background preloader

Perennial Vegetables: Years of Bounty

Perennial Vegetables: Years of Bounty
Perennial vegetables—crops that you plant just once and harvest year after year—are relatively rare in North American gardens. With the exception of asparagus, rhubarb and artichokes, most gardeners are probably unaware of the tasty, extremely low-maintenance bounty that can be harvested when many annual crops aren’t available. A Brief History of Perennial Crops According to Perennial Vegetables by Eric Toensmeier, most North American gardening and farming traditions come from Europe, where there are very few perennial crops except fruits and nuts. Cold and temperate Eurasian agriculture centered around livestock, annual grains and legumes, and early European settlers to North America simply brought their seeds and their cultivation methods with them, including draft animals for plowing up the soil every year. However, in more temperate and tropical areas of the world, including much of North America, perennial root, starch and fruit crops were actively bred, selected and cultivated. 11.

These amazing trees grow up to 40 different types of fruit In all the time I’ve spent cruising around my quiet Seattle neighborhood for fallen sidewalk fruit (the semi-bruised apples are delicious), I’ve never thought to myself: “Geez. I wish all these trees had, like, 40 different kinds of fruit on them.” Until now. Artist and Syracuse University professor Sam Van Aken has made more than a dozen trees that bear all kinds of fruits and flowers, not just a single variety like the once-lauded peach and plum trees of yore — those pathetic, one-trick ponies. Van Aken creates these frankentrees using a horticultural technique called chip budding, which basically involves taking a small budding branch from one tree, sticking it into a slit carved out in another tree, wrapping the unholy mash-up in plastic, and waiting until they heal together into one cohesive branch. “When I’d seen it done as a child, it was Dr.

Pascal Poot, l'homme qui fait pousser 400 variétés de tomates sans eau ni pesticides Dans l'Hérault, Pascal Poot a développé une méthode qui lui permet aujourd'hui de cultiver et de sélectionner quelques 400 variétés de tomates bio sans arrosage ni utilisation de produits phytosanitaires. Celui qu'on a pris "pour un fou" inspire aujourd'hui les plus grands chercheurs. Pascal Poot est producteurs bio de semences depuis 20 ans. Installé sur 3ha à Olmet dans les Cévennes (Hérault), il conserve environ 450 variétés de tomates (il a créé le "Conservatoire de la tomate") et autres variétés légumières anciennes. Dans cette région au climat très aride et à la terre pleine de cailloux, Pascal fait pousser des tomates bio. Eduquer les légumes pour leur apprendre à se défendre eux-mêmes " Pourquoi les agriculteurs et les jardiniers se donnent-ils tant de mal à cultiver leurs légumes alors qu'à côté les mauvaises herbes poussent facilement sans rien exiger ? Celui qu'on a pris "pour un fou" inspire aujourd'hui les plus grands chercheurs Pour en savoir plus :

Things People Don't Usually Know about Cats All felines, be them wild or domesticated, are part of the very same family, the one called Felidae. The domesticated cat comes from a species of small-sized wild cats, called Felis Silvestris. The only feline which lives in packs is the lion. All the other felines are solitary hunters, they rather live on their own than go for a community life. Another interesting and unusual fact about cats is that their heart can beat two times faster than the human heart. Thus, a cat's heart can beat 240 times/minute. According to some experts, cats were initially domesticated 4000 years ago in Egypt, when people noticed how good cats were at catching mice that fed on their stored cereals. The first cat cartoon was created in 1910 by George Herriman in his comic book entitled "Krazy Kat", created for the New York Evening Journal. No matter how sweet they can be, cats never ever eat chocolate. The popular cat exhibitions and cat beauty contests may seem quite natural for us nowadays.

Why Do Cats Sleep So Much? Did You Know? Although they master the art of sleeping, they are light-sleepers. Their propensity to wake up at the slightest noise or touch is a genetic survival mechanism. A cat's favorite pastime is not grooming itself to look beautiful, or plotting its next attack on the dog, they love to sleep like a lot.. lot, they sleep twice as much as we do. They have inherited this crepuscular nature from their ancestors. Why do they sleep for so long? Bored out of their Wits Have you ever heard the saying, 'All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy'? Overweight Feline An overweight cat becomes lethargic and slow. Hunting Cats are predators by nature, meaning they have to hunt for their prey, which means expending a lot of energy. Diseases Just like humans need some shut-eye to recover from any illness or disease, the same rule applies to animals as well. Weather It is not a surprising fact that cats are affected by the climate just like us. Timing As discussed earlier, cats are crepuscular.

One Sentence - True stories, told in one sentence. tree 19 png by gd08 d2yz860 shorelinetree png bush 1 by moonglowlilly d5tk4qh DeeDee85 Tree Plants full 3212 266721

Related: