#I'm going for pears as a native fruit

[kelsonius]

It's that time of year again to begin a new animal crossing island.

#acnh #I'm going for pears as a native fruit #have already restarted 6 times and still no pears #this game gives me so much comfort #the synchronisation with real time also helps with my sleep schedule #animal crossing #acnh island #kelsonius op

[headspace-hotel]

More complete list of ways that websites and books about gardening shamelessly misinform and confuse people

Using any combination of cultivar names, species names, genus names, and common names to refer to plants, leaving well-intentioned gardening noobs fighting for their lives in a lawless wasteland. Just look at this Better Homes and Gardens article on salvia.

Salvia is a genus of plants containing hundreds of species, including culinary sage, rosemary, and many species used as ornamentals. The Better Homes and Gardens list ruthlessly mixes common names for sage species with cultivar names, without giving the binomial Latin species name at all for a single one...

...and refers to two totally different plants only as "purple sage" in the same listicle

On that note, acting like "variety" is just as important as, or interchangeable with, "species." Just read an article that said "some varieties of this plant can be invasive, so make sure to check which ones are prohibited in your area!" No. NO. No specific cultivar of an invasive plant species is going to be non-invasive. In fact, introducing new cultivars of an invasive plant will make the invasive species problem WORSE because that's new genetic material. 'Bradford' pears are invasive in the US, 'Cleveland' pears are also invasive, because they're BOTH PYRUS CALLERYANA, but the website you're buying them off of doesn't SAY that, AUGHH

Referring to plants that are enthusiastic or aggressive growers as 'invasive.' I falsely believed so many native species were invasive simply because some dumbass article decided to call them "invasive" for the crime of being able to grow in a lawn. The same websites will turn around and say that a 100% virulent invasive species "can become aggressive in some gardens" WHSFDHHKKK???

Gardening books describing a gorgeous native flower that doesn't die instantly when you think a negative thought about it: "Invasive. Evil. Kill on sight." Gardening books describing one of the worst known invasive plant species in human history that's decimating ecosystems as we speak: "This plant can be a teensy weensy bit vigorous."

totally failing to explore what it means for a cultivar of a plant to be "sterile." Here's the thing. The 'Bradford' pear was supposed to be sterile, but it was not, the cultivar was just made up of clones of the same plant, and most plants can't fertilize themselves. When another cultivar of Pyrus calleryana is planted close to it, such as the 'Cleveland' pear, surprise surprise, THEY AREN'T STERILE.

IIRC it is possible to produce truly sterile cultivars by breeding a plant that can't make seeds/fruits and cloning those plants by vegetative propagation. A cultivar of cloned, genetically identical plants with completely unchanged reproductive ability is NOT STERILE, it is just banking on no other cultivars of the plant ever existing nearby. Which is deeply stupid.

Yes, "cultivars" (the names in single quotation marks next to the name of the plant in a nursery label) are generally just groups of clones of the same founding individual. I'm not a fan of cultivars because they're basically Petri dishes for breeding disease. E.g. The Emerald ash borer was able to so thoroughly decimate ash trees in the USA partly because the gene pool of planted ash trees in American cities was 2-3 individual trees big. Now ornamental boxwoods seem to be dying off en masse in my area, and the reasons are probably similar.

#plants #gardening

[fairuzfan]

hi! I know you like getting messages of support from other nations so I hope you will find some worth in this one, however meandering. it's a bit related to your talk about food appropiation,

In the Sierra Madre, seeing a prickly pear is nothing less than a relief. The land is full of life, but it is of a kind that can be thoroughly indifferent to human life, so seeing the bright red of a tuna can feel like gift from the land. It is the friendliest plant around, in its context. A lone dot of color and edible flesh in a sea of thornscrub. There's spines, sure, but those are a non-issue if you know how to handle the plant. It's not hard to peel the fruit one-handed, using just a sharp knife and a flat rock. My grandpa used to do that, and still does when we visit the ranges in San Luis Potosí where he used to shepherd sheep and goats as a child. The flesh is refreshing on a hot day and the sweetness warms you on cold one.

Which makes it all very shocking that Israelis adopted it as a national symbol, calling it "sabra", and also giving that name to the "native"-born Israeli populace. They say it is because they have a sweet interior surrounded by tough spines to pierce their enemies, but that does not sound right. The only way you could possibly see it as unfriendly or standoffish or as a symbol of self-defense, is if you are unfamiliar with land and context and go shoving youself places you shouldn't be. I can't help but think of their "making the desert bloom" mindset, and their misunderstanding of natural characteristics as hostility.

When Madagascans introduced the plant into their lifestyle, they used the fruit to feed cattle, and stave off hunger. And when French colonizers tried to get past the walls of cactus they wove with it, they were stung. It was only the engineered sabotage of the cactus with pests that ended that era of self-sufficience. I think the people of Madagascar were infinitely more worthy of taking it as their symbol!

I guess what I am trying to say is that Israel does not just merely appropiate things that are geographically close to it, and similarly, it is not just its neighbors that take stock of its, wrongness, to put it mildly. As much as Israel would like to believe that support for Palestine is a fad, we simply are not as incapable of drawing parallels as they would like us to be.

I think of Palestine every time I have to try and master my anxiety around U.S. Border Patrol. I tell myself I'm not allowed to back down give up when other people haven't given up, with walls in their own land. I hope that thought helps!

this is such an amazing message filled with so much thought, thank you SO much for sending this in. We also eat sabr in Palestine, I remember my mom and grandma talking about eating it back in the 80's when it was more available.

I did not know that about Madagascar, thank you for telling me. I'm going to write this down in my sketchbook for illustration ideas.

I hope that one day soon, the borders that are so violent to our peoples fall and are replaced with a kindness and community that we dream of. I'm sorry that you have to encounter such division in your life with the border wall, but I hope that we both work together to tear them down :)

#lovely message #thanks again for this

[canonsinthehead]

A Naruto Headcanon - The Culinary History of the Ninja World.

i'm back and not so bare with me. this headcanons is related to a story telling how chouji and karui's marriage went down. ill post it eventually.

EACH COUNTRY’S CULINARY HISTORY

Konohagakure (Country of Fire) Konohagakure aka the land of the free. Many things make up the uniqueness of the cuisine of the country of fire. First, they are the king of importation, so their diet is really diverse and touched all sectors evenly. They grow all kind of vegetables to meet the need of its residents. While there are not has much native plants from the area in their current diet contrary to other villages like Suna and Kiri.

Konoha being built on a vast forest, their main fruit consumption comes from small fruit trees and fruit trees like apples, pears, and pomegranate. Anything that grows on a tree is often easily available since it takes its roots in Konoha’s founder Hashirama Senju.

