Becca Miller

Have you tried wearing headphones? You don't even need to listen to anything but I find that's often seen as a signal that you don't want people to talk to you, as long as the headphones are clearly visible. The over the ear kind seem to work best.

I've also just pretended not to hear people when wearing headphones and most people will give up fairly quickly. Or if they keep trying to talk to me, I can make a show of asking them to hold on, pausing (or pretending to pause) what I'm listening to, and taking off my headphones with a sigh, which also gives cues that you don't want to chat. If they don't get the hint, you can just say, sorry I'm in the middle of something and put the headphones back on and go back to what you were doing.

See Joseph's message above:

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:I am not personally selling seeds any more. I don't want to sell living beings, who I consider to be my children.

Experimental Farm Network is the near-exclusive distributor of seeds grown on my farm. Giving Ground Seeds and Buffalo Seed Company sell many varieties. Snake River Seed Cooperative distributes some of my varieties, grown by regional farmers. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds sells  Astronomy Domine sweet corn. The following seed companies carry a few varieties: Wild Mountain Seeds, Seed Savers Exchange, High Ground Gardens, Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds, and Hawthorn Farm Organic Seeds. Check http://Lofthouse.com for additional sellers.

I'm in USDA zone 5b and it took me a few years of attempts to grow luffas to maturity. The growing season here is not long enough for direct sowing and even starting them in trays without potting them up didn't work for me. My notes say the year I grew them successfully, I started them in trays indoors under lights March 24 and then potted them up into 4" pots on April 20. I believe I also fertilized them 1-2 times with Neptune's Harvest while they were under lights. I planted them out after last frost (not sure of exact date but likely early to mid May) and trellised them. At the end of the season I brought some inside to dry and left some out to dry out after frost and both seemed to work ok. The mature luffas were still not quite as fibrous as the commercial ones but are still functional. The spot I had them growing had slightly less than full sun so perhaps they'd be more fully mature in a truly full sun spot. I haven't grown them since 2020, since as someone else mentioned, when they are successful they can be quite prolific and I still have plenty left!

I believe I've gotten the seeds for them from Fedco https://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds and Baker Creek https://www.rareseeds.com/ (not sure if either ship to Canada), and saved my own as well.

I have never saved leek seed so I'm not sure if this will work for that but it worked really well for getting sesame seeds out of their pods - I put the pods in a pillowcase and tied a knot in it so they couldn't fall out, then swung it back behind me, up over my head, and then down to hit it on the floor. Repeat several times, then check on the seeds and do it more if needed. The motion is kind of like windmilling your arm, or the motion some people use with an ax for splitting firewood.

My big garden goal this year is to be less ambitious. It is our third growing season on a large urban lot we plan to be on long term and I have lots of longer term goals and plans and dreams for this space. I feel pretty good about what we've done in the past two growing seasons but the garden areas are still fairly small and I want to keep expanding them and reducing the amount of lawn we need to maintain but a prior owner didn't like the slope of the lot and apparently dumped a huge amount of fill to level some of it out and most of it is primarily rocks. So any expansion of garden and planting spaces is a lot of physical labor and/or purchased inputs. Additionally, the property was abandoned for several years before we moved here and some of the more opportunistic plants (bindweed, wild grape, climbing bittersweet, virginia creeper, japanese knotweed, and garlic mustard) are quite enthusiastic and not super willing to share or give up the spaces they have claimed, so that's also a process (though I do try to find ways to utilize these plants and work with them instead of trying to get rid of them completely). Last year we bought some perennials and I always start a lot of annuals and perennials from seed and a lot of them did not make it into the ground, which was a little heartbreaking.

So this growing season I'm trying to scale back my expectations and plans a lot. My health/body is very sensitive to changes in physical activity - so if I gradually build up to doing more hours of gardening or other physical labor and then continue to do it consistently, I usually function pretty well, but if it rains for a week (not uncommon in my area) then is supposed to be nice for a day and then rain again more and then I try to get out in that good weather window and do several hours of work when I haven't for a bit, it causes problems. I'm still figuring out how to manage this but if anyone has a similar experience or suggestions (other than trying to find indoor exercises/activities that are close enough to what I do outside to not cause my body to see the gardening as a big change) I'd love to hear them.

