#gardening for cheap

[tea-withnofixinsplease]

Oh btdubs, if anyone has access to a vacant patch of grass, like a backyard perhaps, and want to make a garden dollar stretch, invest more in trees and shrubs than vegetables.

They're harder to kill,

Require less water after the first year,

you can usually buy/preorder them cheap when they're out of season (as I've stated before in another post),

You get more fruit per plant,

You don't have to replant/reseed.

Sure it takes longer to establish and bear fruit and you can do stuff while you wait, but if it's between investing in the necessary items for a 5 inch garden box or 4 potted fruit trees your first year, I'd choose the latter. Make one of those trees an apricot and you could have fruit your first year, thereby tricking ur brain into releasing enough dopamine not to quit gardening out of lack of patience.

If you really want a vegetable garden:

grow tomatoes

and a variety of herbs like basil, thyme, mint(IN A POT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD KEEP THAT CRIMINAL LOCKED UP), oregano, lavender, rosemary, etc.

these guys are usually really hard to kill.

For an unkillable berry that you can harvest first year, comes back, and thrives on neglect, try a ground cherry (which is also a cousin to the tomato apparently).

don't forget to mulch okay bye.

[anipgarden]

How to Increase Biodiversity on a Budget - Masterpost

It cannot be stressed enough that supporting native wildlife is important, wherever you are and however you can. But it can feel a bit daunting to think about doing, especially if you’re operating on a smaller budget. It’s not uncommon to hear about someone’s success story and think how much did it cost to do that?

I’m hoping that I can provide a good bunch of ideas on how to help heal the world around you without hurting your wallet. Feel free to use this as a guide, or a bouncing-off point to do actions in your own style!

Before we get Started

I want to make it clear that this is not a checklist of things you are required to do in order to be ‘helping.’ This isn’t an ‘all or nothing’ kind of deal. Every little bit you do helps. Being aware of these options and spreading awareness helps. Doing even just a handful of these options as you’re able to helps.

With that being said, we need to acknowledge that not everything in this list is feasible for everyone. Some people have a fenced yard in the suburbs. Some people have an unfenced yard with judgy neighbors and/or a restrictive HOA policy. Some people can’t directly control their own landscaping, whether that be because of an external lawn maintenance ruling or something like ‘living with your parents.’ Some people have a 4th story apartment with a small balcony. Some people rent and can’t grow directly into the ground. If the best you can do is put up a bird feeder, or grow a few pollinator-friendly plants in pots? I see you. I feel you. I’ve been there. I appreciate what you’re doing, and you know what? So does the wildlife.

Un-actions, or Restriction of Activities

Things to Do that Aren’t Related to Growing Plants

The Plants-Related Section

Adding To, or Starting, A Garden

Cheaply Starting

Supporting Your Plants for Cheap: Composting, Mulching, and Trellises

What Plants to Add

What to Do Once Things Are Planted

The Secret Other Thing - Managing Invasive Plants and Animals

Parting Words and Sources

If you’re interested in joining a group of gardening enthusiasts who are always down to talk about biodiversity, project ideas, and native plants, feel free to hop into my gardening discord! 

[bishopony]

got two squirrels out patrolling the deck searching for food. ya ate all of it!!!

[official-nature-posts]

these autumn leaves are so pretty. i wish somebody would come along with the loudest machine known to man and get rid of them

Shovel them directly into my mouth

[simp-for-long-hair]

please click for better quality

magnolias 🌸✨️

[catspaw97]

Commissions are open!!

Hi! I'm Cat, and I'm opening commissions to help my family who is currently struggling through a bankruptcy. These are my prices! (USD only please!)

