#grass fertilizer spray

[swift-grow]

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[dilfsisko]

Why is my neighbor spraying weed killer on yards that are not her own

[environmentavegan]

I feel like every few years there's some huge issue that causes mass recalls or extremely escalated prices having to do with animal products. it's almost as if there's fundamental problems with the system and how we produce food

[rebeccathenaturalist]

So, long story short--a Master Gardener who has been maintaining a native plant garden for years is now being harassed by a neighbor, with whom the city code enforcers sided, and she's facing daily fines if she doesn't turn at least half of her yard into grass lawn. Apparently the only plants that are allowed to grow higher than seven inches are those that are edible, useful, or decorative.

If you are at all ecologically aware, you know that grass lawns are essentially ecological wastelands. A monoculture of non-native grass, especially if it's sprayed with herbicides, fertilizers, and so forth, is not going to support much in the way of native wildlife. Moreover, it can be argued that native plants do fall under the allowable category of "useful" and "decorative", and some are even "edible."

The article above is dated from two days ago, but this apparently started last year. And I found an article in their local paper from this past July that says she's still fighting the city about it, plus it has a bunch of photos of her garden if you want to see what the fuss is all about. Do be aware that if you decide to contact the Prospect Code Enforcement Board, City Council, and/or Mayor with a polite note in support of her, the website only allows you to send five messages every hour and you can only message one person at a time.

ETA: I did hear back just now from one of the code enforcement folks, who says--in their words--"Prospect City asked Ms. McGrail to redesign her current plantings into a more attractive and organized layout with edged definitions to her plant beds and a more obvious ‘walking path’ in between with a more “lawn-like” appearance, using native and no-mowing options"

[thepenultimateword]

Old Bones Part 7

| Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six |

Surprise, Vampire has a name now. It was feeling weird having one character named and the other not.

CW: Blood, death mention

Floryn took a long drag from their canteen, the spiced rabbit's blood settling thick and warm in the hollow of their stomach. Lav had insisted on preparing a fresh pot before they headed out into the snow, and while they'd argued against it at the time, Floryn was glad to have something to combat the chill.

They curled their toes in their boots, ignoring the blend of soreness and numbness that riddled their muscles. The violent thunk thunk thunk of their heart against their ribcage was harder to pretend away. They'd lived in this wood their entire life. First in Bellwatch, a village hacked into the south edge where the earth was fertile, like a scar in the tree line. The walls backed against the Wildern, the land untamed and unwanted, and the watchmen stood eternally atop the stone, watching the endless long grass and shadowed hills for danger. A simple place for a simple life. Until that vampire climbed the wall and killed them.

Then they'd ran. No sooner had they dragged themself from the grave, and they were skirting past the drawn and burned-out body of their sire and disappearing into the dark wood.

The larger, more populated Bellbreak had no walls. No guards at the border. It sat in the middle of a glen, untouched by the Wildern's claws. Floryn simply slipped into the crowd and disappeared. But now...well this was all different. Bellbreak had been a well-acquainted idea. The world beyond on the other hand was a deep, dark unknown.

Floryn readjusted the strap of their bag as it dug into their shoulder. "Can I come up there yet?"

"Just a couple miles more," Lav replied from several strides ahead. They had insisted on scouting a few feet ahead, kicking snow over any rice piles, or walking broad arcs around iron traps.

"You've been saying that for last ten. I'm getting tired of looking at the back of your head."

Floryn wasn't entirely convinced that that wasn't part of Lav's goal. Despite the positive ending to trauma of the last several hours, they hadn't faced them head-on more than maybe twice.

"Besides you haven't come across anything in two hours, and I don't think the townsfolk would've come this far anyway, so..." Floryn darted up to Lav's side. Lav grunted mildly, a sound of mixed disapproval and assent. Floryn snuck a peak up at Lav's new face, the square jaw clenched tight and russet brows furrowed.

"I didn't expect to get out this far so fast," Floryn said idly. "I guess you don't tire out so quickly when you're dead."

"Mm."

"I didn't notice before because I've always been running. No time to think. But it's nice going at our own pace, huh?"

"Mm."

Floryn pursed their lips, kicking a spray of snow into the air in front of them. The snow crystals settled back down against the drifts as if it never happened, the only evidence being a pit of powder that had floated back against Floryn's knees. They sighed quietly, and their gaze flicked to Lav's hand, swinging at their side. Large. Calloused. Flushed from the cold.

Floryn dug the point of their fang into their bottom lip, worrying it a moment so the underside filled with bland blood. It was still strange seeing the roughened digits in place of their old slender fingers. The more they looked the more their stomach churned, but that might've been the fault of what they were thinking about doing.

Slowly, slowly, their fingers outstretched, a hand length away, a finger, half a finger. Their knuckles bumped into the meaty palm, pinky twining around Lav's little finger.

Lav reeled back as if bit, jerking their hand against their breast and whirling on Floryn with wide, startled eyes.

Floryn blinked in dumb shock, a lukewarm blush rising to their cheeks. For a moment their throat squeezed too tight to get out a word, but eventually, they managed a choked, "Sorry."

Lav's face contorted into even harsher panic.

"No!" They thrust out their hands in front of them. "You didn't do anything wrong! I wasn't...I'm not..." Their fists clenched. "I'm feeling strange. New body. You knowing. I don't...I don't think it's a good idea to get too close. At least not so soon."

"Oh." Floryn wet their already-closing wound. "Right. Of course."

