#i also want to plant some native wildflowers and make the place look less like a construction site

[transingthoseformers]

Me, all fall and winter: oh, I want to get some berry bushes in the backyard! I just think it'll be nice🥰

My dad, not listening: okay

My dad, today, after my grandma dropped off raspberry and blackberry bushes:

[thesquishywizard]

How to make a Grimoire!

This took me a week to compile so if you enjoy it and want to support me, this a link to my ko-fi!

Hey there, I’m Ismo the Squishy Wizard, and today I want to talk about how you could go about making a grimoire for yourself. Grimoires are very personal despite being for information and reference, so it is understandable that some of my advice just won’t fit your way of doing things. The following advice is based on my experiences and the experiences of other magical practitioners and witches I have spoken to or watched on youtube, so hopefully you can avoid some problems we have ran into.

What is the difference between a grimoire and a book of shadows (BoS)?

A grimoire is often only a magical reference book while a book of shadows is not only a magical reference book, but also a diary, record of magical activities and ultimately, whatever you make of it. The reason why you might want one more than the other is purely down to personal taste.

A grimoire will detail what things mean, their origins, uses and personal associations. It is in an order that will help the witch easily find what they’re looking for, whether that is in alphabetical order, simplicity to complexity, importance to you or some other personal order. Grimoires tend to be quite formal, being written in highly decorated documents on a computer, high quality notebooks, scrapbooks or sketchbooks.

A book of shadows may do all that too but also include records of daily practice, experiences with deities or spirits, personal reflection and introspection, thoughts and questions about the craft, results of spells and maybe dreams too. It generally is in order of learning and experiencing so can be slightly harder to navigate for reference for some people. Books of shadows tend to be more casual and some people write them in old school books and notebooks. Some people separate things further and put dreams and personal reflection and introspection in a book of mirrors, so that might be a good thing to think about.

Other people don’t define grimoires and BoS in this way and see it as two terms for the same concept and use “BoS” and “grimoire” interchangeably, so this may still be useful advice for those making a BoS. Neither a BoS or a grimoire is better universally, it is about what is best for you and the way you practice.

I personally have a grimoire and a magical diary as two seperate books!

Why might you want a grimoire?

Grimoires are useful for compiling knowledge all in one place, in a language you understand and work well with. With a grimoire, you might not feel the need to get several books out, just your grimoire because you will have used your knowledge and experience and the authors of those other books experiences when writing information in your grimoire. It also allows you to remove any jargon you don’t understand or add useful diagrams and pictures if you are a visual learner. A grimoire still shouldn’t be your only book, always continue learning and researching with others’ insights, grimoires are just more compact and quick for when you quickly need to find something out or need a bit of help. However, you don’t need a grimoire, if you think a book of shadows, a magical diary or just using pre-existing books is more useful to you, don’t make a grimoire. Grimoires can be an awful lot of work, only make one if you feel like you need it and are going to use it.

Don’t instantly begin making a grimoire, wait at least three months

A grimoire holds all the information that is important to your craft and though the beautiful, awe inspiring pictures of grimoires get a new witch raring to go, it is probably not best to make a grimoire yet. Making a book of shadows or a simple diary would probably be more useful and less overwhelming to begin with and you can still record new knowledge you come across, it is still important to learn and research as this is what will get you ready to make a grimoire.

Trying to make an organised, informative grimoire when you are still new to the craft can be very hard and may cause you to include misinformation or elements of witchcraft that are simply not relevant to your life soon after looking into them, as a witch’s practice changes a lot drastically in the first year or two, and their path will still change, but often just slighter, through their whole life.

This might mean that whole sections of your grimoire are never used, putting your hard work to waste. Some witches don’t start making their grimoire until they are years into their path, as they are now more sure of their beliefs, the way they practice and their thoughts on things so they can guarantee everything is of use to them, and should be for a long time.

I started my first grimoire five months into my path but I honestly should have done it later, as my path underwent some drastic changes only six months later (so eleven months into my path), but I’ve had a very stable path for about a year now so I’m currently making a new grimoire. Now I’m learning additional things, so I feel more comfortable starting my grimoire again. I’ve not learnt things that reshape my whole way of thinking and practice for quite a bit, though this can still happen at any point in your journey and it should be welcomed with open arms, but just a warning, that sort of thing is more likely to happen early on in your path.

Research and meditate on your findings!

To work out what path you want to take and how that may inform what goes into your grimoire, you need to research. You’ve probably heard before that the first step to anything in witchcraft is research which is very true and the sooner you start researching the quicker you’ll be able to understand and confidently start your grimoire. Bookmark websites, stick post-it notes and bookmarks in your books, or even begin collating your information into a computer document or writing it down in your diary or BoS. 

Experience being a witch before beginning to write your grimoire, try out those spells, try out those ideas, you may find that they simply don’t work for you or mesh right with your personal experiences or you may find that you’re a lot more into that area than you first thought you would be and you need to do deeper research and learn even more! Explore the world around you and record it in your diary, BoS, phone or elsewhere. Get to know the plants common in your area and therefore useful in your practice, the constellations in the sky, the food you can make, anything, just get to know what you like. Also make sure you fully understand a subject before deciding to put it in your grimoire, I’ve known witches who have written about things such as chakras, only to later find the western model of chakras is very warped from their Hindu and Tantric Buddhism origins and I myself have written about plants that are native to the Americas, despite me being British and having no way to access them because I didn’t properly research. 

When researching information, always think about whether it is relevant to you and whether you enjoy it. It can be tempting to research anything and everything but you might get burnt out and find the craft overwhelming that way and also some things are from closed practices. You should always check if something is from a closed practice, even if it seems to be commonly used.

Always use multiple resources even when it comes down to something as simple as latin names. The book I was using for British plants and wildflowers was written in the 1910s, which meant some latin names had changed so I crossed referenced every one with both British wildflower websites and wikipedia.

Drafting and planning your grimoire

Once you’ve collected some reliable resources and you feel comfortable in your understanding of the subjects that you’re interested in, you could start planning out your grimoire.

I recommend planning your grimoire so you don’t get overwhelmed by all of the things you want to put into it and how you want to present it.

First, think about what medium you want to construct your grimoire in, do you want it to be a digital grimoire? Or maybe in an actual book? Both? Next, think about the order you want everything in, though it isn’t yet made, plan it out something like a contents page. Make sure the order of things makes sense to your brain. Also, maybe have a little think about the future, maybe you could futureproof your book if you know there are areas that you want to look into one day or look into further and take into account the extra room you might need.

If you choose to make a physical grimoire, consider making a first draft before the finished project. You can do this in an old notebook or digitally. Mistakes are made and you don’t want to fumble your words so you could write it in full before writing it in your book, but many just plan a series of points they wish to cover. I planned mine in full in google docs, just without pictures. This meant I had all my knowledge and research already compiled and worded in a way I was happy with, I can often mess up my wording on the fly.

If you choose to make a digital grimoire you don’t have to worry as much about drafting, but it’s still important to make a structured plan for how you will organize things within your grimoire. Moving sections about can be a bit tricky! It’s also a good idea to choose which program you want to make your grimoire in, make sure it’s one you know how to use well so you don’t get frustrated, making a grimoire is meant to be fun. Some people enjoy using an art program to digitally draw and write their information, then they print them out! Some people instead use something like a google doc or document program, adding information in the form of text, pictures or charts but keeping it digital.

Tips for actually making your grimoire!

If you’ve planned a physical grimoire, it might be a good idea to get a larger book than you expect to actually need! You will keep using this book in the future, and continue to add information to it. You don’t want to run out of space when you have something really cool to talk about! As previously said, you could also futureproof it by leaving spaces or whole pages blank for extra information or new subjects.

A digital grimoire doesn’t mean a dull grimoire! Download some free fonts, lots of free witchy fonts exist and can really inject more of you into your document. There’s also lots of free photo websites or you could take your own photos and put them in your document. It doesn’t have to be all text in times new roman. I really like ‘Adalind’! https://www.fontspace.com/category/witch 

Some people find it is a good idea to source their information, especially when they are using their experiences and the experiences of several other people. This means that things can be checked later, years into the future if you are confused as to why something might be so.

You don’t have to know how to draw well to make a physical grimoire! You can print out pictures, you can take pictures out of magazines or books, or you can use something like postcards, tea cards, trading cards, lots of things! Don’t just restrict yourself to photos and drawings you’ve done.

Pressing flowers and leaves can be a wonderful idea for a physical grimoire, especially if you don’t have access to a printer or you feel like your art skills aren’t there. It can also give your grimoire that field journal feel! However, pressing flowers and leaves can mean some colour loss. To retain the most colour, keep the plants pressed for two or three weeks in a warm room. Most small flowers or leaves in a warm room will be pressed after just under a week. Never press a plant for more than a year, you don’t need to wait that long and also you run the risk of making your sample brittle. You could also laminate leaves (but not flowers, the heat seems to mess them up) and this seems to retain the colour better.

When making a physical grimoire, if using a book, make sure the book has a thick, sturdy cover, the book might get damaged with a soft cover, so a hard card, leather or even cork cover is a good idea to look out for when selecting your book. When selecting a book, never go for a type of binding known as ‘perfect binding’, as it uses glue to bind the pages to the cover. With the nature of grimoires, they tend to puff out quite a bit with all the flaps, pictures and pressed samples, which can break the inflexible glue binding. A good binding is wire or spiral bound, this means you can completely fold the pages over, reducing the total spread of the book on a work surface at any given time. Another good type of book is screwpost binding, here screws that can be easily screwed in and out hold the book together or alternatively bits of string to bind the book instead of the screws (this is my book’s binding). You can take the bits out and punch holes in your paper to increase the total amount of canvas you have to work with, it’s a lot like a ring binder, except it’s a book! Lastly, another common type of grimoire binding is section sewn, this is usually found in handmade leather grimoires. It’s virtually impossible to add paper to these, but they’re very sturdy and look quite magical. You can also bind your own books this way!

If you choose to make a ring binder grimoire, try to get a sturdy, high quality one. Many ring binders rings can’t actually match up, which can shred your paper as they pass over these sharp points. Also keep in mind a sturdy cover, some ring binders have a thin flexible plastic sheet, but cardboard or even wooden covers are out there and are a bit better at protecting your work.

If you plan to use multi-media methods of creating your grimoire, or heavy types of ink, I suggest you go for a heavyweight type of paper, something like a high quality notebook or sketchbook will be good. Handbound artisan books tend to come with heavyweight thick paper, so you don’t have to worry about those too much. Loose leaves of heavy paper can be bought from art shops if you are making a ring binder grimoire or need to add pages to a screwpost binding style book and are also using heavy inks, paints or making it scrapbook style.

Through all this, remember that the grimoire is primarily meant for you, you aren’t making it for other people, so don’t beat yourself up if it isn’t the most aesthetic and gorgeously professional thing ever. There’s a lot of pretty grimoires online for inspiration, but try not to just completely copy their work, or constantly compare your own creation to other peoples. They likely have been making grimoires for a very long time. As long as it gets the job done and makes you happy, that’s all that matters. It should be a little piece of yourself that looks and feels like you. 

Things to possibly include in your grimoire

Witches never have to do all of these, it is your path so pick and choose what inspires you!

Most grimoires have a title page including the date it was started and your magical name if you have one.

Some people include an invisibility sigil to prevent prying eyes, a curse that punishes them for looking or a warning that this book isn’t for them. Others bless their book!

Many people have a contents page so they can remember where to find the information they need.

A lot of witches include a personal introduction, explaining what brought them to the craft, a bit about who they are, favourite things like herbs, crystals and colours, any familiars they work with or any magical abilities they have. Some people almost make a little correspondence page about themselves, including key herbs, a natal chart, their birth tarot card and personal sigil.

Not all magical practitioners work with deities in their craft or are religious at all, but if you are, having a section about your deity or whole pantheon is a good idea. Write about what your deity acts like, what they are the deity of/over, things they enjoy as offerings or how you came to first begin working with them.

