bradlinder

- friends
1,004 link karma
123 comment karma
send messageredditor for
what's this?

TROPHY CASE


  • One-Year Club

$74 Android-powered PC on a stick by bradlinderin Android

[–]bradlinder[S] 0 points1 point ago

No kidding. I just ordered one... I hope I'm still interested if/when it arrives next month!

Learning to grow veggies in a rooftop container garden by bradlinderin gardening

[–]bradlinder[S] 0 points1 point ago

Update from the garden:

The 2012 spinach season has arrived... snow peas are just around the corner.

The fungus gnats aren't going anywhere, but I'm trying a few different strategies to deal with them. While there seem to be a ton of them gnawing away, the plants are growing fast enough to support the gnat community and still provide enough spinach for an occasional lunch.

But I'd really like to stamp out the little buggers... or at least get them under control.

Learning to grow veggies in a rooftop container garden by bradlinderin gardening

[–]bradlinder[S] 1 point2 points ago

Thanks!

Unfortunately I haven't had a structural engineer out to look at the roof yet. I asked the contractor who painted white reflective coating on the roof to help with passive cooling in the summer what he thought and he basically replied "if your roof can handle snow in the winter, it can handle some planters."

Yeah... that's probably not much of an answer. My goal is to have someone take a more serious look when we design our rooftop deck sometime in the next few years, and hopefully the deck will also help support the planters, a rain barrel, etc.

Learning to grow veggies in a rooftop container garden by bradlinderin gardening

[–]bradlinder[S] 1 point2 points ago

Thanks for all the tips!

Most of the soil I'm using is a seed starting mix purchased from the urban farmers at Greensgrow in Philadelphia. I bought it last year and I'm pretty sure it was described as potting mix... But I didn't pay very close attention to the composition, because, you know, I'm a beginner. :)

I'll try the cinnamon trick for now though.

And I'll definitely look into a rainwater/self watering system in the future -- but probably not this year.

My short term goal is just to prove that I can grow enough food on the roof for this project to be worthwhile. Eventually we're going to put a deck on the roof, so my long term goal will be to design a deck that might have permanent shade features, maybe room for a cold frame area for growing spinach in the winter and providing shelter from wind, and then maybe improving the water situtation.

I'm also reluctant to put much many more heavy items on the roof until we've had a structural engineer tell us it's OK.

Learning to grow veggies in a rooftop container garden by bradlinderin gardening

[–]bradlinder[S] 1 point2 points ago

Interesting, I hadn't thought much about cross pollination! I've got a basil plant that's been growing in my windowsill for the past 3 years and this year for the first time I'm letting it flower so I can collect some seeds. Maybe I'll try planting some outside this summer.

Any other herbs that you think go well with tomatoes?

Water is tricky. We bought the house a few years ago. A developer bought it and tried to rehab it and flip it just before the housing crash and we wound up picking it up for a good price... but it seems like some things were only half finished.

They built a stairway to the rooftop, and even put an outside power outlet on the roof. But there's no deck or water supply.

Fortunately there is a third floor bathroom and a laundry room. So I fill up a big watering can and lug it up one flight of steps. Before I added the strawberries one can seemed to be enough for most of the planters. Now I usually have to make about two trips. When it gets hotter/sunnier it might be three.

There were days last year when I felt like I had to water twice a day because the planters were drying out so quickly -- but I may have been overdoing it. :)

I also had virtually no success with peppers or spinach last year. The snow peas were my only really strong crop. I'm a little more optimistic about my chances this year now that I know part of my problem is the fungus gnat community that's decided to move in.

How to root a Kindle Fire running software version 6.3 by bradlinderin kindlefire

[–]bradlinder[S] 1 point2 points ago

It started rolling out last night. You might not have it yet.

How to root a Kindle Fire running software version 6.3 by bradlinderin kindlefire

[–]bradlinder[S] 2 points3 points ago

For unrooted tablets, the Kindle Fire 6.3 is nothing but good news. It improves the personal documents feature, adds book extras, and other features.

But it kills root access if you've rooted the Kindle Fire. Now you can get it back.

Official CyanogenMod 9 nightlies for the HP TouchPad - video by bradlinderin Android

[–]bradlinder[S] 2 points3 points ago

Official nightlies are now available here: http://get.cm/?device=tenderloin

This video shows the March 27th update and the new boot animation. Otherwise this build is a lot like Alpha 2 for the TouchPad.

Official CyanogenMod 9 nightlies for the HP TouchPad by bradlinderin touchpad

[–]bradlinder[S] 0 points1 point ago

There were already unofficial nightlies, but these come straight from the CM team.

view more: next