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anipgarden · 8 months

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Fun notes from Hellstrip Gardening by Evelyn J. Hadden

I’d mentioned in my liveblogging notes that I’d share the cool stuff I learned/found interesting but my notes quickly got Very Long so they’re now their own post. Seeing as this is what I personally found noteworthy, I definitely encourage people read the book for themselves—you might find value in a place I looked over!

Working with Poor Soil

- Use plants that thrive in less than ideal soil

- Grow herbs 👀 many common perennial herbs like thyme, sage, and oregano prefer nutrient-poor soil and dry conditions make them more flavorful. BUT get your soil tested first. Nitrogen fixers will improve poor soils and manage fine on their own, like false indigo. Flax, penstemons, and salvias are plants that are well adapted to lean growing conditions. I found this interesting because whenever I plant salvias in my garden I give them Scoops of Compost but I guess its not needed lol.

- Deep rooted prairie grasses and flowers can withstand the extremes of clay soil flipping between too wet and too dry. Some sturdy taprooted plants can break through compacted soil.

- If your soil is BAD bad then grow in containers and/or raised beds! It’ll be less costly than trying to improve a huge swath of shitty soil on your own. They’ll also provide textural interest to the landscape.

- Use a fork or pitchfork to improve compacted soil, or a broad-fork. Near tree roots, try pushing a stick/stake/rigid object into the ground and then remove it to make holes where water and organic matter can enter.

- To boost fertility quickly, add dehydrated manure, leaf mold, mushroom compost, alfalfa pellets, or garden compost. I had no idea what an alfalfa pellet was before this.

- Grow annuals for a year, cut them off at the ground level in fall, and leave the roots to decay in place. Plants with big taproots will also help break up soil. Letting roots rot in place create channels of organic matter to aerate soil, hold water, and hold nutrients.

- Sheet mulch

- When it comes to contaminated soils, you can remove the top layer of soil and replace it with good soil, or add the fresh soil on top in raised beds or mounded into berms. If you aren’t in a hurry, certain plants and fungi can be used to phytoremediate or mycoremediate the soil. They remove contaminants and store them in their tissues—you have to remove and dispose of them after though.

- Sunflowers remove lead from soil and store it in their tissues. Increasing their potassium levels increases their effectiveness for this. Cut plants after the growing season and dispose as hazardous waste. Good news! According to this book, the lead and other toxins don’t really accumulate in the seeds, so its safe for seed-eating birds. And since its stored in tissues idk if it’d affect pollinators either?

- Cover bare soil under the phytoremediating plants with a thick mulch or dense ground-covers. For easy living mulch, the book suggests Dutch white clover, annual sweet alyssum, or johnny jump-ups.

- Phytoremediation and mycoremediation require a lot more patience than just removing and replacing soil. It can take a decade or longer, depending on the situation. Definitely test the soil before you use it for other purposes, even if you’ve been phytoremediating.

Working with Laws and Covenants

- Know what the regulations are. This can include what trees are and aren’t allowed to be planted on roadsides, if trees are allowed in strips of certain widths, plant height at intersections, etc. However its also possible that the city will plant a tree for you if its on their list and you qualify, saving you money.

- When confronting a restrictive regulation (esp if written decades ago) whether its from an HOA or a city ordinance, don’t assume it can’t be revised, varied, or taken out entirely after some prompting. Have a civil conversation about it, draw up a plan or describe your garden plan, maybe be ready to make a formal presentation.

- You’ll have more luck if you come to the bargaining table prepared to and willing to compromise, take feedback, address concerns with facts and examples. Offer to meet again after the landscape is in place. Honestly I find this point interesting because the mindset of a lot of people frequently is ‘ask forgiveness not permission don’t ask and fight them if they get pissed’ but also in some situations asking cordially can get the results you want more painlessly. (That being said if lawn lovers dig in their heels maybe then its time to rally the forces and protest it but yknow cross that bridge when you get there I guess)

- Know the applicable laws. Some states (the book lists Colorado, Texas, California, Nevada, and Florida) hqve laws preventing HOAs from prohibiting xeriscaping.

