#Gardening Community

[androdconstruction]

The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.

~ Alfred Austin

[like-this-post-if-you]

Like this post if you have a communtiy garden

[borgevino]

the allergy i am seeing grow up around small talk in any form is troubling to me. do you know how to make friends with people in your physical environment? it typically starts with small talk. do you want to live in community? small talk. do you want to have the type of relationship with your neighbors where you can run over and borrow a battery for your smoke detector when it starts beeping at 10pm? small talk!! do you want leeway from your coworkers when you fuck up something small? you gotta be able to build a relationship and that's small talk, baybeee.

"but i don't need friends and i don't care about community!" okay, lone ranger, what about the people in your community who need you? "but i have social anxiety!" me too, bud! we simply must soldier on. making up lists of questions to ask people helps. and people are predisposed to be generous, i've found. even if you make some kind of mistake, what is this but the natural give and take of human interaction? nobody is perfect.

you were not put on this earth to live by yourself and then die. you need people and people need you. treat those around you with curiosity and generousness of spirit and you will gain so much goodwill in return.

[cselandscapearchitect]

Plant Show Essentials: Must-Have Items for Your First Pop-Up Plant Event

In recent years, the green-thumbed community has witnessed a delightful emergence in the horticultural world – the pop-up plant show. This innovative concept combines the allure of temporary events with the passion for houseplants, creating an ephemeral yet unforgettable experience for plant lovers. But what exactly is a pop-up plant show, and why has it become such a hit among those who adore…

[safecastle-sale]

Plant Hardiness Zone Map Updated

The United States Department of Agriculture has released an updated version of its Plant Hardiness Zone Map. The map is based on data from Oregon State University's PRISM Climate Group, and it reflects a shift towards warmer temperatures across the country.

What is the Plant Hardiness Zone Map?

The Plant Hardiness Zone Map is a tool that gardeners and growers use to determine which plants are most likely to survive in their area. It is based on the average annual extreme minimum winter temperature, and it divides the country into 13 zones.

What are the key changes in the new map?

The new map is about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 2012 map. This shift has resulted in about half of the country shifting to a warmer half zone, and half remaining in the same half zone. The central plains and Midwest have seen the most warming, while the southwestern U.S. has seen very little.

Zone 10a has been expanded to include parts of Texas and Louisiana, and Zone 11a has been expanded to include parts of California and Arizona. Zone 12b has been expanded to include parts of Florida and Hawaii.

How can I find my plant hardiness zone?

Gardeners and growers can enter their zip code at planthardiness.ars.usda.gov to find their plant hardiness zone.

[bebs-art-gallery]

𝓑𝒖𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒍𝒚 𝓕𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝓜𝒐𝒕𝒉 𝓕𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝓦𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅

© Malina Dowling

[queeranarchism]

If people make cutesy posts about growing food and herb spirals and composting but never talk about stuff like preventing and getting rid of rats in a garden, I get this suspision that they either haven't actually gardened much or they're more interested in presenting an aesthetically pleasing image than in actually preparing people to deal with a garden.

[yardenercom]

Get Digging: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Shovel

Don't get stuck with the wrong shovel! Our guide to Choosing a Shovel will help you find the perfect tool for your gardening or construction needs. Read more here.

[headspace-hotel]

This is approximate since calculations vary, but somewhere in the neighborhood of 20% of carbon emissions since the Industrial Revolution have come from destruction of terrestrial ecosystems—wetland destruction, deforestation, degradation of grasslands and so on

Soil, soil communities, root systems, carbonate rock, wood, living plants, and peat in wetlands—all holds carbon

Now consider what plants do for you

The mere sight of plants and trees improves mental and physical health. I won't elaborate much more upon this, the positive effects are incredible and overwhelming.

Trees and vines that shade your home and outdoor areas: reduce the cost of cooling, meaning less electricity is used. Shade reduces the risk of death in extreme heat events.