If you follow a wheel of the year or have celebrations, a page on these is a good idea. What does the celebration represent? What are some ideas for activities to do then? What does it mean to you?

Some people have a series of morals or tenants they follow and believe in. Maybe write down yours for your path.

The main chunk of the grimoire should be about what you work with. This could be plants, food, crystals, animals, colours, astrology, planetary magic, fair folk, magical creatures and much more! For each entry, explain the concept’s or item’s correspondences and uses, whether that be the common use or your personal uses and associations, what the item is like, where to find it, folklore about it, non-magical and mundane uses and maybe how to make it if it is something like food.

Another big chunk is often common spells, potions, practices or rituals you do and how to do them. Spells such as banishing, protecting, removing curses are all popular spells to record in a grimoire and meditation, grounding and centering methods are some non-spell things that are still important for many witches to know.

You might also want to talk about different types of spells in general, how to create one and what the differences are between them.

Some people talk about the tools they use, especially in practices like traditional Wicca, where there are important tools like chalices and athames. More universal tools like taglocks are another good thing to cover.

It's a good idea to talk about the divination methods there are or just the ones you personally use if you use any. Also cover any layouts, spreads or boards you might use. Witches don’t have to do divination, so if you don’t, you don’t have to include it! 

Some people include a section on magical theory, how they believe magic works. You could also do a section on how divination works for you. Some people think it helps introspection and decisions while others think it helps peer into possible futures.

You might want to include different alphabets relevant to your practice. If your practice is norse based, different futharks might be useful, whereas for hellenic practices, ancient greek alphabets will probably be of more use. The theban or witches’ alphabet is a common alphabet to be found in modern grimoires. Alphabets can help you code things from prying eyes or make sigils.

If you do ancestor or spirit work, you could talk about your ancestors or the spirits you work with. What they were/are like, wisdom they have passed on to you and other information you think is important.

Talk about how to work with spirits if you work with them. How to call them, how to respect them and how to banish them are important things to know.

If your path is a pre-existing one, talk about the history and origin of your type of witchcraft. If religion is heavily important to your path, talk about the history and how it has changed over time too. If your path is unique to you, talk about how you discovered and formed it!

Most witches include folktales, superstition or local wisdom and customs from their area. This could be ghost tales, how to keep crops safe, or even local magical goings on, anything that connects you to the land of your area.

Some people have people in their family who did things that could be considered magical. Many people used to do divination, herbalism (herbalism isn’t inherently witchcraft, it is using plants for healing and health and may or may not have a magical element to it) or use country wisdom and did not consider themselves witches or magical practitioners. Maybe talk about your relative or if you are an open witch and they are still around, ask their opinions and thoughts on matters and include a section on them.

If you are a hereditary witch, you could talk about what you’ve learnt from your family too! Though I feel you probably don’t need my advice on making a grimoire if you are one XD

Some people talk about places that feel magical to them. Explain exactly how the area makes you feel, maybe the reason why or what you have found in that place.

Always remember, your grimoire will never truly be finished, you’ll get it to catch up with your current knowledge at points and may not add new stuff for a bit, but part of being a witch is always learning, so there’ll be more to add soon! It is also important to keep in mind, there is no shame in remaking your grimoire or having to get another volume, it is the collection of your knowledge and it's actually quite common for experienced witches to have multiple volumes of their grimoire or old ones they don’t really refer to anymore, I know grimoires are often talked about in a singular way but it really is common to have multiple.

Most of all, have fun with it. Make your grimoire! I wish you a pleasant journey on your long and winding path <3

Resources!

How to press flowers: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-to-press-flowers.html 

Types of binding: https://www.studentbookbinding.co.uk/blog/types-of-binding 

Magical alphabets and historical alphabets: https://www.omniglot.com/ 

British plant, fungi and animal species: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer 

British plant and fungi species: https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/discover-wild-plants-nature/plant-fungi-species 

British plant, fungi and animal species: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/

(I’m British so these are the resources I know are good for the UK)

[drferox]

So I am feeling under the weather again and wanted to take a break from the usual to daydream about the farm I would one day like to have in the future, and all the things on it.

Basically a permaculture set up maintained by a small group of people that either live full or part time on the property, trying to be self-sustaining and do away with modern monocultures as much as we possibly can. I would love to be maintaining genetic stocks of plants and animals that had fallen out of favor with industrialisation and factory farming, those that perhaps were less efficient as converting feed into animal protein, but those that were hardier on ‘unimproved’ (read: more natural) terrain. Heritage and old-style breeds.

The LSB might be spending his time figuring out how to build Earthships and set up aquaponics and the tech side of it, while I spend my time thinking about the biosphere side.

Oof, I want my fluffy Highland Cattle so badly. Smaller than some of the european breeds, hardy on unimproved pasture and good mothering instincts means they’d probably do quite well on a gradually improving system. Plus they’re one of the breeds most genetically similar to the ancient Aurochs, which is cool in and of itself, but with so much of our beef cattle herd being angus/hereford/shorthorn and the occasional wagyu (whether that’s real wagyu or not) I would really like to maintain a pocket population of these cattle, even if I can only manage 6-8 breeding cows and their offspring.

Some homesteaders milk one as their house cow, but I have a fondness for the old Jersey cow and wouldn’t mind having one around for milk, but I’m not sure if she’d bee too productive or require more feed supplements than we have available. So I would be hoping to carefully experiment with crossing the Jersey to Highlands and see what a 50:50 or 25:75 cross produces and whether that’s suitable for whatever land we end up with. I’d also be very curious to see what a Jersey’s mothing instincts are like if she has other cattle with good mothering instincts to hang around, watch and learn from. (Because whether cows have a cultural component to mothering behavior is something I’d be curious to look at)

Tamworth pigs! An older breed that is barely hanging on in Australia (and importing new pig genetics is nearly impossible with our quarantine rules), I would be really keen to help the conservation of this breed one day. They’re not as long-backed as the Large White x Landrace pigs that are mostly used in commercial and factory farming setups, which means slightly less bacon meat per pig, and they have smaller litters typically or around 8 instead of around 10-12, but they’re better foragers, typically lose less piglets to mortality even in free range settings and they’re brown! Which under the Australian sun means less UV associated skin conditions/cancers.  Imagine them foraging through weedy land to help clear it, or foraging under the fruit trees in established orchards.

Goat friends! Partly to graze down weeds and rough land, and partly because I enjoy being around goats and would love to be able to make goatmilk soap.

Chickens are something that I must have one day, and something that I need to research a heck of a lot more. I want to be able to maintain multiple different genetic groups so I can have different coloured eggs.

All of those egg colours are from chickens! And I think that’s fantastic. But I need to look a lot more into the breeds that are actually available in Australia, brush up on my pet chicken medicine skills, and sit down to do the maths and logistics about maintaining all these separate breeds of chickens together. But somebody has to scour the vegetable patches of bugs and it’s going to be these funky little dinosaurs.

Peacocks are another species I’d be interesting in keeping, espeically some of the weirder colour combinations like charcoal and cameo. I’m not sure on their availability though, and haven’t seen much on their health in general so of course curious to know more about these relatively uncommon colours.

They’re also a kind of family history thing, so perhaps more mascot than anything else, but the feathers are lovely.

I thought about quails for more species diversity, but probably wouldn’t do turkeys or ducks. Turkeys may be difficult to keep healthy if they’re rotating over ground that had chickens in it in a free range system, and to be honest there are plenty of native duck species that I’d rather visit and fly away instead of trying to keep. They’re quire messy little critters, cute as they are.

Geese though, geese are a maybe. They can graze, and in a rotational grazing system they’re useful because there are multiple species of worms that cattle, pigs and even kangaroos can transmit which the geese do not, so there’s potentially a job for them there.

I haven’t contemplated rabbits at all because there are already so many feral ones, and they come with myxo, that keeping domestic rabbits on a rural property seems just unwise. And there are feral deer, feral pigs, and kangaroos/wallaby in many rural areas that they have to be accounted for too. Feral pigs are a quarantine risk for domestic pigs, feral deer can bring in too many worm species, but the roos can visit as long as they stay on the grasses and not the vegetable gardens.

I couldn’t forget fish either. Our freshwater rivers have been in such a bad shape for so long, why wouldn’t I farm native freshwater species in the farm dams or an aquaponics system? Even if most of what we need from the fish is their poop, I like looking at fish, and maintaining a healthy population independent from the whims of river water politics would make me feel slightly more comfortable about the future.

Murray cod and perch are the commonly available species, but with enough tanks there’s no reason I couldn’t have other, smaller river species or even invertebrates that are local to wherever we end up. Gotta keep those genetics alive somewhere, and if we can do it, why wouldn’t we?

Bugs and bees! We’d need to have corridors of native plants as havens for native insects (I want my Christmas Beetles back on the landscape, thank you) but also strips of non-native and cottage wildflowers and herbs to feed the honey bees, grow our drier herbs and florals for soap making.The plan being having lots of different species mixed together makes it harder for pathogens to take hold

And that’s just animal breeds I’d really like to have running around the place, before even looking at the heritage breeds of cottage vegetables that have been making a comeback through places like Digger’s. I think my favourite is Granny’s Throwing Tomato.

[fisherfurbearer]

minor optimism even though things are sad and 🅱️ ad

on a mildly optimistic note here's a little ramble about what i was planning on doing in this pivot point year of 2020 :

- overhaul our Many Garden areas with native wildflowers and grasses we have a BIG front garden but it's all ferns and some sort of evergreen groundcover...would be so cool to replant it and get some native inverts thriving in there too

- fix my two raised garden beds for vegetables and plant stuff on time - get into 🅱️ eekeeping and join the county 🅱️ eekeeper's society its the most logical next step into my Plans. low maintenance, very rewarding, new bug friends, and theres even a fan club for it

- take an online grafting master class with the incredibly cool lady who runs my favorite Apple blog and hopefully get my first fruit trees?? whatever i graft in the class and probably some hardy figs and maybe mulberry got big plans for raising Babbits and Ducks/Quail on mulberry and forages and i just love figs so much man im so thankful for the wasps that sacrifice their lives to become Fig and theyre just really tasty and its cool how hardy they are

- get into Fishing...visit Jessie's opa and go fishing together

gain some experience and have a nice time. plan on learning how to fish and process (humanely!!) for consumption...would be a great first step into that side of things and id feel a lot better eating what i catch myself

and if we get to it, id love to plan out making some fenced areas in the backyard (we have a .47 acre plot with a tiny house. its surprisingly nice and has a couple really big trees in the back and a little brush/wooded strip seperating us from the highschool) for my Berry Patches. if not next year, then the following year is a good goal. i want to start with strawberries, then work my way into 🅱️ luebs and 🅱️ rambles. i got BIG PLANS ABOUT THIS guys you have no idea. i also want to raise Babbits and Coturnix Quail and Ducks but im not sure what the order for that would be.

anyway i Had really big great wonderful plans. end goal since it looks like we might be here for the next 4-6 years was to do a simplified version of my Future Big Plans...have a little table at a local market, sell mostly fiber art and preserves.

i wanted to call it The Sterling Sheep -- Sustainable Fruits and Fibers !

i thought it was cute...been in my head for a year now and it still sticks.

i wanted to do...

