#raspberry mulching

[soykaaino]

Growing Raspberries in Your Backyard: A Comprehensive Guide

Raspberries are not only delicious and juicy but also a great addition to any garden. While they require some care, with the right approach, you can enjoy a bountiful harvest. This article covers essential steps for growing raspberries, from soil preparation to pest control, and includes some handy tips for success. Continue reading Growing Raspberries in Your Backyard: A Comprehensive Guide

[raspberryjellybrains]

if you regularly order giant cases of bottled water for grocery pickup or delivery, know that I hate you and you suck.

[gardengobbo]

May 25th 2023

Busy, busy on Thursday.

After going to Canadian Tire to get sanding sponges, stain and sealant, grass seed, and a few other things to start working on refinishing my dad's old rocking chair for outdoor use, I ended up having to deal with some banking nonsense which relly killed my drive to start stripping the old varnish off the chair.

So instead, me and my mom went and got another bag of mulch and I finished up the rose portion of the garden. There was a bit left over so it went to the back garden edge with the raspberries. Which is when I discovered one single branch of the raspberries has gone all wilted and looks scarred? It wasn't like that the day prior so I'm not sure what happened but I'm a bit grumpy about it. I don't even like raspberries man.

But the rest of the plants do be looking good, and them flowers are still blooming along.

I also got to work pulling the weeds from the grass along the garden bed. Starting from the raspberries and going around to the left to where the previously mentioned rhubarb is. There was quite a bit of nonsense there, so when I was finished I went ham with the grass seed.

Not only there, but I've been trying to fix the dang burn spots from Oy's tinkling. I originally grabbed some extra tough or something like that seed but have been struggling to get it to actually grow. So when I was at Canadian Tire earlier I'd grabbed a quick mix we had last year that we had success with. So hopefully at the least we can fix up the patches in the yard that our dog ruined. The patches from the weeds are mom's fault lol

Overall progress is slow going, but I'm still pretty happy with what I'm doing. Though my body is still not overly keen with all the physical nonsense I've been doing. Line dancing isn't helping. But I am getting better at it at least lmao

I'd also ordered a book related to identifying plants and such, and while I've got it now as I'm writing this and I'm grumpy because it's not what I was expecting so I've actually already returned it and ordered the one I should have in the first place. So in the next few updates I should have that and can talk more about that!

For now that's all! Much love ❤️

[ahedderick]

Sunny Saturday

I've been pinging back and forth lately between having days when I do All the Things and having days when I'm barely vertical. Today is an all-the-tings day. I started out picking the last few strawberries, then reluctantly weeded the whole berry area. There was so much unwanted stuff coming up, including sprouting right through the mulch. Sharp, thorny nightshade, tons of deep-rooted mallow and dock, and several types of grass. I didn't get out there early enough, and by the time I was done the sun was well-risen and I was pouring sweat.

Mid-morning K and I headed out to pick raspberries. The ones around the pond field and the yard at Home Farm aren't ripe yet, but the higher-elevation ones by the cell tower have started. Lady got to go along on that trip, and got herself well worn out bouncing around the forest and sniffing all the scents while we picked.

Final result, around 2.5 pounds of black raspberry goodness. I could make pie, make jam, or just sit down with a large spoon . . . . hmm.

I also need to sit down and get serious about looking for scholarship opportunities for K. Every $ counts, at this point. After the ordeal of my father's estate, I just dread paperwork SO much.

[manyblinkinglights]

Walked the dog twice, not much, just through the park. Spent time with her though, and gardened (which she deeply approves): planted raspberry, blackberry, and Rainbow Happy Trails bare-root rose. Watered my delicate seedlings and recent transplants. Mulched stuff. Moved some roses in pots, watered the grapes in their pots. Made myself an egg sandwich. Made half of dinner. Went to the VR Game Night taur server meetup. Brought the groceries in and put them away. Finalized my BOUNCE! subsystem, which blows lol, but now I know (not to pursue further). Started my Umbra “outfit.” Polished my AudioLink/Furality shader settings. Mom filled my prescription. Printed and signed my job acceptance (still need to scan and email it). Moved my teakettle, replacing my small night-lamp. Put the new grow light on the IoT timer. Watered my houseplants.

That’s a lot! I should feel accomplished!