"It has nothing to do with you," Lav said, forcing their avoidant eyes up for a full second. Something dark briefly swam through the yellow pools. A lie.

"No, yeah, I know that." Floryn turned brusquely forward. "I just thought maybe you wanted...after everything...but I shouldn't have assumed."

"It's okay."

"Mm." Floryn pinned their lips together. Stupid. So stupid. Lav never said they wanted anything other than companionship. The reading, the care, the protection. You could do all of that for a friend. In any case, after everything they'd gone through that night, flirtation was probably the last thing on their mind, and Floryn had selfishly pushed it. Even more selfish was the fact that they were still scared of the new body. Maybe they'd thought acting close would help them accept it faster, help them focus on the parts of Lav they still clearly saw inside. But it could've just as easily made the situation worse.

"There's an inn a half mile from here," Lav said, breaking the quiet.

"A town?"

"No. The nearest settlement is Mudfield. About half a day away still. This a roadside inn. A business that relies on the patronage of lots of travelers who would rather not camp. Good for us since the sun is about to come up."

Floryn looked up through the gaps in the foliage. The long red fingers of dawn streaked the sky; they clutched their cloak a little closer.

"Let's go a little faster," Lav said, voice calm and smooth.

Floryn nodded.

It wasn’t long before the Inn came into view. It was larger than the cabin but not quite as large as what they’d always imagined in books. The thatching looked like birds had been tugging at it, loose twigs and straw sticky out at odd angles, and as they stepped up onto the porch the wood sagged and groaned under their feet.

A mixture pine needles, ale, and smoke floated on the air as they eased the door open. The room was filled with filled with barstools and tables, but they all sat empty. The best sign of life was a smear of something sticky on the bar counter.

“Oi! Trevon!”

Floryn turned toward the back of a room. A chestnut haired woman in a red apron swept at the floor under the tables like the world depended on it.

A low grumble quickly drew their attention back to the bar where was a broad, mustached man was stepping out of the back room.

“Early guests, eh?” He rubbed his hand down his eyes and into his mustache. “What can I do for yous?”

Floryn took a little step closer, opened their mouth, and…

Nothing came out.

They almost choked on the empty air. A hot feeling shooting from head to toes, liquifying the bones in their legs, and clenching their insides into a thousand tiny knots. The innkeeper narrowed his eyes. Did Floryn look like they were about to faint or did he know?

Suddenly Lav’s hand was on their shoulder, casually pushing them behind so they could step right up to the bar.

“Excuse the early hour,” they said, as honey smooth as the day they’d met. “Usually we wouldn’t impose at such an inopportune hour, but we’ve been traveling all night and hoped we could trouble you for a couple of rooms.”

The innkeeper stared at Lav for a moment, as if sensing the wrongness in him. But eventually he waved his hand flippantly. “We’re up this early every day. Got to get ahead of the tenants, eh?” He propped his elbows on the counter with a large yawn. “I only got one room. 15 coppers by the night. Will that do?”

“Perfect,” Lav said. They rustled in their deep coat pocket, producing a handful of small copper coins. Where they got the money after years in seclusion, Floryn didn't know. Maybe scoured off all the dead bodies and robbed graves.

The innkeeper scraped the coins into their hand and disappeared into the back. He returned a few moments later with a little silver key. "Room 8. Anything else?" he said, sliding it across the counter. "I can have Marri whip you up a hot breakfast."

From the glare Marri shot across the room, Floryn wouldn't have accepted the offer even if they could eat.

"Very gracious of you," Lav said. "But after a full night of traveling, the room is quite enough. Just up the stairs is it?"

"Even numbers on the right," the innkeeper confirmed.

"Very good." Lav's hand landed on the middle of Floryn's back, guiding them to the narrow staircase. The steps creaked and when they reached the hall it took some squinting to make out the half-rubbed numbers chalked on the doors.

Lav's hand slid away to unlock the door, leaving the spot on Floryn's spine tingling and empty.

Lav crossed the room in a few quick strides, yanking the curtains closed on the pool of sun spreading across the floor.

"If you're cold I'll light a--" They cut off mid-turn, only then noticing what Floryn had noticed immediately. Maybe they should be flattered Lav's first thought had been to keep them out of the sun, but the delayed reaction was somehow even worse than realizing their predicament simultaneously.

The single bed sat in the middle of the room, ropes hanging a little too loosely so that the straw mattress just brushed the floor. The bed hangings had also seen better days, motheaten and sustained from cream to light yellow--though to be fair, bed hangings in general were an unexpected luxury for this place. At the very least, the bed was full-sized; they wouldn't be pressed back to back.

Floryn shivered inappropriately at the mental image before brusquely shoving it away. A quick glance around the room revealed no other furnishings but a nightstand with a half-melted candle on one side of the bed and a chair and table, set with a pitcher and washbasin, on the other.

Lav cleared their throat uncomfortably. "I suppose the number of beds to a room was never specified."

"Well," Floryn said, trying to sound unbothered. "A bed is a bed." They slid their bag to the floor and plopped down on one end. "Can't complain there."

Lav nodded. "It's been a long night. You should rest." They dropped their own pack, quickly sifting out a blanket roll and spreading it out on the floor.

"We should rest," Floryn corrected. "Don't act as if you haven't had a long night too." They patted the space beside them.

"I'll be just fine by the hearth."

"I don't mind sharing."

"It's too much."

"For who?" Floryn said. "You never had a problem dozing off on the sofa. It's basically the same thing."

"It's different. And this body, what I am, all of it..."

