land-based-studies

VGA Live!

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 21:43:19 +0100

Being a country boy and having been brought up on a farm, I'm aware that one of the key factors in growing vegetables is ensuring rotation of crops every year, avoiding disease build up and prevention of nutrient depletion. Rotating things around ensures optimum and healthy conditions.

Keeping track of what’s been growing where, is a daunting task for farmers, gardeners and others working the land.

Here is where VGALive comes in; a 100% free (now and we are told forever) online vegetable plot management system and encyclopaedia.

VGA’s main function is to keep track of yearly crop growing cycles.

Users can record...

what crop has been planted;

where and when a crop was set and harvested; and

a complete history of that any zone.

When considering what to plant next year, it’s easy to see what can safely be planted next, and, probably why it is free, the built in seed catalog makes it easy to plan ahead before the busy planting season arrives.

Visit http://www.thevga.co.uk/index.cgi to find out more.

Farmers Guardian's Videos

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 12:08:00 +0100

For those engaged with Land-Based Studies, I'm reliably informed that...

The Farmers Guardian Admin's YouTube Channel

...has video clips that can support both teaching and learning.

Visit http://www.youtube.com/user/FarmersGuardianAdmin to find out more.

Note: the initial clip, at the time of producing this article is "tongue-in-cheek"

Garden Pest Detective

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:36:28 +0100

I'm not qualified to judge if this website (from Burlington, Vermont, USA) is any use to those engaged with Land-based studies here in the UK but, from a science point of view, I found it very interesting.

Learners will find many garden pests and plant diseases which they are unfamiliar with. Learning the signs for each pest/disease can be quite a task. That is why Garden Pest Detective could be a very helpful tool.

Garden Pest Detective is a free and simple to use web service that contains detailed information on pests and diseases that can infect plants.

An account isn't required...

select a plant type and
the kind of damage observed

Garden Pest Detective will then show the possible suspects for the damage.

Hover the mouse pointer on the suspects and an image will be shown which showcases the type of damage they cause; helping identification of the culprit by a process of elimination.

To evaluate this tool visit http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Gardeners-Site/default/Search-PestsDiseases.

iBotanika

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:11:46 +0100

iBotanika is a website for anyone from the beginner gardener to the profession botanist; a place to...

catalog "gardening progress";
find information; and
connect with other plant enthusiasts.

Unlike some of the larger social networking sites, iBotanika is a focused community that is specific to plant growers.

Users can...

upload pictures of themselves and their plants;
indicate the location of their plants; and
get your own virtual greenhouse.

Visit http://www.ibotanika.com/ to find out more.

Garden Puzzle

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:22:30 +0100

On the GardenPuzzle website users can easily design their dream garden using a plants database created specifically to match local conditions. You can also ask the GardenPuzzle Community for advice about anything related to gardening.

This website is one for those engaged with land-based studies.

On GardenPuzzle visitors can do two things...

design a dream garden from scratch; and
take current gardens and enhance them.

In either case, users can...

upload a picture; and then proceed to
add plants to it.

Beforehand, users are required to define...

the climate; and
soil conditions.

...otherwise adding plants to it would be a little pointless.

The best plants are recommended by the site, and users can get a visualization for all four seasons.

GardenPuzzle is easy to use, entertaining and, the fact that the site has a social element to it makes it all the more engaging. Users are able to share their designs.

Find out more and/or give it a go at http://gardenpuzzle.com/.