can't take marigolds at any price. I know people are always yakking on about how useful they are but I must admit I can live without them.
I've tried cosmos before without success. This year I saw an especially pretty variety and decided to give it a go. Double flowered frilly white jobs, supposed to be eighteen inches tall. Well! They're currently four feet tall, they've taken over half the bed, they're not only still flowering they're still budding, and although they are indeed just as pretty as the packet said they would be, and the dill-like foliage is lovely, they've been at it for nearly three months and I have discovered that you can get quite tired of even the loveliest flowers. Especially when you are anxious to start digging in compost and dividing your perennials and rearranging your borders and they're in the WAY...
GMO's causes much concerns about it affecting our own DNA, leading to the wide spread problems we see now such as dementia, cancer, birth defects. I admit I am not educated or knowledgeable enough to understand it in the full context, but...I am concerned enough that when I can find organic, I buy it.
*Could* being the operative word. But the idea of assuming that the plant technology companies have done as much due diligence as you'd expect makes me for one very uneasy.
There's a level above this analysis, and that's that we in fact are also genetically modified, but it's "natural selection". Other than Dolly the Sheep, or Frankenstein, we aren't (yet?) test tube babies (other than by in vitro). But fetus genes aren't modified to produce blondes, brunettes, etc.
And, w/o getting deeply into the issue of how humans evolved, that would be a basic genetic mutation.
We've been modified as we've adapted over thousands of years. Humans certainly weren't the first species on earth. And I would guess that speaking rather than grunting has something to do with basic changes that affected vocal chords.
I am going to keep it though, because when talking to hubs, I could be at the sink
and he asks a question-thought we were talking-and then he is gone-just disappears-so often and so quickly. But now, when "Budgie" starts to sing, I know hubs went to the back porch. Somehow, that is less frustrating to me to know where he went in the middle of the conversation. Tweet tweet.
"GMO plants, on the other hand, are the result of genetic engineering. This is a process during which the plant’s DNA is altered in a way that cannot occur naturally, and sometimes includes the insertion of genes from other species."
Fortunately I cannot even read the labels on seed packets, that excuse could hold up in a court of law-"I didn't read it." Which is why I have yet to find seeds for growing alfalfa sprouts-hubs had to look for me! Got to get my eyes checked.
Cwillie, It now appears that Organic farmers would disagree-nothing sinister there-but your words were comforting to me anyway. I don't know what to believe anymore.
But when it comes to retailing to the average amateur gardener, they're being rather naive - ironically enough. What on earth makes them think we necessarily read the care labels???
Naomi Klein's book Shock Doctrine addresses the method by which companies like Monsanto and other powerful companies get a foothold in what at one time were referred to as Third World Countries, with the help of the US government's aid programs after disasters.
Google "Monsanto, Iraq" and read the blurb that's the first hit. It and others address how Monsanto wormed its way into being a literal sole source supplier of seeds to Iraqi farmers. Gives new meaning to American actions in Iraq.
I would bet dollars to donuts any twig you tried to root from a Monsanto plant wouldn't be anything like the original plant. I''m sure Monsanto's scientists are devoted to ensuring that doesn't happen.
That's one of the reasons gardeners are adamant about using heirloom varieties and seeds from their own stock, not to mention the whole controversy about GMOs.
I have to say that as far as I'm concerned it's a bit of a red rag to a bull, though. I mean, "catch me if you can" - how's it my fault if I cut a twig or two and they just happen to root?
Some people have over a few dozen lists of seeds to swap.
You'll also find a lot of information on saving heirloom seeds, that produce crops that are true to the originals, as opposed to the hybrids (which some gardeners shun b/c they've been manipulated to produce crops with specific characteristics).
If you don't know how to save seed from a particular vegetable or fruit, post your question on a gardening forum and you'll get a lot of answers.
There are seed savers exchanges, as well as heirloom seed companies.
Amy Goldman is a famous seed saver and grower of unusual and heirloom vegetable varieties. She's appeared on The Victory Garden several times, and is quite a delightful person.
Search for Amy Goldman Fowler and check out her website.
Always post more, others come here for therapy, ya know! And if there wasn't any bloomin posts about flowers blooming, well then, that would just be sad.
People would be falling asleep in their outhouses, no, I mean their hothouse, waiting for something to bloom.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, is it a flower yet? Lol.
Thank you for the info on seeds, a ways back. That was appreciated, and I was sure I said something, but don't see it here.
So, thanks!