#it is winter in the southern hemisphere

[sahelstudies]

just finished reading Robert Darnton's The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. i'm traumatized, but it's a good book

to-do's

psychology and education notes

really go to the historiography class

[polariscroquis]

"I'm coming back for you, my friend"

For some reason, my brain thought it would be fun drawing Copia as Sailor Moon, so there we go, Sailor Emeritus for Hunter's Moon.

I only saw the Sailor Moon thing after I was done with it though, the actual concept was Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt *puts on fool hat and jingles quietly*

I blame him and his goth anime legs uncle vibes, man is 80% legs in every photo

[niuniente]

Every single soul on my dash celebrating the return of the sun and I'm here like

[cookiewishesyou]

On this December 4, 2024, Cookie wishes for you to stay warm, unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere, for which she wishes that you stay cool.

[anipgarden]

What to Do Once Things Are Planted?

This is my seventh post in a series I’ll be making on how to increase biodiversity on a budget! I’m not an expert--just an enthusiast--but I hope something you find here helps! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s the end of this post! My next post is gonna be about the secret Other Thing you can do to help biodiversity--tackling invasives! Until then, I hope this advice was helpful! Feel free to reply with any questions, your success stories, or anything you think I may have forgotten to add in!

[aropride]

(ID: a photo of hell, with exploding volcanoes and skeletons in a sea of lava screaming for help. impact font text reads "summer fans be like / ah yes, 3pm". end ID)

[orphicus]

Happy Solstice!

☀️🌿🌾🌱🪐

[furiouskettle]

i have never seen a cat less food motivated than Monkey

[innervoiceartblog]

[dionysiaproductions]

I love writing in December. It's the darkest time of the year and anticipation sort of hangs in the air. Like, I know historically Spring always comes and scientifically about the rotation of the Solar System. But every December there's a strange part of me that thinks, 'will the sun come back this year?' Then goes absolutely nuts with joy when it does.

[firestorm09890]

I’m probably one of the few people who would actually benefit from Missing Link coming out in the next five months or so. I live in a very hot place. It is mid-October and it’s still over 90 degrees today. For other people it’s starting to get too cold to want to walk around outside but for me it’s just becoming nice enough to go outside. Summer is dangerously hot and I have missed my stupid mental health walks and I would welcome a silly little mobile game to make them more enjoyable

[midwestaesthetics]

Antarctica including the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis)

[tomicaleto]

Something I was thinking about today: I wish video games like Stardew Valley or those that mirror our world had the option of choosing hemispheres, you know? Just at the beginning of the game, you pick language, your name and your hemisphere. Unless the game is set on a specific place, I don't think it would alter gameplay too much, but it would be neat having events themed to the correct seasons, you get me? I don't want autumn themed events during my spring time

[the-merry-otter]

Winter days are genuinely so much better with fire

[leticiaicitel]

spring is just around the cornerrrr

[rohirric-hunter]

I think we should all get November-March off work to stay inside and hibernate