FIBER ART* [3D needle felting, 2D felting, handspun yarn, crochet**] SOAPMAKING [felted soap, handmade soap ... mostly beeswax and lanolin based, which comes from washing wool anyway. why waste it, you know? and it fits perfectly with beekeeping] BEE PRODUCTS [honey, honeycomb, beeswax] FRUIT PRESERVES [mostly berry-based, focus on native berries***] PICKLED PRESERVES [mostly cucumber based, but also onions and other such pickleables] FRESH/DRIED MUSHROOMS, MAYBE HERBS [i really enjoy mushrooms, and theyd fit well into the theme of preserves and culinary enhancements]

*would probably also sell ink drawing originals in person as well. **still need to learn this! wouldnt be as big of a focus but itd be fun to branch into other fiber arts for sure. oh and even before i get my own sheep, id want to source all of my fiber from local small businesses or farms raising sustainable heritage sheep. i want to join the livestock conservancy and participate in the shave em to save em program to get started on that and hopefully build good relations with folks. ***i want to focus on locally adapted heirlooms and natives in the future, mostly perennial fruit trees, but what better place to start with 🅱️ erries? i want to grow mullberry, blackberry, boysenberry, raspberry (red/gold), chokeberry, honeyberry, blueberry (blue/pink), gooseberry (red/green), elderberry, wild grape (v. labrusca/v. vulpina/v. riparia), and strawberry (standard/wild)

anyway thats the dream. and if i could at least make the same amount i make at walmart currently, or a little less, id consider it pretty dang successful. i have really good feelings about it. had really Great feelings about it until tonight happened, but i dunno man. i dunno.

not much else left to say. but this is whats been on my mind is all. feels good to talk about it. i dont want to think about manager Y anymore, its just not worth it. 🅱️ ees? 🅱️ erries? 🅱️ ushrooms? theyre worth it.

[danieldaymiad-blog]

Research Questions about the Urban Ecology Center

While working at the UEC I had some Questions in mind for how this facility actually works and the importance of each activity. As being there for a while I learned some more refined answers for these questions which eventual became refined them selves. 

Research Question 1: Whats the benefits of being outside in the city? 

I learned about understanding this question when I stepped in the UEC’s outside activities. People my age spend a lot of time inside on days that aren’t so sunny and perfect. Because of the technological world we live in today we spend more time inside then what we would have seen over 50 years ago. I know that when friends and I try to have a nice day we now try to spend the day outside to really soak up the day and make memories out of it. However being inside the city it makes it hard to really realize the nature of the world that surrounds us.Being in the city we have towering building around us, noisy busses and transportation. The fast life of a upcoming business world that engulfing the US, city by city. After spending time inside the UEC you can notice the lovely nature that you are hear to more or less protect. I noticed this especially when I was on the morning bird walks around the UEC. Most of the facility is surrounded by trees and nature so this place takes you out of the corrupted city and more into a appreciation of the nature inside the vast city. Each event outside usually varies people types of people that come to the activity. Some are kids my age wanting to do something outside and appreciate the community others could vary to more older citizens that also just wanna appreciate the little things and give back what they can to the facility that treats them well and gives them acknowledgment. What I felt each day was very similar to working out, a sense of relief and elevation of being distressed in the community.  

Research Question 2: What benefits are there for snakes in Milwaukee?

I started to think about this question when I was on the website looking at volunteer opportunity and saw “Snake Survey” after learning a little bit online of what that might entail I realized why really is the importance of snakes for the UEC to have a program about snakes? Before in the summer when I spent time in Tennessee I learned to keep my distance from snakes because the snakes there were usually poisonous and very deadly. So for there to be an activity there that enforces hands on participation of being with snakes was a little out-landish. When we went on these events you would flip pallets over and grab the snakes resting under there with quickness and gentleness, a combination that was hard to grasp. These snakes that rested under there were not deadly in any mean, they were quite harmless and much like garden snakes. Why understanding the time and effort of keeping data and track of the population of the snakes in the area I began to reflect on the time that I lived in River West Milwaukee. I lived in this 2 floor house on Booth street and after a couple months living there my roommate and I realized that we had a problem with mice in our house. After some research I learned that much of the River West community suffers from these rodent infestation and that mouse removal is a problem in Milwaukee. After spending quite some time talking to the leaders of the programs they said that the snake population in Milwaukee is slowly decreasing and that’s why they spend so much time that they can on trying to give these snakes a sanctuary for understanding snakes. If we try to support and not victimize snakes like I did in Tennessee then maybe we can get rid of this mice infestiaation that terrorizes River West.  

Research Question 3: Why is it important for understanding the ecosystem?

As we all keep growing in this city there is going to be more of a population influx percentage for people living in the cities compared to living in more rural areas. With this development we notice more developments for unusual ecosystems where the percentage of wildlife to human growth is fluctuating. With more buildings going up there is a reaction of less naturalistic wildlife beings tampered with, thus creating an effect of evolution that we aren’t necessary ready for. The UEC spends their time focusing on these issues in the city of Milwaukee, with this understanding we can try to shape the minds of the citizens in this city and make them realize the outcome of the community. This often reminds me of the future city of Singapore. I recently found a documentary reflecting on how the Singapore community tries to elevate them selves to be a self-sustainable environment not only for the people but also for the nature/wildlife inside/around them. One architect there talks about how the structure that they try to make go up, rather than around and how to maximize the area in which they are building upon. They focus on building structures that also feature garden space in unique appealing ways as-well with being efficient for the environment. They make structure that we designed perfectly so that airflow can breeze right past them creating a natural current that doesn't effect the ecosystem around or in the city.  

Research Question 4: Why is it important to get rid of Invasive plants/weeds?

One of the programs featured at the UEC is called ROOTS. ROOTS is about walking to their flower garden of natural flowers that are native to the Wisconsin area. While you are there you get a briefing and a walk around the massive garden that they have there and you are informed of which plants are invasive and harmful to the actual native plants. 

An "invasive species" is defined as a species that is  Non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration; and, Whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. (Executive Order 13112).  -https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/invasives/index.shtml 

Realizing that there are plants outside of your area that could be affecting your health is a scary phenomenon. There were about 8 different plants in there garden alone that were identified as invasive species. Most times when these species are transferred it can be by foot, by pollination spread through air or by planes and transportation. A couples years back I learned from a professor at MIAD that he has had some encounters with people in Wisconsin that don’t understand the detrimental affect that invasive species have. He ran into someone who on there property they purposely planted and were preserving the purple loosestrife. This plant produces plenty of seeds and pollen to affect nearby communities and encouraging this Invasive species is not ok. 

Research Question 5: Can reflecting on the current situation of you community be beneficial?

Like I mentioned before I believe that we are living in a society that the progression of keeping up with the population is getting out of hand. The world is changing in a way that we haven’t seen before and progressing in a future world filled with technology and vast forms of transportation from A to B. With MIAd having programs with Interior design and Industrial design I feel that we are thinking about these problems in our classes today. How can we change the world in a way that coexist with nature around us vs trying to abolish the nature in our communities. We are growing in a world were the attention to how we are effecting our ecosystems are becoming more prevalent. With pollution destroying our health and air quality and how the deforestation of the world is slowly effecting our Oxygen and carbonation in the air quality. 

Stephan Hawking predicted that - “By the year 2600, the world’s population would be standing shoulder to shoulder and the electricity consumption would make the Earth glow red-hot,” 

Obviously that anyone who is reading this including me, this will not be a problem for us because we are probably not going to around by the year 2600 but this to is a scary phenomenon, which we need to be addressing now and have some set understanding for how future generations will tackle this. Now some people realize that aren’t going to be around much longer to care about how the environment is and they keep on destroying it. This is a very ignorant approach for our society. There isn’t any clear set paths that will help in full as-well as the task aren’t going to be easy. But if we can try to realize each personal view for how we treat the society we live in, and understand how we can approach a better environmental living day to day then thats the steps we need to take action. 

[preservingthecape-blog]

A Lazy Gal’s Garden

My garden (which is really the entire yard) is not everyone’s taste, but I prefer a no-stress, low energy approach. No bark mulch, no edging, no crisp design. The only real order is the brick walkway made from reclaimed bricks. As my grandmother would say, “it’s a bit wild ‘n wooly”. Each year I add some flowering plants and shrubs, giving preference to native species of the northeast. I might relocate some things and some plants might not come back, which I look at as an opportunity to replace with something different! It doesn’t stress me out, because after all, a landscape is not static – it’s made of living things. Some we see and some we do not, like the microbes and insects that help make things work. Some plants are long-lived and others are not – which is not necessarily a reflection on a gardener’s abilities!

My goal is to cover the ground with vegetation, only lawn for footpaths, and have my desired selection of native plants knit together with blooms that extend over the growing season. This is accomplished by selecting plants to fill vertical layers. For the sunny south-facing side, I selected things like a ground-hugging carpet of Wild Strawberry, where upright clumping plants like False Indigo rise above. And the wilder areas of the yard are complemented with the addition of native shrubs of different height and bloom-time like New Jersey Tea (yup, a Cape Cod native!), Witch Hazel and Sweet Pepperbush. Species are chosen by their growth habit with considerations about whether they creep, grow upright and how tall. I consider whether they are aggressive or demure, if they will reseed, and how well will they will coexist with other plants. With these considerations, the goal is to fill in the garden space such that the undesirables will be shaded out. This makes weeding less of a chore, and instead my time is spent “editing”. In my mind, this is how I’d like to nurture my yard. Not sure when bark mulch became the focus of our landscapes, for I’d rather see plants.  

By planting native species and allowing my little piece of Cape Cod to pretty much sustain itself, a lot of biodiversity can be provided in a small area which supports a diversity of pollinators and other wildlife. The wildlife value of a plant is important to me. It really sparks my desire if it’s a host plant for some cool moth or butterfly caterpillar, or a good pollinator plant or food source for birds. And for the human interest, I’m also happy if it has a great color and texture. So when volunteer goldenrod arrived at the back edge of the garden, I gave it some space. For when most everything else has passed, goldenrod is providing the brilliant yellow flowers of fall and bees and other insects are happy for the nectar and pollen as they prepare for winter.  

No dead-heading occurs at the end of the summer. I leave them standing because the seed heads of the Black-eyed Susan, Coneflower and Evening Primrose are for the goldfinches. The birds seem to really relish the seeds and I enjoy observing their enjoyment. So, I’ll let most all of the garden die back on its own and lay until spring. Yes, you could call it a lazy gal’s garden. There’s no labor in leaving the plant stalks and leaves lay where they fall.  The longer stalks that fall over I pick up and stack between two stakes and this makes a small garden feature. Some of these hollow stems will serve as nest sites for mason bees and other important insects that will provide a protein feast for some bird. And as a garden guru once said (and I’m paraphrasing), “leave the garden standing because after all you need something for the snow to fall upon.” This is what I prefer – seeing the interesting seed heads, each species producing its own unique configuration that holds the progeny of its next generation. Indeed, the remnants of the summer perennials make for an attractive winter scene.  

There are some benefits of my lazy gal approach. No money spent on mulch or chemicals of any kind. No irrigation after establishment. No bags of soil amendments like peat moss or compost - ever again -because most native species do just fine in our poor sandy soils. I try as best I can to site the plant in the appropriate location in the yard and they either adapt or get replaced. Our traditional way of thinking is that we need to improve our soils – well maybe for our vegetable garden plots, but not a native garden. All the compost, peat moss and enrichment with nutrients – these amendments only encourage aggressive weeds. They are unnecessary. Rather, I keep existing nutrients in the garden and don’t tote them away to the dump. I leave the leaves and they will gather around the plants I’ve left standing. The leaf litter will serve to smother the weeds next spring and will ultimately decompose into soil. And moisture will be retained, which is important in well-drained sandy soils of the Cape. Intuitively, I am convinced that in those days of dryness next summer, the leaf mulch will insure the next rain doesn’t bead away, but rather slowly diffuse into the soil. At Garden in the Woods, a public garden managed by New England Wildflower Society, the leaves are left where they fall and their numerous perennials emerge each year through the leaf litter, undeterred.

It is known that leaf litter also provides hiding places and food for beneficial insects including ground beetles, centipedes, millipedes and pill bugs. These helpful creatures will break down and add natural organics to the soil. The standing dead stems will harbor certain species of insects in various forms through the winter months, which our resident birds may seek out for winter sustenance.

Butterflies can overwinter as egg, chrysalis, caterpillar or adult. Two butterfly species that will estivate as adults and will emerge in the spring include the Mourning Cloak and the Eastern Comma. They spend the winter under logs or leaf litter. The large yellow and black Eastern Tiger Swallowtail will be in chrysalis form over the winter, as will the vivid blue little Spring Azure which flits about in the early spring. Barrens Buck moth females lay their eggs on the twigs of Scrub Oak where they overwinter. Upon hatching in May, the black caterpillars feed on the tender young leaves and often form large groups on the twigs. This moth is listed by Massachusetts as a Species of Special Concern. 

