Home Alone on a Sunday Night
Yes, here I am. There a just a few things I would like to address. Some time back I mentioned that I would post pictures of my independent study project/internship at some point, and tonight seems like a good time to get this shit together. So let us begin.
These are the plants back in April. we received them from four different producers, one of which is located in Israel. they arrive as 'plugs'--little quarter sized plant starts that transport well. they are almost entirely newly bred varieties which producers would like evaluated, so they can determine whether they want to bring them to market or not.
I started them under 4 or so kilowatts of HPS light @ night, to really get them going and try and stave off Botrytis from grabbing hold of the leaves. After a few weeks of straight water, I began using an injector set to a 1:100 dilution ratio to feed the plants with 150 ppm N. I had two fertilizer mixes--in one, the N is ammonium derived, and the other was nitrate derived. Fertilizer mixes were alternated each week in an attempt to avoid any issues with a run-away pH.
some plants. there are many different genera, but the majority of the bedding plants are coleus, geranium, petunia, calobrachoa, dianthus, namesia, lobelia, impatiens, and osteospermum.
another shot. those yellow cards are for monitoring pests in the greenhouse. they are sticky and bugs like the (what we see as) yellow color. the animal pests I encountered were fungus gnats, shoreflies, aphids, and thrips. on a few flats the aphids got really out of control, but an immediate chemical spray slowed them down quite a bit.
how now, brown cow? this fucker's got a hole in its side! I think it is used for the animal science program.
so, this is where I work my internship. it's cool, it's just me & the boss, who happens to be a master landscaper/horticulturalist, and head of the school's landscaping program. he's a nice guy, he lets me make my own hours, he gives me beer on fridays. well anyway here there are six blocks, each containing 40 groups, each group consisting of nine individual plants. which totals 2160 plants if my mental math is correct. it was a fucking pain in the ass putting these in the ground, but it's done. late friday afternoon I finished fertilizing these suckers. I used almost 150 lbs of 14-14-14 controlled release fertilizer. the purpose in growing these plants is twofold: 1)Do they look pretty? and 2) do they grow well in the PNW? my boss is also working on his masters, and for that he is do a pollinator study at the site.
a lot of plants. underneath that ground cloth are some drip lines which run the length of the bed. there are also riser heads which we use until the root systems are better established. next week we are hitting the plants with a drench of mycorrhizal inocula. also a liquified seaweed drench. these fuckers are really gonna start growing soon.
the oak creek center for urban horticulture is a pretty sweet place to work. it's very...calming. very few people are out there, often I'm working by myself. as you can see in the previous picture, there are horses grazing all around, very little traffic noise, and lots of pretty plants. this here is a picture of the organic gardens from the organic gardening class offered here. mmm vegetables.
the oak creek site used to be primarily entomology. there is still some research being done there. here you can see many apiaries. there a lot more hives scattered throughout the site, but here they are concentrated. btw, have you ever had honey fresh from the hive? it's not like the honey in the store...it's less viscous, and has a very peculiar taste to it. damn good shit though.
recently the horticulture program here has undergone a big shift towards sustainable research and education. this here is a greenroof research installation at the oak creek site. it's pretty cool shit.
well, those should give you some idea what I've been up to for the last four months, and what lays ahead for the next two. yup, it's a pretty good deal. the pay's a lot less than what I was making reroofing greenhouses, but I suppose I can't stay on the high steel forever. plus this internship is sorta necessary for graduation. now then, a few pics of my yard.
here's a look at my yard. the weeds are getting out of control. I spend all day outside dealing with plants and when I get home I don't really feel like weeding. but I'll take care of them soon enough.
here is my pond. I'm rather pleased with how it's turned out. I haven't had any major water quality issues this year, which is very nice. I guess pond flora/fauna have reached some sort of happy equilibrium at this point. but all seven fish are still alive and doing well, which surprises me. they've made it a year now. allow me, very quickly, to show you what I had to work with when I moved into this place:
yes, it's come a long ways.
this here is my wildflower garden, and some extra annuals from the variety trial that I've planted. nothing too exciting.
looking over the wildflower garden towards my place. you know, an unfortunate thing happened. the rooftop crew is working on renovating that greenhouse on the left. well, part of that process is using angle grinders or power drills equipped with wirebrushes to scrape off all the paint and rust, and repaint the whole structure. they then use an air compressor and paint gun to paint the whole structure. well, this is unfortunate because in this process, my entire vegetable garden got covered in drift (not to mention my pond as well). everything that was there when they painted, I've pretty much written off. this isn't your normal latex paint either, it's a real heavy duty rust-resistant paint specifically for steel, and it's got aluminum and zinc and lots of other metals in there. so all my food is flecked with little silver dots, and I don't feel much like ingesting that shit. which is too bad--they painted just a few days before my blueberries started ripening, and I lost the entire crop. bummer.
now then, I've done the pictures, and I'm going to shift gears a little bit. remember when I remarked a few weeks ago that I felt like I'd come to a real turning point in my time here, and that I finally felt like I belonged to a community? perhaps I was a touch hasty in saying that. it was a great day, but no turning point...you see, summer here has been OK. I often find myself very lonely though--I am trying to meet more people and do more things, but I just haven't had a whole lot of success. I've met a few girls but for one reason or another things have fallen through with each of them. at some point I should probably start trying to figure out what my fucking deal is. I think of myself as decently attractive, capable, athletic, intelligent fellow. I don't feel like I'm terribly fucked up in any particular way. but I'm quiet, I'm really quiet. not alone, I love to sing and howl and dance and jive, but some switch in my head flips when I'm with people I don't really know. it's fucked, man. everyone thinks I'm a really boring dude with nothing to offer, which I feel isn't true. leads to much angst.
I have been playing a lot of soccer by myself. I prefer throwing a frisbee, but you need two people for that.
otherwise, summer is decent. I guess I am looking forward to the next two months. my parents visit for a week, which I am actually looking forward to. I suppose it'll be nice to show them where I live, where I work, the kind of life I have made for myself out here. try and convince them I am not some depraved hedonistic druggie. plus we're going to crater lake or something, and it will be nice to get out of corvallis. I live in the middle of fucking nowhere and I haven't a car. this isn't really a problem, I like corvallis, but sometimes you need to, as they say, GTFO dodge. also, I believe some friends will be visiting briefly. in early september I am heading to burning man. should be a good summer.
much love to all!