So that said, my primary focus this year is going to be on maintaining current plantings and garden areas and doing whatever I can to reduce overall maintenance needed, including lots of mulching and trying out more cover/smother crops. Reducing the size of the lawn would really reduce the amount of routine maintenance needed but then I have to decide what to do with the space that won't add back the same amount of labor or even more. At this point that's likely going to look like mulching with cardboard, leaves, woodchips, or whatever else we have available and then maybe planting some divisions of plants I already have that don't need much maintenance but also will look at least semi-decent for the neighbors and have some functions I want, likely stuff like creeping thyme, lemon balm, yarrow, etc. If I have extra time and energy, then I think my secondary focus will be on building soil and preparing areas for future plantings.

I'm still enjoying looking at all the beautiful seed catalogs and nursery websites but pretty committed to not purchasing much of anything this year (so far, one pack of chamomile seed). I think I will probably start a few things from seed still, but again, really trying to scale back on that and be realistic about what space is available and the limitations on my time and energy to maintain them. We'll see how it goes!

I work in the organic sector and it is my impression that most certifiers would allow both of these things, with some minor caveats/exceptions. As Skandi said it does depend on your certification authority. In the US, all certified organic operations are certified to the same set of regulations, which can be viewed in full here: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-7/subtitle-B/chapter-I/subchapter-M/part-205?toc=1.*

Sections 205.202-206 of the regulations are about land requirements, soil management, etc. Section 205.202 basically says that there can have been no prohibited substances applied to the land within 3 years, as Skandi referenced. All soil inputs do NOT need to be certified organic though (since for example, things like minerals cannot be certified organic since they are not agricultural products). Inputs for crop production must be either synthetic materials listed in 205.601 or nonsynthetic materials NOT listed in 205.602 (and must follow any restrictions listed in these sections). Some certifiers might ask for documentation that the wood used was not treated in the prior 3 years, however I think most would just view it as a nonsynthetic material not listed on 205.602 and allow it without additional documentation.

The regulations have no specifics re: irrigation. Section 205.200 of the regulations states "Production practices implemented in accordance with this subpart must maintain or improve the natural resources of the operation, including soil and water quality." which is about all the regs have to say about water. Because of this vagueness, this is an area where a bit more variation is seen between certifiers - I believe some might require water testing for irrigation, while others might only require it for washing crops, and some might not ask for water tests at all - but all would want some information on how your management system maintains or improves water quality.

Skandi, you are definitely not alone in not thinking it's worthwhile to get certified. There is a lot of paperwork (more in the first year, a bit less on an ongoing basis) and you're right that it is NOT about common sense. I usually explain it as a marketing tool, and one that's right for some operations but not others - many smaller operations especially do not find certification worth the cost and/or time. In the US, there is an exemption so that operations making under $5,000 in gross organic sales per year do not need to be certified to make organic claims (though still need to follow all the regs and be willing to have their records audited). The US also has a cost share program which reimburses 50% of certification fees up to $500 per year per scope of certification (the scopes are crops, livestock, wild crops, and handling and you can get more $ back the more scopes you are certified for). The exemption and the cost share program are both designed to help smaller operations get into organic production and certification if they want to. I'm not sure whether the EU has equivalent or similar programs. My view is if you have direct relationships with your customers and enough sales without certification, it's probably not needed, whereas if you are doing larger scale production, trying to make more sales, and selling wholesale, retail, for use in processed products, etc. then having the organic label (backed up by 3rd party verification) can be worthwhile.

Hope that's helpful and not too confusing - I tried to explain it clearly without making it too long, but it is kind of complicated. I'm happy to attempt to answer more questions re: organic certification if anyone is interested.


*Slightly longer explanation re: variation between certifiers: However, just as different lawyers or judges may interpret certain laws differently, different organic certifiers may interpret some sections of organic regulations differently. I would describe it as fairly standardized but with some minor differences in interpretation - because of this, you should always reach out to your certifier (or potential certifier) prior to implementing changes to your management to verify whether they are allowed. All US certifiers must be accredited by the NOP (National Organic Program), which is part of the USDA - basically this means individual farms/operations are monitored by the certifiers, and then the certifiers themselves are audited and regulated by the federal government to try to maintain consistency across certifiers and make sure certifiers are upholding the regulations.