My Kofi link: https://ko-fi.com/spacecatz

INFORMATION BELOW THE CUT

BASIC SKETCH

- bust: 5 dollars

- fullbody: 10 dollars

LINEART

-bust: 15 dollars

-fullbody: 20 dollars

FULL COLOR

-bust: 25 dollars

-fullbody: 30 dollars

SIMPLE SHADING

(Without color)

-bust: 16 dollars

-fullbody: 19 dollars

(With color)

-bust: 26 dollars

-fullbody: 31 dollars

COMPLEX SHADING + LIGHTING

(without color)

-bust: 17 dollars

-fullbody: 18 dollars

(with color)

-bust: 27 dollars

-fullbody: 32 dollars

ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS¹

sketch: +1 dollar

Lineart: +2 dollars

Full color: +3 dollars

Simple shading (no color): +2 dollars

Simple shading (color): +3 dollars

Complex shading/lighting(no color): +3 dollars

Complex shading/lighting(color): +4 dollars

BACKGROUNDS

Simple²: +2 dollars

Complex³ (This will take MUCH longer!): +6 dollars

COMICS

(Will contact for composition of panels)

Sketch: +1 dollar every panel

Lineart: +1 dollar every panel

Full color: +2 dollars every panel

Simple shading (no color): +3 dollars every panel

Simple shading (color): +4 dollars every panel

Complex shading/lighting (no color): +5 dollars every panel

Complex shading/lighting (color): +6 dollars every panel

Simple² backgrounds: +2 dollars every panel

Complex³ backgrounds: + 3 dollars every panel

¹: this includes more than one of the character in a space, for example on a reference sheet.

²: "Simple" refers to places that are easier or simplistic to draw- ground + wall, in a doorway with the room behind the subject blocked, sitting on a surface, etc. It will automatically line up with what you have chosen for the subject (sketch, lineart, shading, etc).

³: "Complex" refers to places that are harder to draw or more detailed in nature- entire rooms, detailed forest backgrounds, places with several background items like stores or bookcases, etc. It will automatically line up with what you have chosen for the subject (sketch, lineart, shading, etc). Since I am not usually a background artist, this particualr option will take a bit longer to complete and is therefore more expensive.

WILL DO:

Fanart of media

Ships

Ocs

Anthropomorphic characters

Animals

Character redesigns

Complex clothing styles (as long as there is a reference provided!)

Reference sheets with color swatches and information

Action poses (may require Reference and adjusting to liking)

WONT DO:

Incestuous or pedophilic relationships

NSFW/kink art (as of [post date]. Anatomy is hard)

PLEASE DO NOT REPOST, FEED MY ART INTO AN AI, OR RESELL MY ART. Use for profile pictures, backgrounds, etc is permitted with credit. Reblogs are permitted and encouraged!

(For those travelling from other sites to this one: repost refers to posting the image by itself and/or claiming it is yours. Reblogging refers to sharing the original post on your blog by hitting the 🔄 button!)

Here are some examples of my art!

[Full color fullbody, no shading- 30 dollars]

[Full color bust with complex lighting/shading- $27]

[Full color "bust" with complex lighting/shading- $27]

[Full color bust with simple shading / lighting- $26]

[Full color bust with simple shading / lighting- $26]

[Full color no shading "bust"- $25]

[Sketch bust + additional character- $6]

Thank you for reading through! If you enjoy my art, please consider commissioning me! You can contact me through dms here, OR on discord, if you are more comfortable that way! I will provide my discord in DMs.

(Credit to characters- Sun Wukong, Redson, Rumble, and Savage are all LEGO Monkie Kid characters. Pomni is a The Amazing Digital Circus character. However, the other three are my own original characters!)

[ladylingua]

I have a very genuine question about the tipping post I promise I didnt read it in bad faith: are people who simply cannot afford to tip not “allowed” to eat out? I’m just thinking about how it works where I am from and while tipping is the norm here if someone doesn’t tip because they can’t afford it it really isn’t a big deal (+tipping norm here us only 10%). so if a poor family goes out to eat to celebrate something and they can barely afford the meal would they still be expected to tip 20% because they shouldn’t eat out if they cant afford it? thank you in advance I’m really curious

If it helps, don’t think of the tip as a separate thing. It is part of the cost of your meal. So if you cannot afford to pay for the cost of the meal including the tip you cannot afford to eat at that restaurant. This is something I myself have to calculate when I’m deciding if I want to eat at a particular restaurant- if I have $15 I can’t go to a restaurant and order a $20 entrée and then refuse to pay the remaining cost, and likewise if I have $15 I can’t order a $15 entrée and expect not to pay the server for their service.

