Gardenig in Antarctica. Tips & Guides

As a kid, I remember the magic of seeing clouds of fireflies on a warm summer night. Nowadays, I get excited if I see one or two floating around our yard. Also called lightning bugs, these special little insects are an important indicator of environmental health. And they’re also good for our gardens. So, how does a gardener support them? What do lightning bugs eat? What’s the difference between lightning bugs and fireflies? What about glow-worms? (Are those even a thing?!) It’s easy to find confusing or conflicting information about these bioluminescent marvels online. In this article, I’m going to share some tips on what these special creatures need to survive, how we can help sustain them, and why we should make the effort.

Header image: Space broccoli. Image credit: NASA/Don Pettit

Encountering a dead dragonfly that lands on you might initially be startling, but it might have a deeper significance. Stay with us as we explore this fascinating topic!

How to Grow and Care for Ferns Indoors Polypodiopsida

Have you ever wondered what it means when a deer crosses your path? It’s not just a random encounter with a cute animal in the woods. In fact, many people believe that seeing a deer is a sign of something. But what does it signify? Is there a hidden meaning behind this meeting? Scroll down to uncover the truth!

 Birds with White Stripes on Wings might not be as common as the other ones in your area, which makes identifying them quite a task, but not anymore! This guide will help you with everything you need!

Header image: Amid an otherworldly landscape outside of Hanksville, Utah, sits the Mars Desert Research Station. Facilities like these are intended to mimic how people might fare on Mars or the Moon, or on long-term orbital stations. Visual: The Mars Society

Nature’s marvels often come in unexpected forms, and butterwort plants (Pinguicula spp.) are a testament to this. These captivating botanical wonders are visually appealing and boast a fascinating insect-trapping mechanism. This article will delve into growing Butterwort, uncovering their secrets and providing insights!

Header image: <a href=«https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pink-water-lily-lake-goldfish-142067443?src=» http:>NagyDodo/Shutterstock

Header image: The greenhouse at McMurdo Station in Antarctica is the only source of fresh food during winter. Eli Duke/Flickr, CC BY-SA

Hello! Welcome to Gardeners Off World. This week we’ll start with a musical interlude, as violinist Lindsey Stirling recently performed her song, Artemis, on top of the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center:

In Jade Pearls and Alien Eyeballs I take a look at some of the journeys familiar plants have made across the globe, and touch on their arrival in previously inhospitable places – underwater, Antarctica and even outer space. Since writing it I have become increasingly interested in the idea of plants in space, and have blogged about some of the current projects (lettuce on the ISS, and a ‘Mars’ greenhouse in Hawaii, you can scroll through the posts by selecting the space blog category). Researching the history of plants in space has proven to be quite a challenge. It’s not that there’s no information available, it’s that there’s a *lot*, and it’s a fascinating topic. Tracking down one piece of research inevitably brings up something new and shiny, and you’re off down a rabbit hole. It occurred to me that it’s a bit like a maze, and I thought we could treat it like a Choose Your Own Adventure story.

Header image: Ella and Nicki at the Mars Desert Research Station. Provided by the author.

In the Hi-Seas habitat in Hawaii, analog astronauts take part in simulated space missions. Ben Greaves joins Emma the Space Gardener to talk about the isolation, the dehydrated diet, and his experiment growing microgreens in space-age hydrogel.

Hello, and welcome to Gardeners Off World, your round-up of interplanetary news and views. NASA’s Christina Koch returned to Earth yesterday, after spending 328 days onboard the International Space Station (ISS) – the longest single spaceflight by a woman. Koch participated in three expeditions – 59, 60 and 61 – during her first spaceflight. ESA’s Luca Parmitano and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov came home on the same flight.

What did you get for Christmas? Hopefully something good, something seedy and something spacey! 

Hello, and welcome to Gardeners Off World, a weekly round-up of news and entertainment for people who rather fancy getting their hands dirty on another planet!

Last weekend, as the temperatures soared, I found a certain amount of solace in learning more about how plants are being grown in Antarctica – the coldest place on Earth. 

World Bee Day seems like a good day to have a bee-related edition of The Hive, my round-up of positive (solarpunk) eco news stories. The UN designated 20 May as World Bee Day in 2017, to raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development.