"So? I can judge my discomfort myself, thank you. I'm fine." They met Lav's gaze head-on. "Unless I make you uncomfortable. In which case, we should flip a coin for the bed."

Lav clenched their teeth, rotating their jaw a couple times as their yellow eyes flicked from Floryn's face to the empty side of the bed, to the door. "You are so stubborn," they finally said, crossing the room and kicking off their shoes before sliding beneath the bedcovers. The mattress sank deeper towards the floor, but Floryn closed the bed hangings and crawled underneath the covers without comment. Despite their shoddy material, the hangings did make a cozy space. Even better because they blocked out any light that might have passed through the window curtains. The only downside was it made the bed feel narrower. A small but significant gap kept their and Lav's shoulders just short of brushing.

"You know you're making my gallant attempts at consideration very difficult," Lav said.

Floryn rolled toward them. "What do you mean?"

Lav matched Floryn's movement by turning onto their side, eyes glowing catlike in the shadows. "You do make me uncomfortable."

"Oh."

"Not because I don't like being near you," Lav said. "Because I don't deserve to be. I'm wearing the body of your attacker, I constantly make you afraid, and I'm a monster."

Floryn raised their hand to their cheek, eliciting a small shock. "Honey, you've never met a real monster."

Lav scoffed but didn't move away. "What am I then?"

They stroked a crooked finger down the ghoul's cheekbone "Yes, you're a monster in the traditional sense. So am I." Their other hand pressed to Lav's chest, the faux warmth of their skin soaking into their chilly fingertips. "But not in in here. Not where it counts. You don't have to be a ghoul or a vampire to be monstrous inside." The ragged rhythm of their heart beat into Floryn's palm, steadily picking up speed. "Maybe you have met monsters--the townspeople who sacrificed you, the people who chased you away from a normal life, my hunters--but don't think for one second you’re one of them."

Warm tears pricked Floryn's thumb, and suddenly, a pair of muscled arms wrapped around them. The air fled their lungs all at once and refused to be drawn back in.

"I care about you, Flor," Lav mumured into their neck. "My dear. My darling. My love."

"I love--" Floryn caught themselves, violently clearing their throat and bowing their face into Lav's curls. "I care about you too."

This ghoul was going to be the death of them. What did they mean saying "I care" and "My love" in the same breath? Their heart had already been stopped by an undead once, they didn't need a second demonstration.

Against their better wishes, they slid out of the embrace first.

"We should sleep. We need to put more distance between us and BellBreak before we can really relax."

"Rest," Lav murmured. "I can stay up if you're worried."

"Don't get noble. I worry about you too you know." They flopped the other direction. "If I wake up in a few hours and find out you didn't sleep, I'm going to be mad."

Lav chuckled. "Understood."

The covers rustled as they settled down deeper into the bed. The warmth of their presence tickled Floryn's back even from across the gap, but strangely, they weren't quite so anxious now. Perhaps they were simply to tired to worry anymore because sleep hit hard and fast. Seconds after closing their eyes they were engulfed in dark, dreamless sleep--a gift after so much nightmare fuel had been tossed their way today.

When Floryn woke next, the gap no longer existed.

Master Taglist:

@moss-tombstone @crazytwentythrees @just-1-lonely-person @the-vagabond-nun @willow-trees-are-beautiful @cocoasprite @insanedreamer7905 @valiantlytransparentwhispers @whovian378 @watercolorfreckles @thebluepolarbear @yulanlavender @kitsunesakii @deflated-bouncingball @lem-hhn @office-plant-in-a-trenchcoat@ghostfacepepper @pigeonwhumps @demonictumble @inkbirdie @vuvulia @bouncyartist @lunatic-moss-studio @breilobrealdi @freefallingup13 @i-am-a-story-goblin @ryunniez @rainy-knights-of-villany @distractedlydistracted @saspas-corner @echoednonny @perilous-dreamer @blood-enthusiast @randomfixation @alexkolax @pksnowie @blessupblessup @wolfeyedwitch @thedeepvoidinmyheart @cornflower-cowboy @bestblob @a-chaotic-gremlin @espresso-depresso-system @prompt-fills-and-writing-spills @paleassprince @takingawildbreath @yindonessy @psychiclibrariesquotestoad @harpycartoons @pickleking8 @urmyhopeeee @goldenflame2516 @tobeornottobeateacher @talesofurbania1 @sweetsigyn @girl-of-the-sea-and-stars @kurai-hono-blog

[swindlefingrs]

The Astral Plane is beautiful. Saga tells Gale so. She thanks him for the experience, for sharing this time with her as they float in the translucent sea together. He slips his learned, delicate hands into hers, calloused and broad, and squeezes. They tell each other that they are enough, as they are.

She loses his gaze to the shifting colors of the Astral Plane and makes a promise to herself.

The next morning Saga packs a small tote bag. Bread, cheese, cider. The rest of lunch she can find along the way. She knows Gale doesn't move fast or well over rough ground, so she picks a trail flat enough for her purpose.

Gale only pitches well-mannered fits twice, but she tells him to be patient. It'll be worth it.

It is.

The astonished look on his face as they crest this trail makes her feel less guilty about the stitch in his side that he digs his fist into.

The rushing waterfall is thunderous from their cliff-side vantage point. Cold spray glitters in the air, catching the suns rays and breaking them into a thousand colors.

"This is beautiful," Gale says between wheezes.

Saga takes his hand and leads him a few feet further up the trail to a perfect spot to overlook the valley. She sets out a simple meal of what she brought and what she gathered on the way: salmon berries, miner's lettuce, violets, honeycomb.