[leebrontide]

Well the peach tree I ordered FIVE WEEKS AGO arrived today. Three weeks after I started sending cancellation emails because they were taking so long the tree wasn’t going to arrive till after our planting season was over.

Yet here it is. Poor thing. I’m gonna plant it because that’s the best shot it’s got of survival. Give it lots of mulch.

We’ve already had snow though. It hasn’t stuck but it’s happened.

Good luck little Contender Peach.

In other mixed garden news, I pulled my shoulder cartilage trying to finish off moving the massive dirt pile into the raised bed, so today my step brother turned up to put in the last, like, 30 minutes of dirt hauling needed to get that done.

He’ll be back in a few days, to, to finish moving the excess dirt out of the ally because there is still…so much dirt.

But yay! Raised bed ready for next springs roses and raspberries!

[pomegrnteseed]

raspberries

He wasn't sure when he first noticed it, but now it was unmissable.

Hermione Granger was not alright.

Draco had found her habits endearing initially; the lopsided piles of books on her desk, the mountains of paper piling up around her, the three quills stuck in her hair as she frantically patted down her pockets searching for something to write with.

The way she always took notes, handwriting spilling off the page in near-illegible scribbles as her brain failed to keep up with the thoughts running a mile a minute in her mind.

Her stomach always rumbled in staff meetings because she never ate breakfast, often worked through lunch, and pressed the beginnings of a dehydration headache from her temples as Robards rumbled on.

She was a meticulous researcher, loved the intricacies of laws and precedent, past cases she could help the aurors and magibarristers with. No one could crack her filing systems, but the evidence was always solid, always compelling. She was a talented woman, despite the barely contained and near-tangible chaotic energy that fizzed around her.

But three months ago, Draco noticed a shift.

Her blunt responses to McLaggen's idiotic requests in meetings were replaced with a chewed lip and silent bob of her head in acknowledgement. The stacks of papers and books now overwhelmed her small office, the door couldn't be fully opened when he popped his head in to see if she was ready for the briefing with Potter and Thomas at 3 o'clock.

He'd found her crunched in a ball in her seat, right leg bouncing, as she squirmed in the chair, completely engrossed in the notes she was writing. Two puddles of ink had been left to coagulate on her parchment, the fabric turning to mulch and slowly tearing a large hole in her work.

He coughed, but she didn't respond. Eventually, he called her name and she jumped with surprise.

"Malfoy, sorry, I was- doesn't matter. Is it that time already? Merlin, let me find-"

Her volume petered off as she mumbled to herself, hurriedly searching for the relevant documents, before growing frantic.

"M- my wand isn't- Malfoy I can't find- what a stupid woman, so careless, so lazy!"

To his horror, tears welled in her eyes as she tore through her desk, the wand in question nowhere to be found.

She gripped her thighs tight, nails digging into the material of her trousers, face red and torso rocking as she tried to calm her breath.

"Granger- Hermione, I need you to breathe."

She whimpered and Draco finally managed to curl his way round the door, finding a space to fit his feet between boxes and books and files.

He crouched, meeting her at her level, a tentative hand reaching out but slowly receding when she flinched.

"Hermione? I'm going to reschedule the meeting with Thomas and Potter. They're free tomorrow at the same time. Let me send a note to them. And then we'll figure out where your wand has rolled to."

She's chewing on her lip and he's sure it must be bleeding, but her small nod is all the permission he needs to rip a corner of parchment and send the note to Potter, who he urges to give her space til the following day. The man is infuriatingly protective of this witch, and the room really doesn't have space to fit another body among the file boxes and tomes. Especially with his tendency towards the dramatic.

Note sent, he surveys the woman before him. Her hands are now in fists, arms tight at her sides, and her shoulders are rounded. He senses shame in her and doesn't understand.

"Before we begin, have you eaten today? Do you need some water?"

She peers up at him, questioning gaze as she nods, tentative and skittish. He smiles gently.

"Go and grab yourself something from the tea cart in Meeting Room 3, it's empty but there's plenty leftovers. And then nip to the bathroom. I'll draw up a search plan."

She considers his words, eyes back on the floor as she weighs up her options, and acquiesces. As she slips out the door, he tells her there were definitely cheese and tomato sandwiches left. She nods in acknowledgement but carries on out the room.

