Timothy Norton

I fly once every other year usually to visit family.

The strictness of a flights rules seems to vary by flight provider. I fly American Airlines usually and their luggage dimension rules have had a bit of wiggle room. There however is an emphasis that a carry-on must fit underneath the seat in front of you and they may enforce it.

I don't generally check luggage as I can fly out with only a carry-on but many times they ask at the gate for volunteers to check their luggage before boarding for free. I happily do it and haven't had an issue with their handling.

One year, I tossed some extra borage seed into a blackberry patch not thinking that it would do anything.

Color me surprised when I had a bunch of borage popping up between blackberry canes!

Welcome to Permies!

I am not anywhere near well versed when it comes to plant diseases but this thread has peaked my interest. It is my understanding that diseases like Alternaria blight would exist both potentially on seeds and in the soil.

I'd almost want to skip fiddling with treating seeds and fighting to grow zinnias that might be vulnerable to blight and rather select seeds from my strongest zinnias in an effort to breed a blight-resistant strain that would do well regardless of soil/seed condition.

How long have you been growing your own Zinnias? It sounds like you might be well on your way already to doing that.

Maybe I am missing something, but I'd love to know more about your plans.

A considerable influence on my design plans involved analyzing what probable predators might be in the area.

I figured the smallest predator to worry about would most likely be mink/pole cats so I needed to watch out for any small gaps.

I figured the strongest predator may be either a large dog or a racoon.

I knew I had skunks and other digging animals so I needed to think about those as well.

I ended up utilizing a lot of hardware cloth, multiple fastener types (hog rings, metal strapping with nails, and stainless wire), and getting creative with layering to be safe. Instead of digging a hardware skirt down around the coop/run I placed it on the ground and covered it with mulch.

I'm happy to report that my building has repelled MULTIPLE bird hunting dogs who wanted nothing more than to eat my birds.

Semi-related, I wanted to shamelessly plug the Permies Book Review Grid.

If you are looking for something new to read that is permie-related, there are a BUNCH of books listed with reviews made by permie people like you.

Check it out!

What are publishing standards and why do we need them?

paul wheaton wrote:Some sites on the internet will publish anything that anybody submits. This is not one of those sites. . . When I talk on these forums, I am trying to nurture a style of communication that I think is good for a forum. . . a safe place for gentle souls to talk about homesteading and permaculture. . . In order to have that place, we need a strong defense against the spammers, the haters, the icky people, the trolls, the corporate trolls, the "hate in the name of love" people, etc.

That defense starts with our publishing standards.

Be nice. The rule here is simple, be nice. But what does that mean? Basically, it means being polite and respectful of others and their opinions. It means not assuming others are less than perfect because they have different ideas or do things differently.

Leave room for others' ideas and opinions. The art of disagreeing is all about the wording.
   Not nice: "You're wrong!"
   Nice: "I have a different idea about that."
   
   Not nice: "That's a stupid idea."
   Nice: "I didn't have much luck with that."

   Not nice: "Nobody does that!"
   Nice: "Interesting idea. Another possibility might be . . ."

Respect for copyright. Copyrighted material used without the original author or maker's permission is deleted. This includes links to free copies of pirated material that is protected by copyright.

Free speech and Censorship.  People sometimes think they should be able to say anything they want. They can, just not on Permies. If it violates our publishing standards, it gets deleted. Because this is a privately owned site, Permies has the right of censorship. The owner of the site, Paul Wheaton, is the one who gets to decide, and he's the one who developed our publishing standards. Our goal is to keep Permies as a positive place for constructive conversation about permaculture and homesteading.

Politics, religion, marijuana, GMOs, pesticides (and other toxic gick), justice, social justice, climate change, and other hot button subjects.  Sometimes, things like politics and spirituality are relevant to various aspects of permaculture. Or maybe someone wants to ask a question about their neighbor's use of herbicides. The problem is that people tend to have strong opinions on these topics. The discussion easily becomes divisive and argumentative, and people get defensive  and sometimes hostile. Plus, controversial topics attract trolls. The Permies solution for this is Cider Press.

Cider Press. The Cider Press is a restricted category of forums for Permies members who understand our publishing standards and know how to be nice. The requirements to post in Cider Press is to have apples and PIE (You can learn more about apples here, and about PIE here.)

The same publishing standards apply to Cider Press, with the added feature that staff can award apple cores. Apple cores means you lose apples! You can read more about apple cores and how to avoid them here.

Spammy promotions. We appreciate people who have permaculture and homesteading products, books, videos, websites, blogs, workshops, etc. to share. However, we have a spam detection system in place that will flag posts that are written in a spammy style. You can read how to promote your stuff without being labeled as a spammer, here.

Moderation issues. Sometimes, people are unhappy because we enforce our publishing standards. The place to talk about moderation, staff, or bot performance is in our tinkering with this site forum. Questions, comments or complaints about bots, staff, or moderation anywhere else on Permies will be deleted.

Probation posts. If a post is really good except for some small thing that isn't up to our publishing standards, the post is put on probation. A semi-automated PM is sent from staff explaining the problem and requesting that the post be edited to conform to our publishing standards.

I like the idea of being able to grow varieties of corn that normally I would not be able to obtain on my own land so it makes it worth it to me.

Where I live, corn grows pretty well. The seed goes into the ground and it grows steadily through the seasons until harvest. Once I started planting corn in blocks, I solved issues in previous growing seasons relating to proper pollination.

As long as it is not a super woody mulch, I tend to put the compost on top of the mulch layer. I haven't had issues with nitrogen tie-up when I'm covering a mulch made up of grasses or leaves with this method.

Generally, a new mulch layer is then added on top to deal with any issues of crusting/washing away quickly but I may hold off if I'm planting/germinating seeds soon. I've had good results so far.

I am another vote for putting sawdust in pathways. The high surface area and small size makes it a good addition to my woodchipped paths to keep down weeds and stop seed germination.