- When proposing/fighting for your garden, focus on practical benefits that are easier to quantify and communicate than emotions and personal values. An HOA might not necessarily care about pollinator habitat, but they might be more understanding of ‘reducing water runoff, erosion control, lower energy use, less water needs, and no noisy mowers and blowers to bother neighbors with and spend money maintaining.’ Assigning dollar values to the garden will help communicate other positives—even if its not your main focus. Speak to them in their language, not necessarily your own.

- Show pictures of examples! If there’s a similar garden elsewhere in town, tell them where they can find it to see for themselves that it Works and Looks Great. Show them that others are doing this kind of stuff and it’ll adjust their view on ‘normal’ and ‘acceptable’ landscaping choices.

- Consider adding barriers to your beds and paths to help neighbors see that it’s ‘managed’ and actively cared for/enjoyed. Including a path and maybe a bench or some chairs will help it read as more Orderly. Wider paths will also alleviate fears about ticks, snakes, etc.

- If your neighbors aren’t crazy about a meadow garden, a no-mow lawn or groundcovers can give the look and feel of a lawn without being lawn if compromising is needed.

- Get a garden club or other local group to back you up. If there isn’t one already 👀 make one.

Living with Vehicles

- Sometimes if you garden close to the road cars might accidentally drive over parts of it, especially if parking. Put plants that are more easily replaceable on the forefront, and don’t forget to aerate the compacted soil afterwards.

- You could also put in a low fence/wall, a row of rocks, prickly plants or shrubs, or brightly colored taller plants to make the garden More Obvious and Less Drive-On-Able. If it keeps happening maybe request a cautionary sign or speed bump be added, or that a visibility barrier be removed.

- If there’s part of the garden you wanna save for occasional driving/parking, use plants that can be mowed when needed, or install permeable pavement/gravel/driving strips through a low ground cover planting. You can add a barrier that can either be mowed down or moved when that area’s not being used.

- If you have a Hellstrip hellstrip (which this book ends up talking a lot about Total Lawn Transformations but there’s still a lot of hellstrip advice too) then the combo of asphalt on one side and sidewalk on the other is gonna make a heat island. Find plants that like the heat! Use that strip to extend your growing season for warmth loving annuals or even for edible plants like tomatoes, peppers, squash, and melons! BUT get your soil tested before you do that.

- Alternatively you could plant trees to help shade the area and cool it down

- MULCH

- You can plant things to help muffle the sounds smells and other effects of traffic, winds, and passerby. You’ll want a four season barrier for this—plant a variety of things that’ll either stay green and leafed up in Winter or at least add visual interest.

Living with Wildlife

- So apparently geese like to eat the blades of grass lawns??? I thought they were eating bugs IN the grass, not the grass itself. Anyways they especially love eating fresh grass in view of a shoreline so you could add a 20 foot wide buffer of tall plants between the lawn and the shore if you don’t wanna deal with Goose Poop

- Mosquitoes lay eggs in standing water but apparently can also lay eggs in really wet dirt which I DID NOT know so even a leaky faucet onto some dirt can cause issues with mosquitoes.

- According to the book, humans don’t tend to notice damage to leaves until it surpasses ~10%, and don’t notice a particular kind of insect until its population surpasses a certain number of individuals. So instead of trying to eliminate all leaf-eating bugs, aim to control their populations so the damage isn’t noticeable to you and the insect predators will remain in the landscape and continue controlling said population. However, I took note because hey if you plant host plants and either have so many of them or manage to sneak them into so many different places that the leaf damage becomes Barely Noticeable…. Idk that just feels like a good thing to take note of for Sneaky Pollinator Gardening purposes.

- In areas prone to ticks, make your paths wide enough to pass through without touching foliage. Also having other animals around can minimize exposure—pheasants, chickens, and guinea fowl actively seek and eat ticks while possums and raccoons attract them and kill them while grooming. HOWEVER. Mice and deer can be sources of tick reproduction.

- Diverse plantings can limit damage from both insect herbivores as well as larger herbivores like rabbits, deer, and birds. These animals are generalists but may focus on specific favorites, so a mixed variety might get nibbled a little but mostly left alone.

- As a general rule, herbivores are attracted to nitrogen content in foliage, plants kept well watered, and new growth. Pampered plants are more appealing.

