GARZA Irrigation

12/20/2020

Jain 108 Academy

“Nature never breaks her own laws.”
~ Leonardo da Vinci

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Explore Patterns In Nature: jain108academy.com

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📸: Kevin R. Seiter

12/17/2020

Tucson Weekly: Plumb Bums (March 26 - April 1, 1998)

https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/03-26-98/curr2.htm

Apparently some Arizona legislators think it's more important to regulate how much breast a topless dancer can exhibit than it is to prevent mass poisonings via the public water system.

12/17/2020

Texas Flora

Kissing under the Sh*t-stick plant.

Phoradendron villosum (Viscaceae). Parasitic on Quercus grisea, Scenic Loop, Mount Locke, Jeff Davis CO, Texas. 01-DEC-2015.

Depending upon the source, there are five to seven species of Phoradendron that occur in Texas. Two other species of Phoradendron occur on dicot trees and shrubs – P. macrophyllum, its principal host is Populus, and P. leucarpum, which is commonly found on Prosopis (mesquite), Acacia, and Celtis (hackberry).

Four species do parasitize Junipers. Phoradendron bolleanum, P. capitellatum, P. hawksworthii, and P. juniperinum. These plants have leaves and berries that mimic Junipers – the berries are red or pink, the leaves are reduced and have a darker green color, much like their host plants.

The genus name, Phoradendron, is from the Greek phor (thief) and dendron (tree), and translates to thief of tree, which is aptly named. The common name, Mistletoe, is derived from the Old English word “Mistiltan”. The suffix “tan” directly relates to the term twig or shrub in Old English giving us Mistleta or Mistletoe – the Mistle-stick.

“Mistle/Mistel” is from High German (500bc-1000AD), derived from proto-germanic “mikhstilaz/mihstila” (2000-500BC), and has several meanings. The words “Mikhstaz/mihstaz”, which is Proto German for the Old English “Mist”. The prefix “Mihsta-“ means – cloudy, misty, foggy, obscure, as well as dung (manure, urine). Modern-day translation of the German “Mist” means dung.

Mistiltan or mistletoe quite literally means “Sh*t-stick”, which does make sense, knowing how the seed of Mistletoe is dispersed.

The term Mistel also applies to a bird – the Mistel Thrush, which does feed upon the fruit of the Mistletoe. Another term “mistelliam” (Old English), means birdlime, which is a sticky material prepared from holly, mistletoe, or other plants, and smeared on twigs to catch small birds that land on it. As stated above, Viscum is Latin for Mistletoe, but it also means birdlime as well. This peculiar dual use of the word gives us the Latin proverb “turdus sibi malum cacat”, which translates to “the thrush excretes his own destruction”, and back to the Sh*t-stick plant. #mistletoe

12/16/2020

America's newest water safety challenge is something you've never heard of — CNN

https://apple.news/AmWQK-yF7Spa7j-GjMeASTQ

The United States has some of the safest drinking water in the world. But the US water supply is facing a new challenge — a slimy growth inside pipes that is encouraging outbreaks of illness responsible for over 7 million illnesses and 6,000 deaths every year, according to a new CDC study.

12/15/2020

Shareably

Shareably

Friend or foe?

Special thanks to:
instagram.com/jeremiahsplants
tiktok.com/@jeremiahsplants
youtube.com/user/JeremiahsCPs

12/15/2020

Trees Talk to Each Other and Recognize Their Offspring

Trees Talk to Each Other and Recognize Their Offspring

The Lorax might have spoken for the trees, but it turns out that trees can speak for themselves. At least to other trees, that is.

12/12/2020

This greenhouse-mimicking dome helps harvest rainwater and foster sapling-growth | Yanko Design

This greenhouse-mimicking dome helps harvest rainwater and foster sapling-growth | Yanko Design

This greenhouse-mimicking dome helps harvest rainwater and foster sapling-growth By Sarang Sheth 12/11/2020 The Agrodome is environment friendly in more ways than you’d think. Sure, it creates a greenhouse-like environment for plants, enabling better growth, but it also comes made from recycled pl...

