Things are greening up nicely following a few warm rains, and some of our earliest fruits are beginning to set. A little busy this week but I’ll be sure to add some shots in a comment a little later....
It’s been wonderful watching everything pop into full green growth over the last couple weeks here!
I’ve got pretty much everything planted out into the garden and things are acclimating pretty well, though I think the squash wants warmer weather to really get going.
I’ve been watching the path I use to walk through the woods on my commute slowly get overgrown with poisen ivy - does anyone have suggestions on what to do about that other than just going through with gloves and clippers? Definitely don’t want to spray anything noxious since its not my land (and I wouldn’t anyway if it was).
The pair of apple trees I ordered from Fedco arrived last Saturday, so I planted those out - the weather has been pretty mild and wet this week so hopefully they’re settling in well. Just starting to break dormancy.
I’m also starting to plant out some of my seedlings in the new garden beds, it’s super exciting to see some foliage in them!
One area of my yard that was overrun with invasive garlic mustard is now overrun with native violets, so I’m happy with that! I picked a bunch of flowers today to try making a tea out of them.
I ended up getting Honey Crisp and Baldwin, semi-dwarf rootstock. I’m a total newbie to pruning, but I’m leaning towards the “don’t try too hard, trees know how to be trees” school of thought, lol… open to any advice from more experienced people though!
The violet tea was fun, I love the pH based color change from pouring in lemon juice! Planning to use it in cocktails next time, that would make a great party trick.
:D Most of the garlic mustard ended up in the compost because I was lazy but I definitely want to make some more pesto in the future.
My cherry tree is this close to bursting into bloom! It seems to be a couple weeks behind other cherry varieties in the area, and I think my yard has a bit of a chilly microclimate since I’m in a valley.
My squash and tomato seedlings are looking great, I’m excited to plant them out in a week or two. I never got around to replanting my sad brassica seedlings that got too leggy, I might just direct sow some more at this point and see how it goes.
Also just have to say thank you for posting this thread every week! It’s a highlight, and I always appreciate your responses!
Not growing in my yard, fortunately, but I realized that the interesting looking shoots I had been seeing come up in the patch of woods on my way to work are actually japanese knotweed.
I know it’s not going to kill the plant, but those shoots are pretty satisfying to kick over, they just go flying… between the knotweed and the garlic mustard I’ve got plenty of invasives to deal with if I ever feel like going on a plant murder rampage. I’ve already pulled up a 5 gallon bucket full of garlic mustard in my yard which I’m turning into a gardener’s revenge liquid fertilizer.
I’ve got a normal compost bin going as well, but I’m trying the anaerobic method for the first time on this bucket. Just filled it up with invasive plants and water, added some leaf mold, put the top on and stuck it in a sunny spot. We’ll see what happens!
I’m sorry for missing last week, I was so in the thick of storm cleanup I genuinely forgot how days work. As an apology, here’s a picture of one of our cherries ready to pop for spring: https://i.imgur.com/0utPGZB.jpeg...
Two 4x8 raised beds from reclaimed wood turned into two raised beds + 4 ground beds when we had some leftover compost… the extra beds will probably be purely experimental / chaos gardens, gonna throw some nitrogen fixers like chickpeas in and see what happens.
Most of my summer vegetable starts have germinated, which is exciting, though I think I’ll need to replant the brassicas because they got leggy and the old soil I put them in wasn’t great… the pumpkin seedlings look great though!
Next step is to finish the anti-rabbit fence and finally plant out my onions.
It’s been kinda depressing to learn how many of the plants in my lawn are Eurasian invasives, but at least I’ll get to make lots of garlic mustard pesto!
My shelves were pretty crowded with the onion starts and I just waited a few days too long before rearranging things to make room. I thinkt eh bigger issue now is poor soil, though, I’ll need to top them off with compost, or honestly just plant them out sooner.
A fan is definitely something I’m missing - will have to set something up
There are about a hundred potted perennials out on my front lawn right now as the latest wintry mix hits our area, and someone dropped off a huge box of cell trays and small pots to us yesterday. Some of them will go to our local library for their gardeners workshops and to prep for their annual plant sale fundraiser, some will...
Finished one 8x4 raised bed with my salvaged lumber, and the second should go much faster now that I have a powered saw. I’ll be getting 2.5 yd³ of topsoil/compost blend from a local municipal composting company next week.
It’s windy and snowy even here in more southern New England, so I’m glad that the spinach, lettuce, and arugula I sowed last weekend in some railing planters hasn’t germinated yet. My grow light shelves are almost completely full trays of seeds I planted a couple days ago, all the tomatos, cucumbers, and squash. Despite the weather today it’s an exciting beginning!
Today marks the beginning of the second full week of Spring in the northern hemisphere, even if some of us are stuck in second winter. Share your garden goals, projects, challenges, and successes for this growing season; share your tips, tricks, and garden hacks, or anything else you’d like. Let’s all help each other grow...
I’m building a new garden for the house I moved into last fall!
Hoping to get some raised beds built later this week using some wood from a deck that I’m tearing down (tested the wood, it’s free of arsenic!). Onion seedlings seem to be doing well, they’ll go in as soon as the bed is ready and I’ll be starting a bunch of other seeds indoors this weekend. Next step is to find a local source of bulk compost and topsoil to fill the beds.
I ordered a couple of apple trees, Honey Crisp and Baldwin varieties, which will arrive in late April or May - later than I’d like but better late this year than waiting for next year!
Degrowth is a popular concept among solarpunks. This Jacobin article discusses some of its flaws from a Marxist standpoint. In particular, Jacobin reminds us an interpretation of Marxism which blames the Western working class for exploiting the Global South, and lectures the ever-more-exploited Western worker on the need to...