She drizzles the honey and violets over the pot of soft cheese. They dip torn pieces of bread into it. Salty. Sweet. Herbaceous.

"I had imagined that wooing a ranger would come with it's own particular set of challenges, but if your goal was to get me alone, there are much easier ways of doing that rathet than asking me to scale a mountain," Gale teases as he pops a berry into his mouth. He squints as the tartness hits his tongue, and relaxes as the sweetness blooms after.

Saga sucks her teeth, brushing off his chiding. Instead she scoots closer to him, draping one arm around his waist and pointing out to the river below with her other hand. She revels in the feeling of him leaning against her. His breath on her cheek.

From where they sit she points out the stories that she can see written in the damp earth, broken twigs, dead grass, moss, and climbing vines.

“Elk cross there every other tenday."

Gale recites the binomial nomenclature for elk, Saga corrects him.

“Red elk, not Marsh Elk. Those are further south."

Gale corrects himself and recites the binomial for red elk.

“A hunter has taught her daughter how to hunt those elk. Just as her mother taught her. There's their blind.”

Saga points to a cluster of rushes next to an old oak tree.

“The scat from the herd fertilizes the water and those berry bushes.”

Eel grass languidly sways in the river's current. Glinting silver fish dart between the thick, green blades of the eel grass.

“These... berries?” Gale hesitates with a handful of yellow and orange salmon berries.

“Those berries.” She snatches one from his palm and bites down until it bursts tart and sweet in her mouth.

She nods southerly, “Look at the entrance to the cave. The bear sow had her tenth cub this spring. She brought down an elk recently. See the bones?”

“These leaves?” Saga plucks a handful of spade-shaped leaves from the bush nearby. She rolls them between her calloused fingers and breathes in their scent, before placing them under Gale’s nose. It smells like mossy pepper and golden melon. Interesting.

She cups the leaves in her palm, “Water,” she commands in a tone that is sweet for her.

With just a flick of his wrist, the leaves float in a pool of cool, clear water. She claps her hands together, rubbing them vigorously before revealing that her palms covered in milky suds.

“Soap.”

“Ah! For washing up! How fascinating,” Gale drags his fingers through the suds, rubbing them between his fingertips, testing the viscosity.

Saga takes a deep breath. Words aren't as easy for her as they are for Gale, “The Astral Plane is wonderful. You showed me that. Just don’t... don't forget about this plane, yeah? It’s just as magical. In its way.”

“So I'm learning," he chirps. “Turns out? Some of my favorite people are here. Somehow you keep finding new ways of teaching me that.”

Gale's smile is bright, earnest. It cauterizes a rotten part of her urges.

“With all that being said, can you promise me something?” he sidles up to her.

She scowls. Promises are heavy things.

“Can you promise me that you'll bring me on another one of your highly educational field trips of the famed Material Plane? I mean the view, the ecology lesson, the meal? The company?” He softens his voice to a whisper shared between the two of them, “I can't wait to see more of it.”

Saga smirks. She tips his pretty head back with only a finger under his chin. His kisses are berry-sweet, honey-sticky, and plentiful.

"A promise easily kept."

[aquadraco20]

The more I learn about plants, the more insane to me it is that so many people just have grass.

Like you spend so much time and money maintaining a plant that isnt supposed to live here when you could have strawberries? And blueberries? And apples and hazelnuts? And wildlife?

You dont want to go outside and see butterflies and bumblebees and fireflies and birds?

You dont even want your kids to walk barefoot on the grass you work so hard to maintain because you sprayed it with poison to keep the bugs away? And for what? You're killing the local ecosystem because you don't like buts when you arent even going outside in the first place?

Your doctor says you're low on vitamin D- that's because you dont go outside! Oh theres nothing to do outside? Probably because you're property is completely empty!

Set up a hammock for starters. Listen to your neighbors birds, if they have any. Feel the wind. Learn about your hardiness zone, the plants native to you, the animals native to you. Did you know male bumblebees sleep inside flowers? Or that fireflies lay their eggs in the leaves you thrie away?

Did you know strawberries and blueberries come back every year? You literally just plant them and you're done. You don't have to water them or fertilize them (as long as they're native). You just bring them home and they do the rest. Free food! Supporting your local ecosystem!

Keep your cats inside!

[dougdimmadodo]

Antarctic Pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis)

Family: Pink Family (Caryophyllaceae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Unassessed

Brutal cold, intense winds and a lack of terrestrial resource makes Antarctica by far the least biodiverse continent on earth, and while land plants are particularly rare in the area surrounding the south pole, two species of highly specialised flowering plants have managed to survive; a tough, low-growing species of grass called Antarctic Hairgrass, and a small, superficially moss-like relative of campions, chickweeds, stitchworts and pinks; the Antarctic Pearlwort. Found mainly in coastal areas where they typically grow attached to sturdy rocks, members of this species grow low to the ground to avoid being uprooted by wind, possessing thick, waxy leaves to reduce water loss through salt spray, wind and evaporation resulting from sunlight reflected from snow, and produce antifreeze-like proteins in their leaves to prevent their internal stores of water from freezing and damaging their tissues. Although they produce pale yellow flowers Antarctic Pearlworts cannot rely on animal-based pollination (with Antarctica's only insect, the Antarctic Midge, being flightless and spending much of its life underground,) and as such they instead allow their pollen to be carried away by the wind, fertilizing the flowers of other members of their species and allowing for the production of small, waxy fruits (which, in the absence of terrestrial frugivores to swallow them, drop their seeds to germinate wherever they fall.) As anthropogenic climate change causes increases in average temperature across Antarctica, Antarctic Pearlwort populations are rapidly increasing as the conditions around them slowly become more conducive to plant growth. As such, monitoring the population size and current range of this species can provide useful insight into how drastically the earth's poles are changing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/428806-Colobanthus-quitensis

[outoutdamnspark]

Yet another head full of OC a/b/o thoughts while at work!