The country are the main producer and consumer of eggs and meat especially pork (which they export all over the ninja world) this where you get the whole BBQ concept and omelets. Another downfall of the cuisine from Konoha is the heavy presence of processed goods in everyday cooking preparation. The current culture is far more removed from its traditional cooking methods. Referred to as the Senju Diet is almost getting lost and seen has a flower from the past. Many (often older individuals) resist the hard change that came trough time and tries to uphold the consumption of the way ninjas ate in the past.

Lotus Root is a staple of the Senju Diet

Even Naruto can testify to this and noticed how it hard for him maintain the same diet as when he was a child (aside eating ramen), the way fast foods chains have almost came out of nowhere and took over the market deeply concerns him (especially how its taking hold of this younger generation). The deliberate effort towards modernization and proving the country is the first in everything, can reach everything, can eat everything, can win against anyone basically walking like they are the goat of the ninja world has affected negatively old traditions in subtle ways and in other more obvious ways. Like how the Konoha can keep escape the threat of famine by stealing other nations resources.

At the same time, the combination of different culinary practice gave birth to various more dishes with various diverse ingredients and interesting like Takoyaki, okonomiyaki & dango

Like mentioned before, industrialization gave birth to many processed who are a staple in those dishes. products who are often only found in the country of fire like fish cakes & narutomaki. The land of fire is the soup & noodles master, it’s like their national food for being convenient and versatile with they make the infamous ramen but other dishes like stir-frys Yes, it a generous filling cuisine to overflow your stomach

Classic/Staple Konoha Meal=Shoyu Miso/Pork Ramen with Narutomaki, Apple Salad, Dango, Sushi, Takoyaki, pickled radish, Beef BBQ

Sunagakure (Country of Wind) The cuisine from Suna is unique. Not only emerging from a desertic land, but it was also able to survive the test of time and stay true to its original roots. Based on the high temperatures and sandy soil of the land of wind, the residents have access to interesting crops who cannot be found elsewhere in the ninja world. Suna is the homeland of dates, they are the main intake of sugar in its diet. They are used in countless recipes like sweet & pastries. they are used to sweetened teas since tea drinking is a big thing. Offering tea is a tradition when receiving guests and tea was used by nomads who made long trip in the desert in order to stay hydrated.

In Sunagakure, they go hard on sweets. Especially dates since the are the only producer of them. They have countless of pastries, candies and date-bases recipes because it was once use as a method of survival in the long windy season in the desert or to have the sugar necessary to be transformed in a energy source to endure long trip in the desert. They are a national pride since most nuts in the ninja world grows in the country of wind; almonds, pistachios, walnuts, etc. they also showcase delicate and unique culinary practices when it comes to pastries who set Suna apart from other nations. It is the only place to find citrus, olive & argan trees used to make oils mostly made for exportation & their lucrative citrus production industry.

Their eating style is different since it is not uncommon to eat with your hands. For a long time, families were large so the habit of having a large plate to share with many emerge from that condition

Due to frequent drought, the country of wind has specialized themselves in the production of survival crops like grains like millet, sorghum & wheat who are also a staple in the cuisine of Suna. they most of the time milled to make flour to produce various types of bread crepe and flat breads (also see as more convenient since they don’t require yeast to be cooked). Alongside that, the consumption of legumes like lentils and different kinds of beans is the main source of protein and prized as all around superfood. They are cooked in paste and stew often eaten with bread.

Staple/Classic Suna Meal=Large plate of various pastes/creamy sauces made of beans & lentils, grilled eggplant, hummus, flat bread, millet crepe, spinach, citrus tea,

Kirigakure (Country of Water) The main meal is Kiri is grilled fish.

Unfortunately, Kirigakure has the reputation of eating ANYTHING that swims, crawls, run or fly in the ocean. First and firmly base on their location and how the practice of fishing is part of so many residents lives.

Also, it comes from the lack of access to goods from importation of other nations. For very long time, Kiri and the surrounded regions were left on their own when a bad harvest happened, or if the climate hindered the quantity of fish collected. In those cases, the villager learned to make anything of every single thing they found (in the ocean). Due to their different economical system (mostly based on exchange of goods), it took a long time for Kiri to join the market of importation and exportation. Now they are the main exporter of seafood of various types and fish (a staple in their diet). The land of fire became the main consumers of seafood above the country of water itself. The never-ending high demand for sea product (including fish) has opened the door for illegal activity to create non-approved fish farms and illegal fishing. The country of wind is guilty, while having no access to water yet desiring sea products (which is recent because they try to follow after the country of fire and the whole globalization narrative).The Country of Fire being the biggest culprit due to their insatiable desire to reach all and taste all (even without permission).

Their known cultural theft has implication in the problem since a traditional dish named サメの目 (Same no Me written Samenome meaning Shark Eyes) which consist of thin layers of fish rolled and stuffed with black wild rice and bitter herbs (it is name like this since it resemble the pupils of sharks) was ‘’discovered’’ by ninja scientist from Konohagakure during early invasion of the country of water by various bigger nations for natural resources in this case being clay who was abundant along any body of water (used to make pots and tolls before the emergence of various metals) also to take control and harvest the almost infinite amount of fresh water. The devastation of natural habitat and the disruption of the ecosystem cause a destruction that couldn’t be healed instead it changed the nature of the environment. Since then, most bodies of water in the land of water turned into seawater, the once flourishing pastures of green leafy galore died and the remaining surviving plants gave birth to what we know today as bitter herbs (ex: dandelion, wormwood, chamomille, peppermint, etc) and they are a staeple in the cuisine of Kiri, for some their main intake of green plants. They are also valued for their medicinal values (you know them plants Haku was collecting in the woods)

Learn more about bitter herbs here: https://dirthappy.com/bitter-herbs/

(Going back to what we were talking about)The discovery of Samenome was then taken back to the country of fire and after being merged and modified with the local crops and different culinary practices became what we know today as sushi; the captain of Konoha’s cuisine along side with Ramen. The seaweed paper also originally comes from Kiri, they were not used as food but fertilizers for growing crops. The practice of harvesting seaweed became popular in the southern part of the country of fire after the nori seaweed was discovered in its waters. Meanwhile they still import wakame from the country of water since it’s a staple for various soups and side dishes.

In The Country of Water, they consumed more the wild varieties of different crops like wild black rice, quinoa & amaranth as a main source of carbs.

In Kiri, they seasoned everything with pepper, everything; rice, bitter herbs, fish & seafood, grains. Some regions of the country of water house the spiciest pepper you can find in the warm months of the summer and the most frost resistant cabbages during the cold months. Now, they import a lot of pepper product from The country of lightning during the most of the year. Most of the seasoning is onion-based but the access to salt from the waters allowed the spectrum of seasoning to widen but also utilize is in order to ferment or pickle foods for the winter making pickled goods a staple in the cuisine of Kiri even for pickled fish.

