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anipgarden · 11 months

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Adding To or Starting a Garden

AKA, the beginning of the Plants-Related section of this series.

This is my third post in a series I’ll be making on how to increase biodiversity on a budget! I’m not an expert--just an enthusiast--but I hope something you find here helps!

Got an area of lawn you’d like to convert to a wildlife haven? An area you can stick some hanging baskets in? Want to know how your garden of tomatoes and zucchinis is already putting in a lot of work? This is the section for you!

It would be dumb of me to not acknowledge that the act of gardening can come with a lot of costs. Buying seeds, buying plants, buying soil, raised bed materials, mulch, etc. … it can all get a bit daunting, let’s be honest! But there’s quite a few ways to get seeds and plants for free or extremely cheap, which I’ll be addressing in this section! The next section will be all about addressing the other Costs in gardening and how to mitigate or eliminate them entirely.

Also, do keep in mind; there’s no need to try and convert a whole area from lawn to garden or unused to garden at once. In fact, it could actually be extremely beneficial to do it a little at a time--maybe four or five square feet to start out.

Front Lawn (or Managing Principles)

If you live in a place where you’re required to have a grass turf lawn (HOA’s come to mind…), try replacing it with native grasses instead! You could even possibly use a low-growing ground cover plant like clover to a similar effect! Reseeding/replacing an entire lawn can be a big upfront cost, but even just letting the lawn be a little messy and tall helps. If the lawn gets patchy, leave the bare spots for a little while and something different will likely pop up! Pioneer species will fill the gaps and provide benefits to other plants around them, support animals, and more! If you want to take the guesswork out of it, you could always research what the pioneer species are in your area and plant the ones you like most.

Obtaining Seeds for Cheap or Free

The cheapest way to start a garden is by far via seeds. However, seeds can be a bit complicated to grow, and some sources make them… way overpriced. Fortunately there are ways to get seeds for little to no cost!

Some places sell seeds for as low as a dollar, 50 cents, or 25 cents! The packets may not have a lot of seeds, but it’s definitely a good start for a low budget! I’ve personally bought cheap seed packets at Walmart--the Ferry-Morse and Burpee brands are not what we’re looking for here. Typically the cheaper ones I’ve found are American Seed (which is owned by Green Garden Products, which also owns Ferry-Morse, Livingston Seed, McKenzie Seed, and Seeds of Change. Do with that information what you will), but they’re rarely stocked near the Ferry-Morse ones in the Formal Gardening Section. I’ve most often found them on end caps near the gardening section, so you may have to weave through a few aisles to find them, but once you do there’s an array of flower and vegetable seeds to select from! Alternatively, I’ve found seeds at Dollar Tree sold 2 or 4 for a dollar in Spring as part of their seasonal product; however, when they’re out of stock, they’re typically out of stock for the year. Try to check them out early in the year!

Otherwise, other seed companies like Urban Farmer or Botanical Interests will often have semi-frequent sales in spring and fall, when people are stocking up on seeds--joining their email lists can help you be the first to know when a good sale is going on!

Some foods from grocery stores will provide seeds that you can use in the garden as well. I’ve had the most luck with store-bought bagged beans, peppers, and tomatoes. Some people have had luck with watermelons, apples, citrus, squash, and more. Do keep in mind that you likely won’t get the same variety of fruit/vegetable as the one you bought--the resulting plant may look different and taste different.

Give it a shot! Pick some beans you like--if they don't grow well, at least you can eat the rest!

If you live in the US, food-producing live plants, bare roots, and seeds can often be purchased with SNAP benefits. But what does growing fruits, veggies, and herbs have to do with boosting biodiversity? While food crops aren’t typically native, they still provide valuable shelter for native insects. Some plants even have intricate relationships with native fauna--like the squash bee, a solitary bee which exclusively pollinates cucurbits like pumpkins, squash, and zucchini. And we get to benefit more directly as well! If you’re planting a diverse range of foods in your garden (as opposed to the swaths of single-plant farms that typically produce what’s sent to grocery stores), you’re supporting high levels of biodiversity by providing a variety of plants for creatures to live and hunt around.

Most of the time, when we think of boosting biodiversity with a garden, we think of a colorful flower garden teeming with pollinator species. However, if we’re striving to use native species, it can be a bit difficult to find some species in stores. I can say from experience that trying to find any wildflower seeds other than butterfly weed, purple coneflowers, and black-eyed-susans is… challenging, if you limit yourself to stores like Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowe’s. You might occasionally get lucky with an ACE Hardware or a local nursery, but even then sometimes it can be hard to track down who in your area is selling what--let alone if you live in an area where no one really is selling native plants or their seeds. Not to mention, even once you find a local or online store selling the seeds you want, they can sometimes cost a pretty penny. So what do you do?