(Inspired by @bellafragolina breaking down Ren’s scent notes~ 💕)

===

🌸 Reina (Ω) smells faintly like cigarettes and fertile soil at any given time, due to her love of gardening and occasional smoking habit. Her natural omega scent, however, also contains chamomile, petrichor, sweet grass, and cloves. Overall it might seem off-putting, since no one would automatically consider those scents to pair well together. Up close, however, they combine to create an earthy, subtly sweet scent that calls to mind thoughts of calm spring mornings.

When she’s excited or extremely happy, the petrichor and sweet grass become more prominent - sometimes eliciting second-hand feelings of joy in those around her.

When calm and contented, more of the chamomile scent comes forward. Most notably, her scent is almost overridden by it entirely around the handful of people she feels comfortable enough around to cuddle, giving into her omega nesting instincts.

When afraid, her scent turns to something like compost, as if the plant matter that makes up her overall scent is now starting to decay. Anger smells similar, but more like active, choking rot and less like dampened earth.

When in heat, her scent changes to incorporate notes of chai tea and honey, downplaying the sweet grass and petrichor in favor of something thicker and spicier.

———

🌼 Kana (β) likes to make and wear her own fragrances, so she’ll oftentimes smell softly like pear and blackberry, or sharp, sweet pine. She likes to play with scents that pair well with her own subtle beta scent, which contains black walnut, honeysuckle flowers, and clear, cold water. Generally her scent is calming, pleasant, with just a hint of spice and earth from the walnut - like a dry summer evening.

When in a neutral, calm state, her scent stays mellow, with the walnut being an undertone and the honeysuckle being at the forefront. The feelings typically described from being exposed to her scent when she's content and happy are comfort, security, and oddly, a kind of awareness or clarity.

When excited or joyous, the black walnut takes center stage, stinging the noses of those around her in the most pleasant of ways and 'waking them up,' so to speak.

Around her loved ones her scent shifts to be more of the fresh water, inviting them to relax. It's different than her usual honeysuckle "neutral" smell, as it only properly comes out when she's fully content and relaxed, herself.

When agitated or afraid, her scent changes almost entirely to something sharp and metallic, like rotting walnut and iron. When angry, though, nearly everything else fades away until all that's left is the scent of hot blood.

After Osuke's death, Kana's scent is tinged with the bitter ashes and rain-damp sandstone of ever-present grief. Over time, it fades to salty ocean spray and charcoal but doesn't start to go away until she meets and adopts Nise. Her new pup brings happiness back into her life, and her scent changes to reflect it; in addition to the incorporation of Nise's scent of ozone and earth, Kana also gains the scent of the sweet milk "mother" scent.

———

💖 Hina (α) doesn't have much in the way of extra scents that cling to her, as she isn't as much into fragrances as her oldest sister is, nor does she smoke. She also just dislikes wearing hair or makeup products that smell like much of anything, so the most she'll have is possibly sakura shampoo or vanilla lip gloss. These compliment her natural alpha scent of cherry candy, hibiscus, and the faintest hint of cinnamon.

When she's happy or playful, her scent is primarily candy-like - fruit and sugar and with a tiny bite of tartness that's not so cloyingly sweet as to have her be mistaken for a child. People around her tend to find themselves in a slightly brighter mood if around her cherry scent for long enough.

When relaxed and comfortable, usually reserved for her partners or sisters, her scent mellows out and becomes more like cherry blossoms than cherry candy. Not quite so sharp or bright, but softer and more floral. The cinnamon fades, leaving behind the impression of mild, warm springtime just on the cusp of summer.

When angry, she smells almost like cinnamon whiskey. All fruit and candy sweetness are gone, replaced with the harsh burn of alcohol and hot cinnamon. Her fear, however, smells like fermented fruit.

For her ruts, Hina's scent changes to be mostly hibiscus, but with the addition of candied oranges and red raspberries - still sweet but sharper, more like a strong, fruity, herbal, tea than candy.

———

All together, the sisters share the underlying familial scent signatures of flowers and herbs, with little hints of earthier undertones. The most common note that is most recognizable when they're all together and relaxed, is red clover or the faintest touch of honey.

[beabaseball]

Went to a social thing today bc I am trying but ended up mentioning I live on a farm to someone and felt very weird when I went to like "yeah idk why my luffa didn't grow this year, if I just didn't water them enough or if someone sprayed a broad-leaf pesticide on the grass we bought as hay (you know, for the burs) that we fed to horses and use as fertilizer, because the luffa would count as a broad leaf plant so a hypothetical pesticide might be it"

She was very wide eyed and told me they had added trellises to some garden boxes for "the tomatoes that climb"

(this is all tomatoes)

Anyway. I hope I wasn't accidentally rude to her but I just got hit again with the. You know.

"Ah. My up bringing was uncommon."