12/11/2020

Biochar From Agricultural Waste Products Can Adsorb Wastewater… | Treatment Plant Operator

Biochar From Agricultural Waste Products Can Adsorb Wastewater… | Treatment Plant Operator

Biochar From Agricultural Waste Products Can Adsorb Wastewater Contaminants

12/05/2020

Is Moringa an Antifungal? - Gardening Channel

https://www.gardeningchannel.com/is-moringa-an-antifungal/

QUESTION: Is Moringa an antifungal? I’ve been reading a lot about the various benefits of both eating it, and also using the oil from the seed pods. Does it really work? – Francisco N ANSWER: Moringa is a type of tree that grows in many tropical parts of the world. The leaves from the moringa [....

12/03/2020

Texas Gardener Magazine

Did you know that almost all of the Texas native Turk’s Cap is edible? This light, apple flavored tea is perfect for the cool nights and mornings we are all enjoying right now. Spice it up with some fresh mint from your herb garden and sweeten with a local honey.
#TexasGardenerTips #PlantHappinessYall

11/27/2020

Son, father farm to feed neighbors during lockdown in India

The garden that Sijo Zachariah and his father planted was a desperate measure in response to the pandemic. But it became so much more: sustenance for a community, and a great inspiration for Zachariah to make a major change in his life. A 22-year-old aircraft maintenance engineer living in Dubai, Za...

11/27/2020

Sprinkler Systems & Wells

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/sprinkler-systems-wells-60286.html

Sprinkler Systems & Wells. Sprinkler systems provide even watering for your lawn or garden on a schedule that you control. Setting up a sprinkler system typically involves measuring the pressure and water flow of your home's water main and designing the sprinkler system accordingly. If you plan on u...

11/27/2020

Avantgardens

The Last Drop
Photo: José Luis Rodríguez (@jose_luis_rodriguez_fotografo)

11/22/2020

How to Grow Purple Persian Shield (Strobilanthes Dyeriana) - Gardening Channel

https://www.gardeningchannel.com/how-to-grow-purple-persian-shield-strobilanthes-dyeriana/

By Matt Gibson and Erin Marissa Russell Persian shield is one of the most beautiful foliar plants that you will ever see in a garden. From a distance, its leaves are a brilliant deep purple hue, but upon closer inspection, The deep purple leaves are outlined with blue green edging and veinage, and t...

11/17/2020

The Woodlands Water Agency

From our email for the week of 11/16... Irrigation Recommendation: Warm season grasses are just about in full dormancy right now. That means they need little or no water. That brings us to the question of winter rye. A number of municipalities in Texas have banned winter rye because of the amount of water it requires (twice the amount of St. Augustine), the fostering of disease in St. Augustine caused by watering the grass while it's dormant, and the nutrients rye grass takes out of the soil, contributing to more disease and eventual decline of St. Augustine.

11/17/2020

The Woodlands Water Agency

Water-Saving Native Plant of the Week by Bob Dailey: Laurel Cherry (Prunus caroliniana). This small tree grows from the East Coast to central Texas. Carolina laurel cherry is a dense shrub or small tree, 15-36 ft. tall, with a pyramidal to oval outline. Leaves are firm, smooth, evergreen, narrowly elliptic, tapered to a pointed tip and equally tapered to the base. Upper surface is dark green and shiny, the lower surface lighter and duller. The leaves have a taste suggestive of almond flavoring and are poisonous when eaten which discourages deer. Flowers are white to cream, about 3/16 inch wide, in showy elongate clusters among the leaves, opening from February to April. Fruit is fleshy, but with a thin pulp, black, 1/2 inch long by 3/8 inch wide, egg shaped with a small tip, and persistent through winter. A handsome, evergreen, ornamental and large hedge plant in southeastern North America. The greatest use of Cherry laurel is for providing a nearly carefree, dark green visual screen. Birds love the dry fruit. Grows well in any well drained soil with a thick mulch layer.

