Archive for 'Gardening'
Recipe and Gardening advice by SMS and Web
Posted on March 29, 2008, by Conor O'Neill, under Food, Gardening, Technology.
We’re just playing around with a few ideas on a site called Jaiku this morning (they were bought by Google a few months back). The idea is that you can have discussion channels on particular topics like technology, politics, Bandon GAA, whatever. What makes it (and other great sites like Twitter) so powerful is that you can interact with it entirely through SMS on your phone.
So this morning I created two non-techie ones that I thought might appeal to my more foodie readers. The first is #recipes and the second is #gardening. In both cases the idea was that they could be used for requesting advice (in addition to general chitchat).
The #recipes one was suggested by Michael Kiely and he thought it would be great if you were out shopping and spotted an ingredient and wanted suggestions for mini-recipes so you’d know what else to buy whilst you were there. A quick SMS, a bit more shopping and you might get some suggestions back by SMS.
I thought of the #gardening one and it could also be used in a similar way to #recipes when in a Garden Centre and wondering e.g. is X worth buying, it Y over-priced etc.
Of course you can use both channels on the web too (and obviously type a lot more than 140 characters!).
There are two flies in the ointment. The first is that it’ll need more people on these channels to make them work and the second is that joining Jaiku is officially closed at the minute. Both can be solved in one fell swoop by heading over to Jaiku Invites, setup by Ciarán Rooney and requesting an invite to join.
Give it a go. It’s just a bit of fun and I’ve already had two suggestions on how to cook the fennel bulbs I bought on a whim in Lidl during the week. Any problems using it, just pop a comment here.
3 Comments
Elevenses
Posted on September 4, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Food, Gardening.
From the garden.
Yummmm.
5 Comments
Our Peach Harvest
Posted on August 21, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Gardening.
Here it is:
Thrilled that it actually tasted ok, sadly not very juicy and a bit tart but given the summer we’re having, not a bad effort.
Next year we hope to get it up to two.
5 Comments
Worst growing season EVAH!
Posted on August 15, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Food, Gardening.
My “stick it in the ground and it’ll grow” school of gardening thought has failed miserably this year. The only things that have grown are non-essential herbs, apples, strawberries, sorrel and radishes. And I don’t even particularly like the latter two. Actually, I nearly forgot the one rhubarb plant which provided seven metric tonnes of sticks. Lots of yummy tarts for me (as the bishop….).
So I got thick the other day and ripped up almost everything. All the bleedin mint and oregano, all the sorrel, the stupid radishes, the weeds, the 3 rocket plants (from two packets!). I’ve laid them flat on the bed to rot down but it made me think, surely that is a net zero as far as nutrients are concerned?
So gardening gurus, top tips please. I think I should dump a ton of home made compost in, maybe chicken manure or bonemeal, cover the lot over with newspaper and try again next March. Thoughts?
16 Comments