Hello, and welcome to Gardeners Off World! I am writing this from lockdown, and you’re probably reading it from lockdown, too. The good news for UK gardeners is that it’s still OK for most people to do some gardening – and that includes people who grow their food on an allotment.

A standard mission to the International Space Station is six months long. About nine months before launch, each astronaut tastes the 200 or so items on NASA’s space menu and chooses what they want to be sent into space for them. Nutritionists weigh in to make sure they get the nutrients they need, and astronauts can take some ‘bonus’ treats with them. These can be off-the-shelf foods, and astronauts from different nationalities often have special space meals prepared for them. (Tim Peake got a bacon sandwich, beef stew with truffles and sausages and mash, courtesy of Heston Blumenthal.)

Another week in Lockdown, and another edition of Gardeners off World. We’re all now supposed to feel like astronauts, cooped up inside a small space with the same companions for weeks at a time. The barrage of isolation advice articles from astronauts, analog astronauts and Antarctic scientists continues. If you’re not bored of them yet, Space Nation has thoughts from Jane Poynter, who spent two years locked inside Biosphere 2 and Smithsonian magazine has spoken to people from all three groups of career isolators. I prefer Marina Koren’s article in The Atlantic, which explains why advice from astronauts may not be enough to help us survive a pandemic.

ESA’s ESTEC (European Space Research and Technology Centre) held their annual open day over the weekend. One of the projects on display was part of the MELiSSA (Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative) project, which is investigating ways to use microbiological cells, chemicals, catalysts, algae, bacteria and plants to process waste and deliver continuous supplies of oxygen, water and food.

Welcome to my new weekly round-up of the most exciting interplanetary gardening news!

Aquaculture is farming in water. Can we do that in space? Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth… and beyond!

Weathering the worst of an Antarctic winter, a shipping container may hold the key to feeding astronauts in space. The EDEN ISS greenhouse was shipped to the German Neumayer Station III Antarctic station in 2017. It sits on extendable stilts to cope with the snow accumulating underneath. On a clear day, the views are breathtaking. At other times, the crew need a rope guideline to find their way from the greenhouse to the station. During the worst blizzards, EDEN ISS is fully monitored and operated from the control centre at the DLR Institute of Space Systems in Germany.

Header image: The German Neumayer III Station in Antarctica. Credits: NASA/Jess Bunchek

Remember EDEN ISS? It was a greenhouse built inside a shipping container that spent several years in Antarctica. The idea was to help develop controlled environment agriculture technologies for use in hostile environments on Earth, the International Space Station (ISS), and future spacecraft and Moon/Mars bases.

Header image: Landsat 8 natural-colour image of water, sea ice, and phytoplankton in Antarctica’s Granite Harbor – a cove in the vicinity of the Ross Sea – on 5 March 2017. Image credit: NASA.

Many of you, like I do, probably enjoy watching birds, but what prompts a person to set out to pursue a big year, as it’s called in the world of extreme birding? And what besides a possible record do they potentially gain in the process?On the occasion of the publication of his latest book, “Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World,” I wanted to ask Noah all that–and also for some advice on being a

There are over 10,000 types of succulents in the world. They grow on every continent except Antarctica. They are a wildly diverse group of plants in form, color, and size. Plant collectors are always looking for unique succulent plants, and some of these can be found in this article.

Some plants are so iconic that they’ve basically become flagship representatives for entire ecosystems.Fleshy, machete-hackable vines make you th

Natural herbs have been the cure and prevention for many health issues for centuries. These were often delivered in the form of teas, tinctures, and balms. The medicinal properties of mint have been lauded through the years, with many benefits touted. In the modern age, however, we may wonder, is mint good for you? Mint health benefits encompass aromatherapy, digestive enhancement, and as a decongestant, among others. Mint is readily available as an oil, dried tea, and is very easy to grow in the garden.

Discover the stunning Swallowtail Butterfly Types along with their diverse tapestry of colors, patterns, and adaptations that make these species a true masterpiece.

Ever purchased a roll of flypaper and wished it came with a flower? No, just me?For a botanical bug trap that flaunts both orname

Have you ever headed out into your garden and found damage that looks like someone took a teeny-tiny scythe and lopped the stems of your seedlings off at the ground?Okay, that actually sounds kind of