#growing seeds

[balkanradfem]

What it takes to grow little transplants in my apartment!

I'm starting my first plants of 2023, and I'm going to go thru every single step I have to take in order to have them grow! This is extremely diy, no budget, we use resources we find on the street, I picked out these seeds from a vegetable I got from a friend, type of thing.

The first step is creating the place to put the plants. They need to be inside where it's warm, but get as much light as possible. I have these big french windows in the kitchen, and it’s the place that gets the most light in the morning. I will often carry the plants to the other side of the apartment for the afternoon, especially if there's sunlight! I don't have enough space on the windowsills to put all the plants there, so I have to create a makeshift table for them.

Now the way I usually make a table is I go to the basement, pick out a board (I collect abandoned boards next to the trash), and put it on the top of a big cardboard box. The cardboard boxes can actually take a lot of weight, so they work fine as a table stand, especially if the board is heavy. I found the board I used the last year, and then realized, that my roommate took all of my cardboard boxes when she was moving out, and I do not have an appropriate box to use! I went outside to see if anyone had abandoned a cardboard box, and in about 10 minutes, I found one:

And this is how the construction works:

Now that is taken care of, I need to decide what seeds I'm planting. Have I ever shown you my seed box? This is my seed box:

It looks messy, but all of the seeds I collected are in little packets I made from envelopes, and then they're sorted into categories, and each category is kept together by a piece of elastics. I just had to take out the brassicas (kale, cabbage, broccoli) and some early tomatoes, peppers and basil. I decided to sow a lot of kale and cabbage, and 5-6 little dwarf tomatoes, they’re an early variety and they'll give produce as early as May! I've had both basil and peppers successfully grow, sown as early as January, so I'm taking a chance at them again. These plants may not make it, since there's not a lot of light yet, but if they do, they'll give me the earliest produce in the year, and it's worth the effort. If it doesn't work out, I'll sow them all again in February.

Now the next step is finding the containers for them; I have lots of both found and gifted stuff, but my favourites by far are the yogurt cups, they're the ideal size for a pepper or a kale plant, and I can just fit a lot of them next to each other! I'm also trying these tiny black containers, to see how I like them. I'm using the food container with a lid to grow basil, because I've noticed basil germinates more willingly in damp conditions, and once I close that lid, the water won't be able to evaporate. Also all these containers need to have a decent sized hole on the bottom!

Now before I go on to get the soil and start planting, I figured I should make the labels! Once my hands are dirty I will be unwilling to wash them just to cut some labels out. My labels are just a random piece of thin cardboard (like from a chocolate box) cut into a strip, and then I write the name of the plant there. Otherwise I will immediately forget what I planted where. These are short-lived, for a lasting one, I've seen people cut out plastic containers into strips, and write on them with a permanent marker, that would last! But I only need these temporarily, I don't mind if they decompose later.

Now, the soil! If I hadn't been prepared for this, I would have to go to the forest, or some area where a lot of leaves were decomposing, to get my soil, but I always remember to take some home in the fall, so I already have a bucket filled with soil here.

This bucket is great for it because it has a lid I can close, and soil can't dry out in there. Soil benefits a lot from being kept damp, so all of the useful bacteria can keep living inside it. If it goes dry, it loses a lot of its biodiversity! This specific soil is from the forest, dug from under a rotten tree trunk. There's a lot of clumps and pieces of bark and roots, so I'm taking a minute to clean it out a little, I'm taking bigger pieces out so they can't obstruct my little plants. When it's all good, I'm mixing it with some more water! Ideally, your soil would be nice and warmed up before you're about to plant, because seeds like warm soil to grow in. But, if it's not, you can cheat and mix it with warm water to warm it up!

Now to fill the containers:

And now I have all of them filled up, I can finally plant. These cabbage seeds on the picture are new and untried, I ordered them online because I want to try and make sauerkraut this year! I'm excited to see if they grow well.