He surveys the damage of her frantic searching, righting precarious leaning towers of books, replacing stationary, tucking her glasses away in their case. He brightens the light in the room a little, cracks open the window to let a little air in, and tries to determine a way forward, since his own Accio Granger's Wand was unsuccessful. Not that he was questioning her wandless casting or her ability to cast wandlessly under emotional strain. Draco Malfoy learned long ago not to underestimate this woman.

She returns with her food and water bottles for them both, stopping suddenly and frowning at the room.

"You brightened the light."

He nods.

"I thought it would help us search better with more light in the room."

"I don't- not that I'm ungrateful, but I can't have the light this bright. It hurts."

She trips over her words and apologies for inconveniencing him, tries to explain she can push through but he's already fixed his tampering. He goes to the window and closes it too, her wry, self-deprecating smile telling him his instincts were right.

"The noise," she explains with an apologetic shrug, "it gets too much sometimes. But the fresh air helps. I always forget to air the place out."

"Before we disrupt your filing system and double your workload in fixing my poor attempts to follow it, can I ask when you last remember using your wand?"

She closes her eyes, corners of her mouth pulled down.

"I can't remember."

He hums.

"Take me through your morning."  

She does, and her eyes shoot open as she explains she'd made a second trip to the archives for this afternoon's meeting.

"I hadn't factored in the time, you see, so I was rushing. Was worried because the meeting was in 3 hours so I needed to get down and back so I could try and get lunch, but the lift was slow and there was a Disposal team at the Department of Mysteries again, so I had to take the long way round. There weren't any cheese sandwiches left, so I took the stairs but it made me even later so then-"

Draco nods along, following her out the door as they retrace her steps, her chattering all the while.

"Did you know the last time the Lestrange manor was raided, Burke's grubby little assistant stole Harry's glasses? I read it in his report. Absolute nuisance that girl-"

She stops suddenly, blushing and apologising.

"I don't realise I do it, you know. Talk, that is. I mean, obviously I know I'm talking but I don't realise I'm /still/ talking until suddenly I'm aware and I'm very embarrassed. Please do tell me to shut up. And if I don't listen, remind me I asked you to intervene."

Draco takes in this woman, her shining eyes trained on her fingers as she picks at the skin of her right thumb repeatedly. He gently reaches and she lets him pull her hands apart, watches him soothe her raw skin slowly with his cooler hands on her clammy ones. Her breath catches.

"Why are you being so nice?"

He laughs, but stops immediately when she frowns, turning to him before the Archives door.

"I'm serious. Why?"

Draco sighs.

"You take your tea with one sugar. You never have more than two cups a day. Your notes are embarrassingly messy, but you know exactly what you mean. You wear the same outfits, but sometimes you have on different socks and I /know/ those days are hard on you because you kick your shoes off and grumble about the carpet. You are remarkably talented and you have never let us down, but you are clearly exhausting yourself and are wholly unsupported in your role. I'm completely bewitched by you, Hermione Granger, your quirks and your inability to ever return a book to the library, even when it's not useful because One Day It Might Be. You forget to eat sometimes, and it's okay to ask for help. But I want to help even when you don't ask, or don't realise you need the reminder."

He lets out a huff.

"You stopped being snarky to McLaggen, and honestly that was the final straw. You always have a good comeback for him."

She's slackjawed.

"He told me I was weird. But his face was so twisted when he did it. It felt like school again. I've tried so hard to fit in. To do well. And mostly I think I'm good. But that day I'd missed a memo from Robards and I cried because it felt like failure and Cormac laughed. It hurt. And I got so flustered I couldn't speak. My jaw just wouldn't open. I never let people see me like that. But that night, I crawled onto my bed and the twist of his mouth played over and over. And everything slowly started slipping after that. Like I'd dropped one marble and the rest rolled out the bag, dropping to the floor."

Draco watches her, the sagging of her shoulders. He doesn't understand her perception of failure, but it clearly weighs her down.

"It's pasta night tonight, yes?"

She nods, baffled by the change of conversational direction.

"I happen to make a great tomato sauce. And homemade garlic bread. Will you join me for dinner? If not tonight, maybe next week?"

She twists her fingers, weighs up her options. He waits patiently.

"Tonight works. If you don't mind me going for a twenty minute walk after."  

"20 minutes is enough time for me to prepare the fruits for dessert. No raspberries, naturally."