Staple/Classic Kiri meal= Grilled fish, Samenome, spicy pickled cabbage, amaranth crepe of fritters, bitter herbs, pepper sauce

Kumogakure (Country of Lightning) The cuisine of Kumogakure is different than typical meals you would find in other nations. Like Suna the uniqueness reveals itself in their cuisine since its most popular dishes are made of ingredients that can only be found in the country of lightning. Cuisine of Kumogakure follows various principals making their reputation.

Beef is a luxury food. Due to its location, residents of the country of lightning were consuming other animals like sheep and goat who are abundant in rocky areas. The first wild buffalos were in fact imported from neighbor countries and are domesticated for food in small quantities because most green pasture (outside of main cities) are already occupied by sheeps. Many attempts were made to grow the bovine population but failed due to competition for food and access to grass.

Meat is more regarded as side dishes since their protein source mostly come from green vegetable and beans. Like in Suna, where legumes are praised for their high nutritional value but in the country of wind they eat lentils & chickpeas, meanwhile in Kumo they are eating kidney beans, black eyes peas and their infamous black beans. Each nation has a particular legume/bean/pulse they cherish in their cuisine. The Country of fire is house to all types of sprouts like of mung bean and edamame/soy beans. Interestingly, the practice of making tofu comes from Amegakure and has spread to neighboring nations. In Kiri, they eat beans in their original form, simple steamed and sometimes raw so they prefer yardlong beans and peas of different kinds.

· The land of lightning is famous for their abundance of herbs & spice. Hence why they weren’t as enthusiast to rush into meat consumption since they can make many vegetables taste amazing by seasoning it right. Plants like ginger, turmeric, various varieties of peppers, allspice, paprika, star anise & parsley are native to the area. the exception is garlic since it can be found abundantly across the ninja world.

· The cuisine of Kumo could be defined as quick and simple. Hence why they are numerous meals in bites sizes like fried dough (a popular street food), samoussa, meat/bean patties, dried sweet potatoes chips (chouji’s favorite). Unfortunately, frying/pan-frying is a prominent method of cooking so to balance the diet the preparation of vegetables filled stews and soups comes in the picture and they don’t eat foods like white rice. First, because it does not grow in the region at all, instead it’s the rare place where eating brown rice is thing and meals like fermented pureed yam are often use as a substitute for rice along many sauces and stews (after white rice became popular across the ninja world.). In Suna, they sticked to basmati rice and Kiri to black rice but white rice & sweet rice (hybridized in the country of fire) has always been one of the first food to be distributed is smaller nations in food crisis and for daily consumption because of how easily it is to massively produce and for their poorer nutritional value.

(ex: meat/beans patties, sweet potatoes chips, deep fried dough (bottom pic above) called ふわふわ/Fuwa Fuwa meaning Fluffy since the yeast used to make them creates a treat light and airy/fluffy like clouds & samoussa)

· SAUCE, SAUCE, SAUCE. Again, we said people from the Cloud love when it’s simple (hence why many dishes from Konoha like Takoyaki seems like an equation of calculus to them but those who could taste it enjoyed it actually). Its ‘’we dump all in the pot and let it cook’’ cooking style. If your meal doesn’t have a sauce of any kind, its not from Kumo. Many of them contained some form of peanut butter (a national pride food). The country of lightning is the biggest producer of peanuts and use it in various dishes

(exemples: peanut soup, fermented cassava pulp, cassava leave sauce, callaloo/amaranth soup, spinach peanut butter sauce )

· Did you know that Kumo’s peanut brittle’s distant cousin is the Nougat from Suna? It’s the Raikage’s favorite snack. Like the menu of the wedding feature the country most prized, popular, and fancy meals, most of them are the raikage’s favorites.

(from left to right, Nougat (from Suna) & Peanut Brittle also called 稲妻バー/Inazuma bars meaning Lightning Bars) because when you prepare them it is tradition to punch the plate in the middle to break it into smaller portions, it looks like the food got hit by lightning.

Many exotic tropical grows outside of big cities like mangos, pineapples & papayas making fruit the main sugar intake in the Kumo diet.

#naruto modern au #naruto #boruto #naruto headcanons #naruto imagines #boruto naruto next generations #boruto headcanons #boruto imagines #headcanons #naruto shippuden #naruto au #naruto uzumaki #haku yuki #zabuza momochi #choji akimichi #karui akimichi #chocho akimichi #konoha #konohagakure #sunagakure #KIRIGAKURE #kirigakure #kumo #kumogakure #killer bee #anime food #food #sasuke uchiha #headcanon #imagines

[the-habitat-ring]

The (Real) Stardew Valley Farm Update

Okay, so I meant to post way more about this, but the past year involved a truly inhumane number of medical appointments including driving an hour away 2-3 times a week all summer, so . . . not a lot of time for gardening and not much energy for posting. Fingers crossed that this year goes better!

To refresh, I'm trying to grow everything from Stardew Valley in our yard, with substitutions as needed, preferably with Midwest USA native plants. 2021 and 2022 can be found here, with my original plans for what I was going to do for 2023 and 2024.

2021: Additions/Corrections

Starfruit - Native wood sorrel (thanks to @alienskyler1 for teaching me that they were related!)

Cave Carrot - Queen Ann’s Lace, AKA wild carrot (also plenty of cultivated carrots)

2023: What Actually Happened

Garlic - Native wild garlic

Blueberries

Wild Horseradish - Not wild, contained in a raised bed on concrete because I don't want it to get too wild (also a mint containment system!)

Hops - Teamaker hops which is good for tea. It struggled in the summer so maybe tea this year?

Winter Root - I went with hopniss, aka groundnuts, a native vine with tubers you dig up in winter

Fiddlehead Fern - Native hayscented fern

Poppy - Native wood poppy

The ferns and poppies were planted in the fall, so hopefully they come up well this spring!

2024: The Plan

Blue Jazz - Native Ozark Bluestar (one of my winter sowing seeds)

Apricot Tree - Native passionflower vine, known as wild apricot (winter sowing)

Sunflower - Winter sowing two native sunflowers, and will hopefully be growing some massive non-native ones as well

Summer Spangle - Native prairie lily (winter sowing)

Palm Tree/Coconut - Native palm sedge. I'll grow this from seed once it warms up

Pineapple - White strawberries (pineberries)

Pumpkin

Melon

Oak Tree - Native dwarf chinquapin oak (it's been shockingly hard to get my hands on one)

Sweet Pea

Hot Pepper

Parsnip

Corn

Ancient Fruit - Native Aronia (they're blueish and have lots of antioxidants so you live to be ancient)

We'll see how it goes!