The only thing you really need to know about sowing seeds, they're supposed to go twice as deep as they're wide. Since all these seeds are tiny, all I need to do is to gently push them under the soil, and then pepper some soil on top. Like this:

I put two seeds in each container, just in case. Now they're all sowed, I'm spraying them with water gently, so that the soil would properly settle on top of them. If you were to water them with pouring water, it could easily displace the seed, so it's recommended to just gently spray on top!

There's one more important step to this; all of these containers have holes at the bottom, and they need to be put in watertight containers, so that they wouldn't leak when you water them! I always have bunch of old food containers on hand for this purpose:

Now with this setup, it's very convenient to bottom-water them. This means you never water the top of the soil; instead, you pour water in the watertight container, and all of the soil in the containers with holes will soak up exactly as much water as they need. This takes care of the risk of overwatering, your plants will not drown in this way, and also their roots will be encouraged to grow deep down to the source of the water.

And now they’re on their makeshift table! All the attention these need now is to get some water every few days, and to be in the brightest place possible.

[queer-grey-lady]

Look what I found in my lemon yesterday!

The first time I ever found sprouted seeds inside a closed lemon (is this how it works usually?)

So guess what I did :)

Do you think they will grow?

Any tips on growing lemon seeds are welcome, I am not an experienced gardener, to be fair.

[wafiabenhassen]

[briefdreamerbasketballmuffin]

🔸🔺⚠️ advertencia de mucho texto ⚠️🔺🔸

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‼️puto el que ponga “Mucho texto” en los comentarios aún después de haber leído la advertencia ‼️

No sé que tan necesario sea este aviso pero supongo que mi mente solamente siente la necesidad de hacerlo…

Cómo ya habrán notado hace tiempo deje de actualizar la historia de mis Ocs de LN

¿Por qué ?

Perdí el ánimo para seguir escribiendolos…

Las ideas todavía allí están, los conceptos, personajes y planes todavían están allí, en algún lugar de mi cabeza pero le he perdido lentamente la emoción a la historia ya que siento que repito el mismo patrón que los juegos de LN, no hay nada nuevo, son dos niños con pesadillas, dos niños que pasarán por momentos fuertes, dos niños que se volverían futuras pesadillas trastornadas, igual le he perdido lentamente el interés a los juegos, todavía me gusta la historia sí, pero ya no me causa tanto emoción y interés como antes y más viendo que tanto puede causar y llegar a ser el fandom.

Tanto en grupos de Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter repiten los mismos patrones :

<<Six es la víctima de todo 😭😭😭!!! estamos viendo todo desde la perspectiva de mono y por eso es retratado como el héroe 😡😡😡>>

<< Six es malvada por dejar caer a mono por qué, por qué es six!!!, ya se!, ataquemos ahora a la gente que guste de six>>

<<!Mi teoría es más cannon que la tuya, y lo sé por qué hasta me se el color de los calzones de los personajes!>>

<< Tu teoría está mal por qué… -inserta largo texto en el que se rechaza la teoría de la otra persona y mete la suya a pesar que está en las mismas de ser igual de incoherente y exagerada >>

<< mis Ocs son tan pero tan poderosos que -inserta largo texto incoherente, sin sentido y falta de lógica en el que básicamente quiere que sus Ocs sean los más poderosos por qué sí, tanto así que cuando ve a alguien con un Oc similar aclara que su Oc le supera- y nadie me puede decir lo contrario por qué -inserta un largo texto agresivo-pasivo seguido de amenazas para aquellos que no piensen como esa persona>>

además de la élite entre miembros de los grupos de este Fandom…

Me lleve un muy mal sabor de boca por parte de la comunidad de LN y me dejó traumada sobre los Fandoms, si conocí a personas maravillosas que aprecio bastante hasta el día de hoy y que me han inspirado a mejorar en el dibujo pero así como reconozco de estas personas maravillosas reconozco que los fandoms siempre serán y llegarán a ser naturalmente tóxicos, al menos que alguno realmente tenga la suficiente moderación responsable que sea la adecuada y neutral (los cuales realmente en muy pocos lugares he visto eso).