"They pop wrong!"

He laughs, recollecting her diatribe on the insult to her tongue the meek raspberry posed. Then he nodded to the Archives door.

"You'll likely find your wand in the last box you searched. Since you summoned it to the sorting table."

The o-shape of surprise her mouth makes is utterly tempting, but he wants to do this right.

"You're not a failure, Hermione Granger. You're remarkable. And you're human. And I think you're the most intriguing woman I've ever met. The way your brain works, the connections you make - I will never replicate, but I could watch you work for hours and still be bewildered the following day. Have dinner with me. Let me learn what helps you feel safe and comfortable and capable. Let me get to know you beyond the Ministry. I think you're something special. It would be an honour to learn you, as best I can."

She hasn't looked him in the eye so long before. He knows because he counts the seconds each time, falling into the depths of her caramel irises.

Her smile is slow to build but when it reaches full grin Draco finds himself unsteady on his feet. She's radiant.

"You really do see me, don't you?" she asks him, glowing at his confident nod.

"Yes Draco Malfoy, you can cook me pasta for dinner. And I'll try your raspberries."

- - -

I was inspired by Ivie over on twitter to explore neurodivergence in this fandom, and used my own recent discoveries about myself. I have no dx so I don't label anything here. I just wanted to explore soft Draco being gentle with overly hard on herself Hermione because it was cathartic for me on a bad day to imagine what that kindness and patience could look like.

[rederiswrites]

Fed and watered the chickens, hauled some water to the artichokes as a treat, and wrecked up some weeds, and that is enough of being outside for a minute I think. 'Bout this time of year I start thinking that it sure would be nice if I could get up and do animal chores before it's fire and brimstone hot out.

Really pleased with my garlic (back left), strawberries, comfrey, and artichokes (left to right under the grass mulch). If you count what's under the chickens, I think about a third of the garden is cleared.

Trying to clear this line on the right (facing the other direction from previous picture) to plant wineberries and black raspberries currently languishing in pots.

And something ate off maybe a third of my already dubiously small corn patch.

Might go ahead and try hand pollination to see if I can get some corn. Corn is wind pollinated, so it relies on there being enough corn around it for everyone to get some. Enough being probably more than this.

Gotta get more in that ground! Maybe I should promise myself a row of green beans by tonight.

[trickstarbrave]

How are your plants :]

theyre good! i have. severely underestimated how much space pumpkins take up. i guess its nice to have a living mulch but this thing is escaping the raised bed already

tomatoes have started producing. nothing ripe yet but lots of flowers and green tomatoes <3 i fucked up on cucumbers i didnt realize they do better direct sown. along w nasturtiums. but im gonna give the nasturtiums another try this fall along w some other flowers like lupine and delphinium (among. many other seeds i have in my cart atm gbgbhgerbhg)

i saw a tiny little grasshopper on the raspberry bush just now. very cute. peach tree is coming in but ngl i wanna get a donut peach tree next year. i know it'll take years for it to produce fruit but i rly like donut peaches

pepper plants arent dead yet so im looking forward to them. that or theyre the fairy tale eggplants. i cannot tell and i forgot to label :'D

[tenpolegardener]

July in the garden

Planting autumn raspberry; manure soil improver, multi purpose compost with John Innes, added perlite and seaweed fertiliser, layer of coco coir top with mulch.

[thepomegranatewitch]

today's Fifth Acre work: sheet mulching!

I have decided to sheet mulch as well as sieve the stones and broken glass, rusty nails, and general trash from the top soil before I start compost application and soil amendment. The rest of the weeds (filaree, ugh) can be pulled with about six hours of work, and then I'll have two plots. Terrace West will be a three sisters based garden with some others like chard, kale, eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers. Terrace Center will have sunflowers, cucumbers, cantaloupe, and nightshades. Terrace East is already planted with potatoes and alliums, and Terrace Top has some potatoes, thornless blackberries, and a raspberry that decided it ain'tn't dead yet.

Image description: two images, both of a garden sheet mulched with cardboard on an overcast day. The left shows a long view of an 800 sqft area sheet mulched, and clover and filaree in foreground unmulched. Right shows two raised beds, overrun with filaree, with sheet mulching around the left side and trampled filaree on the right.

