Materials (ref1, ref2):

It’s important to think about the materials which will be in contact with your nutrient solution. Some concerns are:

• Will it leech chemicals into the water?
• Is it UV stable or will it break down and become brittle under light?
• Is it an organic material which can rot or mold?

Continue reading Hydroponics workshop: Plastics and alternatives →

WARNING: This will be totally uninteresting unless you use iPython, and even then no promises!

Lately I’ve taken to developing code in iPython notebooks whenever possible. One thing I love about iPython is that you can turn your code into a sort of interactive guided tour, a structured and documented sequence of code snippets that a viewer can execute anew as they follow along.  This makes them great for meetings and (dare I say it) live demos, because you can demonstrate the code without typing a single keystroke, removing the biggest potential for human error. Continue reading Recovering an unopenable iPython notebook →

This year I have a ton of gardening projects going on, both in my apartment and out on the balcony.  There are just so many things I want to try growing and the summer is never long enough for all of them.  I’ve also learned that I really can’t be cool about my gardening hobby.  I make every guest to the apartment take the tour of my gardening projects while I tell elaborate tales of each plant’s path from germination through troubled youth to fruitful adulthood.  My guests of course look at me like I’m a crazy cat plant lady, and they’re not wrong.  Anyway, I want to feature some of my projects in later posts, so I thought I’d lay a bit of groundwork by introducing all my main projects. Continue reading Summer 2015 gardening project rundown! →