11/16/2020

SAWS project probed for possible spill at Robber Baron Cave

https://sanantonioreport.org/tceq-investigation-saws-project-spill-robber-baron-cave/?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter-daily&utm_content=editorial&utm_term=environment&mc_cid=645f94b47f&mc_eid=988e3ed816

The TCEQ is investigating whether a SAWS project caused a spill at the San Antonio endangered species refuge Robber Baron Cave.

11/15/2020

Physics_astronomy

11/15/2020

Casey Douglas on LinkedIn: #santabarbara #sonomacounty #cannabisindustry

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/casey-douglas-465276a8_santabarbara-sonomacounty-cannabisindustry-ugcPost-6729874003919454208-s02B

Recycle ♻️ from Irrigation ☝️ Recycle AC condensate Please comment below, if you would like to learn more about this topic Contain Water Systems Inc...

11/13/2020

Collin County Master Gardeners

Friday Funny! 😬

11/13/2020

Reflecting on the State of America’s Municipal Water Sector

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/reflecting-state-americas-municipal-water-sector-reese-tisdale/

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11/13/2020

Engineering Brains

Amazing trees - That's Called Natures Engineering🌴🌴

11/12/2020

How Much Water Should I Drink Every Day?

How Much Water Should I Drink Every Day?

#Sadhguru “Drink lots of water” is a common piece of advice. 4 liters, 5 liters – the amounts vary. But is it really healthy to drink lots and lots of water?...

11/09/2020

How to Water a Large Garden

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/water-large-garden-20438.html

How to Water a Large Garden. Putting in a large garden can provide food and flowers for much of the year as well as increasing the overall value of your home, but you may need to give it some extra water during dry periods. Both flower and vegetable gardens need 1 to 2 inches of moisture each week,....

11/09/2020

We Tried Over 10 Reusable Water Bottles So You Don’t Have to— Here Are the Best Ones

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/we-tried-over-10-reusable-water-bottles-so-you-don-t-have-to-here-are-the-best-ones/ar-BB1aL5jR?ocid=msedgdhp

Check out this guide to find the best bottles to keep you hydrated.

11/03/2020

Awesome Stuff 365

Look at these gorgeous Magnolia Flowers that look like birds, aka Yulan Magnolia! 😍 ~ Tanya

10/30/2020

Iron compound can make your drinking water safer - Vital Record

https://vitalrecord.tamhsc.edu/iron-compound-can-make-your-drinking-water-safer/

A research group led by Virender K. Sharma, PhD, MTech, MSc, professor at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, has developed a technique to improve the safety of drinking water. Treating water with chlorine—a process called chlorination—kills germs and bacteria in water, making it s...

10/29/2020

'Comes out beautiful': Trump administration rolls back dishwasher water conservation rules

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/comes-out-beautiful-trump-administration-rolls-back-dishwasher-water-conservation-rules/ar-BB1auCj6?ocid=msedgntp

Trump’s low-flow gripe has been rooted in conservative thinking for several decades who decry regulations and energy standards.

10/29/2020

Project to investigate coronavirus prevalence in school wastewater

Project to investigate coronavirus prevalence in school wastewater

A new project looking for traces of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the wastewater of schools will establish whether this could provide a useful ‘early warning’ system of infection levels.

10/28/2020

Maravilhas da natureza

Margaridas africana
🤩

10/26/2020

10/18/2020

Humans Who Grow Food

Meet Meg Cowden from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States 🇺🇸

“Ever since I was a little girl, I gravitated to nature. I spent my summers freely roaming the woods, playing in creeks, catching and releasing creatures. When I’m with nature, I feel complete. So I naturally gravitated back to nature in my early 20s in college. Houseplants were my ‘gateway’ plant that quickly led to summer flowers and then into growing food.