Now that doesn't mean families who can't afford a pricy restaurant can't eat out at all. Since it is a % of your bill you can try to go for a cheaper restaurant (smaller bill = smaller tip), or if you go to a counter service place where you serve yourself you’re not expected to tip 20% (sometimes they have a jar out you could kindly throw a dollar or more in, but there is much less expectation to tip because the workers at a place like that receive a full minimum wage, more on that in a sec). I will also say in my lived experience poor families in America understand and tip well, I’ve almost exclusively been under tipped by wealthy people (which is what kicked off the debate on twitter- if your bill is $700 then you obviously can afford to tip a full 20%, no destitute families are spending $700 on one meal).

Technically speaking you can get away with 18% as a tip, and if you go down to 15% your waiter will think you’re cheap and be annoyed (15% definitely implies you were unhappy with their service) but that is the lowest possible threshold of acceptability. 10% is not an acceptable rate here, and 20% is now the expected norm for good service, and going up from there for great service. And I would never, ever not tip at all. I can only imagine not tipping if like the server had done something deeply offensive or dangerous or something. I've never encountered a situation where I felt the server didn't deserve any tip at all.

Because you’ve asked in genuine good faith I’m going to provide some more context to help you understand a bit more why this is the way it is-

Waitstaff in america are wildly underpaid. Our federal government assumes the tips are part of their expected income, and so a) they are taxed on assumed tips and b) it is legal to pay them less than standard minimum wage. Currently the tipped federal minimum wage is $2.13/hr. Now, states set their own individual rates so some states do better, but $2.13/hr is the lowest they can all legally go. And you’ll notice in that link it mentions the assumed tips and taxing them. I said on my original post, when I worked as a tipped waitress I made $2.68/hr and sometimes my biweekly paycheck was like $60 total. Imagine trying to survive on $120 a month, you absolutely cannot. Tips made up my actual wage, and were the paycheck I depended on to pay for my basic needs. I relied directly on customers to choose to do the social convention of tipping for survival, and when someone would choose to do otherwise it was utterly devastating.

Another thing customers sometimes don’t realize is your waiter may not be allowed to keep all of the tip themselves. It’s a common practice to pool tips amongst all the waitstaff and then divide them equally, and many places require that you tip out other employees there. So if you give me $10 as a tip I might be actually giving a large chunk of that to bussers, bartenders, etc. Or maybe we pool tips and someone else stiffed my colleague so now all of us are sharing your $10 tip. So also keep in mind that the money you leave as a tip very often does not go entirely to the actual waiter, so a big tip can actually become pretty small much faster than you would think.

(and that's just legal practices, wage theft and illegal practices run rampant in the restaurant industry, just fyi)

If you are wondering why tipping culture here is so grim, it is because of slavery. Tipping got big here as a way to keep forcing Black Americans into working for free, now with a small tip but still no actual wage. It was designed for oppression. Waitstaff are overwhelmingly not wealthy people. It is very common for them to be on food stamps, require housing assistance, or to otherwise be living under the poverty line. If you are eating out and not tipping because you yourself are poor, you are taking money out of someone else’s poverty wages to do so. When we debate minimum wage here in america, conservatives are really good at painting a picture of waitstaff being perky middle class college kids making an extra buck, or teens from wealthy homes wanting some spending money. There is an implication that they don't really need the money that badly. That is not the reality of who makes up most serving jobs in america. Minimum wage workers are likely to be in poverty, they’re likely to be women and specifically they’re likely to be women of color. Americans of color are significantly more likely to be working at minimum wage than white americans. There is a pretty sizeable number of minimum wage workers who are over 50, and a not insignificant amount of them who are mothers who support their families. There are also those teens who just want extra cash, and they deserve good compensation for their hard work too, don’t get me wrong, but they are only a portion of who makes up the minimum wage workforce.

