Hey I'm Alicia, an artist who really hasn't been feeling social media lately (especially IG and FB) so I thought I'd try Mastodon out and see if I like the simplicity of it more. I think I picked the perfect server, since I'm much more likely to be in my sunny garden than anywhere else. :BlobCat_Love: 🌞
I built this "Little Free Art Gallery" for my wife a few years ago. She's turned into a prolific artist over the years and creates way more art than our house can handle, and she's run out of friends to gift them to. So now she can give her art away to the neighborhood.
A rant about leaf blowers. Just stop with them. Gas ones spew CO2 and particulates at an alarming rate, they’re the definition of noise pollution, and they disturb insect habitat under your hedges. But they’re also just not that good at getting leaves together. Here’s the thing that no blower guy will tell you, but every SE Asian grandma knows: the best way to get leaves off your hard surfaces is this tool right here. 1/3 #gardening#GardeningMastodon#insects#biodiversity#Autumn#FallColors
As is my custom every Earth Day here is Walt Kelly's iconic Earth Day 1970 poster. After all these years the message is still the same! #earthday #ClimateChange #gardening #Allotment
"'It feels like I'm not crazy.' Gardeners aren't surprised as USDA updates key map."
TL;DR: The USDA has updated its plant hardiness zone map, showing that half the country has shifted into a new zone due to warming temperatures. #gardening#climatechange#USDA
The Seed Library Network is currently conducting a global seed library census. Over 2600 in the database so far. If you run a seed library, please register to get your library on the map.
#introductions Hi! 👋 I'm John and I'm an academic #librarian in #LosAngeles where I head up my library's outreach and engagement team. I've been working in libraries for about 15 years.
I love spending time #gardening, listening to podcasts, wine tasting (read: drinking), reading, and being with my family.
We might buy a piano soon.
I was an avid user of the bird site since 2007 but stopped posting over a year ago. I miss the community of library folk I found there. 😢
These are my cancer daffodils. I bought a bulk-pack of bulbs (“Ice Follies”) in September of 2022, and then I promptly got a cancer diagnosis.
By the time I was done with treatment and had enough energy for gardening it was March 2023. Many of the bulbs were dry and dead, but I planted the rest of them because I figured I had nothing to lose.
That spring they came up but did not flower, but this year they are doing just fine. Just like me. 😊
It's amazing how quickly fungi appears. Yesterday there were a few scattered around this wooden planter in the garden, today it was fully surrounded. LOADS of them.
Fortunately they are very friendly, and hope you all have a lovely day.
Did you know that when your garlic goes bad and starts to grow you can plant the cloves and each one will grow into a whole new bulb plus you can eat the scapes the grow on the top? True. #gardening#nature#garlic
"Grains were not grown as fields of a single variety, but as diverse mixes of cereals & legumes called ‘maslins’ (or ‘mashlum’ in Scots). Ancient grains like emmer, einkorn, & barley were grown together with peas & lentils. Hemp, flax, & poppies were common supplemental crops as well. These diverse mixed fields were far more resilient than monocultures - in some parts of Europe, they’ve existed unchanged for 4,000 years."
Preparatory to a subsequent toot, I share this excellent chart of a Comprehensive Guide to Yellow Stripey things that I wish I could attribute, but I cannot. Possibly via @rosemarymosco who is very informative about bugs, birds, nature.
This outstanding article related to #NativePlants has many useful points for preparing for the next growing season and improving the #environment in general. I'll pull out some main ideas in a threaded series this week.
First up: Insects are the primary conduits for energy to get from plants to animals. And lowly caterpillars turn out to be the most important.
Our job, gardeners, is to plant more caterpillar food!
Per the article☝️, the population of American birds has declined by 30% since the 1970s. To help, you must support the bugs that the birds need to reproduce. But only 14% of #NativePlants generate 90% of the yummy caterpillars that drive food webs!
So are you planting these?
At the link provided, you can pull up a list of what you need to plant in your ecoregion. Scroll down and click on your list.