Food gardening is the perfect pastime, combining the beauty of nature with the basic practicality: we all need to eat. And plant families are diverse and beautiful, creating a lush and edible landscape like no other. And there is a lifetime of exploration of plant diversity that keeps the act of growing food new and exciting with each passing season. The more we grow, the more excited and passionate we become as we find new varieties, learn about new challenges, and are showered with abundance and self-sufficiency.

We grow in the western suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota, US on an 1/8 acre garden (2.75 acre property) with approximately 2500 square feet of raised beds, plus an espalier fruit orchard, perennial berries, and a large asparagus patch. The size of our current food garden is the same square footage as our entire former property in south Minneapolis including our home.

We grow a diverse array of annual and perennial foods and flowers, last count it was over 140 varieties of flowers and food just in the food garden. We also have a large portion of our landscape in native planted prairies which provides excellent wildlife habitat. Apples, pears, plums, apricots, elderberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, rhubarb, and asparagus are our main perennials, with other native edibles scattered about the property at large. Annual vegetables include tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, ground cherries, lettuce, beets, peas, fennel, kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bok choy, kale, mustard greens, leeks, onions, garlic, edamame, dried beans, snap beans, potatoes, carrots, radish, summer and winter squash, cucumbers, cucamelons, muskmelons, peanuts, ginger, dill, basil, and other herbs.

We are a no till garden. We did till initially to amend our native clay, but since then we only top dress with 1-2” of compost annually. It has been the best thing we’ve done. Weeds are minimal and the compost acts as both a mulch and nutrition, feeding the soil.

We source our seeds from many independent seed sources. We grow a mix of hybrid and heirloom/open pollinated varieties so our seed saving highly depends on the varieties we grow. Most of our brassicas are hybrids (excepting kale) while our beans are all open pollinated varieties, for example. We save and share what we can, and I started a local seed swap last winter in the Twin Cities which was a huge hit, and hope to continue it for many years to come.

The biggest hurdle is finding balance in the time of garden abundance in late summer, when the garden commands our attention, making the garden produce last as long as possible, and not running too ragged in the process. It’s a delicate tightrope walk, and every year I make small gains in living a more balanced life amid the harvest chaos.

The reward is daily, when we gather as a family to eat dinner together. For more than half the year, our dinners are filled with what we grew, even in late fall and winter. In fact, most of our daily dinners include at least one thing from our garden, in one form or another, even in late winter when it’s still snowing outside here. We are working to become more and more self-sufficient, and having such a large garden in which to play and work to become self-sufficient has been a blessing beyond our wildest dreams.

I am a local volunteer Master Gardener with my state university, and plan to become a Master Preserver next year to continue developing my homesteading education. As noted above, I am also involved in bringing our local community together for a seed swap in winter.

My motto is: Plant a garden. Feed your soul. At its most basic level, the garden will feed you. And I don’t just mean physically, but also emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Food nourishes. Nature heals. Start with what’s right in front of you, and grow from there. Over 20 years ago, it was just a few buckets of tomatoes. As our passion grew, so did our life goals, and hence, our garden. Gardening is a lifelong companion, awaiting only your time and attention to love and generously feed you in surprising and wonderful ways.”

https://instagram.com/seedtofork
https://seedtofork.com
https://facebook.com/seedtofork

Facebook.com/humanswhogrowfood features stories of home gardeners, farmers and community gardens across borders and cultures.

Please help us connect with growers from countries that we haven’t featured yet. Tag people from Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Djibouti, Dominica and Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia and Fiji.

Tell us your story: [email protected] or message us on Facebook.
Instagram.com/humanswhogrowfood
LinkedIn.com/company/humanswhogrowfood
Twitter.com/humansgrowfood

10/18/2020

Avantgardens

White bat flower (Tacca integrifolia).
The beautiful and unusual batflower is a species of flowering plant in the yam family, Dioscoreaceae, native to tropical and subtropical rainforests of Central Asia.
Photo: Everything Gardening

10/15/2020