This time of year, most species of bumble bees have wrapped of their annual life cycle. In early fall, next year’s queens emerged from their nests and mated before the seasonal demise of the males. Then the queens fattened up on the last flowering plants like the golden rod and asters and sought an overwintering place beneath leaf litter or in loose soil. Leaving the leaves, at least in some areas of your garden, will benefit these bumble bees so that they can be there to pollinate your 2018 vegetable garden! And it’s not just the oak leaves. The value of downed pine needles should not be discounted as they can serve the same purpose. If you really want to rake up the leaf litter, wait until next spring when you see several bumble bee species flying about. It’s likely then that you won’t disturb them before they’re ready to emerge.

It is not a stretch to say that most wildlife probably prefer the lazy gal garden approach, not only those that find sustenance in the garden, but those who are able to find refuge over the winter. Can’t wait to see what emerges next spring!

[shannrussell-blog1]

Hill End village is nestled in the central west of NSW and accessed by sealed roads via Mudgee from the north, or Bathurst from the south.

Managed by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service as a historic site, it is a perfect three day or weekend stopover.

The best time to visit is autumn, but spring is a highlight with many blooms in the cottage gardens full of heritage plantings.

Autumn is the perfect time of the year to check out Hill End.

The End Festival in April and recently added Taste the Past Picnic event in October are peak visitor times, so booking ahead is recommended.

The pace in Hill End is slow. If you hope to tour the quaint homesteads and cottages contact the historic site office on 02 6337 8206 for an up to date open days’ schedule. Phone and internet services are unreliable in the township, so it’s a good idea to call before you arrive.

Hill end is a great weekend away. 

Comfort food

Once crowded with more than 30 pubs, now there’s just one, The Royal. A must visit for food, drink and some rich local tales from the regulars.

The General Store is also a bakery with takeaway or sit-down daytime menus. But be warned, you may miss their award-winning pies if you stroll in for a late lunch. We were beaten to the counter by a car club, and motorbike group.

Supplies are limited in the town, so self-catering is an easy option. There are few dining opportunities, and many accommodation providers offer a kitchen or kitchenette as standard.

If you’re looking for a place to eat, check out the Royal. 

A place to lay your head

Accommodation is mixed and plentiful ranging from more than adequate rooms at the pub, the shared facilities backpackers at Hosies, to numerous cottages and cosy B&Bs. There are also two campgrounds.

The Village is the most convenient option and an easy stroll to town. Bookings can be made online or on arrival at a cash-only self-help kiosk at the park entrance. There are powered and non-powered sites, firepits (BYO firewood) and good amenities, even a microwave in the laundry.

If you’re camping, The Village is in an easy walking distance from town.

The light is right

The light in Hill End is a joy to artists and photographers alike and is best in the depths of winter. Falling leaves of orange and yellow are preferable to the risk of an overnight snowfall when you are in a camper, so I like autumn best. Rewarded by a wander in the soft light of crisp misty mornings or observing the setting sun as it brings the Clarke Road buildings to life.

Kangaroos are prolific. Expect to see many, many grazing mobs. They have no fear of humans and recognise no boundaries. Keep an eye out for them on the road, and in the campsite. If you’re wandering around at night, take a torch.

You’ll see many kangaroos on your visit. 

Exploring Hill End

The self-guided Village Walking Track features information boards about buildings still standing and those long gone.

There are limited footpaths, but all the roads are sealed. It is not called Hill End for fun, there are some hills and inclines so if you are concerned, take the car. All day parking is available on every street.

On the Village Walking Track, there are information boards about buildings still standing and those long gone.

Please observe the private property notices and other notices. Some buildings are open daily and worth a look in. You may even catch the audio-visual display of images from the historic Holtermann collection on the interior walls of the Great Northern General Store up by the police station.

A relatively new heritage centre, opposite the pub, offers state-of-the-art interactive museum displays and access to images selected from the State Library of NSW and Hill End memorabilia recovered from the site or from private collections.

Learn more about Hill End by visiting the Heritage Centre. 

Golden Art history

In the 1950s Hill End became a haven for some of Australia’s greatest artists. It’s easy to see why, and you’ll recognise features from many well-known paintings of the surrounding landscape and village properties. A strong artistic community remains today.

The Hill End Artist in Residence Program coordinated by the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery is one of the most sought after on offer around the country. It’s common to see artists at work or benefit from resulting exhibitions.

There are three scenic lookouts with very different views and no more than 3kms from town. I recommend you drive. The partial dirt road access is good and 2WD friendly. Each has a large bench to make them perfect for a BYO toast to sunset. Pop your camera on one of the panorama poles to capture spectacular wide vistas or use the compass point guides to identify various landmarks.

While you’re wandering around, you might recognise a few locations from famous paintings.

A trip down memory lane

An adventurous 4×4 driver can drive a couple of hours down to the Turon River on the challenging Bridle track (if weather permits). It’s a good spot to drop in a line, or cool off by the water with lunch on the shady river bank.

At the time of writing, the track is not open all the way to Bathurst as it is being repaired after major rockslides and a bridge wash away. The Bathurst Council Facebook page and office have regular updates on the roadworks.

If you need to keep your four wheels on the road, or something a little less daring, there are many short trips to enjoy.

If you’re in a 4WD, cruise down to the Bridle track nearby.

History Hill Museum

The nearby History Hill Museum is well set up for visitors of all ages. Spend half a day surrounded by interesting collections of relics and vehicles. The walk-through underground shaft and stamper are a bonus experience.

Bald Hill Walking trip and Bald Hill Mine

On the edge of Hill End, quite near the Village campground, is the start of the Bald Hill Walking Track. Guidebooks recommend you take binoculars to spot the various birds, native animals and wildflowers on the easy trail. The man-made track is uneven in parts so walking shoes are also recommended.

Tours of the Bald Hill Mine can be arranged and demonstrations of tap mining and other colonial techniques are provided. The mine is open most weekends. Mid-week tours may be possible, ask at Northey’s Store on Clarke St for details.

If you want to see the mine up close, you can arrange a tour. 

Golden Gully

A trip to Golden Gully along the wattle filled creek bank offers insight to goldmine design. The once hidden intricate hive of underground shafts and tunnels, now revealed by erosion, are accessed easily on a flat signposted track from the carpark. If you are sure of foot, you may like to wander further into the complex to discover the caves and arches about the area.

Tambaroora

The Cornish quartz roasting pits in Tambaroora are also well worth a visit. A short drive from Hill End they span Fighting Ground Creek. There is a pair of kilns and the remnants of a battery building and workers’ houses.

There are few street lights and no footpaths, so using your phone or another torch is recommended.

Last, but not least

When visiting Hill End it is important to note the advice from NSW Parks that particular care should be taken around the area. There are few street lights so using your phone or another torch is recommended.

Look where you are walking day and night as uncovered mine shafts exist throughout the region. Despite these warnings, it is a beautiful place to visit and I’m sure, like me, you’ll be keen to return.

  What’s your favourite historic spot that you’ve visited in Australia?

The post Exploring Hill End Historic Site in NSW appeared first on Snowys Blog.

[sanerontheinside]

Title prompt: Volunteer wildflowers

@obaewankenope, @lilyrose225writes, @meabhair, @maawi, @kyberpunk, @eclipsemidnightLook, nonnie, your options were either this or clone fic, and I wasn’t quite up to let’s-kill-them-all-angst. (Just watch, now I’ve said it, I might even do it, why am I like this.)

In the lower levels of the Coruscant Temple there was a garden; peaceful under the quiet, almost heavy layers of the Force, beautiful and complicated, full of riddles and winding paths and puzzles that never looked quite the same any time you saw them. 

It was a labour of love, both a memory immortalised and an offering to the rest of the Temple, so its creator never considered his name to be particularly important – not attached to the garden, anyway. It didn’t seem important then. Or perhaps it would have revealed far more about the creator than he was comfortable with. 

It certainly wasn’t important now, when that garden lay in ruins. 

The ship circled once, twice, around the crater in the wasteland. A smaller shuttle rattled, securely parked in the hold, creaks and groans adding to the eerie feeling that was trying to crawl up the pilot’s spine. “Well, this is it,” he grumbled. “Look, are you sure you want to be here?” 

His passenger didn’t look sure. He looked like he was pressing himself back, neck arched uncomfortably into the headrest, hands clawing into the soft seat and the arm. They were flying smoothly enough, yet he still looked like he was fighting a losing battle against motion sickness. 

“Just - set me down and I’ll figure it out,” he suggested tightly. 

“I won’t wait for you,” the pilot warned, a nervous edge bleeding into his tone entirely against his will. 

The man – old, thin, but with a clever light in his eyes – shot him a sharp look. “There’s no need,” he murmured. “What is it?”

The pilot looked straight ahead again, swallowed down his nerves once, twice. “I can hear them,” he said, half-hoping his companion would miss his whispered words. He didn’t think he’d spoken all that loudly, but he couldn’t really tell with the screaming in his ears. 

“Me too,” the passenger said softly. At the pilot’s startled look, he gave him a half-shrug and a wry smile. 

The pilot blinked, nodded. It was a relief to hear he wasn’t crazy, or at least that he wasn’t the only one. “And you still want to stay here?”

The man sighed. “I have work to do here,” he said, but did not elaborate. 

The pilot restrained himself to raised eyebrows and a shake of the head. “All right then. Tell me where to set you down.”

“North lip of the crater there, by the water.” 

“It’s cold out there, old man. Don’t freeze.”

Jedha was a desert moon, or at least it was supposed to be. But here, shining pools in a crater betrayed a presence of water, the potential for life in the midst of a wasteland. The pools were fringed with ice, and the wind was almost cutting, tearing across the flat landscape with nothing to slow it down. But the wind would pass, eventually. The man ignored it for now as he stood and looked around, then tipped his head back and looked up at the stars. 

The crater was what remained of the Holy City of NiJedha, the Temple of the Whills, the crystal mines. The Death Star’s successful weapons test had raised massive clouds of dust and soot and sand, setting off a several-degree generous drop in temperature of the moon’s atmosphere. 

It had also buried the crystal mine, and uncovered an aquifer. 

When Senator Mon Mothma had first asked him if there was anything that could be done for Jedha’s moon, he’d simply stared at her, dumbfounded. At the time, he hadn’t been sure what her question meant – did she want him to rebuild NiJedha, or was she simply asking for future reference, to rebuild any cities destroyed as a ‘warning’. His mind spun out of control – Jedha was a desert moon, it wasn’t a model for any planet where there was any kind of suspected or rumoured Rebel presence, not really. 

He came back to the sense of a hand resting gently on his forearm. “The average temperature of the moon has dropped several degrees, what life there was on it is struggling to survive. Most of the Jedhan population is leaving. I want to know if it’s at all possible to help them restore the moon to livable conditions.” 

He’d blinked at her owlishly, then snorted. “It’s a bloody desert, Senator. And it screams. No one who returns to the Holy City will ever be able to ignore those screams.”

But in the end he’d agreed. He still wasn’t sure why. No being in their sixteenth decade should be so foolish. 

The hum of the kyber far beneath his feet somewhere was a little reassuring. Even in spite of the Empire’s abuse, the strip-mining, the weapons test, something had survived here, and persisted. (Scientists could yell at him as much as they liked, but no one had yet managed to convince him that kyber or Ilum crystals weren’t at least a little bit alive.) 

He pulled in a deep breath of achingly cold air, huffed it out sharply, and walked back to his small shuttle. Pulling off thick gloves and sealing the compartment, he steeled himself and gave the engines a gentle nudge, guiding his affectionately-named Bucket (for rust-bucket) over the lip of the crater and down into the depths. 

There was less wind here. He almost wanted to call it a valley: there was so much potential around these half-frozen pools of water, his entire being ached with it – ached to see it. 