If you have the option to, consider gathering native seeds yourself! Get good at identifying the native flora and fauna--or at least, a few target plants and their lookalikes--and get ready to go! Learn where they tend to grow, when they’ll be seeding, etc. Try to identify the plant before it goes to seed (for most plants, it's easiest to identify when flowering), then check back regularly to gather seeds. Typically, if I want to learn how to collect seed from a specific plant, I just search it on Google or YouTube--oftentimes, I'm lead to the GrowItBuildIt Youtube page, so it may be a helpful resource for you as well! Of course, make sure to leave plenty of seed behind so the wild population can repopulate, and seed can feed other creatures in the area. A good rule of thumb is to take no more than 1/3rd of what's available.

Buying seed in bulk is an option if you can afford the upfront cost. Try teaming up with a few friends to buy some bulk seeds and split them amongst yourselves--you’ll get tons of seed! Prairie Moon is a popular site that'll sell seeds by the pound if you can afford the price--though they're in the US, and I believe they focus on Midwest and East Coast natives.

If you want to cheat the system, don’t buy bulk sunflower seeds--buy bags of sunflower seeds being sold as birdseed. They’re typically all black oil sunflower seeds, but they’ll sprout, and they’re fairly cheap for the amount you get!

However, beware generic wildflower seed mixes! Many brands like to sell wildflower seed mixes in big box stores like Home Depot, Target, or even Dollar Tree, but they’ll often include flowers that aren’t native or possibly even invasive in your region! Before you make any purchases, double check to make sure the contained seeds won’t do more harm than good! A quality source of native seeds will provide English and Latin names for all seeds included, and will be native to the region or at least non-invasive.

See this? I don't trust this.

There’s a good handful of programs online that’ll send you free seeds if you’re planning to start a native habitat project! Poke around online and see what you can find; you might get lucky! The best time to start looking for these is fall and winter, I find--by early spring, many of them are either done or beginning to wind down... though some also start up in spring. Ultimately--just check regularly! You never know what you can find!

Other Ways to Get Plants

Don’t want to start from seed? That’s fair! You can try cuttings! Just be sure not to take too much of the plant while you do so. Make sure you’ve gotten a few leaf nodes on your cutting, and cut any flowers you may have gotten. Make sure to leave some blooms and foliage on the original plant for the creatures in the current habitat--you don’t want to destroy one habitat to make another in your garden. There’s tons of methods of rooting cuttings, many of which have different efficacy rates for different plants, but that’s a topic for another post.

If you find seedlings growing in a place where they won’t be able to sustain themselves long-term, or are in danger of being destroyed, consider relocating them! You may be able to gently dig up and transplant the seedling to your garden. Don’t do this if they’re in a place where they can easily survive--ideally, you’ll be taking plants from sidewalk cracks, heavily maintained public gardens, roadsides, etc. Do be careful while doing this--ensure your safety first!

You’re totally allowed to join gardening communities like clubs, facebook groups, and more before you’ve even put a trowel to the dirt. These are great places to learn information and advice! Many gardeners are more than happy to help out a new gardener, and will eagerly provide seeds, cuttings, or even baby plants! Talk to some people about your gardening journey and what you’re hoping to do, and you just might find some kindred spirits--or at least get more people interested in the topic!

Seed and plant giveaways and trades happen all the time in gardening clubs, as well as online! Just poke around and see what you can find! Some are explicitly trades, meaning you’re expected to send something in return, but once you get your feet on the ground with some plant knowledge you’ll be stellar! You may be able to explain you’re just starting out, and someone may send you seeds without expecting a trade, but I’d suggest trying giveaways first.

Poke around online and see if there’s a local chapter of your state’s native plant society. From there, you’ll likely be able to find a calendar of events--many of them will host plant sales in the spring, with a bunch of native plant seedlings ripe for the pickings if you can make it out and have some money to spare! Fair warning, though, you’ll want to get there early if you can. If they say they’re starting at 10, try to get there by 9:45. Year after year, there’s always record turnout, and they sell out of plants faster than ever. Just trust me on this. I’ve been let down; hopefully you won’t have to be.

