Today I am bringing you a special episode and would like to start with a quotes that drive both my life as a Father and Husband my career as an environmental biologist and my passion as a gardener. Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson said:
“The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.”
Over the course of the last few months we have had some great conversations on the series of videos surrounding the testing of my garden practices and assumptions. So great in fact that I wanted to do this video for you today.
As many of you know I love to take the time to research and script each and every one episodes so I can help cut through the noise out there and bring you to the best of my ability some of the science that takes place in our gardens.
Scientific Method
before I take a look at how I research the various topics lets define the scientific method. Generally speaking you come up with a hypothesis. A hypothesis asks a question that can be tested. Following that question you must try to test them in a manner that is not only measurable but thats evidence can either support or contradict the hypothesis. In this manner only the hypothesis that are supported are considered to be valid until such time as they are disproven.
How to filter the white noise information
Before I take you through how to find this information lets talk about how you can filter through all of the information that is out there.
To begin with the internet is both a repository for wonderful vast amounts of knowledge but it also allows almost anyone to post what ever they way. Just because someone like me said it does not mean you have to take that as truth.
These rules of thumb should help guide you through the information out there.
Lets use an example of a question both Patrick and I asked a few weeks ago and and ask what fungal dominated compost is and want to know if its helpful in your garden?
Hypothesis:
The first thing we need is a hypothesis. This is a very broad hypothesis so lets ask some more specific ones to see if it supports the hypothesis.
Our hypothesis for this example was: is fungal dominated compost beneficial for our gardens?
Because this is such a broad question you can break the questions down into a number of questions. I use these questions to start my search.
References:
Cornell Pine Needles:
http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/factsheets/mulch/mulchland.html
Forest Industry Council Pine Needs
http://www.forestindustrycouncil.com.au/factsheets/f2.pdf
Companion Planting Video:
Some of my favorite childhood memories are of gardening with my parents and brothers. This channel is about low cost organic urban gardening in zone 3. I am by no means an expert gardener however I love to share my experiments and journey garden year round. Please feel free to join the conversation and if you think you might like this channel subscribe. Have a great day!
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