Hey All,

I wanted to stop by and pose some questions and discuss sustainability in our gardening practices.

1. For those in the southern hemisphere, what are you most excited about as the growing season kicks into gear? For those north of the equator, what do you have planned for the 2021 growing season?

I have quite a bit planned (hopefully not more than I can handle) as I'm looking to extract myself as much as possible from certain unsustainable global supply chains as well as dodgy underground chemical supply chains. For the former, this means that I'll want to get some Kratom trees in containers, tobacco plants, yaupon holly, ephedra, and sida cordifolia. For the latter, this mostly means morning glory and peruvianus.

I also have some plants I'm looking to grow just to be able to say I've done it (poppies), a number of plants that contain DMT or harmalines (bundleflower, a. floribunda, p. incarnata) and a number of species that I've seen interesting but limited research on. Those include epipactis helleborine (in particular: can I grow them indoors and extract the nectar via pipette, and if so, can I do anything useful with it - maybe an alcohol wash w/ bud trim and pollen to reduce to a mildly opiated hash?), confederate jasmine (is it really a viable source of iboga alkaloids naturalized to North America?), coleus (IF there's an active cultivar, I want to find it, clone a ton of it and give it out), nerve plant (for basically the same reason), and a few others that aren't quite as interesting to mention.

2. When planning your garden, are you able to stick mainly to local and localized species, or do you have to grow exotics to get what you're looking for in your area? What precautions do you take to avoid disrupting local ecology?

I've heard horror stories of morning glories taking over entire neighborhoods, but in my garden this year the spider mites pretty much took care of anything like that happening. I'm smack in an urban area so probably not too much I could plant that would disrupt things further than they already are, but I still try to be mindful and put anything non-native and potentially weedy in containers.

3. Speaking of spider mites, how do you deal with pest control?

I used lots of NEEM this year, but it wasn't all that effective. I'm looking at growing tobacco this year so I can use tobacco juice as an insecticide instead of, or maybe in addition to, NEEM.

4. Have you ever grown outdoors a plant that is under legal restriction in your area?

I've variously considered growing either khat, salvia, or coca in my backyard, ever since I realized how easy it is to get cannabis seeds shipped to the US. I figure anyone who knows what those plants are and what they look like would probably be cool, but there's something about growing openly in my backyard vs, say, in a grow tent in a closet in a spare room that lends a sense of paranoia I can't quite get over. I can see it now: while tending to a single baby sapling, a knock on my door from officer friendly - sir, we have reports of a coca plant in your backyard - two days later the headlines read "Massive bust on home-grown drug plantation."

5. What plant is being your biggest drama queen right now?

diatomaceous earth (DE) is a great pest control. I use the food safe version. There is an unsafe version that is supposed to be caustic so be weary before purchasing. It's best done dry in combination with sprays periodically. It soaks up a lot of water so be careful about when and how much you use in outdoor seasons. I like it because I live in a dryer climate. I dont use it on flowering cannabis plants. Dont use it on stuff you plan on smoking. YA know.

I'm thinking about getting some morning glory seeds as well. Very interesting plants indeed.

Way too wet in my region for DE to be very effective. Almost daily rain during the most productive part of the season unfortunately.

Edit: And yes, I highly recommend morning glories. Fairly easy depending on your region and one of those set-it-and-forget it plants. Just make sure to plant it in crappy soil and give it something to climb up and you're golden.