Some libraries are beginning to host seed libraries! Check around and see if your library has one! Ideally, the system works best if you also have seeds to contribute in return, but if you’re just starting out I’m sure they won’t mind you taking some seeds! Just consider saving some seeds to contribute in the future and pay it forward. If your library doesn’t have a seed library? Consider asking if they’d be willing to start one! Community interest is a great way to get the ball rolling on projects like these, but they’ll only know the community is interested if the community tells them they’re interested!

Volunteer to Garden for/with Someone Else

Maybe someone in your area wants to garden, but is struggling to find the time/energy. Many elderly people who used to garden simply can’t anymore but still would like a garden. Other people may love to have a helping hand in their garden. You might even find a few people in your area interested in renting and sharing a community garden plot with others, so they don't have to handle it all on their own! They may be interested in increasing biodiversity right now, or may be willing to if it’s brought up to them. You might be just the kind of person someone needs! Since it won't be your garden, you’ll likely need a bit of permission and collaboration to get anything in particular going, but it’s worth a shot and a way to maybe even make friends!

Again, your mileage may vary with some of these. You may not know where there's a bunch of wildflowers growing in your area, or maybe your local library doesn't have a free seed library. That's okay! Do what you're able to, find what you can find, get what you can get! And there's never any shame with starting small--in fact, starting small can make the project easier to manage and expand when you're able!

That's the end of this post! My next post is gonna be about ways to start growing plants cheaply--low cost seed starting set ups, essentially. There's a lot of good options, many of which I've used myself even! Until then, I hope this advice is helpful! Feel free to reply with any questions, success stories, or anything you think I may have forgotten to add in!

#biodiversity #solarpunk #gardening #outdoor gardening #growing from seed #ani rambles #out of queue #the biodiversity saga #i will be honest I have never flat out approached people to offer to help them garden #HOWEVER. People HAVE approached ME asking ME to help THEM with/plan THEIR garden #granted it was after I'd been gardening for a good few years. and its mostly family or family friends but yknow #people would be like 'oh wanna help me with my veggie garden?' even before I tried growing vegetables #i don't think the library near me has a seed library but you just wait until i. get the courage. to go to the library regularly.#i've seen people also make their own little seed library structures kinda like a little free library but like #i dont think my neighborhood is about that life.#if any of yall have those though it could be a great resource! also send pics because I love seeing them #not to say that this post should become a giant seed trade but if it did become that i would be the opposite of mad #if there's any typos blame my sister shes got the hotel room at like 60-something degrees and I am FREEZING #welp time to shut up now bye

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autistic-katara · 4 months

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i need all of u at some point tomorrow to spam ask/dm/reply/reblog/whatever to me to finish this stupid fic bcz im dangerously close to the deadline nd i need to do it

#please #i need u guys to annoy me past the point of no return on this or idk if i’m gonna do it #i may regret making this post but idfc i entered this thing i need to submit a fic #do it please #please..#like queue it or smtjn #idk #ryan shut the fuck up

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jtownraindancer · 4 months

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Blore & Armstrong Running on The Same Wavelength: A Collection

#i can't believe this but I may write a fic now #burn gorman #toby stephens #toby's face gets objectively prettier to me each time i see him #my gifs #sgt. detective blore #william blore #dr. armstrong #doctor armstrong #edward armstrong #just-!!!!#how they kept looking to each other since the first day!#how they kept relying on each other's wisdom & expertise & professionalism #how fucking lost bill was when armstrong was gone-#ahhh i love tragedy~#and then there were none #attwn #i think there was a gif i put in the queue last night that my cat fucked up featuring some of these??? one of these???#idk man enjoy~#man i need a tag for burn now fuck #the burn collection #another brown eyed boy ruining my life #burn if you won't star in a noir film i will be forced to keep making my own #shut up ace #i think queue and I are gonna end up bloody #blore/armstrong

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solarpunkani · 2 months

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Saw your tags on that post about swamp milkweed about having trouble getting it started--you may already know this, but milkweed seeds need light to germinate! They only need a light dusting of soil on top of them (and putting them somewhere with a lot of light helps!); if you can't see the seed through the soil, it's buried a little too deep. They basically want to be laying flat on the surface of the soil rather than poked down into it, with just enough soil on top to help them retain moisture. Yes this does make it kind of annoying to manage moisture because you don't really want them drying out either (sorry 😭) but I hope this helps!! I mention it because this is the most common issue I see with people trying to grow milkweeds from seed. They also want 4 weeks of cold stratification (cool temperatures like in a fridge while also being in contact with moist soil; you can plant your seeds, pop the whole pot in a ziplock/cover it with cling wrap, and just refrigerate it for a few weeks) so don't forget to do that!