- Planting favorites like clover or alfalfa in specific areas may keep herbivores from finding (or at least encourage them to ignore) other areas like a veggie garden. A mulberry tree may make birds ignore your other fruits. A well placed shrub can host a rabbit nest instead of the underside of a deck. Piling ripe seed heads of grasses and flowers alongside an alley or generally away from your house can lure mice away from said house (and possibly expose them to more predators along the way)

- Vertical gardens, cold frames, hoop houses, and green houses can protect edible plants from herbivores

- Maintaining an excessively tidy lawn is a high effort way to avoid contact with particular local species (ticks, snakes, black widows, scorpions, etc.) Gaining more knowledge might help find easier ways to avoid the animal and give more peace of mind. Slight modifications could keep the animal out of your immediate environment. Its possible they aren’t even interested. (This feels fantastic but I feel like the last time I tried to read up on ‘how to keep snakes away from house/out of garden’ the results were basically Dont Have A Garden And Dont Go Outside so)

- I now want a garden toad friend time to find a broken pot to put upside down in the garden

- Early spring bulbs like low iris, species tulips, hyacinths, and crocus will supply nectar at a highly valuable time of year, attracting pollinators to the garden.

- Cleaning up fallen leaves destroys butterflies overwintering under plants.

- Birds will be lured in by the sound of moving water.

- Include prickly shrubs and thorned trees to help give birds a hiding space from predators like hawks or urban cats. Just keep thorny branches out of pathways.

Living with Road Maintenance and Utilities

- If you live in a place where roads are sanded or salted in winter, try to find salt-tolerant plants for your area. To protect curbsides from water logging and salt buildup, slope the ground towards the road/path. Direct salt-laden runoff into a seasonal stream or rain garden planted with salt-resistant species. A berm and/or row of salt-tolerant plants can protect sensitive plants from said salts. Frequent shallow waterings create a buildup of salts in the top layer of soil—deep watering helps flush salts out of the soil.

- Plants can be damaged by piling snow, and soil can be compacted underneath. Make sure the garden includes an area for piling snow, possibly a rain garde or bioswale to shovel into/let meltwater flow to.

- call the local utility company before you make bigass changes to your lawn PLEASE don’t hit a utility line. Also don’t plant tough, deep-rooted masses of roots over shallowly buried utility lines. Consider paths of loose gravel/mulch/stepping stones, shallow-rooted ground covers, and/or annuals and other easily replaced plants.

- Vines can be grown on individual wires, metal fencing, latticework, or wooden poles. Match the vine’s growth habit to the structure you want it to climb. HOWEVER regulations may prohibit stuff like this, and you’ll have to be ready to move/remove any added trellising and plants when maintenance time comes around.

- Shrubs can conceal metal boxes and other equipment, or you can use perennials. When using foliage to hide electrical boxes and other utility containers, keep clear access to any doors and allow their complete range of motion.

- If you can’t/don’t want to mask an object, try shielding it from view in certain vantage points. Or incorporate the colors of the equipment into the garden by mimicking the color scheme.

Living with the Public

- Especially if you’ve got a sidewalk running through the front yard, you have to consider EVERYBODY who’s going through there. Strangers, neighbors, vehicles, animals. Pedestrian traffic is an important consideration—wheelchair users, strollers, children, dogs, and depending on where you are even horses are something to keep in mind.

- Elements that can encourage traffic include mat forming ground covers, level places, and paved/graveled/mulched open areas. Elements that discourage traffic include protective fencing, uneven or sloping surfaces, and plants that are tall or look uncomfortable to touch.

- To minimize damage from foot traffic, enlist self-repairing plants whose stems are capable of rerooting when they’re broken and come into contact with soil. Self sowing plants can seed to fill in bare spots, and running plants can spread to fill gaps.

- Protect your nonwalkable plants with edges, hedges, and other hardscape choices. Berming or hollowing planting areas while keeping paths level can be a more effective strategy. Or you can densely plant s low, prickling, spreading shrub to bar passage.

- If visitors will be parking on the street, make sure they can exit their cars safely, and provide a clear path to your door. Said path can be straight and wide, or meandering. Guests on wheels need to be considered though.

- Plants with high moisture content should be planted closer to the curb where fire is a concern. Idling cars can emit occasional sparks and you don’t want long dry grass catching a spark. Instead consider succulents or a rock/stepping stone border along the edge, and keep dry leaves/pine needles from accumulating near parking.