The entire galaxy seemed a little lighter these days, with the death of the Emperor. Of course, that didn’t mean the death of the Empire, unfortunately. But the Empire had no further use for Jedha, and he was content to stay here, quietly tinkering away in his shuttle. Soil samples, air quality, ultraviolet radiation – samples, readings upon readings, data-data-data. They were a welcome distraction from the near-constant screaming, even if they weren’t enough of one. 

Sometimes, as he moved from place to place, one voice might become more distinct from the chorus. It sent cold prickling down his spine, colder than the wind even as it cut through his layers. He couldn’t bear it. It was too much like what he’d already heard once, on Kashyyyk. Sixty-Six might have been decades ago, but time didn’t dull the pain of it all that well.

Almost reflexively, he apologised. He didn’t even realise he was doing it, but he found himself muttering as he went, over and over, you will be remembered. 

Not like there was anyone else left to say it, anyway. 

A few days’ traveling through the crater and around it revealed that, indeed, there were few species that had borne the cold well. He saved what he could of the frostbitten plants, found that they did well in the Bucket’s small storage room. Unfortunately, he realised, he might still have to supplement the population with something else, some sort of introduced species. He wasn’t fond of that – one never knew if an introduced species would remain so, or become dangerously invasive. But that was a question for another time. 

What will you do now, Master? A memory floated up to the surface, of his last Padawan; golden-eyed and golden-haired, clever, if almost always silent. He’d died a young Knight, before the Republic fell, and his Master often thanked the Force the boy had never seen the Order’s destruction, or the decades of suffering that followed. 

Beat the clouds, he’d answered then, with a smirk. 

Seed the clouds, really. Try to bring all that unsettled dust back to the ground. Make rain. 

It was much easier these days. He could make an orbit of the moon through its atmosphere and cover all the ground he needed. It gave him a strange sensation of power, working with environments like this. He’d never had to care for an entire moon, and he’d rarely had to work alone, but that was a long time ago. 

A long time ago, he’d been pulled every which way, tending to the scorched grounds of Felucia, whispering fondly to the Mon Cal corals, overseeing efforts on AgriCorp worlds. The Council hadn’t cared how he got things done, merely that they were done. It was easy for anyone to dismiss him as a paltry example of a Jedi Master, a researcher with no practical experience, but he knew how to work this landscape in his very bones. The Force sang it to him. 

He passed along messages, requests for what he needed, through pilots as skittish as the one who’d brought him here. Yet, invariably the answer always came with what he needed. 

Many, many years ago he’d constructed a garden in the Temple’s lower levels. This was far different, less structured, not rigidly maintained. This was meant to be wild. While he nursed the atmosphere back to somewhat more normal, he carefully re-introduced some of his plants. He wrapped them carefully, insulating them against too-cold temperatures, guarded them against the persistent damp – rather unlike Jedha’s normal climate. 

In the end, he would have been willing to admit defeat. None of the species native to Jedha were suited to such conditions. But as he sorted through the small greenhouse-cabin of his shuttle, pruning some of the survivors, repotting others, a small, purple-flowering clump snagged his attention. 

It caught him entirely by surprise. “Hello there, you little thing,” he whispered, “how did you get aboard with me? I must be getting old,” he joked, for the joke only grew funnier with every year he passed one-hundred fifty. “Where are you from?” 

He really had no idea, he realised with a twinge of regret. Once, his record-keeping had been flawless – before the war, of course. Then, Master Haldane Juo had had a name, and a Padawan, and sometimes a Knight partner, and occasionally someone wanted him – called for him by name – to speak to some tech or overseer in the AgriCorps. 

He stared at the nameless plant in his hands, thinking of how that violet colour matched the eyes of his Padawan’s agemate, whom Zeka had irretrievably fallen for. Those smooth leaves marked it a succulent, and the corner he’d kept it in marked it hardy, one that could survive and flourish in a wide range of temperatures, but most of the cold. Colder, even, than Jedha had been. From what he could tell, it didn’t grow or spread very fast. Its preferred soil type was just close enough, at that. 

“Ah well,” he sighed. “I suppose it can’t hurt to try with you. Come on,” he picked up the pot, snipped away a few cuttings, and separated them, encouraging them over the next several days to root and grow. 

“Did you know,” he mused at it, “this place, it used to be the Holy City, NiJedha. Somewhere around here, there were caves full of kyber crystals that the Empire strip-mined. I suppose there must have been an aquifer below – no other reason for the puddles in the crater here.” 

He sighed, sitting back to look at his cuttings. They weren’t doing too badly. 

“Where is your home, your real home, little one?” He reached out, brushing light fingers over small dark leaves. They told him nothing, and the Force gave no hints. “You would have liked her, the one with eyes the colour of your flowers. I did. She brought my Padawan to me, the sneaky creature,” he grinned, “fell out of one of the Archive shelves.” 

Later she, too, had traveled to starved and war-torn planets – long before the Galactic War, even – and set up field hospitals, earned herself a following of loyal, orphaned children. Force, but she’d even laid claim to a decent corner of black market trade, procuring supplies and medications for Mid-Rim worlds the Senate had neither the time nor the resources to care for. Crazy, for a Jedi. Crafty, for the Shadow she became. 

Haldane wondered what she might be up to now. If she’d even survived. 

“She didn’t think herself a Jedi then, you know,” he told his plants, skipping over so much of the story, polished away to smoothness in a well-trod part of his mind. “They weren’t very happy about her Knighting.” 

He leaned back in his seat, as far as his cramped workplace would allow, looking troubled. He only let himself look so old and so worn where no one could see – which, on Jedha, seemed to mean only in the safety and privacy of his shuttle. His hair was long, grease-streaked silver and grey where he’d absently swiped his hands after fiddling with one of the Bucket’s motors. His skin, once bronzed, had darkened, wrinkled and gone mottled with spots. But his eyes were yet sharp and brown, near-black. 

“See, here’s the trouble I have,” he said at last, still talking to the cuttings quietly arranged in front of him. “Here we have a child taken from a slave world, brought to the Temple, raised to believe she wanted nothing more than to become a Jedi. Then, she is lost. When she comes home, the Council turns her out again. For at least another decade she wanders the world believing she’ll never get her Knighthood, and what does she do? She does what any Jedi would do: she heals the worlds she finds are broken.” 

He crossed his arms over his chest with a disgruntled sigh, threw his legs up on a nearby stool, and went on. “Now look at us. In another decade and a half our home was destroyed. We were hunted, slaughtered. They destroyed even those who were like us,” he waved a hand vaguely upward, at the Bucket’s hull. “There is so little left of us.” 

Haldane let his head drop forward until his chin rested on his chest. For a long time – so long that he might have fallen asleep – he just breathed. 

“What are we left with? We had faith in the Force, in the Order, in each other, and none of it saved us. Yet a child more a Jedi than half the ones I’ve ever met did more for people the Order would never have helped without any faith in us at all. Sometimes, I think, she barely had faith in the Force. When you strip away the Order, the company of your own family, when even the Force doesn’t respond to your call quite like it used to, it’s hard to have faith in any of it.” 

So then, what had she believed in? 

In a few tens, once he was sure his cuttings would survive in the harsh conditions outside, he went out and planted a few. Then he sat down, crosslegged, beside them.

“I suppose I should name you,” he murmured, watching a faint breath of wind stir the leaves gently. “Wouldn’t do to expect you to flourish without a name.”

But in truth he’d spent so long pondering it – ever since he’d discovered that little plant hiding in the corner of his ‘greenroom’. Or, at least, while he hadn’t been distracted pondering his own place in the universe, or the lack thereof.

“I suppose,” he began softly, then broke off and looked up at the night sky. For the first time since he’d arrived, he could actually see stars, not just a blanket of clouds, overhead. “Out there, there are any number of worlds whose people are either entirely naïve of the Force or treat it solely as a religion. They believe in gods and beasts, some of them – in their ancestors, even.”

Haldane hung his head and chuckled. “Well. I suppose it’s better to start small, then, hm? For instance,” he leaned forward, closer to the little tufts he’d planted, “I believe in the potential this frosty damned wasteland has, and I’d really appreciate it if you little buggers didn’t fail me, understood?”

He felt more than a bit silly, really. One-hundred fifty-seven years young, muttering at his succulents. So he snickered; and then snorted, and then couldn’t help the full-throated laugh that threw his head back again.

“Sorry, sorry,” he sputtered through tears, “that was a long time coming. Oh, ye gods! Ha! What gods.” His face twisted in a sudden grimace and he shoved the thought away. “Never mind. Well. A name, right? That’s what I was meant to be doing.”

It’s too quiet, he thought. I’ll go mad here.

“She said they called her Shar’ii, meaning Bright Star. Said it had something to do with hope. Good as any name for you, since right about now looks like you’re this planet’s best hope. And don’t give me that look!” He menaced the plants, still laughing at himself. “You’ll have to live with it.”

With a breathy sigh he finally picked himself up, groaning a bit – the cold ground was no good place for old bones to rest, and his complaints filled the silence well enough. He shuffled stiffly back to the Bucket, humming an old crèche tune as he went. Huffing slightly, he laid a hand on the hull when he finally reached his shuttle and stopped to breathe in the air again. The quality of it had certainly gone up since he’d arrived.

So quiet, he mused, even peaceful, then frowned in confusion.

What happened to all the screaming?

There wasn’t even a hint of it. Funny, that. Haldane shrugged, and quickly trudged back into his ship.

A few months later, the giant caldera had become an oasis, pools fringed with green and tufts of purple-flowering Shar’ii.

[residentiallawnservicestjos-blog]

What Should I Do When I Landscape My Home?

With a little bit of work, you can have the garden of your dreams. If you take some time to learn the basics, the design part becomes easier and more fun. That is what this article is all about. Use what you learn here to get your yard looking its best in no time.

When planning a landscaping project, concentrate on native plants. When you are deciding what to plant, it is a good idea to choose shrubs, flowers and trees that do well in your area. Plants that are local to the area will do their best in the worst soils, require less water and will survive the terrible weather conditions.

TIP! Prior to starting your next project, you should sketch your proposed designs firt. A sketch helps you visualize results, giving you a much better idea of what materials you are going to need to finish your project.

Use a drip style system for watering your plants. These irrigation systems are easy to install, and they allow you to give your plants a continuous stream of water. You also save money on water as it’s all being used by the plants, none will run off or be evaporated by the sun.

Try to make your landscaping beautiful for all seasons for beautiful year round results. Select different plants that flower in different seasons, paying attention to what will grow well in your area. You can also use trees with interesting foliage or evergreens to keep your yard looking lively all year long.

Choose quality products over cheap ones. You can find many inexpensive items in a home-improvement store. Go to a store that specializes in landscapes. You’re more likely to get the help and find the products you need at this type of store. The extra money charged will pay off, thanks to products which work as advertised.

TIP! Your landscaping should contain local plants whenever possible. When landscaping your garden, always try to use trees, shrubs and flowers that are local to your area.

Get professional advice before starting a landscaping project. While you might not need to hire them to complete the entire job, you will find that the small amount you pay for a consultation is well spent as it will help you to avoid mistakes and get started on the right foot. This should definitely be done if you have never landscaped before and is very important.

Try to use several types of plants when landscaping. This will help maintain your landscape if a disease or a pest infects your design. If you use all the same plants, they will all be attacked and lost. The health of plants is dependent on diversity.

If you want your yard to be colorful but inexpensive to maintain, plant some wildflowers. Purchase wildflower seeds at your local garden center, and simply scatter them over problems areas in your yard. With the seeds, you’ll get a variety of flowers of all colors and types. An added bonus is that they will make fantastic bouquets!

TIP! Use local plants for your yard. Native plants are a good choice because they are acclimated to thrive in your climate.

Many times you can successfully use less expensive products in your landscape without sacrificing beauty. Things such as perennials, containers and mulch are not very different, whether you pay a lot for them or a little. Take a good, hard look at every plant before you purchase it though. Places that offer discount plants might not actually take care of them like other places would.