You know

it's really funny

because i like to call myself the self-proclaimed milkweed queen of tumblr (at least on my gardening blog but still)

And yet

constantly fucking forget about the light thing

IDK if that'll fix all my problems (the soil at my house is pretty sandy so I think that's the problem when it comes to transplanting at least) but regarding getting those little shits to germinate??? that might be the ticket

(one of the other problems I face sometimes is the seeds deciding to mold when they're in the fridge cold stratifying, i lost a good chunk of seeds to that last year but i don't see any signs of it happening yet this year so fingers crossed everyone)

#out of queue #ani rambles #bootesstar #answered asks #me: im the self proclaimed milkweed queen of tumblr i love milkweed i know so much about it #also me at least twice a year: WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO BURY THEM HOWD I FORGET THAT #*proceeds to immediately forget that*#its never too late to learn homies #its just a little embarassing to need to learn it like 7 times now #im planting my milkweed tomorrow and no one will stop me (my neighbor might stop me if she needs help but AFTER THAT)#im gonna use my brand new 36 cell seed starter #its the same make as my 16 cell one but with smaller/more cells #for anyone curious/because i dont know how to shut up in the tags #my favorite seed starting trays are the burpee superseed popout reusable ones #they have silicone bottoms so you can just go BOOP when its time to take the seedlings out and it comes with a little tray to hold water to #they're also top shelf dishwasher safe. a fact i keep forgetting.#AND they have marked rows and columns so you can write down whats in what cell #so i can be like 'rows a and b are swamp milkweed' or 'cells 1a and 1b are sweet peppers cells 1c and 1d are bell' or whatever #listen. its nice. for me at least.#they used to only be at home depot in my area but I found this one at (vine ref incoming) t t t t t t t t TAAAAARGEEEEEEET

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thetriggeredhappy · 1 year

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anyways if going “i think i’m annoying. i should simply stop thinking i’m annoying” isn’t working out for you, consider going “i think i’m annoying. i can use this for comedy”. if mentally removing the properties from yourself isn’t something you’re capable of, shifting your perception of the properties can be helpful. maybe it’s funny to be a little annoying. people love when cats are a little annoying. everyone who’s ever had a sibling knows that being a bit of a dick can be extremely funny. and beyond that, surrounding yourself with people tolerant of flaws as small as “occasionally acts in a way that i personally find superficially unpleasant”, who will instead celebrate those aspects of you, will be helpful in the long run for your mental health. what’s really so bad about being a little annoying? it means you willing to put yourself out there and have people around you who, more often than not, enjoy you being at 200%. something something “strengths and weaknesses are just based on perception”. are you annoying, or are you earnest? are you rude, or are you direct? are you strong-willed and independent, or are you incapable of asking for help and self-destructive? are you sweet and friendly, or are you conflict-avoidant? the truth is, you’re always both, depending completely on the situation. so be a littleb bit annoying. it’ll be fun.

#shut up me #gonna schedule this midday thought for later this week #just something i was thinking about. there’s being hospitable and there’s being a pushover. where the line is is completely a personal choic #same with self-assured and bossy. with personable and overly-chatty. with suspicious and reserved.#the kindest interpretation and most bad faith interpretation can be leagues apart at times #even that! is someone assuming good faith or making excuses? trusting the audience to understand or failing to communicate?#such is life. be a bit annoying on purpose. then others won’t be as afraid of doing it on accident #if you’re silly and having fun then people around you will go ‘oh. so if i seem silly itll still be okay’#anyways. time to queue this and forget abt it until a week from now

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biitchcakes · 7 months

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— character info sheet.

(repost, don’t reblog)

name: Jessica Miriam Drew

name meaning: Jessica ( Hebrew: "to see" ; "God beholds" ; wealthy / rich ) Miriam ( Hebrew: "wished-for-child" )

alias/es: Jess, Spider-Woman, formerly Archane

ethnicity: White British

one picture you like best of your character:

three h/cs you never told anyone:

The fragrances she uses are most often are vanilla scented. And, if not that, she tends to gravitate more towards sweet &/ or fruity scents or spice scents, such as: coconut, black cherry, berries, cinnamon, coffee, pumpkin. . . Bath & Bodyworks had two seasonal fragrances I always pictured her loving ( 1. Pastel Skies — "soft cloud berries, pink spun sugar, & coconut musk" and then 2. Sweet Whiskey — "golden amber, vanilla-infused whiskey, & sweet red berries" ). That said, what she views as overly sweet, such as birthday cake or frosting, she tends to avoid.

