Staffski was poking around the intertubes this afternoon. It’s been a pretty quiet day so she had a few minutes for random exploration.

There’s a great option at Bidwell Training Center to re-launch a new career in horticulture technology, one of the many new applications of an old idea that is the hallmark of the green movement From the Bidwell Training Center program overview —

On the north side of Pittsburgh, the Drew Mathieson Center for Horticultural and Agricultural Technology has for the past three years served as a training ground for young adults just starting out and older adults starting over.

Training in hydroponics is a key component of the horticulture technology program, one of eight training programs offered at Bidwell Training Center, which specializes in re-training unemployed and underemployed adults to help them get their lives back on track.

In poking around, Staffski also found a great City Paper article from last February —

Inside the Bidwell greenhouse are six distinct temperature and humidity zones — each replicating a different climate for various species to thrive in at various stages in the growth cycle. It’s all controlled by a sophisticated computer system called Argus, which adjusts light, humidity and heat and doesn’t hesitate to robo-call staff cell phones at 3 a.m. if it can’t fix a problem by itself. Bright lights go on and off to mimic summer days and nights, but the work of pollination is done naturally — by docile honeybees. (The hive, brought in months ago, has dwindled to a few bees, but the staff will buy a new hive in the spring.) Read the City Paper article

You can read more about the training program that Bidwell is offering here. Also, check out the great video that Post Gazette has about the program. The greenhouse is beautiful, and in this video is filled with the most lovely orchids.