This article has provided a diversity of tips to help you begin designing your landscape. Pick a few tips to begin with, and start beautifying your garden today; in no time you will have the garden of your dreams!

http://tttlawncare.com/what-should-i-do-when-i-landscape-my-home/

[humanegardener]

To save wild nature, we have to attend to human nature, too. Here’s how to garden for all your neighbors, domesticated and otherwise.

Chairs, paths and other simple cues add a human element to our roadside wildlife habitat. (Photos above by Nancy Lawson)

[dropcap]Y[/dropcap]ears ago, a colleague was relaxing in his backyard when he heard a noise. Upon investigation, he discovered a stranger heading through an open window and toward his couch. It wasn’t a traditional home invasion, though. The squatter had taken one look at the property and assumed it was unoccupied: Why else, he reasoned, would the yard be so “overgrown” with wild plants?

This was not the scenario I’d envisioned when my workmate first asked for wildlife gardening advice. While offering ideas and plants from my habitat, I’d assured him he’d see butterflies and other animals taking up residence. It never occurred to me that his efforts would also encourage fellow humans to climb through his windows.

The problem was that the new gardener had implemented only half my suggestions, putting his plants directly into the old lawn that sloped to a busy sidewalk. He didn’t feel like bothering with part 2, which would have involved digging out the turf around his plantings or smothering it with newspaper and mulch. Instead, he let that old lawn grow high. The result was not the layered native plant garden I had imagined but a smattering of wildflowers engulfed in out-of-place fescues and invasives gone to seed. (Adding to the abandoned-home effect was an ascetic and nearly opposite approach indoors, where all walls, tables and shelves were bare.)

Though the front-yard planting was partly intentional, it didn’t look that way to other people. Without “cues to care”—a phrase coined by landscape architect Joan Iverson Nassauer to describe visual hints of human stewardship—the property resembled an abandoned lot or roadside ditch. While I find such free-range, self-willed patches beautiful because of their high value to wildlife, most suburbanites accustomed to mowed-down yards and sterile office parks see them as aberrant.

“Cues to care,” a concept first described in the 1990s, refers to visual signals of human intention. At Molly McElwee’s home in Catonsville, Md., a Baywise certification sign alerts passersby to the landscape’s ecological purpose. (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

As an environmentalist and wildlife advocate, I alternate between pushing for the world as it should be and accepting modest improvements to the one we’ve already created. Knowing how important a “messy” garden is to animals large and small, I’m often tempted to blow off the mass appeal of homogenized landscapes entirely. But if my quest to help nature doesn’t also attend to human nature, I risk something greater than the encroachment of an intruder just looking for a place to sleep: I risk losing the chance to influence the broader community. Research shows that neighborhood norms strongly influence landscape choices, and if well-maintained ecological gardens are more prevalent, they may have positive ripple effects across a community.

In replacing lawn with this new pathway to my front door, I’m nurturing an inviting space for neighbors and friends as well as habitat for wildlife . (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

And helping wildlife and meeting community standards aren’t mutually exclusive goals.  “For way too  long, I’ve heard from plenty of gardeners that the reason they don’t want to use native plants is that they’re messy-looking, and that’s just not true,” says James Faupel, the restoration ecology coordinator at Missouri Botanical Garden’s Litzsinger Road Ecology Center. “The wildlife will still use all these native plants, even if we design the plantings in a more traditional fashion.”

Most of my own 2-acre habitat is less of a garden now and more of a nature preserve. But in the areas of the front yard that are visible to neighbors, I put a bit of thought into appealing to the senses of the human animal as well. I know there’s no pleasing some people, like the couple in the cul-de-sac who cut down all their trees. But many more neighbors are open and at least mildly curious about this little wildlife paradise, stopping now to inquire about the flowers, admire the bees and butterflies, and even ask if I have any extra plants they can take home to their yards.

By incorporating the following visual signals of intentionality and care that I’ve learned from landscape designers and artistic friends over the years, I’ve been able to ensure we can fit in with our neighbors, both wild and otherwise, as well as inspire the creation of more oases for animals.

Let plants lead by example.

Winterberries are more palatable after freeze-thaw cycles, so they brighten the landscape late into the season before finally serving as emergency food  for wildlife.  (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

When a highway planting of winterberry hollies bore beautiful red fruit, excited homeowners called the Delaware Center for Horticulture for more information about the stunning shrub. The response surprised University of Delaware professor Sue Barton. “By planting something on the roadside,” she marvels, “I could make a bigger impact on people than anything I could ever write or lecture about.”

Long after the leaves have fallen off the winterberries, a mockingbird guards his fruit. (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

Adding native plants with colorful fruit or flowers to your own front yard can produce similar results, providing priceless PR for wildlife gardens while also nourishing their visitors. Those winterberries burn bright through much of the cold season because they become more palatable after a few freeze-thaw cycles; in late winter when other food is scarce, the fruits are emergency food for birds and mammals. In the summer and fall garden, plants that serve as both wildlife feeders and people pleasers include mountain mints, Joe Pye weeds, milkweeds, bonesets, coneflowers and many other native wildflowers.

Blooming as early as March and as late as November, the native coral honeysuckle vine (Lonicera sempervirens) invites our neighbors to admire its lush blooms and hummingbirds to feast. Hummingbird moth caterpillars rely on the foliage, and chipmunks and Eastern comma butterflies enjoy the fruit. (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

Frame the view.

Layered plantings are essential for creating wildlife habitat, drawing much more life than the large lawn across the street from us. They also add sloping lines for human eyes to follow. (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

Think about how you and your family might use the space, and design your wildlife plantings accordingly, suggests Faupel. Look out the window to see the garden from another perspective, and consider where you’ll need pathways for walking and access to beds. “It doesn’t have to be this big, beautiful blueprint kind of drawing. It can be a lot simpler,” says Faupel. “But if you start with that design element from the get-go, it’s going to look a lot more intentional to people. They will see that you are trying; they will see a more layered effect.”

The view from Molly McElwee’s front door is open and formal but also overflowing with wildlife-friendly plants. In addition to natives, she includes more conventional garden plants that are recognizable to neighbors, a strategy that Faupel employs in his home garden as well. Read more about the McElwee garden here. (Photo by Molly McElwee)

Mulling over plant choices and layout also helps ensure you have enough food and shelter for different types of wildlife throughout the seasons. Habitat hedgerows provide winter shelter and summer nesting sites for birds and small mammals while conveying neatness and order—traits considered desirable in the landscape since ancient Roman times. Rows of low-growing native flowers, grasses, sedges and ferns help define the edges while nourishing bees, butterflies, and many other animals. A mowed strip along the road in front of all these plants “frames patches of greater biodiversity with clear signs of human intention,” Nassaeur wrote, and makes unconventional plantings seem familiar.

A hedge keeps our streetside planting more uniform and provides cover for birds and rabbits, But it also creates a screen that helps me privately experiment with cultivating wilder spaces. This one started with a planting of red buckeyes, grey dogwoods, ferns and other native groundcovers, and soon enough staghorn sumacs and Eastern red cedars made themselves at home, too.

Plant in drifts.

Large drifts of just a few low-growing native plants—Pennsylvania sedge (Carex pensylvanica), roundleaf ragwort (Packera obovata), and sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis)—provide habitat within the context of a formal garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Shaw Nature Reserve. (Photo courtesy James Faupel)

Too often gardeners treat a trip to the nurseries or native plant sales like a run on Filene’s Basement and fill their cars with anything that catches their fancy, only to get home and wonder where the heck they’ll put everything. (I’m guilty as charged.) Avoid the “collector mentality,” advises Faupel, because it almost always results in a hodgepodge that’s confusing not just to human eyes but also to pollinators. Many native bees spend their time gathering pollen only from certain species, and even those who are less discriminating can’t afford to expend too much energy flying around in search of more flowers. To create a planting that’s readable and functional for both human and wild neighbors, aim to start with a dozen plants, recommends Faupel: three that bloom in early spring, three in late spring/early summer, three in mid-summer, and three in fall.

An exuberant groundcover, golden ragwort (Packera aurea), helps tie together multiple gardens across my front yard, including in this grove of sassafras trees edged with sedges next to the driveway. After flowering, it stays evergreen nearly all year. (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

Many gardeners pull fleabane (Erigeron spp.) despite its value to bees, rabbits and groundhogs. Two years ago, I moved some from the pathways to create a clump at the edge of the rain garden, where it’s still free to reseed. The large drift makes the planting look intentional, elevating the status of a native species often dismissed as a “weed.” (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

As a longtime home gardener before I started working in ecological landscaping, I know how expensive it can be to buy multiples of a single plant at retail prices. Many native wildflowers are easy to grow from seed, and I also encourage gardeners to allow as many plants as possible to spread naturally in their gardens; you can always transplant or give away extras if your space fills up. An increasing number of companies—from Izel Plants to Missouri Wildflowers Nursery—offer small plants or plugs that can be much more affordable; check with your state native plant or botanical society for regional recommendations.

Create pathways.

Taming the wild: Human-friendly paths define the wilder plantings at the McElwee residence. DeKay’s snakes like to hang out under the arborvitae to the right of the milkweed. (Photo by Molly McElwee)

Paths through our meadow enticed our niece to go exploring on her own. When she returned after spending some time under a tulip poplar at the bottom of the slope, she said, “I found a special place!” (Photo by Will Heinz)

Though I’ve spent my whole life yearning to be surrounded by plants whenever possible, some people have a more claustrophobic reaction to lush vegetation. Impenetrable plantings can exacerbate fears of nature and feelings of separation from the natural world. Walkways winding through gardens have the opposite effect, inviting interaction with the landscape. When my niece was 7 years old and spotted a mowed path through our meadow, she fired up her wheelchair and took off by herself to explore, finding a new favorite spot under a tree all on her own.

Wildlife follow routines, too, traveling the same paths every day. By edging those paths with vigorous plants they can nibble, including goldenrod, sassafras and black raspberry (above), we’ve fed deer and other mammals enough to deter them from other plants. I also mix in scented natives they don’t prefer, including the lavender-colored wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) shown in the planting below. (Photos by Nancy Lawson)

Paths are just as well-trodden by wildlife, including deer. You can use this knowledge to help design a space where you and the herbivores can more easily coexist. When staghorn sumacs, ticktrefoils and goldenrods volunteer along pathways, I leave them, knowing they’ll get browsed soon enough. If certain plants are growing near a path that I want to protect from browsing (such as tasty Joe Pye weed, whose flowers will later feed butterflies and bees), I often add scented native plants in front of them—mountain mints, monardas, blue mistflowers, bonesets—to create an effective deterrent.

Use wood and rocks as habitat-rich natural sculptures.

When a neighbor cut down trees, my husband placed pieces of the trunk around the gardens. (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

Lining pathways and beds with rocks or branches creates navigational cues as well as hiding places for amphibians and other small animals. “I’m a huge fan of using found objects within the property,” says ecological landscape designer Jesse Elwert Peters of Jessecology, based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. “The land that we live on is really rocky. Whenever we’re gardening, we dig up huge boulders.” Peters artfully arranges these unearthed treasures among plants.

Peekaboo! Leave fallen logs, and many animals will find them. (Photo by James Faupel)

Tree snags, logs, and pithy stalks are essential to cavity-nesting bees. (Photo by James Faupel)

At the Litzsinger Road Ecology Center, a fallen log provided a home this summer for broad-headed skinks, and Faupel also watched a mason bee checking out a tree snag as a nesting site. “It was just going around to every single little hole, stopping and seeing if it could fit, trying to find the perfect-sized hole,” he says. “These things are incredibly important, and it just goes to show you how many things wildlife are using. … A lot of people complain about carpenter bees in their home, going into porches and thing like that. Well, it’s because they don’t have anywhere else to go. We remove any kind of habitat for them.”

