#gardenblr

[the-habitat-ring]

Hi, I’m Xandra! Welcome to my sideblog. I’m a huge nerd and have been obsessed my whole life with gardening, wildlife, and sci fi

Here’s 10 facts about me:

1. I’m a Midwesterner to my bones

2. The habitat ring refers to my yard. Yes, the name was inspired by DS9

3. My spouse and I are slowly but surely converting the yard into nearly all native plants and food sources. It’s slow going since when we moved in the yard consisted of mostly invasive plants, gravel, and weed barrier

4. I have a long list of physical/mental/neurodevelopmental diagnoses that often get in the way of achieving my goals, and I’m still learning to accept that baby steps are better than crashing repeatedly

5. Solarpunk? Heck yeah

6. I love Stardew Valley and am working on growing everything in the game in our yard, with native plant substitutions when I can

7. My favorite flowers are asters, hence the header pic (my hairy white oldfield asters, Symphyotrichum pilosum). My icon is my Ohio spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis)

8. My favorite butterfly is the pearl crescent (Phyciodes tharos). Not coincidentally, asters are their host plants

9. I really, really love salamanders. And lizards. And newts. Also snakes. Frogs and toads too. Actually I just like liking things

10. I’m very crafty and am also really into 1940s-60s Japanese sewing machines

I’m chatty and love talking to people, so please say hi! Ask questions! Show me your plants and critters! I might not always be super consistent or respond right away (the disabilities are disabling), but I love sharing cool things with people!

[oh-he-grows]

Both of the Tall Meadow Rue that I had thought died over the winter are actually totally fine now! I had already replaced them with Huechera as well, so now I have these two plants right next to each other...

I guess that's what you get with native plants, it takes more than a winter to kill them

[lovehina019]

[fuckithomestead]

It's that time of year to plug one of my favorite resources https://www.freeheirloomseeds.org/ You can get 8 packs of seeds for free, or for a $10/15 pack donation (so pay a $10 donation for every 15 packs of seeds) you can get as many seeds as you would like These seeds are all heirloom seeds, some of them are very rare, and it's a good way to broaden your garden varieties!

[snailsthatdocrafts]

indoor gardening starter guide

Hello internet people!! I have finished my first starter guide ! This guide has info on indoor gardening. My focus was mainly budget friendly and space friendly approach. I decided to cut out a fair bit of information for this first one that will go on future guides, so if it feels limited, let me know what you'd like me to expand on first, and ill get working on those first!!

I also plan to offer formal printed versions w an art print on my etsy, just so that if people want to say thanks with a donation they can!

But I want the information to be accessible no matter what, so this online copy will be up and available regardless of what paid options I make! PLEASE print a copy yourself!! print media is so valuable, and online hosting sites change their policy all the time.

PLEASE copy and distribute !!

[fixaidea]

Personal favourites from today's bonsai show

[ahedderick]

!!

Heeheehoohoo!

Bulbs planted close to the house take advantage of the warmer microclimate to bloom quite a bit earlier than their cousins out at the edge of the yard. First crocuses croaking today! First snowdrops!

I am delighted. and so many more to look forward to; K and I planted 90 mixed-color crocus bulbs last fall. Yellow? White? Purble? I hope.

[bookbag-s]

It's happening

22.02.2025

Upcycled seed trays and first sowing of the season...

🫑💜 bell pepper (cardinal)

🫑❤️ bell pepper (popti)

🌶💛 chilli (hot lemon)

🌶❤️ chilli (sizzler)

[the-habitat-ring]

The great thing about spring is that every day something new is happening

Peas are coming up

Cherry bushes are blooming (the pink is Nanking and the white is Hansen’s)

And so is the apple tree

So many seeds are sprouting

Creeping phlox is flowering

I’m so thankful that I can go outside and be distracted for awhile from everything going on in the world by all the amazing things nature does

[tomorrowsgardennc]

so last saturday i taught my first class 🫣 it was about 3 different ways to start seeds. it was a small class and pretty chilly out, so between nerves and cold i was super blushed in the fave and runny nose. hopefully nobody noticed 🫣 i'm more comfortable with one-on-one, especially when it comes to anything skill-based. like if someone has started seeds before can undsrstand a couple more things than someone who has never even planted anything before let alone start a seed. i asked at the b3eginning of the class and the skill levels for seeds were mixed. just hope i didn't bore anyone or overwhelm others...

first up was the egg carton method so we could talk about seed depth. i also went off tangent and talked about how all the methods shown today are as plastic free as possible because plastic free is a privilege and as i took an awkward pause asking myself why i went off on that tangent i noticed EVERYONE nodding their heads. for 2 seconds i knew what it felt like to be a preacher and everyone visibly agreeing with you.

anywho. the second method i taught was soil blocking. i personally think it's the best method just not for me since even after like 4 tries my fingers were killing me. not great for arthritic hands on a cold day. also note for future me: while it was nice to note to people that water needs to be added, DON'T LET THEM ADD THE WATER because then everyone adds water and it becomes too wet to make blocks. whoops.

the last method i demo'd was what has been trending on IG, pinterest and probably tiktok idk but everyone online is calling it a soil snail and legit those people haven't tried to say that 5 times fast whilst teaching a class outside in the cold with a runny nose so therefore, collectively, as a class, we decided to rename it the cinnamon roll method. and legit this was the method everyone LOVED doing and was very sad when i ran out of paper. i only precut like 4 extras just in case extra people showed up, but less people showed up so about half the class got to make more than one roll. i had a roll i made 2 weeks prior to test the method out and people were happy to see what theirs would look like in the future. one student had a trader joe's bag in their car so i asked if i could test making one with it, and realized keeping the handles on was cute. another student said it was a very nice purse i had and i said thank you it's my emotional support seedlings and people laughed. i get nervous when people laugh because i never know if they're being nice or if what i said was actually funny.

looking back at this photo i now see why i got a terrible sunburn lol.

so yeh, first of many classes. the community garden who sponsored the class wants me to teach one (almost) every month now after seeing me teach that class. so over the rest of the weekend we brainstormed together on what else i'll teach this year. all for free, too. i love the woman in charge of this garden - we both believe in making anything that's about feeding yourself or others need to be free or as close to free as possible for everyone. it's refreshing and fun to work with someone with similar viewpoints with life.

if you could take a class about seeds or plants, what would you want to learn? still need some ideas for the fall/winter months. april is about companion plants.

[lovehina019]

[gina025]

Succulent garden

[punkgardener]

My friend sent me this from Pinterest but I just know one of you freaks made it

[semprvivum]

Graptoveria 'Opalina'

[ahedderick]

This apple tree was sold to me in 1999 as a semi-dwarf Stayman Winesap. It is not semi-dwarf; it is in fact gigantic by apple tree standards. It isn't Stayman Winesap, or even red at all. Because I planted it in the correct spacing for smaller trees, it has almost completely overshadowed its nearest neighbor, a rather nice Golden Delicious. It responds to pruning by aggressively getting Much Larger. The apples are divine. I love her; I'm vexed by her; I hope she lives forever. I'm deeply curious about what I'd get if I planted some of her seeds.

Strawberries, rhubarb, two small blueberry bushes, and Nanking cherry bushes that did, even though their blooming time was cold, set fruit. I will continue to try to acidify the blueberries; maybe add some acid once a week until the soil tests around 5 pH.