#OUTDOOR PROJECTIONS

[anipgarden]

What Kind of Plants to Add

This is my sixth post in a series I’ll be making on how to increase biodiversity on a budget! I’m not an expert–just an enthusiast–but I hope something you find here helps! 

I’d love to be able to give a quick and easy list of things to add, but frankly I can’t do that. I can strongly encourage you, however, to look at these categories of plants and do further research to discover what’s native to your area, so you can plant things that’ll have the most impact in your particular area.

With that being said, I will mention a few plants as examples. This is in no way, shape, or form me telling you that you have to or even should buy these specific plants. Not every plant works well in every place in every garden, not to even mention across countries. Above all, if you’re wondering what plants you should be adding, I can wholeheartedly say plants that are native to your area--or at least nonnative non-invasive.

Flowers

Flowers are some of the most common ways people work to increase biodiversity in their gardens, and who can blame them? Seeing pops of color out your window, and directly seeing the impact via butterflies and bees visiting the garden? It’s a win-win for us and the wildlife!

Flowers--especially native wildflowers--are a quick, easy, and cheap way to increase wildlife traffic in your garden. Perennial gardens are more likely to get you the most bang for your buck, as they’ll come back year after year if you treat them well. But don’t dismiss annuals--if you get ones that easily reseed, they’ll eagerly return on their own! If you can, do your best to ensure that the flowers you plant all have different blooming periods--that way, your garden can support wildlife throughout the year instead of for just one brief season. 

Flowers are environmental super boosters. Their nectar and pollen can feed insects and birds, their stems and leaves can provide nesting materials for all sorts of creatures, and their seeds are a popular food source among birds at all times of the year.

Climbing Plants

Climbing plants can be fantastic options for maximizing your impact. If you have limited ground space, growing up can provide interest as well as additional habitat for all kinds of creatures.

Training plants up a trellis, fence, or bare wall offers food, shelter, and habitat. Trumpet vines, passionflowers, honeysuckles, and more will provide sweet nectar for pollinators as well as nesting and hiding spaces for other wildlife like birds, bugs, and lizards. Do note that in some cases, climbing plants can actually affect the structural integrity of walls and roofs if allowed to climb too much and too far along a house, so be careful. 

Bushes/Shrubs

Bushes provide shelter for creatures, which then provides hunting grounds for other animals. Their fallen leaves and petals can be food and shelter for detritivores, amphibians, reptiles, and small mammals--and they also provide good cover for moving around the garden, for creatures who like to stay hidden. They can be a bit more pricey to obtain--unless you get cuttings or seeds and are willing to wait--but they’ll definitely be worth it, and they’re typically low-maintenance once they’re established.

Bonus points if you get a flowering and fruiting bush, like bottlebrush, serviceberry, lilac, or others. This’ll make your bushes not only a place of shelter, but a food source as well--and depending on the kind you pick, may be food for you too! Making a garden border with a series of bushes can be a great option to providing lots of habitat, if you can manage it.

Shrubs with pithy or hollow stems are excellent options for supporting solitary bees. Some examples you could look into are elderberry, raspberry, blackberry, or sumac.

Trees

Trees have a high up-front cost and take awhile to grow, but once they’re settled in place they provide crucial habitat to all kinds of creatures! Insects will be attracted to flowers they may provide, or to nest in the wood. Others may eat the leaves as food, or use them as nesting materials. Birds will perch and nest in trees, and feed off the fruits and seeds and insects that also use the tree. Squirrels also use trees as nesting places, piling up dead leaves into huge clusters to raise their young in, and will absolutely feast on any nuts the tree may provide. Mice, badgers, and more will feast on fallen fruits or seeds, and bats roost in the trunks when given the chance. Detritivores eat fallen leaves and decomposing fruits, providing further food for hunting creatures. Trees can also be good for us--they help block out noise and air pollution, and are the poster child for taking CO2 and making it breathable oxygen. Not to mention they can provide plenty of food for us, too. Nesting grounds, hunting grounds, shelter from weather, and more--trees are, in my opinion, likely to be the best way to boost biodiversity long-term. If you can get your hands on a sapling for cheap and can care for it for awhile, I’d definitely give it a shot! Make sure the tree won’t get too big for where you’re growing it, though--you’ve definitely gotta plan for the long-term before you plant any. 