Logs and branches line beds and create art pieces in my habitat, where I sometimes hang bird baths from the dead limbs. (Photos by Nancy Lawson)

Our stumps are home to woolly bear caterpillars. PIleated woodpeckers snack on beetles and ants living in the decaying wood. (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

By placing a bat house atop a tree snag, Maryland artist Melinda Byrd created a sculptural habitat. Though bats have yet to roost, woodpeckers have excavated holes in the dead trunk, building homes for nesting chickadees and bluebirds. Stumps in my own garden offer shelter to woolly bear caterpillars, one of whom crawled into a crevice last year to make his home for the winter.

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Bluebirds and chickadees nested in this snag following excavation by woodpeckers. Growing a vine on the snag would also create a natural trellis. (Photos by Melinda Byrd)

Add functional ornaments, and have a seat—or two.

While visiting the native plant area at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Gardens at Elm Bank, I felt right at home. But for those intimidated by tall plants, a trellis and seat made of natural materials provides a calming, “we-meant-to-do-this” effect. (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

A fountain by our walkway pleases people and birds. (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

Arbors and trellises suggest a planned landscape in addition to offering support for climbing native vines. Birdbaths and water dishes on the ground are also recognizable cues of human influence. “It looks really nice, and it’s really a kind thing to do for wildlife,” Peters says. Even the suggestion of human habitation can ground a garden and help people feel more in their element. Adding chairs and tables near unconventional plantings lets them know that they, too, have an open invitation.

A chair among the grapevines, wild senna, trumpet creeper and hickory trees gives me a secret spot to watch wildlife without disturbing them. While I don’t expect anyone else to get this cozy with my plants, this simple addition to an otherwise “wild” spot never fails to inspire expressions of delight when visitors come upon it. (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

From this roadside vantage point in our informal front-yard garden, we see squirrels peel walnuts, hummingbirds drink from  cardinal flowers, monarchs lay eggs on milkweed, and neighbors out for a walk who stop to chat. (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

In Sue Arnold’s Indianapolis garden, the backyard is also a front yard of sorts, visible to other neighbors who live around the lake. A seating area is all it takes to remove any sense of randomness from the natural plantings of grasses and wildflowers. (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

Post signs of the times.

Not long after I installed my Monarch Waystation sign, a male hatched in the milkweed patch and sat for a spell on the sign to dry his wings. (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

When my signs became unruly, my husband and father conspired to create a totem for them, complete with a carved bird my dad made for the top—whose shape a visiting reporter deemed “half-cardinal, half-kookaburra.” Several neighbors have inquired about where they can find such signs for their own gardens. (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

“Pollinator Habitat,” “Monarch Waystation,” “Humane Backyard,” “Bat Friendly”—at my house I refer to these signs as my 37 pieces of flair, but they’re more meaningful than the tacky pins Jennifer Aniston’s waitressing character is forced to wear in the film Office Space. Habitat signs from organizations like the Xerces Society, the Humane Society of the United States, the Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation, and the Save Lucy Campaign let your neighbors know your property is in transition to a more life-sustaining landscape. It even helped Texas master gardener Mary Karish fend off misguided demands to replace her garden with grass, “making it very difficult for the HOA to overturn what the city thought was a great thing,” she says.

Driving by a house in Newark, Delaware, last year, I was delighted to find a garden packed with native plants. At the corner of the property, in easy view of passersby, a sign from a nearby Audubon chapter explained the importance of the garden to birds. (Photo by Nancy Lawson)

You can contextualize your efforts by posting explanations of the importance of dead wood, available from the Cavity Conservation Initiative, and signs declaring your yard “pesticide-free.” These visual anchors can also help you spread the seeds of an idea—along with the seeds of your milkweed and other wildlife-friendly plants—far beyond your own habitat.

RELATED STORY: A Small Garden with a Big Heart

Wild by Design To save wild nature, we have to attend to human nature, too. Here's how to garden for all your neighbors, domesticated and otherwise.

[stjosephmoirrigationservice-blog]

What Should I Do When I Landscape My Home?

What can I do to update my yard? How can I create an exciting landscape? The solutions are included below in some helpful tips that will show you how to create a wonderful landscape project.

Plant things that are native to your area. Local plants are batter able to handle your soil conditions and are less likely to develop problems. Thus, they are a great choice for anyone who is unwilling or unable to spend a lot of time on maintenance. You could find more info on plants that are local to your area at any gardening store in your region.

TIP! Consider granite for your surfaces when installing a kitchen outdoors. While other surfaces may be less expensive in the short-term, granite is much more durable and lower maintenance.

Are you considering selling your home anytime soon? In contrast to other types of home renovations, landscape design projects have the potential to bring returns anywhere between 100 and 200 percent. Pay significant attention to the front yard in order to increase curb appeal, and also work to define an inviting outdoor space in the rear yard.

It is very hard to landscape every part of your home at one time. Dividing your project into several parts will be easier on your wallet. It will also be easier to implement any design changes that become necessary.

Quality products are worth their higher cost. Most home improvement discount retailers only offer lower quality items. If you go to a store that specializes in the kinds of projects you want, then you can ask employees for help. Although it may cost more, you will have better products and get excellent advice.

TIP! Make the most of your landscape by growing a garden suitable for many seasons. Use plants that bloom for different seasons so that your yard looks at its best.

Choose all of your plants wisely; this can really change how successful your landscaping project becomes. You shouldn’t use plants that need sunlight in shaded areas. If there is not much room for plant growth, it is not wise to place a tree in that location. By carefully considering plant-specific factors such as these you can practically guarantee your landscaping success.

Most people haven’t considered buying landscaping materials online. There are several factors that make shopping for plants online a good idea, though. Besides its ease and convenience, shopping online gives you access to a wider variety of plants than you could find at a home improvement store or a local nursery.

Time your purchases in such a way that you save money. For example, buy lumber in the winter, and buy mulch or trees at the end of the season. If a new type of plant shows up in local stores with a high price because it’s so new, sit back and wait awhile for the price to come down.

TIP! Carefully select your greenery, because your whole landscaping project depends on it. Be careful not to put plants that need sun in shady spots.

It really isn’t necessary to hire a professional to do all of the work on your landscaping project. You will just be spending unnecessary money. However, it might be smart to consult an architect who can give you relevant advice on doing the project well.

Use online resources in order to get the best prices and the widest selection. There are a lot of sites on the web that sell great products at very good prices. Make judicious use of customer reviews about products to ensure proper packaging is used when transported. Always compare prices on several websites before placing an order to ensure you get the best deal possible.

If you are trying to get a lot of color in your yard or garden area, but do not have a large budget, consider wildflowers. You can buy wildflower seeds at many places, and then you just scatter them where you desire. The result will be beautiful flowers of all types and colors! They make wonderful bouquets!

TIP! Buy your products online and in bulk to help save money. There are many websites that sell quality products, often at a good price.

When landscaping the yard, create curvy borders around your flower beds. These are more pleasing to the eye than square, blocked beds. When your property is viewed from the street, the curved lines of the borders in your landscaping will help to soften the straight lines of the hardscape elements, like your house and driveway.

The tips contained here are a great starting point for any homeowner looking to start their own landscaping project. No matter what your plans and in what location, you are now armed with the knowledge you need to get started on that next project.

http://tttlawncare.com/what-should-i-do-when-i-landscape-my-home-2/

[someone-wants-to-find-you-blog]

What Should I Do When I Landscape My Home?

What can I do to update my yard? How can I create an exciting landscape? The solutions are included below in some helpful tips that will show you how to create a wonderful landscape project.

Plant things that are native to your area. Local plants are batter able to handle your soil conditions and are less likely to develop problems. Thus, they are a great choice for anyone who is unwilling or unable to spend a lot of time on maintenance. You could find more info on plants that are local to your area at any gardening store in your region.

TIP! Consider granite for your surfaces when installing a kitchen outdoors. While other surfaces may be less expensive in the short-term, granite is much more durable and lower maintenance.

Are you considering selling your home anytime soon? In contrast to other types of home renovations, landscape design projects have the potential to bring returns anywhere between 100 and 200 percent. Pay significant attention to the front yard in order to increase curb appeal, and also work to define an inviting outdoor space in the rear yard.

It is very hard to landscape every part of your home at one time. Dividing your project into several parts will be easier on your wallet. It will also be easier to implement any design changes that become necessary.

Quality products are worth their higher cost. Most home improvement discount retailers only offer lower quality items. If you go to a store that specializes in the kinds of projects you want, then you can ask employees for help. Although it may cost more, you will have better products and get excellent advice.

TIP! Make the most of your landscape by growing a garden suitable for many seasons. Use plants that bloom for different seasons so that your yard looks at its best.

Choose all of your plants wisely; this can really change how successful your landscaping project becomes. You shouldn’t use plants that need sunlight in shaded areas. If there is not much room for plant growth, it is not wise to place a tree in that location. By carefully considering plant-specific factors such as these you can practically guarantee your landscaping success.

Most people haven’t considered buying landscaping materials online. There are several factors that make shopping for plants online a good idea, though. Besides its ease and convenience, shopping online gives you access to a wider variety of plants than you could find at a home improvement store or a local nursery.

Time your purchases in such a way that you save money. For example, buy lumber in the winter, and buy mulch or trees at the end of the season. If a new type of plant shows up in local stores with a high price because it’s so new, sit back and wait awhile for the price to come down.

TIP! Carefully select your greenery, because your whole landscaping project depends on it. Be careful not to put plants that need sun in shady spots.

It really isn’t necessary to hire a professional to do all of the work on your landscaping project. You will just be spending unnecessary money. However, it might be smart to consult an architect who can give you relevant advice on doing the project well.

Use online resources in order to get the best prices and the widest selection. There are a lot of sites on the web that sell great products at very good prices. Make judicious use of customer reviews about products to ensure proper packaging is used when transported. Always compare prices on several websites before placing an order to ensure you get the best deal possible.

If you are trying to get a lot of color in your yard or garden area, but do not have a large budget, consider wildflowers. You can buy wildflower seeds at many places, and then you just scatter them where you desire. The result will be beautiful flowers of all types and colors! They make wonderful bouquets!

TIP! Buy your products online and in bulk to help save money. There are many websites that sell quality products, often at a good price.

When landscaping the yard, create curvy borders around your flower beds. These are more pleasing to the eye than square, blocked beds. When your property is viewed from the street, the curved lines of the borders in your landscaping will help to soften the straight lines of the hardscape elements, like your house and driveway.

The tips contained here are a great starting point for any homeowner looking to start their own landscaping project. No matter what your plans and in what location, you are now armed with the knowledge you need to get started on that next project.

http://tttlawncare.com/what-should-i-do-when-i-landscape-my-home-2/

[newsodstjosephmo-blog]

What Should I Do When I Landscape My Home?

What can I do to update my yard? How can I create an exciting landscape? The solutions are included below in some helpful tips that will show you how to create a wonderful landscape project.

Plant things that are native to your area. Local plants are batter able to handle your soil conditions and are less likely to develop problems. Thus, they are a great choice for anyone who is unwilling or unable to spend a lot of time on maintenance. You could find more info on plants that are local to your area at any gardening store in your region.

TIP! Consider granite for your surfaces when installing a kitchen outdoors. While other surfaces may be less expensive in the short-term, granite is much more durable and lower maintenance.

Are you considering selling your home anytime soon? In contrast to other types of home renovations, landscape design projects have the potential to bring returns anywhere between 100 and 200 percent. Pay significant attention to the front yard in order to increase curb appeal, and also work to define an inviting outdoor space in the rear yard.

It is very hard to landscape every part of your home at one time. Dividing your project into several parts will be easier on your wallet. It will also be easier to implement any design changes that become necessary.

Quality products are worth their higher cost. Most home improvement discount retailers only offer lower quality items. If you go to a store that specializes in the kinds of projects you want, then you can ask employees for help. Although it may cost more, you will have better products and get excellent advice.

TIP! Make the most of your landscape by growing a garden suitable for many seasons. Use plants that bloom for different seasons so that your yard looks at its best.

Choose all of your plants wisely; this can really change how successful your landscaping project becomes. You shouldn’t use plants that need sunlight in shaded areas. If there is not much room for plant growth, it is not wise to place a tree in that location. By carefully considering plant-specific factors such as these you can practically guarantee your landscaping success.