If you’re like “But that’s such a shitty system, you’re saying it’s pitting poor people against each other for basic human comforts!” yup. I 100% agree. I am a vocal proponent of raising the minimum wage for that reason. I also advocate for a Universal Basic Income, because I understand that when it comes to small mom & pop restaurants the owners aren’t always making a ton of money either and it seems like truly no one is winning in this system. It is set up to oppress and to demean and to grind us all down. There are lots of orgs in America that are fighting to improve the system, or to radically change the system. There are also restaurants that have tried to do things differently- there’s a wine bar in my city that says specifically on their menu that their wine is more expensive because they pay their workers a true livable wage so there is no tipping there. Instead as a customer I pay a higher upfront cost that covers the true expense of running the bar- including server wages. I love that, I wish more places would do things like that. In the meantime, when I’m choosing where to eat I factor in a tip of 20% when calculating my estimated bill, because paying for service is part of the cost.

Refusing to tip fully in america is not doing anything to change the system. It does not make restaurant owners rethink their pay structure, it does not put pressure on our government to fix minimum wage, it does not make a political statement. It just means your server is going home wondering if they can afford their own meal that night.

Thank you for asking for clarity, I hope this helps. Please feel free to ask more if you have any remaining confusion or are curious about other aspects of american culture. If I can answer and the questions are respectful, I am happy to reply!

[eepybogboy]

did a round of eye swaps this weekend! it's the most ive done all at once, and i gotta say, i do not recommend it. by the time i got new eyes in these four, my hands were begging me to stop, so poor Priscilla sat eyeless for a while. but I'm really happy with the results!

let me walk you through the process a bit.

i used this guide to help decide which eyes i wanted to use.

this all started because i wanted Daria's eyes for Zooey.

Daria's eyes don't match her color scheme at all, and this has always bothered me about her. they stand out too much, and its jarring. but that minty blue and pale pink are Zooey's colors exactly, it would complete her alien vibe perfectly.

but, unfortunately, Zooey and Daria have different eye chips. Daria has the Twins eye chip, which has four pegs to keep it in place in the socket, and Zooey has the newer B2 chip, which has only two prongs. i was worried that Daria's eyes wouldnt fit in Zooey's head, so i prepared a backup donor: Simone.

Simone has the CNY eye chip, first introduced in Lily Cheng, the Special Edition doll for the Chinese New Year in 2022. this eye mold is more similar to the B2 eyes since it also has only two prongs, so if Daria's eyes didnt sit right in Zooey, these might be a better fit. the colors arent as perfect, but it could work.

except that Darias eyes fit Zooey perfectly. she looks so cute! now her eyebrows are even more out of place, but I'll get to that later.

i had already taken out Simone's eyes to compare the two, so she was given Zooey's eyes.

i was blown away by how incredible she looks! so soft and sweet. i was fond of her before, but she's crawled up into my top ten faves with this one alteration.

now, i was going to give those eyes to Daria, but they obviously belong to Simone now. Daria still needs brown eyes though, so i brought out a more fitting donor for her: Priscilla. she has the same color eyes as Zooey, but in the Twins eye chip.

perfect for ms. Daria, much more natural. it's just what she needed.

now, i wasn't intending to bring Minnie into this, but her eyes are a bit unusually dark, and i had Simone's eyes sitting there.. and well. i already had the hair dryer out.

honestly? a serve. she has B2 eyes originally, like Zooey, so the lashes are Just under her eyelid but they still fit her sculpt pretty well.

at this point, my hands were aching, and i had worn a blister into my thumb, so i had to take a break. Pris was going into the stock box anyway, so there was no pressure to finish her, but the next day i came back and gave her Minnie's eyes for safekeeping.

she looks a little sleepy, but overall pretty cute. she probably won't stay this way because she's going into the potential custom pile, but its fine for now.

look at these four and how perfect they are!! Zooey and Daria came out exactly how i planned, but i am still so shook by how beautiful Simone is now. i just cant stop looking at her.

I'll be reblogging to add more photos, including side by side comparisons to the stock photos since tungle will only let me post 10 pictures at a time

[losttimesnail]

if i made artsy seed packets w seeds from my plants would yall want any?? i have local (east coast US, would have to look up what variety all of these are) milkweed, plus some jalapeno, sunflower, and tomatoes i can seed save w. idk just a thought , lmk ur thoughts :3

[joycrispy]

The annotation project grows and grows.