[minargc]

Fertilizer and Weed Control: How to Keep Your Lawn Weed-Free

Combining effective lawn fertilizer application with strategic weed control is key to maintaining a weed-free and lush lawn. Here's how to achieve this balance:

Choose the Right Fertilizer: Opt for a balanced lawn fertilizer with the appropriate N-P-K (Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium) ratio. Balanced nutrition helps your grass thrive, making it more resilient against weeds.

Proper Timing: Fertilize your lawn at the right time. Healthy grass can outcompete weeds, so promote its growth during the active growing season by applying fertilizer accordingly.

Weed Identification: Know your weeds. Identify common lawn weeds and their life cycles. Some weeds are best controlled with pre-emergent herbicides, while others require post-emergent treatment.

Integrated Approach: Implement an integrated weed management strategy. Combine cultural practices like mowing at the correct height, maintaining proper soil pH, and ensuring adequate watering with targeted herbicide applications.

Spot Treat: When weeds do appear, spot treat them rather than blanket spraying the entire lawn. This minimizes herbicide use and potential harm to beneficial plants.

By nurturing your lawn with the right lawn fertilizer and employing effective weed control techniques, you can enjoy a healthy, weed-free lawn that's the envy of your neighborhood.

[swift-grow]

Eco-Friendly Fertilizer for Lush Gardens – Swift Grow Organic

Nourish your plants with Swift Grow’s organic fertilizer. Improve soil quality and promote robust growth with our eco-friendly, nutrient-rich formula. Perfect for sustainable, healthy gardening. https://swiftgrow.com.au

[garden-with-squid]

6/18/23, pt 2

My mom and I did a lot of yard work today in honor of Father’s Day. Full post under the cut

It’s our first Father’s Day without my dad around, and being out in the yard helps us feel close to him. There’s a lot to do in his absence.

Here’s a quick list of things we did/notes:

Harvested some apples from the tree in the back. I didn’t know they were in season again. If fully red, they have a soft grainy texture, so my dad liked to pick them green with just a hint of red.

Mom cleared out some grass and weeds by the lemon tree. Note the sea lavender and happy persimmon tree!

Lots of rust on the roses, so I clipped the most damaged leaves and sprayed neem oil.

Clipped off dead flowers from the climbing rose, as many as I could comfortably reach.

Watched the chickens and tried to bribe them with treats. I left corn cobs, shrimp tails, and veggie scraps from dinner.

Notes for later:

I want to dig out a sea lavender, take some dragonfruit cuttings, and take some potted succulents.

Should fertilize the roses eventually

Plant ground cover near cactus garden

Plant shade plants in front door bed

Buy tulip bulbs

[karmazain]

Let the mint do its thing (part 377485 of "All-grass lawns are evil")

Americans spend $887 billion going camping and hiking and visiting national parks to view the beauty of nature, and then they go home and mow and spray and weed and fertilize and do everything they can to stop that nature from existing in their lawns and in their gardens.  Veronica Shukla. “For the Love of Mint in all its Spreading Glory.” The whole article at Think Outside the Lawn is worth…

[resonanteye]

I'm in USDA zone 6b. but! I'm at 2k elevation in high desert. that means it gets brutally cold, then brutally hot, with almost no spring or fall weather. it means the heat wave starts in July and goes into August, burning everything. it means no rain from June until October.

it means last frost is mid May, last freeze is April; but it could snow into June. it's really fucking weird to grow anything here.

I use rain barrels to collect all winter. it's enough for the worst weeks of drought. I use homemade ollas in the middle of my garden to try to keep things watered. I use light mulch to keep the soil damper in the heat. I have a shade cloth but it's never enough (now taking donations of large burlap rolls or such!)

our season is short. 100 days, 110 at most. usually it's closer to 90. the original soil is urban, compacted silt on decades of grass lawns. it needs loads of wood mulch, manure, aeration, fertilizer. I've been feeding the dirt for 7 years.

I'm in town. so big trees are not possible but semi dwarf, dwarf trees are ok. I'm trying my best.

it was 56F yesterday then today it snowed. 55F+ all week in the daytime, below freezing at night. difficult conditions.

good for apples though- but there's so many here that you've got to spray them or they die.

[theeyesinthenight]

I actually find this pipeline really fascinating for bunch of reasons. I studied environmental science with a minor in animal ethics in college, and now am farm coordinator/chef for some restaurants. I'm deeply passionate about sustainability and trying to change systems to have less environmental impact!

This pipeline runs on misconceptions, lets debunk some of them!

"Large scale animal agriculture is bad for the environment".- True and false. The way we currently do large scale animal agriculture has a lot of different parts of it that are bad for the environment:

We feed animals in feed lots/coops on diets that are grown in inappropriate areas for their nutrition/water/fertilizer needs. Pumping large amounts of groundwater into fields in Arizona and New Mexico to grow alfalfa to feed to cows depletes the water table in those areas, deposits salts and minerals in the fields that are expensive and difficult to remove (and if not removed) destroy the soil's fertility for everything, not just crops, and is one of the reasons that the Columbia river no longer reaches the ocean. Same goes for burning down the rain-forest to open up land to soybean production. Pouring tons of fertilizer onto corn in the Mississippi water basin pours millions of pounds of nitrogen fertilizer into the gulf of Mexico, creating huge algae blooms that kill everything under them by blocking out sunlight.