Some trees can be grown in containers. Though they won’t become gigantic branching behemoths, they’ll still do their part to support all the life that depends on them. Growing a tree from seed may take awhile, but could be an easy option to getting one if you have the patience--the trees are more than happy to help you, as they drop tons of seeds and fruit in fall for you to gather. 

Groundcover

Bare soil is the enemy of microbial life in the soil, and while small pockets of bare soil can be great nesting places for bees and other insects, having swaths of empty soil should be avoided. Groundcover plants grow low to the ground in a sprawling habit, and will often spread quite easily on their own. This is a great way to provide shelter, keep soil temperatures cool, block out weeds, and give your soil life a chance to thrive.

Sometimes, ground covers don’t even have to be planted in the ground. Shallow-rooted plants like succulents, ferns, and alyssum can be planted into cracks in stone walls, and moss can be planted by making moss graffiti and painting it onto a surface. As with climbing plants, do make sure that you don’t cause extra damage to important walls and housing foundations.

Host Plants

Host plants get their own section, because plants of all kinds can be host plants for different creatures! It’s common to think only flowers can be host plants in the beginning, but in reality, many bushes and trees are host plants to dozens of species of butterflies and moths. Honestly, I feel that factor's not talked about enough. Look up what insects live in your area and what kind of host plants they need, and plant some if you can! Bonus points if you can plant a variety of them--I know that there’s hundreds of kinds of milkweed, each one flowering and leafing up around different times of the year. Planting several varieties of milkweed, then, would provide monarchs with food through several seasons, allowing many more of them to grow up in your garden!

Nectar Plants

Plants that provide nectar to insects is a great foundation to increasing biodiversity! This is, of course, many native wildflowers (and even nonnative wildflowers, though be sure they aren’t invasives who’ll do more harm than good), but many native bushes, vines, and trees will also provide nectar to hungry pollinators! 

Keystone Species

To be frank, some plants can have a bigger impact than others in a landscape. By all means, every bit helps, but if you want to boost biodiversity quickly there are a few plants that can essentially serve as the backbone of local ecosystems that you can grow in anything from a balcony pot to a small patch of your backyard. These plants can be different depending on where you are, so do your research to find out what would be best to grow in your area. If you can’t get them all? That’s alright! But even hitting just a few of these target species really can do a lot.

That’s the end of this post! My next post is gonna be about things to keep in mind/continue to do once you get plants in the ground! Until then, I hope this advice was helpful! Feel free to reply with any questions, your success stories, or anything you think I may have forgotten to add in!

[encryptedlunacy]

Who allowed me to gain access to instructions on plant propagation?? Which fool saw me creeping around plants in and outside of my house and thought "you know what that one looks like the kind to do things in moderation" and are you stupid

[lizmitches]

taking - abbott elementary

Barbara Howard + Work Wives | Ch. 1

The thief on the cross looks down at her, his tortured expression a mirror image of her own. We’re not so different, you and I, he says.

He’s right, Barbara supposes. She’s penitent, too, even if the punishment has not yet scarred her hands.

Emphasis, she thinks, on yet.

→ Read it on AO3!

Preview:

Barbara measures the problem based on frequency: too often and less often. On occasion, there have been instances of hardly ever and almost always. But not once, as long as she can remember, has she been able to categorize her compulsion as never at all.

As a child, it was little things: pencils, chalkboard erasers, hard candies from little glass dishes. Young adulthood gave way to half-full lotion bottles, library books, unopened packages of vitamins. By the time she got married, her collection had grown to unmanageable proportions—boxes of artifacts were relegated to the backs of closets and hidden beneath beds. Gerald, none-the-wiser, had adoringly called her a pack rat. From then on, she made sure to distribute her findings back into the ether, never holding onto them for too long. Boxes and closets gave way to dumpsters and church sale drop-offs, and while disposing of the evidence took the edge off, it never erased the original desire. The inescapable, indescribable urge followed her wherever she went.