Casi siempre están estás peleas de teorías y el universo de LN es tan poco conocido y explicado incluso por sus propios creadores que fácilmente cualquiera teoría puede ser canon con los argumentos adecuados, fácilmente podemos decir que Mono puede derrotar a Six a puño libre por qué él tiene la capacidad de cargar cosas mucho más grandes que él (o su gran resistencia al momento de correr) como así podemos decir que Six es tan capaz de derrotar a mono por qué puede levantarlo por unos segundos o no tiene miedo de hacer el trabajo sucio con sus propias manos.

Así como podemos decir que The Lady puede derrotar al hombre delgado por qué dentro del juego esté fue derrotado por un niñito como así podemos decir que el hombre delgado puede derrotar a The Lady por qué fue derrotada por una niñita con un espejo.

Así como podemos suponer que Six se comió a un Gnomo por qué ella sabe de lo que realmente están hechos las salchichas así como podemos decir que Six no era ella o al menos no estaba completa(por la sombra con su forma que se ve siguiéndola) cuando se comió el gnomo .

Así como podemos decir que Six no estaba en todas sus facultades cuando soltó a mono como así podemos decir que Six lo soltó como venganza personal y lo hizo a conciencia propia.

Eso y sin olvidar lo muy exageradamente Edgys que llega a ser el Fandom, por ejemplo como la típica Six Mary Sue super mega poderosa invencible que muchos ilusos retratan y quieren que si o si sea cannon esa niña salvaje Carnival invencible que ellos tanto alucinan e fantasean queriendo por obligación que su idea Fannon se vuelva Canon y aceptada por toda la comunidad y rechazan agresivamente cualquier Six dulce o débil que algún otro miembro de la comunidad cree.

Está mezcla de emociones… y ver qué él fandom a su modo puede llegar a ser tan jerárquico y tóxico…

A hecho que me aislará y prefiera disfrutar de series y proyectos a distancia, todavía disfruto de los FanArts, historias, cómics y animatics de LN pero me niego volver a su fandom como antes y me niego a volver ser activa en algún grupo de cualquier red hasta que finalmente me sienta lo suficientemente preparada y motivada para volver a interactuar.

¿Es lo último que veremos de tus Ocs ?

No.

Admito que tampoco soy una inocente palomita y hace años fui igual de tóxica que el fandom…

Dañe injustamente a personas en el pasado y lo reconozco, me arrepiento de corazón el mal trato que cause a esa gente que llegue tratar mal injustificadamente en él pasado y se bien que importa más las acciones que las palabras, lo sé pero sé que mi amistad con esas personas es un espejo roto actualmente, simplemente si lo intento arreglar no será igual que antes y puede que quede mucho peor .

Lamento por mi mala actitud con dos personas en especial, con las que se que fui una horrible persona en el pasado:

Mis sinceras disculpas a Bizcocho Dulce por no ser una mejor amiga contigo y ser muy inmadura hace años.

Mis sinceras disculpas a Silver Frost si fuí muy agresiva e ingrata contigo .

Si leen esto quiero que sepan que si no me perdonan lo entenderé, está a todo su derecho no hablarme por qué reconozco mis actitudes tóxicas en el pasado y reconozco bien que no me merezco su amistad, si no quieren hablarme no lo hagan ni se sientan obligadas a hacerlo.

(Bizcocho se que dijistes que estábamos en buenos términos pero aún lamento mis malas actitudes y obsesiones tóxicas con ciertos temas que tome en años pasados)

Regresando a lo de mis Ocs…

Jack y Frijal estuvieron conmigo en esa horrible fase mía, estuvieron conmigo cuando observé lo peor del fandom de LN en distintas redes y estuvieron conmigo cuando creaba nuevas historias, si bien por un tiempo les agarre odio poco a poco me di cuenta que realmente no los odiaba, ambos son muy especiales para mi, lo escribí con un amigo muy especial (mi amigo chileno LuisA.B, si estás leyendo esto gracias por motivarme a crearlos y perdón si ya no seguiré sus historia como LN por un buen tiempo),