I found some volunteers while working: a pansy by the compost over in Terrace East, and some Eschscholzia poppies at the edge of Terrace West and the shrine garden.

Image description: two closeup photos of flowers. Left is a pansy about the size of a quarter growing out of a small leaf cluster among many other green plants in rocky soil. It has two purple upper petals, two small white side petals, and a yellow beard petal with black striping. Right is a California poppy bud and unopened blossom, growing amongst its own dense foliage and clover leaves.

Tomorrow I stop in at a queer / trans asian gardeners collective to see if I'm a good fit for joining. Wish me luck!

[firstumcschenectady]

“Step One: Prepare the Soil” based on Hosea 8:1-7, 10:12-13 and Matthew 13:1-9

In my household we are determined, amateur gardeners. To be fair, we like it that way, we are well aware that there is a whole lot of knowledge out there if we wish to consume it. But mostly we like putting seeds in soil and watching to see if they'll grow, and putting plants in soil and seeing how they'll grow.

We've learned SOME things along the way. Among them: it is unwise to plant a garden in a place it is hard to water it. It is even more unwise to plant a garden in a place it doesn't get enough sun. Oh, and also, not getting enough sun isn't a problem that can be overcome. Let's see – we've learned seedlings can't be ignored for very long ;) We've learned you CAN have too many tomatoes (but it is still a fun problem), and raspberry bushes grow AMAZINGLY fast – in the sun ;) We've learned that full grown, orange pumpkins can HIDE in high clover. That was fun. This year I learned that I can mess up seeding soil, hopefully I won't repeat that one.

And, of course, we've learned about weeds. Weeds are a funny – thing they're very localized. Every time I've moved in my adult life I've had to learn by trial and error which things growing were weeds and which weren't, and when we moved two years ago – all of 0.8 miles from our last home - we found ourselves fighting some very different invasive species. I'm not terribly fond of using the label weeds lightly – dandelions are a delight after all, but I'm OK with using it for invasive plants. Mostly. OK, I worry even then. God did create us all, even the ones labeled weeds.

But when I think about all I've learned about gardening – and heavens all I COULD learn about gardening – I'm also reminded of how radically different growing things is HERE versus in the climate of the Bible. To be fair, I haven't attempted to grow anything in the Middle East., but I did spend 3 years in Southern California and on our seminary campus we had a Biblical garden because the climates were so similar it was easy to cultivate plants we wouldn't otherwise know but read about in the Bible.

And Southern California, if you don't know, is DRY. As a Northeastern-er, it boggled my mind how DRY it was. Much of the populated area is watered, so you see these green lawns that look a lot like the ones here (but take a lot more chemicals to maintain, and are really a terrible use of water...anyway...) but sometimes along a stretch of a road there would be spots that weren't watered and they'd just be … barren. Like rocks and sand and nothing growing there. And my northeastern brain was just …. shocked? Amazed? Horrified? Mesmerized? I don't know. It was really weird. I mean, we have raspberry pushes that sprout up in between the concrete blocks of a garden wall, or in mulch barely covering that plastic weed cover stuff. You can't stop life around here if you TRY. Right? I mean, I've used a weed-wacker in the non-existence space between the road and the sidewalk - MANY TIMES.

But in the desert, where there isn't water, there is just... space.

Which is helpful for me to remember when I hear this parable. Indeed, it is hard enough for things to grow in that climate that they can't overcome being in rocky ground where roots can't get down far enough to reach enough water. Plants can't overcome being in the midst of thorny weeds, it is just too hard to fight for survival.

But oh, the seeds that do get into good soil, the things that they were able to do! Step one – good soil!

Yet, I think, it didn't just take getting the seeds into good soil – although that part is imperative. It took getting them into good soil, and then getting water to them. It took getting them into good soil and then keeping those thorns from grown into the field. It took tending.

The sower did the first part and WOW, look what happens when seeds fall in the right spot. Seriously, this is why I garden – because I like this part. It is amazing, and wonderful, and also reminds me of the great mysteries within life itself, and the wonder that is life, and the ways that God is more than what we can perceive. We know that seeds need soil, water, and sun, but the something that helps a seed sprout is still a little miracle, every time, one that I imagine makes God smile too.

The growing isn't done by sowing alone, but the sowing and the spouting is a particularly awe inspiring part. And, as Paul tends to remind us, it can be OK that one person sows and another waters and another tends, each part matters! And I think there is wonder in ALL of it. In each and every step.