This food is inappropriate for animal's digestion and health and so encourage food borne illnesses to thrive both in the animal's body- (continued in point 3) This makes their bodies more dangerous to consume, which increases the regulations necessary on food processing and limits what can be done to reclaim/use every part of the animal. If cow intestines are riddled with dangerous strains of e-coli from eating a nutritionally imbalanced diet of corn and candy factory rejects to fatten them up quickly which disrupts their stomach PH, instead of grazing on grass and a mixture of alfalfa and other protein rich plants, you have to carefully break down the animal after slaughter in a way that makes sure that there isn't a single nick or cut in the intestines, or the disease will contaminate the meat. This is what limits cooking temperatures on ground meats, and also affects things like how long meat is shelf stable for, what will grow on it if you attempt to cure it, etc. Since we can't slow the slaughterhouses down and take our time under our capitalistic system, the only solution is to throw out any meat that might be contaminated and constantly spray everything in the slaughterhouse down with caustic chemicals, which need to be processed and denatured in order to not get into the outside environment.

and thrive in their waste- which poses both a danger to nearby agricultural ventures- uncontrolled fecal runoff from dairy and pork operations has led to a lot of the leafy green recalls of the last 2 decades. If it gets into the water system which gets applied to veggies that are eaten raw, those veggies are never cooked to sufficient temperatures to kill off bacteria, and can make people very sick.

Animal byproducts- their bones, their feathers, their viscera, is often burned, dumped in a landfill, or disposed of irresponsibly rather than cycled back into agricultural systems because of the increased risk of contamination from the diseases caused by the system as it stands.

Methane, carbon dioxide, and the amount of calories needed to be grown using petroleum based fertilizers and powered by diesel tractors to feed to animals, to then move them to slaughter houses, to packing houses, to distributors, to grocery stores all fill the air with greenhouse gasses.

Lastly, none of the supplies used in this system are sustainable; the fertilizers we put on the crops to feed to the animals, the water we import or pump out of the ground, the diseases breeding in the feedlots, all of this is bad for the environment overall.

But, and here's where I'd like to point things out to the contrary; the issue here isn't animal agriculture, its how we currently *do* animal agriculture. You can do animal agriculture *differently* and net different results.

1. There are lots of agriculturally marginal lands that don't get adequate rain, nutrition, sun, or warmth for growing many, or most plants. Right now we import those supplies to those farms- groundwater, petro-chemical fertilizers that cause the aforementioned toxic runoffs and which depend on the petroleum industry, and grow lights/heaters or hoophouses (with plastic sheeting)/greenhouses- but those solutions aren't actually *sustainable*, they're very frequently not sustainable at all and are damaging the environment equally.

But you also can't use that land for growing vegan food. The high plains of Montana are never going to produce enough soybeans per acre to feed anyone, and though the peaches of Georgia and the apples of Washington are delicious, they do not produce enough calories per acre to feed the world. But these this land *can* support animal life in either mixed or substitutional use- ducks raised in apple orchards in the PNW grow fat on slugs and snails, supplemented by chopped apple scrap from the cidery they live on. Goats thrive in parts of the high desert in Arizona where, if we're being honest, nothing *should* be growing because there isn't enough water, and every drop of water we pump out of the ground salts the soil it touches. Buffalo used to live on grass in the millions on the plain states where you can barely scratch winter resistant, Russian-bred rye into a single season and were hunted sustainably by the hundreds of thousands in areas where now we keep penned in cattle and feed them soybeans shipped in from South America. You can't grow crops there, but if we used animals *appropriately* we can still use that area to produce food, sustainably.

2. The lack of flexibility in regards to animal by-products is one of the things that drive up the costs on "luxury" animal goods- if the animals themselves were higher quality, we could take the skin off of every cow, the feathers off of every slaughtered chicken, the bones out of every pig, and turn them into cheap (and decomposable!) leather goods, bedding, and supplements, rather than using plastic substitutes for all of this which will never breakdown in a landfill. But we can't, because factories are streamlined to do one thing, and are regulated that way to prevent disease- when the disease wouldn't exist if the animals were healthy to start.

3. This bacteria risk poses an actually LARGER risk to the overall food system that I haven't touched on yet- that of nutrient depletion. Really simply, plants need Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium to grow- and while we can pull the first one out of the air, we need oil to do it, and we all know that's a. not sustainable and b. in limited supply. Before this process was invented in the early 1900s, the maximum "carrying capacity" of the Earth's population was 3-4 billion people- even with increases in efficiently in food production now, the maximum would hover around 5 billion without petrochemicals. Given that the world's population currently hovers at just above 8 billion, running out of oil will cause more than an energy crisis- it means that probably around half the people on the planet will die off, at minimum, from starvation, but that number will likely be higher as the first to die will be the poorest, and those are frequently agricultural workers, leading to a runaway effect.

But winding back that anxiety spiral for a second, to sustainably get access to, and reuse, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium (hereafter referred to as NPK), we have to recycle animal (including human!) poop. Before the petroleum fertilizer method was invented, we literally fought wars over giant piles of bird poop that was built up on islands in the Pacific ocean, and that shit (lol) isn't renewable. It built up over thousands of years, and we scraped it clean. The only renewable places that NPK come from in nature are either through the slow buildup (and only of nitrogen) of rotationally planting nitrogen-fixing crops in the soil- and animal byproducts.

Poop, pee, blood, bone meal, hair, hide, flesh- all of this stuff is chock-a-block, whale-fall level nutritionally dense with the NPK chemicals that plants DESPERATELY need to exist. (also with the other critical vitamins and minerals- plants need calcium too!) They're the plant's equivalents of Protein, carbs, and fats- without them, they cannot grow at all. Which means it is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL to a sustainable food system to integrate animal, and human waste and byproducts. Animal waste being turned into, and treated, as toxic disease ridden sludge is creating a one way nutrient path from soil to shit, which we then can't use as fertilizer because it might give someone e-coli, so we bury it or pump it into the ocean.