Planned for 2025 and Beyond:

Potato

Red Cabbage

Artichoke - Native Jerusalem artichokes

Cactus Fruit - Native prickly pear cactus

Yam

Bok Choy

Leek

Blackberry

Holly - Native winterberry holly

Crystal Fruit - Honey berries, which produce fruit earlier than anything else

Mushrooms - I'm just gonna ignore varieties and try some plugs or similar

???????

Still trying to figure out doable substitutes for these

Rice

Wheat

Qi Fruit - Very creepy

Taro Root - I would have to plant it in pots

Snow Yam

Mahogany Tree

Peach Tree

Pomegranate Tree - I could try Russian pomegranates?

I'll try to do a better job this year keeping everyone updated. It's been such a fun project and I'm so glad I decided to go for it!

#the (real) stardew valley farm #the habitat ring #gardening #don’t be a petaq grow native plants #stardew valley #sdv #I make bad decisions but at least the wildlife love me

[lu-lus-duckies]

As Leonid Parfenov said, “Good afternoon, dear friends." In short, good time of the day. While I was studying Mayakovsky's poems, several more questions came to my mind.

Who is your favorite poet? Author? What languages do you know? How many? Are you planning to study any others? Favorite book/movie/show? Why are you on Tumblr? What are searching for? PC or console? If console, which one? Apple or Android? If Apple, then which one, and if Android, then which one? Apples or pears? In general, fruits, vegetables or berries?

Haha, no, I am not Russian spy. Or am I???

But seriously, I just like making friends online, and I made you, a mysterious stranger, whoever is managing this blog, basically my friend, because you reply to me, I reply to you, and that's all I need

ha, nice try russian spy. I know what you are

my favorite poet is rustaveli which is a georgian poet. surprisingly I don't read much poetry. he's just got vefxistyaosani

I can speak only 2 fluently, my native language goergian and english, though at this point I know more english than my own. I can say maybe a few sentences in german and spanish and I can read a lot more alphabets than I can speak. I can read russian but I don't know what the words mean

I am not planing on studying anything. I hate reading, it's one of the reasons why I chose arts

favorite book? don't have one, I hate reading. favorite movie? don't have one since i've seen like 3 in total. favorite show? whatever cartoon I've watched most recently. right now that is hazbin hotel and ramshackle

I made this account on a whim to post some ideas I had and maybe get back to making art for fun. long story short, daddy nunalastor welcomed me in their arms and now I have 20+ husbands and a really bad obsession with daddy nunalastor to the point where I might start questioning my own sexuality

I'm searching for your location, mr russian spy

pc. I don't have consoles. I have a really old pc that I'm surprised is still alive somehow

android, I like being able to customize and I really don't like apple's marketing tactics. I could go into full detail about why I hate apple so much but I can see the appeal of apple products ngl

I have a samsung A52 cuz I'm broke but my favorite android phone of all time is samsung s21 ultra. i absolutely love the design. google pixels seem nice too

apples. I hate pears

good question. I'm a picky eater so I can't answer this question. probably vegetables

#btw dw #I'm just messing around <3 I can stop accusing you of bein a russian spy tho if you feel uncomfy #lulu is feral #lulu lore #lulu asks

[songsofbloodandwater]

4) what’s march look like in your corner of the world? - @adderstruck (followed from my main btw!! thanks for the follow 🙂)

Hello! of course ♡

You know, I've actually been thinking about this for a bit now. The difference in ambience I found after I came back home in the beginning of autumn, compared to when I left in the beginning of summer.

Since I'm on the southern hemisphere, autumn has just started. The first thing I noticed when I came back home is the absence of my much beloved green parrots! they're an incredibly abundant species here and love to make so much noise in the spring and summer, and they're really fun to watch too. I actually miss them. Most of the wild animals that would be common sight around spring and summer either migrate or simply become a little harder to see around this time of year. The plant life doesn't really change much, at least the natives, as I'm on a pretty desertic region that has mostly perennial native species. The very few exotic species people tend to use for decoration tend to also be perennials (pine or juniper, for example) so you're not going to see that much of a change in greenery. The weather slowly gets chillier and the winds stronger. Which also means thunderstorms happen more often, and last for longer, sometimes the rainy weather lasts for an entire week or more. I like to think of it as our own semi-tropical rainy season!

March is also when the season for some of my favorite fruits and veggies begins here (apples, watermelons, pears, lemons, oranges, tangerines... so much deliciousness!) and that means I get to make warm fruit tea more often and eat whole watermelons by myself 😂

Something as simple as eating watermelon or making fruit teas helps me stay connected to my Beloved Dead, and warms my heart, because It's what we always did together as the season began. Anytime I sit down to have some watermelon slices or make some tea, I like to prepare them something to drink and eat aswell and place the plate of fruit and teacups in my Ancestral altar. It's really as simple as that, doing with their spirits just as we'd be doing if they were still in the flesh.

Thanks for asking!

#ask #asks #my notes #Blood and Water

[brightgnosis]

Trying to think of how I'm going to do the yard at the Farm, and where all the various gardens are going to go- especially given how my Husband would like things to be.

We know we're going to put the main Food Garden on the other side of the old Chicken Run out there (which we plan on rebuilding eventually- but for now it's just kind of a property marker), and the Herb Garden on the inside between the Chicken Run and the Well House / House-House. That way neither of them are really too far off for me to take care of or to grab things for cooking.

I know I want the Rosemary by the front door rather than in the Herb Garden with the rest of the Herbs, too. But since it's a pendo-perennial here, it'll have to stay in a pot rather than be put in the ground- that way it can be brought in for Winter. I also need to figure out which "front door" is going to be the official front door before I can even put it by one, since my Husband and I's opinions on that matter significantly differ right now.

I think I also found an okay spot for Fruit Trees on the west side of the Chicken Run where the old Pear Tree is; the Pear Tree's 90% dead and needs to come down now, and it looks like there's an old Dwarf Apple over there, too, that's dead. So we can pull those out and just plant a few newer Dwarf varieties over there. My only concern about it is that we're in the valley of the house up the hill- which means we'll get the colder temps and burn off our frost slower. But there's nowhere uphill to plant on the property. So it looks like I'll just have to deal with it, cover them each year, and pray.

Then up front by the giant Oak, we've already discussed putting a bench there and letting him have that space for his own garden since that tree means a lot to him. Plus, he also tends to lean towards plants that wind up needing a lot of shade or partial shade- and that areas nice and shady. So it's perfect for them. Then I think I'm going to have that slowly transition into the Moon Garden at the front of the house. That is, after we take out all the Cane that's growing there and install a nicer barrier of flowering shrubs; if that's going to be the Moon Garden, then I think I'll go for mostly white flowering Shrubs.

