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148
Joined
3 yr. ago

Small scale permaculture nursery in Maine, education enthusiast, and usually verbose.

  • I've given two of these after having been asked to do so during the reception (twice!). So here's some advice from an ad-libber, no bromance required:

    Tell a story about you and your friend. Maybe it's how you met, or an event that showed you that they were the kind of person you'd do this sort of thing for - either way, say something about this characteristic of your friend will help support their relationship with their partner. Try to fit in a joke about an annoying aspect of this positive trait that friends or family might have made in the past.

    If you know the spouse well enough, tell a short story about them and why they're a good partner for your friend. Drop a joke about how they'll (finally) be the sensible one who will reign in the annoying aspect you joked about earlier.

    Say something about how great they are as a team, and express a hope you have for the two of them as they start this new aspect of their lives. Tie it back to how they deserve great things because of the things you said earlier. If you wouldn't be the person standing there giving that speech without your friend, say so - regardless of whether you decide to speak about being trans during this speech or not.

    Remember that laughter is what happens when expectations are subverted in a surprising way, that everyone loves a good callback, and that groupings of three are more impactful, and you'll do great.

  • Babies!

    Jump
  • Wicked cute, thank you for sharing!

  • Huw Richards and Charles Dowding are both worth looking into

  • Look at those pollen pants!

  • In my experience, the ants that nest in our pots tend to favor the species we let have dry periods between waterings - in other words, our driest pots. If we can get the ants out of the picture, the aphids will lose their defenses and your predators can have a field day.

    One method we've had some success with is submersion in water, using medium to large storage totes depending on the size of the pots. The tunnels flood and sometimes collapse, and you can flush them out.

    Something else you could use is diatomaceous earth, which is generally available in garden and hardware stores. Make sure to liberally coat the soil surface and stem, and try to dust the aphids as well. Don't inhale it. You'll need to reapply it whenever it gets wet, so I'd recommend bottom watering whatever you can - I have a few small (1m x .3m) rubber boot trays I use for that. Something to note is that the DE is a broad-spectrum tool, so it won't discriminate between the ants, aphids, or the predatory insects.

  • Someone on the town crew was out with the boom flail mower, mowing on the sides of the road. Ostensibly, it's to keep the drainage channels clear and to reduce plants from reaching out into the road. Guy mowed my entire front row of ferns, skipped some lilies, then mowed down my flowering and decorative grasses. At one point, he must have lifted the boom to avoid an Iris, but then brought it back down on another flowering grass in the middle of my front gardens. They'll survive, but my front garden is going to look destroyed for a few weeks at least while they recover.

    In more positive news, we had some friends and their son visit on Sunday. My wife took the other ladies around to walk in the gardens at one point while I was cooking - I found out later that we're part of the inspiration for some folks who are looking to start a sober living space!

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  • There are something like twelve common names in english, it was introduced to me as "oregano brujo" (wizard's oregano). It's most strongly oregano in its aerosol phenols but when I've used it in meals (usually in a slow cooker) it's got notes of the thymol that come through.

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  • Coleus amboinicus -> Plectranthus amboinicus and I'm back to having no coleus, I'll never forgive

  • 600G of strawberries retails for £4.50 (Tesco). If this whole setup cost only a million pounds, a producer would have to grow 133,333,332G worth of strawberries to pay it off, and this assumes nothing breaks (ever) and that there is some way to harvest that many strawberries without paying labor, packaging, licensing, and other costs. I feel like this was a cool tech demo but that's about it

  • We've grown butternut and pumpkins on trellising with no significant weight issues - one or two huge guys that I cut off to cure elsewhere while the others kept growing, sure. If you're doing cukes, zukes, or other summer or small squash you should be good to go though.

  • I'm so glad the exclusion barrier is working for your squashes! Can you train them up some trellising with any sort of ease?

    I think that whst I thought were Brussel sprouts are actually cucumber, and what I thought was cucumber is Brussel sprouts so neither is where I wanted them

    Oh no ......

  • I am stunned by how crisp those hoverflies in the photo are! And those lovage flowers are spectacular

  • I mean this as constructively as possible: that's not a composting toilet and the practice you've described raises health risks for you and the people to whom you give food.

  • I usually prefer non-human animal manures for that sort of thing. Are you using a composting toilet or some other mechanism to reduce pathogenic potential?

  • That is a good morning!

  • I bit the bullet and ordered some shirts to wear while I'm working the market stand, and I'm hopeful that they make everything more cohesive. Logo is the front, catchphrase is the back:

    I helped a friend out of a bind this week, and tomorrow I'll be helping another friend start to transplant his garden from his old house to his new one. Hopefully this heat dome doesn't ruin our efforts.

  • Friendly reminder that lightning bugs need tall grasses present in addition to wildflowers and leaf litter. You can also improve their survival rates by removing artificial lighting or even just setting any safety lighting (like motion activated lamps) to their shortest "on" duration. Another obvious step is to avoid pesticides.

    https://www.fws.gov/story/save-fireflies

  • I adore how consistently I get to learn about unfamiliar plants when you post! Your space sounds so lovely 💕

  • We're in USDA 5, and looking at its cold tolerance we still trend lower than the -10C/14F I see listed for it, sometimes for weeks on end.

  • Animals and Pets @beehaw.org

    Juniper pets a pig

  • Nature and Gardening @beehaw.org

    What's growing on, Beehaw?

  • Nature and Gardening @beehaw.org

    Hosta luego

  • Nature and Gardening @beehaw.org

    Sea Kale and Dappled Willow

  • Nature and Gardening @beehaw.org

    What's growing on, Beehaw?

  • Animals and Pets @beehaw.org

    Ssssssssssssexy times

  • Animals and Pets @beehaw.org

    Shy longfriend

  • Nature and Gardening @beehaw.org

    What's growing on?

  • Nature and Gardening @beehaw.org

    Identifying fruit trees by their flowers

    growgreatfruit.com /what-normal-fruit-trees-look-like/fruit-trees-flowers/
  • Nature and Gardening @beehaw.org

    What's growing on, Beehaw?

  • Animals and Pets @beehaw.org

    Pollen pants pal

  • Nature and Gardening @beehaw.org

    What's growing on, Beehaw?

  • Animals and Pets @beehaw.org

    Fowl play in the row garden

  • Animals and Pets @beehaw.org

    Worth two in the bush

  • Nature and Gardening @beehaw.org

    What's growing on, Beehaw?

  • Nature and Gardening @beehaw.org

    Food forests are bringing shade and sustenance to US cities, one parcel of land at a time

    theconversation.com /food-forests-are-bringing-shade-and-sustenance-to-us-cities-one-parcel-of-land-at-a-time-197388
  • Nature and Gardening @beehaw.org

    What's growing on, Beehaw?

  • Nature and Gardening @beehaw.org

    What's growing on, Beehaw?

  • Nature and Gardening @beehaw.org

    flood irrigation

  • Nature and Gardening @beehaw.org

    Turn those winter cuttings into conservation with a ‘dead hedge’

    www.inverness-courier.co.uk /lifestyle/turn-those-winter-cuttings-into-conservation-with-a-dead-he-376988/