I actually don't think I've brought up her favourite colour ! Amazing. Obviously, she loves red, it's her whole ✨thing✨, but if you actually asked her to pick out ONE favourite ? It's #facbdf ! It's the colour she painted the walls in her and Lindsay's first PI office, and she's incorporated into every office she's had since. Makes her nostalgic, a little at peace for a few seconds.

The venom that courses through Jessica's veins is what turns her irises the green colour they are. Naturally blue, her eyes fade back to their genetic shade whenever powers are weak ⸺ like when she's brought back to life and her abilities fluctuate. Or, to a lesser extent, whenever she needs some time to recover from a fight, they fade juuust a little while she heals. It varies if it's noticeable or not.

three things your character likes doing in their free time:

Riding around Manhattan and Queens on her motorcycle, somehow there's always something new to see ⸺ as well as the comforting familiar.

Puzzles ! Solitaire ! Sudoku ! Brain teasers ! Crossword ! Simple problem-solving games and things of the like. Basically anything you can find in an adult activity book at the gas station.

Rewatching some of her favourite movies, such as: Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, Alien, The Karate Kid, Short Circuit, Total Recall, Heat, Sean Connery era Bonds, or really any 7/8/90's era martial arts, action, sci-fi or horror movie. She's got a lot of genres she likes the most and couldn't chose between if you asked her to, but most carry some significant theme to her: such as the main character being a detective or spy, a science experiment gone wrong, the strength of friendship and how much it can mean, standing up for your morals and values, or it's got a mentorship of some kind ⸺ usually a paternal one. It's not something she really realises she does.

Eight people your character likes / loves:

Carol Danvers ( bestie )

Lindsay McCabe ( bestie )

Miguel O'Hara ( boyfriend )

Johnny Storm ( boyfriend )

Clint Barton ( boyfriend // ex; he still means a lot to her even when they're not together ⸺ don't tell him )

Magnus ( father figure // mentor )

Nick Fury ( father figure // mentor // friend )

Logan Howlett ( mentor // friend )

two things your character regrets:

A lot of her anger, and the way that causes her to reaction in some situations and towards others. How she lashes out, and how venomous fists and words are always her first instinct. . . And how this has occasionally hurt those she holds closest.

Retiring her private investigator agency in Madripoor. After some time, her and Lindsay return to San Francisco, where Linds begins taking classes to become a professional stuntwoman, and Jess starts to take up more jobs wherever she can find them ( including all the way to places like Istanbul ! Lindsay went along for that one — ). This leads to her being on the east coast / in New York more often than she'd have ever thought. And, the more she's out there, the more she's encouraged to allow HYDRA restabilise her powers, which she eventually agrees to ⸺ only for it to turn out to by the Skrulls in disguise. So, tl;dr, she feels leaving Madripoor lead to her getting abducted, and allowing the Skrulls to fully return her powers resulted in the Skrull Invasion since Veranke, the queen, chose to impersonate her. After that has been a mixed bag that has a lot of good, but sometimes, she wonders. . .

two phobias your character has:

musophobia: the fear of rats

monatophobia: the fear of dying alone

tagged by: @gwenbiote tagging: all of you, tag me in them ! if you've already seen this and you're tagging people, tag me in yours anyway !! I wanna read them all asfksj

#the irony of her name meaning wealthy and she's one of The Broke Heroes #THREE hc i have never told anyone....#bruh i never shut up about her ahsjkfha #THAT KEPT ME STUMPED #so i listed hc i may or may have not talked about idk #if u have seen them before no u haven't #also obvs the boyfriend thing is verse dependant #BUT i couldn't leave her boys out cmon #whew this was a lot more info than i thought it was gonna be tbh #i do not mean to ramble she simply just makes me 😔#( ch. study. ) ⸺ ⌜𝕚 𝕥𝕠𝕠𝕜 𝕞𝕪 𝕓𝕚𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕟𝕖𝕤𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕞𝕒𝕕𝕖 𝕚𝕥 𝕤𝕨𝕖𝕖𝕥⌟#( headcanon. ) ⸺ ⌜𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕝𝕚𝕗𝕖 𝕒𝕤 𝕨𝕖 𝕜𝕟𝕖𝕨 𝕚𝕥 𝕟𝕠𝕨 𝕓𝕖𝕝𝕠𝕟𝕘𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕪𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕕𝕒𝕪⌟#( queue. ) ⸺ ⌜𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕣𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕤 𝕞𝕖 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕔𝕚𝕥𝕪 𝕒𝕟𝕪𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖⌟

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