The old antenna tower's still in place, too. It's not functional anymore, however (obviously). So I want to use it as a climbing structure for some vines; probably for a combination of our native Passionflower, Coral Honeysuckle, and maybe some American Wisteria depending on how much it can really handle; it's a pretty thin tower (though it's still sturdy- and tall) so it may only handle just one. I'll have to look into all three's overall vining habits and average old age growth weights to prevent it from coming down in the future. I know American Wisteria can still be pretty aggressive and heavy in old age- though Passionflower and Coral Honeysuckle, I'm not sure.

There's also an old Cattle Pen across the driveway by the barn that's currently forested in with overgrowth. Depending on if my Husband sees any real use for it otherwise, I'd eventually like to convert that into my Rose and Peony Garden; it's nice and sunny with little shade. So it's the perfect spot for it.

I don't know how he'd really feel about me moving his mother's old Peony over there with them, but I can split it up and plant two on either side of the other porch then move the third over there with the rest. I just hate where the Peony's at now. It's in the middle of everything, and it's just such an obnoxious and inconvenient spot. She really just ... Does things without rhyme or reason.

Anyways, it's all a really long way off. We've still gotta get my Brother in Law's nonsense out of the house, rip out the kitchen and bathroom, tear out the floor for half the damned house, and then get everything rebuilt- plus deal with the siding and foundation issues well before we can get to anything else. Let alone any plans for the yard (though I guess the earlier we get the fruit trees in, really, the better. Especially since we're already trying to deforest the massive overgrowth on the land while we're in the middle of all this, anyways).

But it's nice, still, to start thinking about our later plans for the Farm now. That way we know what we're doing and can mold the house in that direction as we go; as opposed to getting the house done, then getting out there and realizing we've not only no idea what we're doing, but also no plans for how to proceed (and no furniture to furnish a house again when it comes time, to boot).

#ReTaming The Farm #Verderer #Gardening #Oklahoma #Personal #2023 #Witchy Gardening #Witches Garden #Witch's Garden #Green Witch #Green Witchcraft #Gardenblr #Plantblr

[violetequus8]

thanks for the tag, @teejaystumbles! I'm alive believe it or not :)

Rules: Tag 10 (or less) people you want to get to know better

relationship status: as those in my server know, I am for the first time in my life Not Single. The Girlfriend is why I haven't been writing as much, LOL. (I'm very happy)

favourite colour: green! with purple coming in close second! But always, always, green my beloved

song stuck in my head: Right now it's DEAN's "come over," and Shocking Blue's "Venus."

three favourite foods: I am a sucker for mac n' cheese, and cheese, and olives. Yeah.

last song I listened to: "Back in Town" by Tuxedo

dream trip: I will admit, I've been enthralled by the Mongolian Plains for years and years. I'd love to go out into them, on horseback, and just be out in the middle of nowhere with all that empty space, in the six feet of space between heaven and earth and something like that... Admittedly, I am from the Appalachian regions. I should probably visit Ohio or another flat, empty state before romanticizing Mongolia.

last thing(s) i googled: "native pennsylvania cactus" There is, in fact, a cactus species native to PA. It's Optunia humifusa, the Eastern prickly pear cactus. It has edible fruit, and looks like this:

tagging: @tj-dragonblade, @fractalspaces, @blueberrymffn, and anyone else who wants to join!

#ask meme #equus8 asks #equus talks

[darth-lemoncupid]

🖊 + Emma!

so happy you asked! especially because a good chunk of my (now) 80 hours of playing is literally dedicated to my darling sith warrior. i played liffessia today and wasn't feeling it as much (but it may also be because i'm tired).

anyways i think she's so pretty (the game doesn't run at a higher resolution rn because i don't want my computer to die running its fan).

anyways, here are some things about her (certain things).

sweetest tooth to ever exist

sweets can be expensive and desserts are very laborious to make. because of all the money and time and effort it takes into making them, she rarely had sweets as a child. as an adult, she eats anything sweet left and right. does not matter what. she's willing to try any dessert or sweet at least once. quinn finds it very concerning how much sweet things she eats.

everyone's asian mom

in that she's always cutting fruit when she can. to be fair, it's a habit. she used to work in the kitchen and spent a lot of time cutting fruit. she does love fruit, all kinds. but her taste in fruit can get quite expensive because she was restricted from eating these fruits as a child. not that she can't enjoy the simpler fruits but having access to wealth meant she could eat the fruits she was previously not allowed to eat. emma's favorite fruits are mango-like and dragonfruit-esque fruits native to eria, her home planet, as well as a fruit with a similar texture to a korean pear.

forget rations

emma very much has a preference for cooking, considering that was part of her labor as a servant. she would often go out to markets to buy the fresh produce and meats used for the meals that day. so when she can, she prefers to cook. it's time consuming yes, but the ship smells really good afterwards. although no one is allowed in the kitchen when emma's cooking. she almost stabbed quinn and pierce when they came in.

too many branches

the nymeria family is a big family. her grandfather, xandtris, had a good amount of children. six to be precise. three women, two men, and one child. emma is the child of the third child and secondborn daughter: carielia. all of her aunts and her uncles and her pibling are married with children so she has plenty of cousins. and then her mother also married and had kids, so she has half-siblings as well. she's the only child of her father, eddie. (so basically i have to visualize this family tree now)

cousins are awful

many people ask emma how she got her scar. from a brutal battle? did a smuggler attack her at an erian market? what about a hostile acolyte? the story is actually much sadder. when one of her cousins decided to take out his emotions on her father, who had done nothing but be a faithful servant, she had to step in. because of emma's defiance, her cousin cut her face. that was also the first time she used the force, force choking her cousin. it's not a bad scene to imagine, force choking someone while there's blood running down your face. but the scar became something her cousin constantly demeaned her for. "how can you be sith when i was able to cut you so easily?"

family heirloom

xandtris's daughters decided not to dedicate their lives to being sith. so when emma fell into his hands, he decided to turn her into the sith his daughters decided not to be. thus, he passes down onto her a ferronnière-esque headband with a metal ornament. it was a symbol of the sith women in their family.

battle scars

for a few years after getting her scar, emma would put cosmetics on it in order to hide it better. you could still tell it was there, but she was able to color correct and blend enough that it reduced its presence. it wasn't until she got to the sith academy on korriban did people tell her to stop hiding it. it was a symbol of pride, a symbol of being sith before she knew she was sith. so she stopped covering it up with the encouragement of her peers.