Yo ya no quería relacionarlos con LN, ya no quería que tuvieran los límites que causaba ese universo ni seguir recordando esa horrible fase mía que hasta el día de hoy me persigue como karma por mis malas actitudes, decidí que era momento que ellos tuvieran su propio mundo y sus propios historia, ahora Jack y Frijal habitan en su nueva historia “Semillas en crecimiento” el cual amo escribir y pensar, gracias monja por ayudarme con ellos y espero que igual les guste tanto como a mí,

Otros personajes de los juegos LN se verán también, ahora transformados usando ideas Fannon como personales.

Gracias a todos aquellos que leyeron esto, espero que vean a los nuevos Jack y Frijal ahora en semillas de crecimiento dónde será un nuevo y refrescante reinicio para estos hermanos con historias simples pero divertidas.

[sprucebark]

anyone want fucking. wheat

[subrosa56]

Growing Grape Seeds

Once the grape seeds had soaked, I took a damp paper towel and placed them on it.

Next, I sprinkled cinnamon on top to help prevent mold and stuff.

Then I rolled it up,

Put it in a bag and labeled it,

And threw it in the fridge.

Now we wait till they germinate, if they don't germinate in a few months, I'll take them out and put them on a window seel but we'll see

<3

[factsilike]

As hilarious as it is to read about WWX initially being unable to perceive his own attraction to Lwj as anything other than the typical reactions of a woman, I wish more people would realise that it was not due to obliviousness, but rather because of compulsory heterosexuality and him simply not being aware such things existed. The time period he grew up in speaks for itself, as well as his unsafe (because the Jiang household was anything but secure) environment.

It was funny when it was treated as a crack idea, but it's frustrating when it's treated as a canon trait of his, when it's not. This guy is highly intelligent, both emotionally and intellectually, and the conclusions he came to regarding his own feelings as well as Lwj's were based on the information he had at the time. I see people point it out most in that scene at the start of the novel where Lwj gets drunk and points to WWX saying 'Mine."

But I can't believe how obtuse those same people are when they don't realise that while it's obvious to the reader (because duh they're reading a danmei novel about romance between the two main leads, and they let themselves be blinded by their own perceptions) that he's referring to WWX, to him it's not. Because what was he supposed to think? When all Lwj had ever been towards him was tolerant at best, and outright hostile at worst, and with his previous cold behaviour, was WWX really supposed to think, oh he must mean for me to be his! Because that would have made no sense at that part of the story. It was only logical for him to try to find a rational explanation, and the only one WWX could come to was that LWJ was referring to his sword, because obviously WWX wasn't going to take him seriously even if he had confessed, he would have only thought that he was drunk rambling or something. He didn't have any reason to believe him at that point.

It's not until the rest of the events of his second life progress and give WWX many opportunities and chances to reflect on his own feelings and Lwj's (changed and more affectionate) behaviour, does he start to think, could it be that I like him? Because WWX is no idiot; he realises his own feelings for Lwj pretty early on. And he catches onto Lwj's love for him too! Which is what the whole getting drunk at the inn thing before Guanyin Temple was about; he was scared to find out whether or not Lwj's love for him was platonic or not. (Which is a valid thing literally every person who has ever had a crush can relate to; worrying over whether the person of your affections feels the same or not. And it's difficult enough navigating these things in heterosexual relationships, let alone same-sex ones)

I think the way MXTX wrote WWX's journey of discovering his sexuality as well as his budding love for Lwj is beautiful and deserves more praise and recognition, rather than just glossed over as tee hee 'obliviousness'.

[hexjulia]

you should be able to put an egg in the ground and then a chicken should just grow out of it like a pumpkin. Feet first, then legs. Like a stem for the rest of the chicken. In my opinion.