Hosea urges the ancient Israelites to pay attention to what they're planting. To stop plowing wickedness, so they stop reaping injustice. So they can stop eating lies. And instead to sow righteousness, and reap steadfast love. To see the harvest that can come come from sabbath and rest (for the land just like the people), to seek God and God's goodness and let the kindom come.

Sow the seeds of goodness and wonder, says Hosea.

And watch the miracles unfold, says Matthew.

And then, in our book of modern day prophets, We Cry Justice, we are told to keep on sowing despite it all. To sow hope as an act of faithfulness. To plant peace because of war – because alternatives are needed. To seed love so that we can grow it long enough for it to bear more seeds to grow next time around.

There are a LOT of weeds in our societal garden – thorny ones. There are a lot of hungry birds swooping down to steal the seed. There are plenty of huge rocks, and there are places with too much sun and some with too little and heavens but most of the best soil is being cash-cropped by huge corporations spraying poisonous insecticides onto our food and into our water.

Which, I think, is the 21st century version of what Matthew was talking about anyway!

But God's abundance made a lot of good soil, plenty of rain, and enough sun that shines on all of us. We can grow our contemporary versions “victory gardens” of peace, hope, and love. Even better, this applies both to the physical gardens some of us tend, and even more so to the metaphorical ones in our beings and our society.

Perhaps this is a good reminder to consider how our lives are being seeded -and with what. And what we are able to do to nurture the seeds we want, and to weed out the ones we don't. How God is always there to help us tend the goodness within us, any time we're ready to tend to things with God.

With God, we get to chose to hope, ���despite of all the evidence.” We God, we get to pick peace, because God has planted it in our souls. With God, get to share love, because we have been lucky enough to know love.

Dear ones, I really do mean it. I think every seed that grows is a little miracle. Tomato, pepper, eggplant, hope, peace or love. And I'm grateful for our writer this week who said, “Whether we win or lose in the short term, we struggle against the wickedness of immoral policies. We sow righteousness as we plant seeds of organization and leadership and nourish them for times of even greater possibility.”1 That plants seeds in me – of hope, peace, and love. Thanks be to God! Amen

1Daniel Jones “A Hurt and Angry God” in We Cry Justice (Minneapolis, 2021), p. 149.

[9thbutterfly]

Keeping It Clean, March 23-25

(can't be arsed to separate it by days today, and it's not like it matters anyway)

(let's see if I can remember everything)

- washed one load of laundry

- folded several loads from last week's laundry marathon

(I had a week-long break from laundry! And I only had one load to wash at the end of it! What happened?!)

- counters and stovetop and table and highchair...

- dishwasher and handwash dishes

- redid the "Easter bush" with fresh branches because the old ones were sad and dried out

- sorted some of OR's toys into the boxes we bought ages ago

They might have slightly too many balls...

(I mean, about half of them were originally cat toys, but they all belong to OR now ...)

- took most of the cardboard boxes that were in their room to the recycling centre

- except for one box that is now the dolls' bed

(most of them were originally my dolls, and I have no idea what holes they crawled out of...)

- sorted other toys into drawers

- cleaned the larger wing of the window in OR's room

- planted more flowers, a yellow raspberry and some onions

- moved more buckets of compost

- planted potatoes in some large pots

- pulled more weeds

- moved shards of broken flower pots and crockery to the rainbow garden as mulch and decoration

- brought my cannas and oxalis up from the cellar (the cannas look good, the oxalis... dubious)

- threw out rotted apples and sweet potatoes

- bought more storage boxes for toys

- probably more but this is what I remember

[ahedderick]

Friday

   Today’s attempt to make forward progress involved an hour picking raspberries (peaceful and rewarding), time with my daughter in the garden weeding, pruning, and mulching (hot, sweaty, and rewarding), a trip to town to see the eye doctor (I need new glasses), and an hour+ on hold with the college savings plan to figure out why the dickens I cannot get a distribution to pay the college bill. Turns out they won’t do distributions until August. The bill is due late in July (’cause of COURSE it is). School actually starts Sept 4. I’m. That was not rewarding.

