Intro thread

[alexbayleaf]

Ooh, starting to get members, awesome!

I thought it might be good to do a quick intro thread. Let's do it like this:

Name: (DW and/or otherwise)
Where are you: (country etc)
What do you grow?
Why are you interested in this project?

Comments

[alexbayleaf]

I'll start.

Name: skud aka Alex (but mostly answer to Skud)

Where are you: I live in Melbourne, Australia, though I'm currently travelling in Europe

What do you grow? My housemate aquaprofunda and I have a container garden in the backyard of our rented house. We grow herbs and vegies. We're also urban harvesters and often get fruit and other things from friends/relations with their own gardens. We do a lot of preserving, too.

Why are you interested in this project? I love Ravelry and the style of it, and I keep wanting Rav-for-other-topics. This is the first one I've wanted badly enough to actually say, "I'm going to start work on this right now!" I guess I covered most of my reasons for starting this in my original post.

[ilyena_sylph]

Name: ilyena_sylph, typically go by 'Yena.
Where are you: central Missouri, USA
What do you grow? at the moment, nothing, the drought killed it all. Normally tomatoes, green beans, peas, strawberries, and onions. Some herbs and cucumbers, too.
Why are you interested in this project? Because I'm falling away from fandoms and back into gardening and other crafting, and this sounds wonderful.

Also, I just plain like Skud.

[alexbayleaf]

Awww! Thanks! It's great to have you here too.

[shadowspar]

Name: shadowspar
Where are you: Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada (~5a)
What do you grow?: bok choy, cabbage, chard, corn, onions, peas, potatoes, string beans, tomatoes, zucchini
Why are you interested in this project? I'm interested in any grassroots project that helps people cooperate and have fun, especially while doing Good Things around food, sustainability, and self-sufficiency.

[alexbayleaf]

Damn, all these lists of vegetables are making me salivate. (Spain: not so good for vegie-lovers.)

[japester]

Name: Jp, Jean-Paul
Location : Melbourne, Australia

Have just planted a bunchof heirloom strawberries, loganberries and raspberries. Vegetables will be on the way once spring rolls around.
Edit: Tomatoes, that the cats regularly try and dig up, and asparagus which have just started shooting.

I'm here because because I enjoy communities, with the sharing and the learning. And it's not IT.

[alexbayleaf]

Ooh, I have berry envy. Welcome aboard!

[japester]

Come help me pick some when they're ready ;)

Also, I just got to thinking, when/where shall we tech-types be spruiking our skills to get involved?

[alexbayleaf]

Err, how about... now? I'll post something!

[alexbayleaf]

Oh, and, I would *love* to help pick some! Thanks!

[killing_rose]

Name: killing_rose; Annie
Where are you: central Missouri, USA
What do you grow? at the moment, nothing, the drought killed it all. Normally tomatoes, green beans, peas, strawberries, and onions. Some herbs and cucumbers, too.
Why are you interested in this project? Because my household loves growing things, because Yena made squeeing noises (hence the cribbed descriptions), and because I have no idea what one grows, being as I am from a family that's largely pragmatic about its growing zone: that is to say, my father grows flowers and doesn't push it beyond that. (My family resides in Alaska.)

[alexbayleaf]

Argh, drought! :(

Are there food gardeners in Alaska? (Greenhouses, hydroponics, ???) If there are I hope our project can support them.

[killing_rose]

There are in some areas. Microclimates mean that some areas are really good for growing while other areas are terrible. Some of these areas are quite literally ten miles apart.

My ex boss, when last I talked to her, was growing kale, tomatoes (those weren't doing so well), and various squash in Anchorage.

[algeh]

When I last visited friends in Alaska (Anchorage), many of them had backyard greenhouses and grew veggies of various kinds. Because several of them were Texas transplants, they mostly wanted to show off their various homegrown hot peppers. My friends in the Yukon (Whitehorse) tell me it's hard to get spicy peppers there and/or that the bell peppers available are less spicy than in other places. I have no idea if it's a growing issue or if it's a transportation issue, and if this is similar in Alaska with their store-bought peppers, but if so and if it's a transportation issue it'd explain why the Alaska folks were growing their own. (I am extremely allergic to peppers so I wasn't exactly paying too much attention since I wouldn't be eating them regardless.)

[fe2h2o]

Fe, or Fe2h2o.
Perth.
Low tide gardening for me at the moment, so only what grows on our trees. So lemons, grapefruit (in quantities _far_ exceeding our requirements!), plums and mulberries. Also, my son is currently harvesting baby carrots (he's thinning them gradually, so some of his 'harvest' has been matchstick sized... but they're getting slightly bigger now:-) ) And we've got coriander, parsley, thyme, and there's rosemary up the street.
I've long been interested in producing more of our food, and have experimented at times... But it is something that benefits from community information.

[alexbayleaf]

Welcome aboard!

What does "low tide gardening" mean? Is that a thing?