[transgendz]

This is going to be short bc i already have a post up explaining this situation, but I started having seizures, which led to medical costs I couldn't handle bc I have an autoimmune disorder that's been going untreated for years. I got the appts covered bc of an extremely generous friend on here, and had some additional medication costs which I thankfully had enough for. I've been applying to at least 10 jobs a day and had tons of interviews. I'm going through interviews and assessments for several jobs (got more scheduled for tomorrow) Then my card got stolen, and now I am screwed as far as rent goes, even if one of these jobs comes through like today we will still fall short because rent is due on the 1st and we don't get a grace period. I am trying to get the money that was taken when my card was stolen back, but I have been told to wait to hear back after submitting all the details, and have yet to hear back.

Dm me for proof or more details. I will do art for anyone who helps with this and you can commission me at my art blog @theartistrans I just desperately need to get rent. My roommates and I have a huge food garden planted and are working towards self-sufficiency, which we have no hope of if we can't pay rent.

PP -- $C -- V -- kofi

$45/$650

[astrolavas]

thinking about the... potential clawthorne woodcarving mentorship.

+ bonus cuz also thinking abt how if hunter ever met dell's palisman and got reminded of flapjack, he'd probably feel bad abt making that association cuz he knows what it's like to be seen only as someone's different version (even though the bird wouldn't mind much so lol)

[hyacinthusmemorial]

Hope is the theme of today for quite a few reasons.

[briefdreamerbasketballmuffin]

growingseeds

Jack y Frijal Cargando unos leños

[hooned]

riki when he saw a child engene in the crowd ⭐

[anipgarden]

Adding To or Starting a Garden

AKA, the beginning of the Plants-Related section of this series.

This is my third 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! 

Got an area of lawn you’d like to convert to a wildlife haven? An area you can stick some hanging baskets in? Want to know how your garden of tomatoes and zucchinis is already putting in a lot of work? This is the section for you!

It would be dumb of me to not acknowledge that the act of gardening can come with a lot of costs. Buying seeds, buying plants, buying soil, raised bed materials, mulch, etc. … it can all get a bit daunting, let’s be honest! But there’s quite a few ways to get seeds and plants for free or extremely cheap, which I’ll be addressing in this section! The next section will be all about addressing the other Costs in gardening and how to mitigate or eliminate them entirely.

Also, do keep in mind; there’s no need to try and convert a whole area from lawn to garden or unused to garden at once. In fact, it could actually be extremely beneficial to do it a little at a time--maybe four or five square feet to start out.

Front Lawn (or Managing Principles)

If you live in a place where you’re required to have a grass turf lawn (HOA’s come to mind…), try replacing it with native grasses instead! You could even possibly use a low-growing ground cover plant like clover to a similar effect! Reseeding/replacing an entire lawn can be a big upfront cost, but even just letting the lawn be a little messy and tall helps. If the lawn gets patchy, leave the bare spots for a little while and something different will likely pop up! Pioneer species will fill the gaps and provide benefits to other plants around them, support animals, and more! If you want to take the guesswork out of it, you could always research what the pioneer species are in your area and plant the ones you like most. 

Obtaining Seeds for Cheap or Free

The cheapest way to start a garden is by far via seeds. However, seeds can be a bit complicated to grow, and some sources make them… way overpriced. Fortunately there are ways to get seeds for little to no cost! 

Some places sell seeds for as low as a dollar, 50 cents, or 25 cents! The packets may not have a lot of seeds, but it’s definitely a good start for a low budget! I’ve personally bought cheap seed packets at Walmart--the Ferry-Morse and Burpee brands are not what we’re looking for here. Typically the cheaper ones I’ve found are American Seed (which is owned by Green Garden Products, which also owns Ferry-Morse, Livingston Seed, McKenzie Seed, and Seeds of Change. Do with that information what you will), but they’re rarely stocked near the Ferry-Morse ones in the Formal Gardening Section. I’ve most often found them on end caps near the gardening section, so you may have to weave through a few aisles to find them, but once you do there’s an array of flower and vegetable seeds to select from! Alternatively, I’ve found seeds at Dollar Tree sold 2 or 4 for a dollar in Spring as part of their seasonal product; however, when they’re out of stock, they’re typically out of stock for the year. Try to check them out early in the year!