   There is a tray of perfect, tasty raspberries in the freezer to be saved for the winter.  I made a rather good pot of chicken and veggie soup. The chickens got watermelon rind treats. I’m hoping for a big storm later. The last of the really distressing chores is an issue with the Dept of Motor Vehicles. I got an ominous email, but can’t actually figure out what they want. Monday will be soon enough to deal with. that.

[total-drama-brainrot]

Hello hello ophe 👋😇

I know this sounds weird and carp but I’m gonna say what some of my favs smell like

Trent (my dumb princess) probably smells like mahogany teakwood, strawberry kiwi or motor oil

He seems like a strawberry kiwi kinda guy

Axel would smell like pine, motor oil, or cucumber melon

Emma definitely smells like sunshine and lemons or cupcake sprinkles

WAYNE the boy smell like musty ass hockey bags or hot honey, or strawberry ice berry lemonade

Scary girl smells like red raspberries, unopened monster high dolls, candles, or a hot topic

Damien smell like chemicals, laundry detergent , ocean salt, or fresh water

OLIVIA VON TRASHPANDA smells like what a god would smell like

-Ass Stars anon

I’m gonna like ask every like three or four days so not to clog your ask box and so that I try and control myself

Hello hello, Ass Stars Anon! 👋😊

You're giving these kids way too much credit in terms of how good they'd smell, imo.

Axel would smell earthy, like mulch and wet leaves, because she's a survivalist. Having a traceable scent would bring down her 9.7 primitive survival rating! That's not to say she smells bad, but if you were to sniff a handful of dirt and then Axel herself there wouldn't be much of a difference. Of course, after she started her relationship with Ripper she started smelling like him too (given the fact that the two were literally near inseparable), which is mostly just the stink of body odour- Ripper believes in letting his "natural musk" and "alfalfa pheromones" run free.

Emma strikes me as the sort of girl to either wear super sugary-scented perfumes or drown herself in fruity/sweet body mists. She probably goes through a bottle of So...? Fragrance a day, either in the scent Birthday Cake or Raspberry Frappe.

In the same vein, Chase would reek of whatever cologne/body wash he's currently sponsored by, or if he has his own brand of cologne he'd wear it religiously. I doubt many of them smell great, but at least it's more interesting than deodorant and hairspray.

Wayne AND Raj both smell like Lynx Africa (AXE Body Spray for the US, I think?) with the underlying smell of hockey-sweat and gym lockers.

Scary Girl probably reeks of brimstone and hellfire. Joking, but given that she lives in a funeral home and (according to her audition) deals with explosives often, I imagine she's stained with the ever-present smell of dust and cinder- maybe with the underlying smoky smell you get from standing too close to a fire. Topped off with some sort of cloyingly sweet flowery perfume; she's got that creepy-cute aesthetic to keep up, after all!

I'd like to say that Damien smells like fresh linen and hand sanitizer- because as a science nerd and an anxious mess, he initially struck me as someone with good or even over excessive hygiene habits- but with Zee's secret spilling we know that this dude hasn't changed his underwear for weeks(?), so he in all likelihood smells like cheap cologne layered over dirty clothes.

Olivia von Trashpanda has ascended beyond trivial mortal concepts like "smell".

Trent, our silly little princess who has done no wrong ever, would smell like wood polish (for his guitar), motor oil (he strikes me as the sort of guy who's into fixing up old cars, or modifying his own motorbike) and Old Spice. A lot of oaky scents with a twang of petrol.

This is all off the top of my head btw. I haven't really put much thought into what the contestants would smell like- for good reason, given the fart jokes and gross-out humour in the series.

That's not to say that your own interpretations/headcanons are invalid or wrong, or that my headcanons are the gospel truth. They can smell like whatever you want them to!

This is just me adding my own interpretations. Feel free to disagree with me!

You can send asks as often as you want! I'll do my best to reply to them all, though sometimes I do find myself drawing a blank as to how to respond. If I don't reply to an ask please don't take it as me being rude/annoyed, I probably just couldn't think of anything to add.

[queerpyracy]

the cows grazed what was left in the orchard and have thrown a big fit about being left to eat hay for the rest of the day, but not having to keep an eye on them meant i could spend some time pulling grass back from our blueberries and raspberries and laying down cardboard to mulch! going to need to get some drip hoses around them but it's nice to feel like i'm getting some of the important work done while the weather isn't too hot