(Trees also reduce light and noise pollution)

Edible plants (many wild plants and many plants you can grow): provide you with food reducing your dependence on industrial agriculture and cars to reach supermarkets

Community gardens and orchards: creates resilience and interdependence among small local communities, reducing the power of capitalism and increasing the ability of individuals to organize and create change. Makes more sustainable and plant based diets accessible to people for whom they would ordinarily be inaccessible

Compost piles for gardening: less greenhouse gas emissions than result from waste breaking down anaerobically in landfills

No more traditional lawns: much less use of gas powered lawn mowers, weed whackers etc. which are, by themselves, significant contributions to carbon emissions and urban pollution

Crafting and creating using plants: Locally available wild plant species can be used by local crafters and creators for baskets and containers, yarn, fabrics, dyes, and the like, resulting in less dependence on unsustainable and unethical global industries

More people growing and gathering edible and useful plants and using them = larger body of practical, scientific and technological insights to draw from in order to solve future problems

In conclusion: Plants

[somethingcorenotsure]

I think it's so adorable that early humans took wild gourds - a tiny fruit that hollows out as it dries, making it float - and decided to make something out of it

they thought the tiny fruit was so good that they bred it for thousands of years, making it larger to form into bowls and cups, and different shapes to become bottles and spoons

and musical instruments

And then, people took the hollow gourds they farmed, and they turned them into houses for birds. We adapted them into the perfect houses for birds, and now there are specific breeds of birdhouse gourd just for making into birdhouses

And humans dedicated gardening space and time and thousands of years of breeding to make the gourds so absolutely perfect for birds, that there is a species of bird that lives almost exclusively in them

[ecozoic-futuresaur]

I need a front yard garden ASAP. They’re so fucking pretty. Let me be cute and feed my neighbors.

[pukpukovna]

🌿

[wickedshoesboutique]

[myliittledove]

Who wants to be girl best friends and all live on a big plot of land together and raise chickens and bake bread and garden together

[bumblebeeappletree]

Every once in a while I’ll see some posts about everyone should become vegan in order to help the environment. And that… sounds kinda rude. I’m sure they don’t mean to come off that way but like, humans are omnivores. Yes there are people who won’t have any animal products be it meat or otherwise either due to personal beliefs or because their body physically cannot handle it, and that’s okay! You don’t have to change your diet to include those products if you don’t want to or you physically can’t.

But there’s indigenous communities that hunt and farm animals sustainably and have been doing so for generations. And these animals are a primary source of food for them. Look to the bison of North America. The settlers nearly caused an extinction as a part of a genocide. Because once the Bison were gone it caused an even sharper decline of the indigenous population. Now thankfully Bison did not go extinct and are actively being shared with other groups across America.

Now if we look outside of indigenous communities we have people who are doing sustainable farming as well as hunting. We have hunting seasons for a reason, mostly because we killed a lot of the predators. As any hunter and they will tell you how bad the deer population can get. (Also America has this whole thing about bird feathers and bird hunting, like it was bad until they laid down some laws. People went absolutely nuts on having feathers be a part of fashion like holy cow.)

We’re slowly getting better with having gardens and vertical farms within cities, and there’s some laws on being able to have a chicken or two at your house or what-have-you in the city for some eggs. (Or maybe some quails since they’re smaller than chickens it’s something that you’d might have to check in your area.) Maybe you would be able to raise some honey bees or rent them out because each honey tastes different from different plants. But ultimately when it comes to meat or cheese? Go to your local farmers. Go to farmers markets, meet with the people there, become friends, go actively check out their farm. See how the animal lives are and if the farmer is willing, talk to them about sustainable agriculture. See what they can change if they’re willing. Support indigenous communities and buy their food and products, especially if you’re close enough that the food won’t spoil on its way to you. (Like imagine living in Texas and you want whale meat from Alaska and you buy it from an indigenous community. I would imagine that would be pretty hard to get.)

Either way everything dies in the end. Do we shame scavengers for eating corpses they found before it could rot and spread disease? Do we shame the animals that hunt other animals to survive? Yes factory farming should no longer exist. So let’s give the animals the best life we can give them. If there’s babies born that the farmer doesn’t want, give them away to someone who wants them as a pet. Or someone who wants to raise them for something else. Not everyone can raise animals for their meat. I know I can’t I would get to emotionally attached. I’d only be able to raise them for their eggs and milk.

Yeah this was pretty much thrown together, and I just wanted to say my thoughts and throw them into the void. If you have some examples of sustainable farming/agriculture, please share them because while I got some stuff I posted from YouTube, I’m still interested to see what stuff I might’ve missed!