Otherwise, other seed companies like Urban Farmer or Botanical Interests will often have semi-frequent sales in spring and fall, when people are stocking up on seeds--joining their email lists can help you be the first to know when a good sale is going on!

Some foods from grocery stores will provide seeds that you can use in the garden as well. I’ve had the most luck with store-bought bagged beans, peppers, and tomatoes. Some people have had luck with watermelons, apples, citrus, squash, and more. Do keep in mind that you likely won’t get the same variety of fruit/vegetable as the one you bought--the resulting plant may look different and taste different.

Give it a shot! Pick some beans you like--if they don't grow well, at least you can eat the rest!

If you live in the US, food-producing live plants, bare roots, and seeds can often be purchased with SNAP benefits. But what does growing fruits, veggies, and herbs have to do with boosting biodiversity? While food crops aren’t typically native, they still provide valuable shelter for native insects. Some plants even have intricate relationships with native fauna--like the squash bee, a solitary bee which exclusively pollinates cucurbits like pumpkins, squash, and zucchini. And we get to benefit more directly as well! If you’re planting a diverse range of foods in your garden (as opposed to the swaths of single-plant farms that typically produce what’s sent to grocery stores), you’re supporting high levels of biodiversity by providing a variety of plants for creatures to live and hunt around.

Most of the time, when we think of boosting biodiversity with a garden, we think of a colorful flower garden teeming with pollinator species. However, if we’re striving to use native species, it can be a bit difficult to find some species in stores. I can say from experience that trying to find any wildflower seeds other than butterfly weed, purple coneflowers, and black-eyed-susans is… challenging, if you limit yourself to stores like Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowe’s. You might occasionally get lucky with an ACE Hardware or a local nursery, but even then sometimes it can be hard to track down who in your area is selling what--let alone if you live in an area where no one really is selling native plants or their seeds. Not to mention, even once you find a local or online store selling the seeds you want, they can sometimes cost a pretty penny. So what do you do?

If you have the option to, consider gathering native seeds yourself! Get good at identifying the native flora and fauna--or at least, a few target plants and their lookalikes--and get ready to go! Learn where they tend to grow, when they’ll be seeding, etc. Try to identify the plant before it goes to seed (for most plants, it's easiest to identify when flowering), then check back regularly to gather seeds. Typically, if I want to learn how to collect seed from a specific plant, I just search it on Google or YouTube--oftentimes, I'm lead to the GrowItBuildIt Youtube page, so it may be a helpful resource for you as well! Of course, make sure to leave plenty of seed behind so the wild population can repopulate, and seed can feed other creatures in the area. A good rule of thumb is to take no more than 1/3rd of what's available.

Buying seed in bulk is an option if you can afford the upfront cost. Try teaming up with a few friends to buy some bulk seeds and split them amongst yourselves--you’ll get tons of seed! Prairie Moon is a popular site that'll sell seeds by the pound if you can afford the price--though they're in the US, and I believe they focus on Midwest and East Coast natives.

If you want to cheat the system, don’t buy bulk sunflower seeds--buy bags of sunflower seeds being sold as birdseed. They’re typically all black oil sunflower seeds, but they’ll sprout, and they’re fairly cheap for the amount you get!

However, beware generic wildflower seed mixes! Many brands like to sell wildflower seed mixes in big box stores like Home Depot, Target, or even Dollar Tree, but they’ll often include flowers that aren’t native or possibly even invasive in your region! Before you make any purchases, double check to make sure the contained seeds won’t do more harm than good! A quality source of native seeds will provide English and Latin names for all seeds included, and will be native to the region or at least non-invasive. 

See this? I don't trust this.

There’s a good handful of programs online that’ll send you free seeds if you’re planning to start a native habitat project! Poke around online and see what you can find; you might get lucky! The best time to start looking for these is fall and winter, I find--by early spring, many of them are either done or beginning to wind down... though some also start up in spring. Ultimately--just check regularly! You never know what you can find!

