A few weeks ago , just for fun , I started marvel what extremes people will go to to garden . You hear of soldiers in Iraq own little garden plots , and I ’ve regard my share of photograph of fire relief valve gardens in Manhattan , but for some intellect , I wanted to go a little more extreme . So I did a lilliputian digging , sent out a few emails , and hit a jackpot . Behold , the garden at Australia ’s Davis Station in ANTARCTICA . That ’s right , Antarctica . Those are the duration I go to for you mass . Because I love you .
The undermentioned words and photos are from the source:“Hi , I ’m Darryl Seidel , one of the plumbers and handler of the aquiculture this year ( 2012 ) at the Australian Antarctic Division ’s Davis Station , Antarctica . The role of the tank farming manager is just one of many community task on station . I had never done any hydroponics until I got a job in Antarctica , my experience with gardening really only consists of small veggie and blossom speckle at home in Adelaide , Australia . The challenge it poses is one of the main reasonableness I want to take it on .
“ Our hydroponics lay out up consists of two seamed shipping container joined together to form 3 rooms . Our goal with hydroponics is in the first place hobby and team spirit based , as we do n’t grow enough garden truck to feed the integral station . The post universe over summer can be over 100 , and in winter anywhere from 16 to 25 people . This season we have 21 staying over winter ( April – November ) , 14 of these are in our hydroponics bunch . Hydroponics at Davis has a veridical nice community feel about it , if there is a trouble , there is always more than enough people on hand to help oneself fixate it !
“ The winter temperature at Davis vary greatly over winter depending on the weather outside . clear-cut days can bring temps of -30 degrees Celsius ( -22F ) and winds up to 100 slub ( 185 kmh or 115 mph ) , with an average temperature around -20 deg C ( -4F ) . This certainly eliminates trying to farm anything out of doors !
“ We are only allow to grow eatable green goods due to quarantine and space restriction , which this season includes crisphead lettuce and cos lucre , varieties of tomatoes , Lebanese cucumber , capsicums ( ship’s bell Madagascar pepper ) and a orbit of herbs . We attempt to spend as much fourth dimension in ‘ the garden ’ as we can because it is usually 27 degrees ( 80F ) and 60 % humidity !
“ We roster two hoi polloi on per week to monitor the plants twice day by day and also have two crew member who count after seeding and propagation . Every season our harvest are take away and incinerated , including the medium in which the crops are farm , to help forestall the bedcover of disease and so we do n’t introduce any non - native specie into the Antarctic environment .
“ prevent the water and building from freezing is our primary challenge , being aquicultural and in Antarctica there are n’t many ( if any ) disease to affect the plants . Around mid June we had a ‘ door malfunction ’ , which permit the heat out and the cold in for 12 hours . Most of our crop was mislay due to extreme pillow slip of frost , amazingly the majority of the herbs and bread survived ! But we ’ve started again and have bounced back strong than before ! In the 8 calendar month that we have been move hydroponics we have harvested over 60 kg ( 132 pounds ) of brisk green groceries . ”
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Darryl Seidel 2 WAYS TO ENLARGE! Click directly on the photo to enlarge in a pop-up, or click HERE to see this image, larger, in a new browser windowPhoto/Illustration: Photograph © Darryl Seidel /Australian Antarctic Division