Planetary boundaries are hard boundaries, so the economy can’t go on growing no matter what. We can either plan this ourselves or be faced with climate disasters planning it for us.
Degrowth is not “everyone gets less” - no one will disagree with the goal of lifting the global south out of poverty. It means diverting the unnecessary consumption (and carbon budget) of the most wealthy people in the global north to help those who actually need the economic growth.
Hello all, happy early spring to those of you who are experiencing it! Here in western Colorado, we’ve got our tiny rainy season going on. what are you doing in your communities, in your gardens, in your organizing spaces? what kind of cool praxis have you got going on?
Now that the roads aren’t icy anymore I’m trying to bike to work more often. Did the trip in the rain for the first time today, and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be!
Starting a new garden after moving from an apartment to a house last fall. Planning to do two 8’x4’ raised beds with some scrap wood and put a squash tunnel between them. I’ve started 32 onion seedlings indoors and will be starting the brassicas this weekend!
Also thinking about getting apple trees - any suggestions for good varieties to grow in zone 6b (New England)? It’s tempting to get a honey crisp but I hear they’re pretty hard to grow.
I’m always looking for things to add to my RSS reader! I loved the Hundred Rabbits site that was posted here recently and thought others might have some nice submissions....
Hi friends and comrades! What are you working on these days? I’m really interested in praxis and in new ideas of what to do in real life to advance towards a solarpunk future....
Small scale, but I just got a compost bin! My muicipality was selling them for pretty cheap, I’d recommend everyone check if your town has any similar programs
There is still a quantum attack against symmetric key crypto like AES, but it just reduces the effective key size by half. If you use long enough keys (256 bits) you’re still fine.
VCV rack is awesome, if not the easiest to start from scratch with. For those who haven’t heard of it, it’s basically a virtual modular analog synthesizer. You can build your own sound generating machines out of a huge selection of modules, including oscillators, filters, sequencers, etc. Some of the modules are based on real hardware modules that you can buy, but there’s a huge variety.
It’s fun to play around with, but if you’re new to modular synthesis then I recommend limiting your module selection to just the built-in ones to start because the full selection is pretty overwhelming if you don’t know a VFO from an ADSR evelope generator.
I know some of you have gone complies FOSS, but I believe if the developer wants to make money from their apps, there’s noting wrong with it, as long as they are ethical. So what are your favorite non-foss apps?
Syncthing is a great way to sync an obsidian vault - not that hard to set up and requires almost zero maintenance. If you’ve got an iphone you might look into Nextcloud instead. For that matter, set up a Nextcloud server regardless! It’s your own personal Google drive plus calendar and contact syncing.
What's growing on, Beehaw?
Things are greening up nicely following a few warm rains, and some of our earliest fruits are beginning to set. A little busy this week but I’ll be sure to add some shots in a comment a little later....
What's Growing on, Beehaw?
I’m sorry for missing last week, I was so in the thick of storm cleanup I genuinely forgot how days work. As an apology, here’s a picture of one of our cherries ready to pop for spring: https://i.imgur.com/0utPGZB.jpeg...
What's Growing On, Beehaw? Weekly Garden Chat
There are about a hundred potted perennials out on my front lawn right now as the latest wintry mix hits our area, and someone dropped off a huge box of cell trays and small pots to us yesterday. Some of them will go to our local library for their gardeners workshops and to prep for their annual plant sale fundraiser, some will...
Where do you get your battlemaps from?
Hello, im a new GM and im looking for places to get digital battlemaps. Im looking for ones that are compatible with roll20.
What's growing on, Beehaw? (Garden Chat)
Today marks the beginning of the second full week of Spring in the northern hemisphere, even if some of us are stuck in second winter. Share your garden goals, projects, challenges, and successes for this growing season; share your tips, tricks, and garden hacks, or anything else you’d like. Let’s all help each other grow...
Kohei Saito’s “Start From Scratch” Degrowth Communism | if taken seriously, it would lead to political disaster for both the socialist left and the environmental movement | Jacobin (jacobin.com)
Degrowth is a popular concept among solarpunks. This Jacobin article discusses some of its flaws from a Marxist standpoint. In particular, Jacobin reminds us an interpretation of Marxism which blames the Western working class for exploiting the Global South, and lectures the ever-more-exploited Western worker on the need to...
Early Spring Praxis Post (slrpnk.net)
Hello all, happy early spring to those of you who are experiencing it! Here in western Colorado, we’ve got our tiny rainy season going on. what are you doing in your communities, in your gardens, in your organizing spaces? what kind of cool praxis have you got going on?
Early March New Gardeners Thread
Are you starting on your gardening journey this year? Maybe branching out to some new-to-you plants? Trying out a new style of gardening?...
Share the solarpunk / smallweb blogs you follow!
I’m always looking for things to add to my RSS reader! I loved the Hundred Rabbits site that was posted here recently and thought others might have some nice submissions....
Amazon is now automatically playing fullscreen video ads on Fire TV (9to5google.com)
What Are You Working On?
Hi friends and comrades! What are you working on these days? I’m really interested in praxis and in new ideas of what to do in real life to advance towards a solarpunk future....
how's your week going, Beehaw
the headlines have been pretty bad this week, huh?
Mathematician warns US spies may be weakening next-gen encryption (www.newscientist.com)
Looking for a FOSS white noise app for Windows
Or a privacy respecting way on the web.
What are your favorite non-foss apps?
I know some of you have gone complies FOSS, but I believe if the developer wants to make money from their apps, there’s noting wrong with it, as long as they are ethical. So what are your favorite non-foss apps?