Other Ways to Get Plants

Don’t want to start from seed? That’s fair! You can try cuttings! Just be sure not to take too much of the plant while you do so. Make sure you’ve gotten a few leaf nodes on your cutting, and cut any flowers you may have gotten. Make sure to leave some blooms and foliage on the original plant for the creatures in the current habitat--you don’t want to destroy one habitat to make another in your garden. There’s tons of methods of rooting cuttings, many of which have different efficacy rates for different plants, but that’s a topic for another post.

If you find seedlings growing in a place where they won’t be able to sustain themselves long-term, or are in danger of being destroyed, consider relocating them! You may be able to gently dig up and transplant the seedling to your garden. Don’t do this if they’re in a place where they can easily survive--ideally, you’ll be taking plants from sidewalk cracks, heavily maintained public gardens, roadsides, etc. Do be careful while doing this--ensure your safety first!  

You’re totally allowed to join gardening communities like clubs, facebook groups, and more before you’ve even put a trowel to the dirt. These are great places to learn information and advice! Many gardeners are more than happy to help out a new gardener, and will eagerly provide seeds, cuttings, or even baby plants! Talk to some people about your gardening journey and what you’re hoping to do, and you just might find some kindred spirits--or at least get more people interested in the topic! 

Seed and plant giveaways and trades happen all the time in gardening clubs, as well as online! Just poke around and see what you can find! Some are explicitly trades, meaning you’re expected to send something in return, but once you get your feet on the ground with some plant knowledge you’ll be stellar! You may be able to explain you’re just starting out, and someone may send you seeds without expecting a trade, but I’d suggest trying giveaways first. 

Poke around online and see if there’s a local chapter of your state’s native plant society. From there, you’ll likely be able to find a calendar of events--many of them will host plant sales in the spring, with a bunch of native plant seedlings ripe for the pickings if you can make it out and have some money to spare! Fair warning, though, you’ll want to get there early if you can. If they say they’re starting at 10, try to get there by 9:45. Year after year, there’s always record turnout, and they sell out of plants faster than ever. Just trust me on this. I’ve been let down; hopefully you won’t have to be.

Some libraries are beginning to host seed libraries! Check around and see if your library has one! Ideally, the system works best if you also have seeds to contribute in return, but if you’re just starting out I’m sure they won’t mind you taking some seeds! Just consider saving some seeds to contribute in the future and pay it forward. If your library doesn’t have a seed library? Consider asking if they’d be willing to start one! Community interest is a great way to get the ball rolling on projects like these, but they’ll only know the community is interested if the community tells them they’re interested!

Volunteer to Garden for/with Someone Else

Maybe someone in your area wants to garden, but is struggling to find the time/energy. Many elderly people who used to garden simply can’t anymore but still would like a garden. Other people may love to have a helping hand in their garden. You might even find a few people in your area interested in renting and sharing a community garden plot with others, so they don't have to handle it all on their own! They may be interested in increasing biodiversity right now, or may be willing to if it’s brought up to them. You might be just the kind of person someone needs! Since it won't be your garden, you’ll likely need a bit of permission and collaboration to get anything in particular going, but it’s worth a shot and a way to maybe even make friends! 

Again, your mileage may vary with some of these. You may not know where there's a bunch of wildflowers growing in your area, or maybe your local library doesn't have a free seed library. That's okay! Do what you're able to, find what you can find, get what you can get! And there's never any shame with starting small--in fact, starting small can make the project easier to manage and expand when you're able!

That's the end of this post! My next post is gonna be about ways to start growing plants cheaply--low cost seed starting set ups, essentially. There's a lot of good options, many of which I've used myself even! Until then, I hope this advice is helpful! Feel free to reply with any questions, success stories, or anything you think I may have forgotten to add in!

[palossssssand]

plant animal

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

When new plants peek their lil leafs up above the soil for the first time