first love

before becoming sith, emma actually had a long term, healthy relationship with her childhood friend prialik. a red twi'lek boy, they interacted a lot as children while working on the nymeria estate. their relationship lasted a good four years, with her scarring and the revelation of her true parentage happening a year after they got together in secret. a lot of people are surprised to learn that emma had a relationship in general considering that she appears to be very career oriented. quinn was surprised to learn this and so was vette (it was something to tease her lord about). they grew distant as her grandfather started training her to be a sith and prep her for the sith academy on korriban. to be fair, not exactly their fault (that's kind of what happens when you have an asshole for a grandpa). emma used to skip her sith lessons to be with her boyfriend. but she stopped after her grandfather threatened to kill prialik. in turn, her grandfather gave the young twi'lek man a large sum of credits to use to start a new life and find his mother and sister. so like anyone, prialik took the money. he left emma at their spot, where she waited all night for him. they were supposed to spend her last night on eria together only for him to not show up, paid by her grandfather to basically break up with her. she left heartbroken and was given the advice to use her heartbreak as a fuel for her anger and hatred. but emma could never hate prialik, her first love.

gentle beauty

emma was considered a gentle beauty among the nymeria estate on eria whether it's from other servants or the people at the markets that saw her almost every day. she was known to be softspoken, have a light touch, and have soft hands. she also had long hair, often put in a hairnet or tied up. she didn't cut her hair until the morning she was supposed to leave for the korriban sith academy, deciding to enter the new stage of her life with a different look. after all, sith weren't supposed to look gentle and soft, right? even with her scar, lots of people on eria acknowledged her gentle beauty. the main issue now is that she's changed. she's changed a lot.

#swtor #swtor oc #swtor sith warrior #sith warrior #emma nymeria

[swishswooosh]

So Tokyo Mew Mew and name changes

I love wiki deep dive, one of my favorite hobbies, and I love discovering silly trivia about my childhood idols

4kids is the root of all evil apparently

Also assigning Mew Mews with food-inspired names was a cute idea, which worked with varying levels of success. English just gave them random names which have nothing to do with their colors or powers. It's just lazy

Also also long post but what's new

Ichigo Momomiya (Mew Ichigo/Strawberry)

🍓 are generally considered cute I think, pink, girly, sweet etc etc. There are people named Strawberry in the world for real

Zoey Hanson. Zoey was probably an English standard name but it I'll stretch it - it comes from Greek and means life. Fitting for a protagonist ig

Strawberry (Italian), Berry (Korean) or Strawberry translations Chau-Mui (Cantonese). Morango (Portuguesse) and Luleshtrydhe in Albanian. Mew Shtrydhe for transformation purposes

Minto Aizawa (Mew Mint)

Mint is my favorite mew name and food-related name. It works very well. I also love mint the plant. I love blue too. I have parrots. I'm short. I WOULD LOVE TO FLY. Basically I am Mew Mint but poor powerless version

Corina Bucksworth sounds rich ig

Variations of Mint - Mina, Menta

French went another extra mile - Corina Dujardin De Montéclair. Also there is no Mew Name so does she go corina-duetc-CLAIR METAMORPHOSIS because that would send me rolling

Retasu Midorikawa (Mew Lettuce)

First things first -why Lettuce? Why not, idk, Apple or Lime or even Pear? *research shows there is already a mew red apple

Bridget Verdant. I'll give them some points here, Verdant comes from old French for green and I'll add Bridget is bridging people on more than one occasion

Lory Midorikawa in Italian and Lori in Albanian. Is cute

Korean is Leti Bae. The Lettuce bae, I can't (she's still Mew Lettuce tho)

Lettuce translations - Alface Midorikawa (Portuguese), Wō-Jù BìChuān (Mandarin) are very cute. Still Lettuce tho

In Cantonese she is...wait for it...PARSLEY (Hueng-Choi). THERE ARE GREEN FRUITS PEOPLE. If you really want her to be a vegetable melon would've been fine. And yes, she is also Mew Parsley.

For yall who knew her as literally lettuce in your native language how didn't you loose it at every episode????? Mew Lettuce to save the day. Top tier concept. Or parsley

Bu-Ling Huang (Mew Pudding)

also Purin Fon (Japanese pronunciation)

Mew Pudding is my second fave nickname actually - Bu Ling sounds like Pudding and she creates giant puddings to trap things inside. Love it. Moving on

Kikki Benjamin is an adorable name, if you completely ignore that she's a character of Chinese descent in Japanese series

Pudding translations such as Pudim (Portuguesse)

In Italian she is Paddy Wong. Sounds like a 57yo aunt

Zakuro Fujiwara (Mew Zakuro)

because she is too cool to be Mew Pomegranate out loud duh

The other choice for purple would've been Mew Grape so I guess Pomegranate is as good as it gets. And before you say blueberries duh I think we would have a bit of traffic jam with Strawberry and the actual Mew Berry from manga I haven't read. Or just call them all Mew Berry because so many plants are actually berries anyway

Renée Roberts. Is one cool name tho. Flashbacks of elementary school No I AM Renée shouty arguments (except that one girl who wanted to be Zoey because then she could boss us around)

Ruby Ja and Mew Ruby in Korean. Ruby. Which is red. Hmmmmm

Sakura Fujiwara in Indonesian. I hope not a reference to Sakura tree which is, yknow, pink

Italians named her Pam (Fujiwara). Hi Pam. Mew Pam. Mew Mew Pam. Mew Pam Rampampa-sorry, moving on

Pomegranate translations Shí-Liú (Mandarin) and Romã (Portuguesse). In Thai she is Mew Pom pompompo-sorry

#tmm #tokyo mew mew #mew mew power #ichigo momomiya #minto aizawa #retasu midorikawa #bu ling huang #zakuro fujiwara

[old-archivist]

@onuen replied to your post “Foods of Thedas: Comics”:

That's awesome! :O Thanks for all that work, I just love that kind of post so much! So many interesting questions making my brain go brrr. ^-^ Could those tropical fruits in Ferelden be mostly imports? It doesn't make much sense to me that they could grow any of those with such a cold climate / wet soils. Like, I don't live in a place nearly as cold nor wet and even with the climate change, I still can't grow any of those. Guess that's fantasy universes for you. ^-^

​I'm glad you like it!

The short answer is yes, because that was likely the thought while creating these scenes. However, I'm a plant nerd with an fair amount of gardening/agriculture experience in different climate zones. So seeing those fruits in Ferelden stuck out like a sore thumb since I have been hip deep in figuring out climates of Thedas and food for awhile now.

The long answer is that the issue arises with the fact that Thedas doesn't transport things nearly as quickly or reliably as we do in modern day, which affects the cost of produce for us. So, going off the travel times we know for Thedas (and comparing it to my own personal estimates) there isn't really a reliable way for them to transport fruit like bananas from Antiva or Rivain before they spoiled. Orlais would be pushing it, and even then, it would likely be restricted to the rich and nobility.

The most likely way for Ferelden to have those fruits available to the common folk would be to grow them themselves, otherwise the cost would force it to be restricted to rich merchants and nobility.

