[Lab] Seedy Saturday (+ Plant Hacks)

[Jason Cobill]

   Hey Makers,

   This weekend is Seedy Saturday at Ron Kolbus Lakeside Center (in
Brittania).
   http://www.seeds.ca/events
   I'm posting because there's some crossover between Makers and Growers, I
think - usually there's a few weird contraptions on display,
Vermicomposting setups, automated watering systems, branch splicing tools
and compressed fibre pots (made of cow poop!).

   A few Garden-Nerd questions:

   1) Are any of you plant tinkerers, and have you automated any aspects of
your garden? Any biohackers doing selective breeding experiments? Anyone
with clever indoor growing stations? Anyone with an unusual garden?
   Have you seen Clock Gardens? There's a professionally cultivated one at
Niagara Falls.
   https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/children/clock-garden-design.htm

   2) Plants are a staple of sculpture and architecture projects - have you
seen a particularly elegant art/design project you'd like to share? There's
so many beautiful ones, but I think the Plant-in-city project is a
particularly elegant abstraction of the greenhouse.
   http://plantincity.com/



   Here's a peek at my much less elegant basement growing station. I have a
bank of fluorescent lights on chains hung over wire shelves - I usually get
my bigger garden plants started two months before the May long weekend
planting. The watering is all manual, but my lighting is set up on timers
to run overnight to use non-peak electricity.



   3) Are there any agricultural-types on the list? What's new in farm
technology?
   I did a talk late last year about how a child's drawing of a tree
wearing a fur coat led to a breakthrough in insulated polymeric seed
coatings which allow seeds to be planted earlier in the year in cold
climates. I've also read about some heavy LED investment in local
greenhouses. Has anyone on a farm in the Ottawa Valley got an interesting
project to share?

   -Jason Cobill
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