Thanks, Tereza, I think I'm picturing the heated mouse blanket correctly now. I also found that a heated mat under the mouse did not do much so I have a flexible arm desk lamp with a 40 watt bulb positioned a few inches over my mouse hand which works decently but my hands are always cold so an additional source of heat might be good.

I don't find a wrist rest of any kind comfortable, so not sure those heated wrist pads would be good for me, but I do sometimes wear knitted wristwarmers (basically fingerless mitts) that also help keep my hands warm.

I would love to try a true kotatsu! I guess I could make one with a much lower table but don't think that would be comfy for me for the amount of hours of computer work I do. But your point is helpful - seems like anything I can do to reduce the amount of space within the desk skirt would keep it toastier. Unfortunately I don't have any pets to help with that but reducing the area of the skirt (so only skirting the part of the desk around my legs and the keyboard drawer, instead of the whole desk) would probably help.

Tereza Okava wrote: I use a lap blanket and heated wrist wrests, often fingerless gloves, and when things are really, really bad I have a mouse blanket (plug-in usb heater i got on the interwebs and made a flannel "blanket" for)

Tereza, can you please share a photo of the mouse blanket?? I am having a hard time picturing it.

Opalyn Rose wrote:Initial thoughts:  I might try to skirt the desk on 3.5 sides covering the sides, wall side, and 1/2 the front leaving the area under the keyboard tray open. Then I’d create a chair skirt (around the back of the chair) so that when a person is seated/working at the computer the air around the legs is kept warm too.

Thanks, Opalyn! I swear I actually thought of a chair skirt earlier in the week then promptly forgot so I'm really glad you suggested it.

K, I already do the blanket thing but would like to be cozier (and complete the BB, which requires a desk skirt).

I think perhaps using a blanket with the 3/4 desk skirt and a chair skirt might be the optimal and warmest solution!

Though if anyone has suggestions about how to rig some sort of blanket skirt attachment piece under but not in contact with the drawer, that might work well too. But it can't take up much space because then my knees would hit it.

I give this seed source 9 out of 10 acorns.

I want to start by saying this seed source is not for everyone but if you're into them, you'll likely be really into them!

Who it's good for: adventurous gardeners, current and aspiring seed savers and plant breeders, folks who are looking for landrace seeds from Joseph Lofthouse, folks in colder climes in who want to push the limits of their growing zone and experiment with crops from slightly warmer zones

Who it's not so good for: those who want crop uniformity, not-so-adventurous novice gardeners, and growers who get really frustrated by gardening failures

I love the Experimental Farm Network as a source for unusual varieties, including perennial edibles, landraces, and grexes. Some of their seeds are sold as "botanical samples" which means they are not germination tested and some other varieties have lower germination rates than most seeds sold commercially. This is the main reason for my comments above about who this seed source is best suited for. However, they are very transparent about this, including the germination info in each item's description, and it is a reflection of the types of items they are carrying (seeds for fruits and woody perennials more typically sold as planting stock, seed from wild varieties, etc.) and not any reflection on the quality of seed they carry. Item descriptions also include location and USDA growing zone, as well as plenty of other useful info on growing and use. They are a small company so expect them to have limited availability of most items and sell out of many and plan accordingly/order early.

I have only grown a couple varieties sourced from them so far (maypop, perennial kale grex) but am quite pleased with them and planning to try more varieties from them this growing season, including a food & fiber flax grex, yellow mustard, and possibly some of Joseph Lofthouse's landraces. I failed my first year trying to grow the maypop (had very low germination and it didn't like the spot I planted it) but my second and third year had much better germination (I maintained proper germination conditions - warmth & moisture - for much longer and had most of the seeds germinate over a couple month period), got flowers and immature fruit on some of the plants in year one, and successfully overwintered and got mature fruits on the same plants in year two. The kale grex was successful but didn't have as much variation in plant color and leaf types as I would like, so I think I need to plant more of them to see that fully expressed.