Most people haven’t considered buying landscaping materials online. There are several factors that make shopping for plants online a good idea, though. Besides its ease and convenience, shopping online gives you access to a wider variety of plants than you could find at a home improvement store or a local nursery.

Time your purchases in such a way that you save money. For example, buy lumber in the winter, and buy mulch or trees at the end of the season. If a new type of plant shows up in local stores with a high price because it’s so new, sit back and wait awhile for the price to come down.

TIP! Carefully select your greenery, because your whole landscaping project depends on it. Be careful not to put plants that need sun in shady spots.

It really isn’t necessary to hire a professional to do all of the work on your landscaping project. You will just be spending unnecessary money. However, it might be smart to consult an architect who can give you relevant advice on doing the project well.

Use online resources in order to get the best prices and the widest selection. There are a lot of sites on the web that sell great products at very good prices. Make judicious use of customer reviews about products to ensure proper packaging is used when transported. Always compare prices on several websites before placing an order to ensure you get the best deal possible.

If you are trying to get a lot of color in your yard or garden area, but do not have a large budget, consider wildflowers. You can buy wildflower seeds at many places, and then you just scatter them where you desire. The result will be beautiful flowers of all types and colors! They make wonderful bouquets!

TIP! Buy your products online and in bulk to help save money. There are many websites that sell quality products, often at a good price.

When landscaping the yard, create curvy borders around your flower beds. These are more pleasing to the eye than square, blocked beds. When your property is viewed from the street, the curved lines of the borders in your landscaping will help to soften the straight lines of the hardscape elements, like your house and driveway.

The tips contained here are a great starting point for any homeowner looking to start their own landscaping project. No matter what your plans and in what location, you are now armed with the knowledge you need to get started on that next project.

http://tttlawncare.com/what-should-i-do-when-i-landscape-my-home-2/

[stjosephmolandscapedesign-blog]

What Should I Do When I Landscape My Home?

What can I do to update my yard? How can I create an exciting landscape? The solutions are included below in some helpful tips that will show you how to create a wonderful landscape project.

Plant things that are native to your area. Local plants are batter able to handle your soil conditions and are less likely to develop problems. Thus, they are a great choice for anyone who is unwilling or unable to spend a lot of time on maintenance. You could find more info on plants that are local to your area at any gardening store in your region.

TIP! Consider granite for your surfaces when installing a kitchen outdoors. While other surfaces may be less expensive in the short-term, granite is much more durable and lower maintenance.

Are you considering selling your home anytime soon? In contrast to other types of home renovations, landscape design projects have the potential to bring returns anywhere between 100 and 200 percent. Pay significant attention to the front yard in order to increase curb appeal, and also work to define an inviting outdoor space in the rear yard.

It is very hard to landscape every part of your home at one time. Dividing your project into several parts will be easier on your wallet. It will also be easier to implement any design changes that become necessary.

Quality products are worth their higher cost. Most home improvement discount retailers only offer lower quality items. If you go to a store that specializes in the kinds of projects you want, then you can ask employees for help. Although it may cost more, you will have better products and get excellent advice.

TIP! Make the most of your landscape by growing a garden suitable for many seasons. Use plants that bloom for different seasons so that your yard looks at its best.

Choose all of your plants wisely; this can really change how successful your landscaping project becomes. You shouldn’t use plants that need sunlight in shaded areas. If there is not much room for plant growth, it is not wise to place a tree in that location. By carefully considering plant-specific factors such as these you can practically guarantee your landscaping success.

Most people haven’t considered buying landscaping materials online. There are several factors that make shopping for plants online a good idea, though. Besides its ease and convenience, shopping online gives you access to a wider variety of plants than you could find at a home improvement store or a local nursery.

Time your purchases in such a way that you save money. For example, buy lumber in the winter, and buy mulch or trees at the end of the season. If a new type of plant shows up in local stores with a high price because it’s so new, sit back and wait awhile for the price to come down.

TIP! Carefully select your greenery, because your whole landscaping project depends on it. Be careful not to put plants that need sun in shady spots.

It really isn’t necessary to hire a professional to do all of the work on your landscaping project. You will just be spending unnecessary money. However, it might be smart to consult an architect who can give you relevant advice on doing the project well.

Use online resources in order to get the best prices and the widest selection. There are a lot of sites on the web that sell great products at very good prices. Make judicious use of customer reviews about products to ensure proper packaging is used when transported. Always compare prices on several websites before placing an order to ensure you get the best deal possible.

If you are trying to get a lot of color in your yard or garden area, but do not have a large budget, consider wildflowers. You can buy wildflower seeds at many places, and then you just scatter them where you desire. The result will be beautiful flowers of all types and colors! They make wonderful bouquets!

TIP! Buy your products online and in bulk to help save money. There are many websites that sell quality products, often at a good price.

When landscaping the yard, create curvy borders around your flower beds. These are more pleasing to the eye than square, blocked beds. When your property is viewed from the street, the curved lines of the borders in your landscaping will help to soften the straight lines of the hardscape elements, like your house and driveway.

The tips contained here are a great starting point for any homeowner looking to start their own landscaping project. No matter what your plans and in what location, you are now armed with the knowledge you need to get started on that next project.

http://tttlawncare.com/what-should-i-do-when-i-landscape-my-home-2/

[jessielouu24]

What Should I Do When I Landscape My Home?

What can I do to update my yard? How can I create an exciting landscape? The solutions are included below in some helpful tips that will show you how to create a wonderful landscape project.

Plant things that are native to your area. Local plants are batter able to handle your soil conditions and are less likely to develop problems. Thus, they are a great choice for anyone who is unwilling or unable to spend a lot of time on maintenance. You could find more info on plants that are local to your area at any gardening store in your region.

TIP! Consider granite for your surfaces when installing a kitchen outdoors. While other surfaces may be less expensive in the short-term, granite is much more durable and lower maintenance.

Are you considering selling your home anytime soon? In contrast to other types of home renovations, landscape design projects have the potential to bring returns anywhere between 100 and 200 percent. Pay significant attention to the front yard in order to increase curb appeal, and also work to define an inviting outdoor space in the rear yard.

It is very hard to landscape every part of your home at one time. Dividing your project into several parts will be easier on your wallet. It will also be easier to implement any design changes that become necessary.

Quality products are worth their higher cost. Most home improvement discount retailers only offer lower quality items. If you go to a store that specializes in the kinds of projects you want, then you can ask employees for help. Although it may cost more, you will have better products and get excellent advice.

TIP! Make the most of your landscape by growing a garden suitable for many seasons. Use plants that bloom for different seasons so that your yard looks at its best.

Choose all of your plants wisely; this can really change how successful your landscaping project becomes. You shouldn’t use plants that need sunlight in shaded areas. If there is not much room for plant growth, it is not wise to place a tree in that location. By carefully considering plant-specific factors such as these you can practically guarantee your landscaping success.

Most people haven’t considered buying landscaping materials online. There are several factors that make shopping for plants online a good idea, though. Besides its ease and convenience, shopping online gives you access to a wider variety of plants than you could find at a home improvement store or a local nursery.

Time your purchases in such a way that you save money. For example, buy lumber in the winter, and buy mulch or trees at the end of the season. If a new type of plant shows up in local stores with a high price because it’s so new, sit back and wait awhile for the price to come down.

TIP! Carefully select your greenery, because your whole landscaping project depends on it. Be careful not to put plants that need sun in shady spots.

It really isn’t necessary to hire a professional to do all of the work on your landscaping project. You will just be spending unnecessary money. However, it might be smart to consult an architect who can give you relevant advice on doing the project well.

Use online resources in order to get the best prices and the widest selection. There are a lot of sites on the web that sell great products at very good prices. Make judicious use of customer reviews about products to ensure proper packaging is used when transported. Always compare prices on several websites before placing an order to ensure you get the best deal possible.

If you are trying to get a lot of color in your yard or garden area, but do not have a large budget, consider wildflowers. You can buy wildflower seeds at many places, and then you just scatter them where you desire. The result will be beautiful flowers of all types and colors! They make wonderful bouquets!

TIP! Buy your products online and in bulk to help save money. There are many websites that sell quality products, often at a good price.

When landscaping the yard, create curvy borders around your flower beds. These are more pleasing to the eye than square, blocked beds. When your property is viewed from the street, the curved lines of the borders in your landscaping will help to soften the straight lines of the hardscape elements, like your house and driveway.

The tips contained here are a great starting point for any homeowner looking to start their own landscaping project. No matter what your plans and in what location, you are now armed with the knowledge you need to get started on that next project.

http://tttlawncare.com/what-should-i-do-when-i-landscape-my-home-2/

[c-ontredire]

What Should I Do When I Landscape My Home?

What can I do to update my yard? How can I create an exciting landscape? The solutions are included below in some helpful tips that will show you how to create a wonderful landscape project.

Plant things that are native to your area. Local plants are batter able to handle your soil conditions and are less likely to develop problems. Thus, they are a great choice for anyone who is unwilling or unable to spend a lot of time on maintenance. You could find more info on plants that are local to your area at any gardening store in your region.

TIP! Consider granite for your surfaces when installing a kitchen outdoors. While other surfaces may be less expensive in the short-term, granite is much more durable and lower maintenance.

Are you considering selling your home anytime soon? In contrast to other types of home renovations, landscape design projects have the potential to bring returns anywhere between 100 and 200 percent. Pay significant attention to the front yard in order to increase curb appeal, and also work to define an inviting outdoor space in the rear yard.

It is very hard to landscape every part of your home at one time. Dividing your project into several parts will be easier on your wallet. It will also be easier to implement any design changes that become necessary.

Quality products are worth their higher cost. Most home improvement discount retailers only offer lower quality items. If you go to a store that specializes in the kinds of projects you want, then you can ask employees for help. Although it may cost more, you will have better products and get excellent advice.

TIP! Make the most of your landscape by growing a garden suitable for many seasons. Use plants that bloom for different seasons so that your yard looks at its best.

Choose all of your plants wisely; this can really change how successful your landscaping project becomes. You shouldn’t use plants that need sunlight in shaded areas. If there is not much room for plant growth, it is not wise to place a tree in that location. By carefully considering plant-specific factors such as these you can practically guarantee your landscaping success.

Most people haven’t considered buying landscaping materials online. There are several factors that make shopping for plants online a good idea, though. Besides its ease and convenience, shopping online gives you access to a wider variety of plants than you could find at a home improvement store or a local nursery.

Time your purchases in such a way that you save money. For example, buy lumber in the winter, and buy mulch or trees at the end of the season. If a new type of plant shows up in local stores with a high price because it’s so new, sit back and wait awhile for the price to come down.

TIP! Carefully select your greenery, because your whole landscaping project depends on it. Be careful not to put plants that need sun in shady spots.

It really isn’t necessary to hire a professional to do all of the work on your landscaping project. You will just be spending unnecessary money. However, it might be smart to consult an architect who can give you relevant advice on doing the project well.

Use online resources in order to get the best prices and the widest selection. There are a lot of sites on the web that sell great products at very good prices. Make judicious use of customer reviews about products to ensure proper packaging is used when transported. Always compare prices on several websites before placing an order to ensure you get the best deal possible.

If you are trying to get a lot of color in your yard or garden area, but do not have a large budget, consider wildflowers. You can buy wildflower seeds at many places, and then you just scatter them where you desire. The result will be beautiful flowers of all types and colors! They make wonderful bouquets!

TIP! Buy your products online and in bulk to help save money. There are many websites that sell quality products, often at a good price.

When landscaping the yard, create curvy borders around your flower beds. These are more pleasing to the eye than square, blocked beds. When your property is viewed from the street, the curved lines of the borders in your landscaping will help to soften the straight lines of the hardscape elements, like your house and driveway.

The tips contained here are a great starting point for any homeowner looking to start their own landscaping project. No matter what your plans and in what location, you are now armed with the knowledge you need to get started on that next project.

http://tttlawncare.com/what-should-i-do-when-i-landscape-my-home-2/