Building Green Minus the Mold and Existential Dread : Home/Garden Edition

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Building Green Minus the Mold and Existential Dread : Home/Garden Edition

this broken hill: Apr 10, 2018; by Lowtax

legumes

# ¿ Aug 11, 2018 08:52

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 11:59

this broken hill: Apr 10, 2018; by Lowtax

anyway hello, my thing is ecology and i'm really interested in integrating ecology with agriculture. personally i'm focused on livestock farming rather than cropping or fruit, but i love to hear about anyone's experiences with growing anything, animal or vegetable, in balance with natural ecosystems. i also love swamps. i can tell you anything you want to know about australian swamps. please keep in mind i can only tell you about australian swamps, which will be of limited use because most of you aren't australian, but the problems they face (fertiliser run-off, drainage for development, general ecocide from all sides) are universal tbh

# ¿ Aug 11, 2018 09:02

this broken hill: Apr 10, 2018; by Lowtax

please also ask me about my rear end in a top hat, and the small civilisation therein

# ¿ Aug 11, 2018 09:03

this broken hill: Apr 10, 2018; by Lowtax

Dawncloack posted:

What kind of weaponry do you need to deal with the spiders? Are there specific swamp-spiders or are they just regular spiders all over?

i don't harm the spiders and they don't harm me. the only exception is the redback, which i have to keep out of my living area completely because it's so poisonous and it exclusively nests in small dark hollows in dry areas such as the inside of the house (hollows such as shoes, and the undersides of furniture)

quote:

Do you compost you a-hole?

no i'm in the suburbs atm so it's illegal[/quote]

quote:

More seriously tho: What is a good primer on swamps? Say I live beside one. How can I best respect it/utilize it/establish a symbiotic relationship? Besides becoming the swamp thing, not my fet.

sorry, that's the only way. my suggestion is to wear paperbark clothes and grow a hefty pelt of fruiting creepers, which will accumulate their own halo of songbirds and insects, and migrate in circles around the outskirts of any open ponds at a steady walking pace for the rest of your life

# ¿ Aug 11, 2018 09:27

this broken hill: Apr 10, 2018; by Lowtax

i can't in good faith recommend ecological integration to anyone outside australia, we don't have to deal with rabies

# ¿ Aug 11, 2018 09:33

this broken hill: Apr 10, 2018; by Lowtax

Rime posted:

Bathouses are your friend for keeping local bug levels down.

yes! in australia we have microbats (they're as cute as they sound) and they're always on the lookout for cosy new hollows. there's one species that usually nests in the underside of a scrub wren's nest, but a friend of mine left a mop standing on her balcony for a few days and a colony of microbats decided to nest inside the head of the mop, where they thrived

friendbot2000 posted:

A point I want to bring up to people who want to do composting, if you have a neighbor with horses or even better a horse farm nearby they will gladly give you have poo poo for free as they usually are drowning in it. It makes EXCELLENT fertilizer just mix that in with topsoil and you are good to go.

horse poo is excellent, as is cow and also poultry. chickens eat everything, not just grass, so they have all sorts of interesting minerals in their poo poo that herbivores don't process as much of. their manure is very high in phosphorus, among other things

friendbot2000 posted:

Edit: I am also now wondering if guniea fowl and chickens are okay living in the same coop or if they need different living spaces...off to google

Edit Edit: Wow...Guinea Fowl are kinda awesome

guinea fowl are my favourite creatures on this green earth! i kept a mixed flock with no problems, the guineas roosted in a tree at night (their choice, they just decided to do it one day) and the chickens slept in the henhouse, and during the day they sometimes foraged together and sometimes in separate species groups. the roosters would go a bit mental when the hens went into season and a few times one of our roosters fought the chooks for good nesting sites, but there was never any blood and they seemed to sort it out themselves. they're so compatible that i gave a clutch of guinea eggs to a broody chicken and this happened

be warned, they are loud. you will not believe how loud until you hear the whole flock going off at once. it's incredible

# ¿ Aug 19, 2018 02:29

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 11:59

this broken hill: Apr 10, 2018; by Lowtax

i am 100% in favour of guinea fowl as a catch-all solution to all your poultry problems. unless, and i cannot stress this enough, you live in a built-up area and want to remain friends with your neighbours.

a few years ago i was breeding them and i made a thread about keets that may be helpful if you're thinking about getting some (helpful not because i share any advice that's remotely useful to anyone, but because it will make you go from "maybe" to a definite "yes")

# ¿ Sep 18, 2018 00:05

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Building Green Minus the Mold and Existential Dread : Home/Garden Edition