[heelanhomestead]

Today is such a special day, as our solar panels have gone on and we’re finally able to generate some of our own electricity. It’s been a long time coming, but at last we can tick this stage off the list.

Happy and grateful … 🥹👍

[arc-hus]

House K, Sydney - Kart Projects Architecture

https://kartprojects.co/

[ryozeki]

Coffee and doodling

[glimpseinto]

291 (2007) by grafals_ny on Flickr.

[lunasilvis]

Cyclist gal goes family dinner chic ✌️

[fancyhandsbakery]

Shout out to the disabaled people who were active kids. Who were always outside. Who were always playing sports. Who tried to remain athletic for as long as possible. Who one day had to quit the one thing that made them happy because it was just to draining. Was just too painful. And now when you see family they are like ‘Oh do you still play such and such’ and you have to be like ‘no, I had to quit.’ And their like ‘why’ and you’re like ‘I was to sick’ and then they go ‘you should get back into it’ and you internally scream because lifting your backpack causes you to be out of breath, your muscles hurt for weeks after squatting once to get something in a low cupboard, being outside in low 70/60 degree weather makes you sweat through your shirt and makes you so dehydrated.

[dimalink]

Fragments of autumn – yellow color

Autumn - it is yellow color. Excellent sigh of autumn – it is yellow little leaf. And color - it is yellow. Start of autumn is warm and good positive time. Leaves are starting to be yellow slowly. Tress are changing their colors. Everything is going not fast. World is changing. From one week to another one. And so good when everything is so warm. You are walking, simply, walking here and there, and observe this as a viewer. It is yellow autumn. Yellow color. During autumn – it is very common color.

Today, I am watching the trees! Yes, leaves – it is very valuable moment of autumn – most beautiful. But, today, mainly, I look at the trees. Their height and their color. And their form. I am observer, viewer. After I landed at the planet with the name early autumn. Yellow planet.

Autumn - it is very beautiful! And I decide to put these fragments of autumn in a yellow frame. To make value of a yellow color even more. And peak of yellow color. In early autumn. It is first week of October. It is warm October. There is no balance in this world. There is a big movement into yellow side. So, it is a thing, you can see from the very beginning, at first view. And first expectations don’t lie to you!

One more dive. To look closer at the trees. Their color. And texture. These are trees. They are so different. During summer, I have never seen thing like this. It is some amazing country. At first view. Interesting, is not here a place for some problems and tricks? So, looks like there is no negative effects! So, things you see, they are real, it is, simply, autumn. And, yellow color. Here, it is main thing.

Trees are here everywhere. You are in a magic yellow forest. Where it is autumn. So warm and comfortable autumn. And you go and go. Looks like, forest is endless. Trees are everywhere. These and like these. Different. Similar and not similar. So, it is easy to be lost here. This place, it is good to continue to explore. But, to be carefully – so, it is easy to be lost here. To be lost in this fragment of autumn. In this forest. Amongst the trees. And walk and walk!

They are trees. They are so valuable here. As a leaves. Trees are high. And you can see them from a distance. And leaves - they are only at the down side. But, sometimes, they cover everything around.

So, this exit to some remarkable high tree. How it grows! Look at this. It is very beautiful! And it is growing, like that. I guess, this tree plays a role of lighthouse here. Or something like that. As in racing games, some check point. Key place. I go closer to this tree. And stay near it in a thoughtfully way. So here for some time. I don’t remember how much time pass by. And, after, I go someplace next.  And from a distance from this tree.

 And, so, I walk though these autumn forest. Looks like, saying a word, I become sorcerer for myself. And everything is so bright and colorful here. Just like, it is a fantasy tale. And, so far, looks like, it is, already, a casual world. Some car. Looks like, I find an exit to normal space!