Hyperfixation Corner is my happy place atm:

[eleventeenthealbum]

I do not understand getting mad at going to a fast-casual for a date. I love dinner and savings

[anipgarden]

What to Do Once Things Are Planted?

This is my seventh 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! 

So you’ve gotten started on making a garden to boost biodiversity! 10/10, excellent work! So, now what?

First, you’ll need to keep watering the plants--especially if you’re going through a dry season. Native plants will be more acclimated to your area’s seasonal weather, but they’ll need a helping hand while they’re getting established--especially if you’re starting with young, tender seedlings. With that in mind, if you accidentally skip out on crucial watering days, don't panic! There's been tons of times where I haven't watered for an entire summer and had perennials come back the next spring! Even this year, during a heatwave, I completely did not water my swamp milkweeds, but they're already popping back up! You may also need to go in and weed, especially if you’re seeing invasive species popping up in the garden. Invasives are no good--if you do anything, do your best to get those out as effectively and safely as possible!

If you’re needing to maintain your shrubs in spring and summer, double check to make sure there are no active bird or insect nests within them. If it’s possible to wait until later to cut your shrubs, it could be extremely beneficial.

When fall and winter come around and your plants begin to die back, don’t cut them away if you can! Many insects overwinter in the plant stems left behind as perennials die back to the roots. In addition, birds will use seed heads as a source of food over the winter. Try not to clean things up until late winter/early spring, when other food sources are beginning to come back and things are growing again. By then, the insects should be waking up and leaving the plant stems as well.

However, don’t let this discourage you from collecting seeds! Collecting seed from your plants is a great way to continue gardening at low cost, as well as making friends and encouraging others to garden by trading seeds or offering them as gifts. If you're in an area where you do need to cut back, this is a great opportunity to collect the seeds and save them for the future. You could also cut back what’s dying in the front yard and keep things to overwinter in the backyard. Some overwintering habitat is better than no overwintering habitat.

Want to know how to collect seeds from specific plants? I've found YouTube to be a great source of info for this! Knowing what you're doing and when is key to getting a viable harvest.

As your mulch begins to break down, you’ll need to keep adding more to top it off, if you can. It can get a bit repetitive, but no worries--the mulch breaking down means your soil is improving! 

If possible, add to your garden! Expand, add in new things, and keep encouraging the growth of native plants. If you couldn’t add that water feature in year one, see if you can in year two! New interest in birds? Add a birdhouse, or more bird feeders. Loving the butterflies? Add plenty more nectar-rich plants, or do more research into what they lay their eggs on! Want more color? See what else you can add in! Came into some new pots to expand your flowerpot garden with? Find cool native plants to put in them! I always encourage people to start small and then expand over time, as opposed to starting big and getting overwhelmed.

Keep learning and observing native species of birds, insects, mammals, etc. See what’s coming to your yard now, and look into how you can improve things more for them on your budget. If you aren’t seeing what you were hoping, see if there’s other actions you can take that’ll attract what you’re hoping to see in your backyard habitat. Knowing more about the world around you makes it easier to know how to help the world around you. Talk to others about what you’re doing, the changes you’ve made, and the results you’ve seen! Curious neighbors? Work friends? Your closest homies? Your family? All fair game! You just might be the one who gets someone else interested in making their space a habitat for local wildlife!

That’s the end of this post! My next post is gonna be about the secret Other Thing you can do to help biodiversity--tackling invasives! 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!

[lexicals]

At least there's this

[deermouth]

Planted my firefly petunias! I'm not usually a petunias guy, and these are white too, how suburban, but these are the GMO ones that glow in the dark if they get enough sunlight, and, reader, I was taken in by the marketing gimmick. They're a bit scraggly after transit, and I assume will take a couple days of sunlight to charge up their glowing genes, but I'm excited.

[vangoggles]

every time i see a burger or a sandwich with a thick slice of tomato it looks so good that it makes me wish i liked tomatoes so badly... i need to find a way to like raw tomatoes fast... i've been missing out...

[coffinbutch]

Oh I'm There Baby