[fe2h2o]

Not a 'thing' as such, just a description:-) I've had times of my life where I've had a lot more active gardening... several vegie patches (although, not to sound _too_ proficient, they didn't all do much!), and I've been paying a lot of attention to the garden... this stage (kids, including very small ones) I don't have so much time to invest, so I'm simply reaping the benefit of (mostly the previous home owner's) planting:-) The Mulberry is the only one of my tree planting to actually be producing (although, we have hopes of the limes this year!)

[woolfit]

Name: Meg

Where are you: Melbourne, Australia.

What do you grow? We have a small backyard. About a third of it is taken up by a couple of big trees: a lemon and a fig. In the rest of the space, last summer I grew lots of different tomato varieties, herbs, strawberries and snowpeas. I'm about to start a bunch of kale, chard, sorrel and other leafy greens, and will try some borlotti beans as well this coming summer.

Why are you interested in this project? Lots of reasons! I only started growing vegetables last year and almost nothing has made me happier on a day-to-day basis than working in the garden. I want to learn more. Eating the products of my labour and feeling conected with the outside world are both awesome feelings (especially for someone who has spent the last decade in front of a computer all day almost every day). I'm interested in the social and sociological aspects of cooking, eating, and food production. And I'm keen to contribute to a community that's based on cooperation and shared knowledge.

[alexbayleaf]

Another Melbournite! Hi! I just clicked through from your profile to your food blog and now I'm drooling, just so you know.

[woolfit]

Thank you, droolage is always a good sign!

It's great to see so many Melbournites - hopefully this will help me prevent minor errors like planting last year's tomatoes about three months later than I ought to have done.

[aquaprofunda]

Name: Emily

Where are you: Melbourne, Australia

What do you grow? Tea herbs, cooking herbs, seasonal veges, mulberries, The Nasturtiums That Took Over The World, a million indoor plants.

Why are you interested in this project? I love gardening, I love projects, I love organising stuff. I love what Ravelry has done for my crafting life, I'm giddy at the thought of having the same in my gardening life.

[alexbayleaf]

\o/ this is going to be so much fun!

[coriana]

Name: Coriana

Where are you: northeastern U.S. (Greater Boston, to be specific)

What do you grow? Currently, nothing. I had a garden-full childhood, but then my mother gave it up and so did I. I've been wanting to do more with producing my own food for most of my adult life, but never felt I had the competence to know where to start. Now all of a sudden everyone around me is starting a garden -- even my mother, after a 20-year gap -- and I feel like I ought to stop dithering and just dive in! But I still don't know where to start.

Why are you interested in this project? See above re: dithering, not knowing where to start. A support community is always helpful -- perhaps even transformative -- and "growing together" is always more fun than growing alone. :)

~ c.

[alexbayleaf]

Welcome!

[somethingclever]

Name: I'm somethingclever, or Britt
Where are you: United States, West Virginia and New York.
What do you grow? Vegetables and fruits mostly. I also have a longstanding love affair with heirloom plants.
Why are you interested in this project? I love plants and growing things. I love this concept and am interested in trying something new and shiny. I can't help you with coding or anything, but I'd like to do what I can.

[alexbayleaf]

Welcome aboard!

[algeh]

Name: Algeh online, Linnea or L.J. in person

Where are you: Oregon, USA

What do you grow? Nothing right now - I'm a terrible gardener but would really like to improve because I'd like to have more connection with my food and be able to eat fresher produce. I keep taking classes on gardening and reading things about gardening but have minimal luck with not killing actual plants.

Why are you interested in this project? I'm trying to decide if I want to pursue a career in some kind of computer work, and my next logical step is to try programming again and see if I enjoy it now. (I spent my childhood though college years thinking of myself as a programmer but burned out hard in grad school back in '02 and went another direction in life.) I'm not sure if I'm really going to contribute to this project or not, but it seems like a good place to lurk and maybe get my feet wet again.

[alexbayleaf]

Welcome! Another burnout victim here, not grad school but tech industry. I'm hoping working on something sustainable and in a supportive environment will help me recover from that.

[algeh]

Yeah. I'm hoping a combination of being a bit more grown-up now (I started graduate school a few months after turning 21 because I skipped my senior year of high school and have a May birthday) and being in a more supportive and diverse environment can help me re-find the things I used to enjoy about programming. (When meeting with one of my professors to go over my disability accommodations in grad school, he pretty much waved it off with "I'm not so into this 'teaching' thing". That's pretty much when I realized I was never going to be happy there, although I also think I just wasn't interested enough in my chosen subfield, which was HCI, once I got to know it better.)

I enjoyed teaching programming to middle school students (ages roughly 11-14) when I had a job doing that for a year, so I know I can enjoy some parts of it. I think I enjoy teaching others how to do things more than I enjoy doing them myself, which may lead me to drift into documentation (or later, user support) rather than programming, although I'll give it a try.

[pozorvlak]

I spent my childhood though college years thinking of myself as a programmer but burned out hard in grad school back in '02 and went another direction in life.