With Thedas, trade is much more dangerous, unpredictable, and it's difficult to transport perishables. Something that Nordbotten Fruit Stew actually touches on.

"When an Anders is lucky, he is able to trade for dried fruit from Orlais or Antiva."

Distance wise the nearest known city in the Anderfels and more Southern areas of Ferelden are about the same depending on where the orchard is. Fields of Ghislain or somewhere in the Heartlands. That said, both ways have difficult to traverse mountainous terrain that often have dangerous creatures roaming about as well as some pretty harsh weather conditions.

In regards to the other fruits; oranges, lemons, and pears are all things they could grow themselves should they use espalier. If they didn't use espalier, pears and certain variety of oranges are pretty cold tolerant. So if they planted them in spots that were perhaps more sheltered or had the most sun year around, they'd be able to grow them fairly reliably and keep them affordable for the common folk.

Lemons however, are a bit trickier. If you think the classic meyer lemons or any European variety, no they wouldn't be able to handle Ferelden winters unless they did espalier along with other protective measures. However, if they grew yuzu lemons, which are native to eastern asia, they would likely be able to grow that particular variety in areas of Ferelden.

In the end, you could definitely say that they're imported. As we don't really have an consistency in regards to the scale of Thedas.

I personally can't suspend my disbelief that far. I also like the idea of Thedas having some creative and historically plausible ways to support foods outside of their native climate. However, you could also explain it as being produce from the circles as well since we know they do garden and there are magical agriculture methods, as we see in Val Royeaux.

#ask away #thanks for asking #Archi be answering #Foods of The Dragon Age Setting #Thedosian flora #Thedosian foods #Food transport and trade gets tricky #Bananas are the most fickle thing in the world though

[mattel-is-nobody]

Time to brainrot about something I guess since I'm being kept up with a migraine.

Now you probably wouldn't think it from looking at me, but I am actually very, very much deeply obsessed with linguistics. To an unhealthy degree, some might say. And one of my favorite linguistic concepts is "This is a stupidly hilarious pun in Language A, but it makes no sense in Language B" The prime example of this is an old Sumerian/Babylonian joke that at this point has had several thousand video essays written about it. You know the one: "A dog walks into a tavern. 'I can't see anything!' he says. 'I'll open this one.'"

And who could forget the Greek Philosopher Chrysippus? In one of the accounts of his death, it is said that he got a bit too drunk at a party and, upon witnessing a donkey eating figs, he said "someone should get that donkey some pure wine to wash down the figs!". He then fucking died of laughter at his own joke. Beause apparently that was the funniest shit he'd ever seen.

Now neither of those make sense in any living language or modern culture, but the fact that it was written down at all means it made enough people laugh for it to be worth recording. And it's fun to look at living languages and see what makes the native speakers laugh but still utterly baffles everyone else. Even better, digital archeaologists in a thousand years are going to have a field day with this post if they ever stumble upon it, so here are a few of my favorite untranslatable puns: Hungarian: A man is pulled over by the police. The officer asks, "Are you drunk?". The man replies, "No, sir, Ivett is my wife"

Japanese: Why dont Hawaiians go to the dentist? Good teeth.

Finnish: "A bar and a screwdriver". That's the entire joke, by the way. Set up and punchline, apparently both right there, and in the original Finnish it's only two words. Apparently it's a reference to something? I'm just going to assume this is a thing you say and people laugh, much like "omae wa, mou shinderu"

Spanish: What fruit is the most patient? It's a pear. So fun fact, my Aunt is from Mexico, and I decided to tell her this joke in the original Spanish (which as a consequence of having a Mexican aunt, I speak pretty well). And I shit you not that as soon as the words "es pera" left my mouth, she let out the longest, heaviest, most world-weary sigh I have ever heard in my 20 years of life, before returning to the tamales she was making. I guess she now knows that my pun game has transcended to include her native language, and in that moment she was preparing herself for the ensuing decades of Spanish wordplay

Another from Japanese because they are gods of wordplay: "7-Up, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, they're all types of what?" "Soda?" "That's right!"

Chinese: "Who is Mi's mother?" "Hua, because peanuts". I took Chinese in high-school and I can verify that this is the shittiest pun I've ever seen, but the reddit user who posted it says "I am yet to find a single Chinese/Taiwanese person who does not find it hilarious"

Aussie English (which I'm including both for English rep and because Aussie slang is so markedly different that Brits and Americans are still unlikely to get it): "What's the difference between fat and cholesterol? You can't crack a cholesterol".

Danish: One sign says to another, "Are you married?" The other replies, "No, I'm divorced"

AND MY PERSONAL FAVORITE: French: "He wished to be Caesar, but he died as Pompey" -- George Clémenceau, commenting on the death of President Felix Faure (I refuse to explain this one or give any further context, go look it up)

Oh and side note. Obviously, no world leader can speak every language, so interpreters are a necessity for negotiation. And of course, world leaders and diplomats are going to try the lighten the mood occaisionally with humor. But for negotiations between most countries, that's hard to do, because there are very few puns with much cross-linguistic utility. Sure, you have that one joke about where cats go when they die that works in English and most Romance languages, but for some more serious negotiations, the number of puns that would make sense in both languages is pretty close to zero, and may very well BE zero. So the question arises, how do interpreters deal with that? Of course there are a lot of possible methods, not all of which are good or even remotely efficient. You could just translate the pun word for word, but as evidenced by the fact that that's literally what I did above, it's not gonna work that well. Explaining the joke also isn't gonna fly, because as we all know, the second you explain a joke is the seond it becomes Not Funny Anymore. The method I've found that I think works best is just to say "They have said a pun that doesn't translate well to English. Laugh now." Which is funny not just because it works, but because it works amazingly. That person on the other end of the table (who we are assuming doesn't speak a lick of English) has no clue what the interpreter is saying, and so must assume their joke was translated faithfully. Sure, their interpreter might know depending on how the whole thing is set up, but considering the vetting process you have to go through to be an interpreter for the POTUS , I highly doubt anyone is going to risk national security over a joke being left untranslated. Both leaders have a laugh, everything ends on good terms, and we avoid nuclear annihilation for another few weeks.

#linguistics #language #puns #terrible puns #bad puns #rambles

[galadhir]

Food AND lawns

Very much in agreement with this post that says that people who don't have time/spoons/resources to turn their lawns into a food garden shouldn't feel obliged to do so, and I didn't want to derail it by making this comment under the post, so I'm here making a new one of my own.

Sometimes you don't want to dig up your lawn and start market gardening because it's a fuckton of work and honestly a second job all in itself.

But what if you don't have time to do all that, but you do still want to grow at least some food?

Perennials are the way to go.

Perennials are plants that you plant once and then they just carry on growing and getting bigger without you having to do much, if anything to them.