It was fragment of autumn. Yellow color. Forest out of leaves. Amazing place! If I to find it again, then I with a joy visit it one more time. It is so calm there. And everything is so interesting!

Dima Link is making retro videogames, apps, a little of music, write stories, and some retro more.

WEBSITE: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/home_eng.html ITCHIO: https://dimalink.itch.io/

TUMBLR: https://dimalink.tumblr.com/ BLOGGER: https://dimalinkeng.blogspot.com/ MASTODON: https://mastodon.social/@DimaLink

[nightmareonpeachstreet]

Sometimes u just gotta find things to distract you from Arlecchino until she comes out

Like decorating your teapot to be a family home for Arle, her wife Furina and their 3 kids, Lyney Lynette and Freminet

[alangdorf]

I got married this summer!! And I spent the year leading up to it designing & patterning & making my dresses! So here they are; unfortunately my photo selection is pretty limited cause our photographer got almost no fullbody pictures of me alone from the front, but w/e

My wedding dress/outfit/what have you consisted of an Edwardian-ish blouse and a skirt which I drafted off of an actual Victorian walking skirt pattern except since I didn’t wanna obtain/wear a corset & bustle I took out the hip shaping so it just turned out to be a partial circle skirt that’s a little longer and fuller in back. Oh, and the front panel was actually two overlapping panels which could be folded back and attached to the inside of the skirt. I wore it closed at the actual marriage part which I didn’t get good pics of, and open at the ring ceremony, which is where all the above pics were taken. The pants were resale, but I did make my veil and bouquet!

The second dress was very inspired by this set of classic lolita OP’s (particularly the one in the first two pics) which I first saw back in 2021 and I’d been itching to make something similar ever since, so I picked up the fabric for it when it was on sale back at my old job and then pencilled it in as my reception dress so I would actually get around to making it. (Although fun fact both of these outfits STILL need more sewing done before they’re completely ready for regular wear lol. Someday) I got the cameo for the brooch off Etsy (it has a butterfly on it) and my grandma bought me the shoes for Christmas last year, though I added the bows to them (they’re removable and I also made a pink set) and also made the earrings and hair bow.

Anyway we recently got done moving and stuff so hopefully I will be able to do more art soon! (Also they/them preferred as usual 💜)

[themelodyofspring]

JOMP Book Photo Challenge

Aug 23, 2023 - Reading Outside 🌞

The only outside reading I do is the one done on my balcony, overlooking the fields.

[chiropteracupola]

the thing is that I will never be satisfied with the number of dollhouses I have. a dollhouse for every situation. when I die they will turn my house into a small museum and let the children come and look at my dollhouses.

[deathbyobiwan]

WIP WEDNESDAY

woo i am joining the group of people who are being dragged away from their big bang fics by the @obikinlifeguardau — here’s a brief snippet from what i’m working on for that.

(obi-wan and anakin are both lifeguards at the local leisure centre. they’ve never had the chance to do more than wistfully stare at one another and exchange hellos — until today)

It’s nearing the end of his off-shift, and Obi-Wan is listening to the quiet gossip of two parents waiting for their kids’ half hour in the pool to be over, when he sees Anakin begin to climb down from his chair. He leans in closer to the window — he can’t see anyone struggling in the pool, but he does catch two kids who seem to be talking to Anakin. Or perhaps yelling is the better word, based on what he can gather from their facial expressions.

It’s impossible to hear anything distinct up here beyond the usual blend of pool noise, but Obi-Wan guesses he’s telling the kids off for being rude. He also guesses that Anakin’s getting rather passionate about it, if the way he’s moving closer to the edge of the pool is any education.

Now, from Obi-Wan’s vantage point, it’s easy for him to spot the other child who is walking much too quickly down the side of the pool. They make to walk around and behind Anakin, but the space between the lifeguard’s chair and the pool isn’t very big.

At the same time as the speedy child is walking past Anakin, he stands up fully and takes a step back. Or, rather, he attempts to, instead making contact with the child, and in his surprise stumbles back towards the pool.

Back into the pool.

[photographicvision]

June 19 10:10 am 🚗