Bad luck! I moved in the opposite direction - I burned out on maths in grad school, and fell back into the tech industry. Which wasn't really different enough for a swift recovery :-(

[algeh]

Funnily enough, I ended up teaching math after I burned out on computer science. I really enjoyed it, but I think a lot of what I was burned out on was the culture of computer scientists I had to work in rather than the subject, and teaching in a middle or high school is a very different culture than industry-focused CS grad school.

[inkstone]

Name: inkstone

Where are you: Virginia, US (zone 7a)

What do you grow?: Mesclun mixes, spinach, tatsoi, chard, alogbate (malabar spinach), tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, Asian long beans, eggplant, carrots, snow peas, green onions, turnips and various herbs. I have a mixture of pots and garden beds.

Why are you interested in this project?: I love gardening! It's very relaxing, and I like talking about growing things with other people. I also like encouraging and helping out people who are interested in gardening but don't know where to start.

[alexbayleaf]

I'm salivating at your list of vegetables, just so you know.

[gchick]

Name: Amy

Where are you: North Carolina, US (~8a)

What do you grow? This season, lots of culinary herbs, but the veggies didn't happen -- I think I'm going to adopt the term "low tide gardening" instead of saying I didn't get things established before it was 100F/40C! I garden in my front yard, and do tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, beans, peas.

Why are you interested in this project? Because I saw "ravelry for gardening" and said, "oh, that's PERFECT". In general, I love projects that are develop information-sharing and collaboration from the ground up (there's a gardening joke in there somewhere...), rather than trying to bolt it on later; I believe that the sharing part will happen because that's humans for you.

[pozorvlak]

"GrowStuff: collaboration from the ground up". I love it!

[alexbayleaf]

Nice one!

[pozorvlak]

Name: pozorvlak (same on LJ, Twitter and GitHub), aka Miles.
Where are you: Glasgow, UK.
What do you grow: nothing :-( No access to a garden, and the cats ate all our houseplants. Plus, zero knowledge of horticulture.
Why are you interested in this project: I'd like to use my coding skills (such as they are) to promote sustainability, and this seems like an idea with great potential.

[alexbayleaf]

Ooh, I'll be in Glasgow in September, just for a day-trip. Any interest in meeting up for coffee or something?

[pozorvlak]

I'd love to! Assuming I'm in town - what date are you likely to be around?

Also, if you can be persuaded to stay for an evening, Edinburgh/Glasgow.pm would love to throw an emergency social in your honour.

[alexbayleaf]

I'll be in Edinburgh from Sep 12-17 (5 nights) and I was planning on day-tripping to Glasgow one of those days. I could quite happily do a Perl Monger social one night! I have already booked/paid airbnb accommodation in Edinburgh though.

[pozorvlak]

Curses! I'll be out of town that weekend, plus travel time either side. On the other hand, coffee on the 12th, 13th or 17th sounds doable. Thursdays are our usual nights for Perl Monger socials - would that work for you?

[jmink]

Name: Jess
Location : Mountain View, California

What do I grow? I can only do container growing at my current apartment so I've got got strawberries, tomatoes, basil, carrots, and chard. There are also loquats, persimmons, walnuts and blackberries in the yard.

Why am I interested? Social gardening actually makes sense! When people move it can take years to figure out the climate in a new place. it's also great to be able to share seeds/seedlings/harvests and just generally be reminded when it's a good time to plant stuff. In short, 'cause it's a good idea!

[alexbayleaf]

Ooh, loquats/persimmons/walnut/blackberries in the yard sounds wonderful. *envy*

[rainbow]

name: rainbow here and on lj; carys or chris elsewhere
location: just north of lorane, oregon (zone 8, but with some 7 microclimate spots)
growing: we're out in the country so i try to grow more gardening wise every year.
permanent: raspberries, boysenberries, strawberries, honeyberries, many apple trees, wild plum trees, a medlar, a lot of herbs (both medicinal and edible), egyptian walking onions, chives, gobo/burdock, lavender, nettles (just started this year; they're still in pots)
annual: more herbs, cukes, summer squash, winter squash, pole beans, rainbow *g* kale, radish pods, hannan popping beans, garlic, leeks, cabbage, brussel sprouts, potatoes, radishes, beets, chard.
why project: i just saw it posted and it looked interesting.

[cesy]

Name: Cesy
Where are you: London, UK
What do you grow? Mostly flowers at the moment, because then it doesn't matter if I kill them.
Why are you interested in this project? I'd like to improve as a gardener.

[eien_herrison]

Name: Eien

Where are you: London, England (currently, approx zone 8 bordering on 9)

What do you grow? Trial and error at the moment -- my first year of growing stuff -- but staples will be tomatoes, lettuces and salad leaves, beetroot, potatoes, herbs, strawberries and raspberries. I have many, many plans for what I'd like to grow in the future (some which are more achievable than others).

Why are you interested in this project? Curious about crowdsourcing information. Also, I'd like to help give a non-US/south-east UK based viewpoint on gardening stuff. Quite a lot of growing information I've found online assumes you are of the lower 48 states and, frankly, can't really be transferred easily.