We need the humans, and the animals, to be healthier- and to develop better systems for treating the waste of both. The solution cannot be to get rid of animals, because there has never been a plant in existence that hasn't needed the presence of animals, living and dead, in order to live. Because we are part of a food cycle.

There are no organic fertilizers that are renewable, that also do not involve the body of an animal or human.

This is a tradeoff you have to accept to live on this planet; you either eat food that, although it may say vegan, if it's organic it has had dried animal blood, shit, pee, and bones spread on it. And if it's not organic, it's had the by-products of petroleum processing spread on it. All of which are applied by farmers who rarely understand the correct application process, and whose runoff cascades into the local water systems to poison the life downstream- and this is true whether or not you eat your food as plants, or as plants-fed-to-animals.

4. As another note on this- the nutritional depletion of our soils is the result of this! When you gear agriculture towards vast monoculture and spray on fertilizers, the complex ecosystems of soil organisms die off, and they're the creatures responsible for "tying down" nutrients when rain falls, keeping the non-NPK nutrients from washing out of the soil! Increasing research from low/no till farms and farms that can sustainably integrate animals with their crops show that soil bacteria and microorganisms know how to "eat" animal and human waste and bodies, and then store it in the soil to slowly release into plants, which they do in exchange for sugar that they trade with the plants roots. These organisms don't know what to do with fertilizer-form chemicals, and so they die off, letting all the other nutrients wash off along with them. So our tomatoes are literally less healthy for you than they were 60 years ago because we *don't* use animal byproducts!

5. The issue here is that food should be grown *locally* under whatever conditions exist in the local environment, without increasing our pollution debt, and then ideally traded with as low of a carbon and packaging footprint as possible- and mangos and tomatoes grown in Peru and then shipped here on cargo ships are EQUALLY RESPONSIBLE for this bullshit as is beef raised in Argentina. Electric trains attached to sustainable energy grids, with electric trucks on local scales, would fix this for both. It's better for the environment to raise tomatoes in California's central valley and then electrically bullet train them to Alaska than to try to *grow them* in Alaska afterall.

6. Fixing the environment is going to end up being an issue of doing things in the correct *places*, with *sustainable* methods, and then utilizing sustainable distribution and reclamation of goods and waste. But it's going to have to be a food *ecosystem* including both animals and people, or we're all going to die.

I do want to point out- you literally can't be vegan. I understand the idea of it, but when you zoom out and look at the larger system, being vegan isn't sustainable, doesn't benefit the planet, and doesn't honestly analyze the factors that are harming the earth- and all the food you eat needs animal parts to grow, or needs gasoline-derived-chemicals, which are definitely not sustainable or good for the planet either.

Basically, OP is right about everything, but I think the "bad information" analysis happens one step even before "if I can do it, so can you"- because you *can't* do it. Not under capitalism, not under ecology, not under the wheel of suffering we're all born into.

Only in very small, limited scale have some religious groups in some of the most fertile places on earth (with soil that, again, is full of milennia of animal-body feasted microorganisms and nutrient-deposits) with the most perfect light/water/heat ratios on the planet, have some people managed to raise and subsist on small amounts of pure vegetable crops that they fertilize with their own wastes. These people exist in as close to a perfect, peaceful loop with nature as you can get, if you ignore all of the blood-investment that had to go into getting the soil to behave like this (because the land in Greece and Egypt certainly doesn't).

But these can't grow cotton, or linen- it requires too much land, and would take too many calories to farm that land without netting any calories to eat, so they accept donations of cloth and money from local communities who feed themselves on kindly-raised free-range chickens and beloved pigs and cows who live their lives in conditions that, although they aren't luxurious, would make even the most spoiled agricultural lot animal in the United States weep with envy. And leather and hide will break down into nature without a trace, unlike "pleather" which will be choking the soil for millennia to come. So even they make compromises.

I dearly, desperately fear a world that decides to let corporations continue to lie to you about where your food comes from, and how, and the realities of fertilization, all the way to legislative mandates for lab grown meat, so you can't raise your own chickens or collect your own cow's dung to fertilize your plants. What will the world be, when the corporations control everything and force you to go through them? When they fully control the means of production, covered in the slight of hand of ethics and safety rebranding?

They won't care about the planet, and the lab equipment, the plastic sterile rooms with the caustic cleaning chemicals and the plastic lab equipment and the biohazard clothing and the plastic containers and the gasoline powered trucks delivering their "better for the planet" (lie) "ethical" (sure no animals were killed) meat to the store will still be going, and the soybeans they grow to grind and extrude into the chemical vats to grow the meat-strips will still be badly fertilized and full of runoff and ripped out of microbially dead soil deplete of native insects and plants and animals, and they'll still tell you it's not safe to do this at home because the law says you'll expose yourself and others to diseases that way-

and it will be less ethical than raising a cow on grassy native pastures that she can eat herself deliriously happy on, that has been bred for thousands of years to produce more than twice the milk her baby can drink, and drinking some of it yourself. And where I'd argue but agree to disagree is that it's also more ethical to sneak up on a deer in the wild, like any other predator, and give him a miserable 5 seconds rather than support the factory farming conditions of *any* commercial agriculture, for humans OR animals. Because avocados are run by the cartels and use slave labor.

The vegan to ecofascist pipeline