Say you've got a small garden with a lawn and a few flower beds. What can you do to grow food without changing the format of the garden at all?

Plant a couple of fruit/nut trees. Your plum/cherry/pear/peach/whatever trees will be covered in pink blossom in the spring. Your neighbours and your local pollinators will love you.

Don't worry about the tree getting too big - plant a dwarf variety and when it reaches a height you like, prune it back to that height every year.

In your flower beds, plant

globe artichokes (very decorative, have lovely flowers and sculptural foliage.)

rhubarb (colourful edible stems.)

wild garlic (edible cloves and leaves, beautiful white star shaped flowers)

walking onions

perennial kale

chard

perennial salad plants such as Salad Burnet, Miner's lettuce etc

Jerusalem artichoke

Mashua (a perennial relative of the nasturtium - you can eat the tubers like potatoes and the leaves in salad. Has lovely red nasturtium like flowers.)

Yakon (small sunflower-like flowers, big tubers that taste faintly of pear.)

Potatoes (honestly, they have lovely white flowers and as long as you don't dig all of them up this year, more will grow next year.)

Fennel (lovely lacy edible foliage and the root is also edible.)

any other perennial plant that might grow well in your area.

Remember that all of these plants will come back every year bigger than they were the year before. You should only need to plant them once and then leave them to get on with it.

There are loads of obscure perennial vegetables and fruits you can discover with a bit of research.

I recommend How to grow Perennial Vegetables by Martin Crawford as a great book to start with. It's a huge list of edible perennials, with details of where they like to grow, what you harvest from them, potential problems, and how to cook them

Also in your flower beds, plant

fruit bushes and fruit vines on pergolas (raspberry, blueberry, goji-berry, kiwi etc)

Now you've got some vegetables, salads, nuts and fruits growing in your flowerbeds, you can think about what to do to improve your lawn.

The lawn

The great thing about getting an eco-friendly lawn is that it all involves inaction - doing less work

Stop weedkilling

Stop watering the lawn. If it survives, great! If it doesn't survive, replace with native grasses that can.

Get some native wildflower plug plants and plant them into the lawn, or

Get some native wildflower seeds and oversow the lawn with them.

This will give you a lawn full of native plants that will support your local pollinators.

Take part in No Mow May to allow your wildflowers to flower, or if you can get away with it, stop mowing altogether except for a single hay cut once a year at the peak of the flowering season.

Result

Now you have a garden where you don't need to do anything except mow once or twice a year, compost/mulch once a year, and pick the produce, and it will still look (more or less) like a normal suburban garden.

#gardening #permaculture #solarpunk

[direcliff-island]

Direcliff Island - Day 1

March 20, 2020

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Islander name - Snips

Native fruit - Pear 🍐

Starting Villagers - Bam and Cherry

-----

I am loving the island life so far! It'd be nice if I could check out some of those other parts of my island, but I just gotta be patient. I paid off my island getaway package and I'm less than 20,000 bells away from paying off my first house loan. Bam gave me the hat I'm wearing and I got the nose out of a balloon present. Tomorrow is when things are really going to take off and I can't wait!

-----

Here's all of us hanging out!

When I tried to get a nice pic of my islander Bam thought he'd be funny and photobomb me

#animal crossing #animal crossing new horizons #acnh #acnh spoilers #animal crosing new leaf #animal crosing pocket camp #animal crossing bam #animal crossing cherry #ac cherry #ac bam #direcliff island

[broodsys]

excuse me while i dive into excessive detail abt my garden :')

cracks knuckles

so. so. we moved here smth like 9 years ago, at which point the previous owners had a chicken coop and wooden deck taking up most of the backyard. (side note: i'm almost certain there wasn't adequate space for the chickens)

credit goes to my mom for a lot of the major renovation into what it is now. the wooden deck was rotting and becoming increasingly dangerous, so with my brothers helping they all tore down the entire deck. it took a lot of time to physically stabilize and level the yard enough for it to be at least semi-functional after that, but we eventually ended up with a section of paver stones and a wide area of open soil

so much trial and error during these stages that im not going into bc im writing a blog post, not a novella, but suffice to say my current success was not easily or quickly won. i think the major turning point was when i did a "lasagna"/sheet mulch on the would-be garden area to enrich the soil, bc that was rly the first, big mark i made on the area

from there, it's grown finally into two planting beds made of those concrete blocks with 2 big holes cut out, which is important bc i wanted to and now have planted a ton in these "planting pockets" as i call them. they're marvelously appropriate for microgreens and also to keep track of small bulbs i want to see bloom but can't decide where to place permanently, lmao

in the last, idk, maybe 2 years ive rly leaned into it hard. now i have prolific blackberries, and i'm cutting down all the blackberries along the side yard after this season so the marionberry can replace it - natives > invasives, after all. (not that i can stop the blackberries from growing - they're all over the place, incl a lot of other ppl's property and sneaking over)

at the same time, my blueberry trio will have thoroughly established and my red raspberry should be doing great, considering how many berries we got off it this year, the year we bought it. goji berries are growing but slowly, so i'm not expecting much, but the gooseberry is taking off again. so wild, i love it. and the prickly pear cactus suffered root rot and i almost lost it, but i believe ive successfully rooted the topmost segment. it'll take time but i should eventually be able to try the cactus fruit. years tho.

also all my strawberry groundcover layers are doing rly well, and i get the occasional strawberry off them, tho they're mostly for evaporation control. it's still a challenge to grow a lot of veggies bc it's just not hot enough for them here, but im still doing rly good overall

oh, and my lemon tree is doing outrageously well... this year it's putting out leaves longer and wider than my hand. that's new. and the baby lemon tree i grew from seed from the first-ever harvested lemon from the original tree is putting out So Fucking Much new growth, i'm thrilled

my various planting areas are doing super well, too. rly beginning to fill them in. i have pink jasmine trellising by the front door and it's getting so full; two kinds of lilac along the front path; newly, a pretty and fragrant pink-blooming weigela shrub. three canna lillies (which aren't actual lillies, which i refuse to grow anywhere bc they're immensely toxic to cats) all with different flowers, and for the first time i found some seeds before they had developed their rly hard outer shell, so i'm trying to grow some more from seed. exciting!

im quite confident that the front long & skinny & hella shallow planter will have its usual forest of arugula, endive, and sage - but will hopefully also have miners lettuce. oh and the mum that somehow became a giant shrub in a tiny pot set in said long planter. ive had to brace it multiple times, it's sheer size is unreal

and im discovering that hellebores in our area remain evergreen thru summer after they're 2nd-3rd established year. just the leaves ofc, but it's still rly cool, i'm so proud of them. and i finally have some outdoor ferns that have stabilized and come back multiple times!