- Fruit or nut trees can yield a notable surplus. Check for gleaning organizations in the community that may pick your extra edibles for personal use or charitable distribution. Or leave them for neighbors to enjoy.

- When clearing paths consider people’s feet and their faces. Keep prickly branches out of the way, take note of sharp leaves or pollen-laden plants that can make a walkway into an obstacle course hazard. If your area is prone to ticks, keep vegetation far enough from the public walk that it won’t brush against people.

- Some people don’t fucking respect gardens, or don’t have manners. Don’t put super mega rarities or plants you can’t afford to lose where the public can access them easily. Or like. You can. But be warned I’ve seen at least 5 stories of people’s front gardens getting defoliated for ‘bouquets’.

- Frequent presence in a garden (or signs of it) can deter littering, vandalism, and other mischief. A garden that looks well kept can discourage negative attention.

- Consider the garden from several points of view. If you’ve got a lot of neighborhood kids and dogs running around, keep poisonous plants near the back. A mulching of large rocks can lead to trouble with rambunctious gremlins. Etc etc.

- The curbside garden can be a great way to build community. You can even encourage communal use. Include a bench for chilling near the sidewalk, fresh food free for all to pick, a sunflower house or bed of pine cones for kids to play, a bowl of water for passing dogs, etc.

- if you want more curbside gardens in your area, consider sharing extra plants, forming a neighborhood garden club, make a list of Good Neighborhood Plants, establish a local contest, give tours of your yard, persuade a local agency or organization to offer grants, and/or lobby to change restrictive regulations.

#ani rambles #out of queue #liveblogging books #outdoor gardening #hellstrip gardening

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captainsspnanon · 2 years

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ESO Pt 1: Death & Taxes - liveblog

Starting the ESO one shots, because why the fuck not.

Hi Laura. You now own me. HOLY FUCK.

Sam’s PC is actually reminding me a little bit of FCG? Not entirely sure why

lol at Taliesin’s PC being in charge of food again. Is Taliesin a big fan of cooking?

...I miss long hair and beard Matt. Yes, the look does age him, but he looks fucking DASHING.

LOL at Sam THROWING Slaughter’s entire backstory out in the first *checks time* 12 minutes. And that’s counting the intro and title card sequence!

Michelle is new to me and I already adore her. I do need the PC cards though, I can’t remember like, ANY of their names! I only remember Slaughter because of the list of family names.

HOA! Thank you Aabria and Laura for saying it!

...Laura playing a surly orc is SENDING me places, omg

Slaughter’s not really hitting for me at the moment, I feel like Sam likes to play these super uncertain nervous one off characters (his Critmas elf is what I’m thinking of) and it just feels a bit overplayed? Or like, heavy handed? One note? Not sure how best to describe it. (though even as I’m typing this I’m remember his Lorelei PC was very boisterous and not nervous at all, so maybe not XD)

“Aren’t we all new beings on this beautiful planet that we call” *helphelphelp* LOL new geography who dis?

A handful of gold but no tip? How much does a single ale cost?!??!?

And Mallory has now won me over too. I love how much Tal is just cracking up everyone else with stuff that, in context, has no humor at all. It’s BRILLIANT. (also I keep wanting to type Molly, so that’s gonna be a thing)

also, I am DELIGHTED whenever anyone can make Matt break when he’s in character, and Tal did it FABULOUSLY. I feel like Matt’s the hardest to break, with Liam next, and then maybe Laura next? Though Sam’s good at not breaking, I feel like that’s more of it’s harder to make him laugh than the others. HE’S GOT HIGHER STANDARDS XD

LAURA IS FAKING THEIR TAXES!!!! also I full on don’t remember her name, except that it starts with a G. Aabria I think is playing Tavina? Which I can only remember by thinking Tavern.

OH GOD LAURA YOUR ROLLS

New proprietors have to carry over debts from previous proprietors???? I am desperately hoping that this is just a thing made up for the game solely because I wouldn’t be surprised if this was something that actually happened in the US now. (pretty sure it doesn’t, but still. I have no hope in the world anymore.)

Also this is making me giggle a little because imagine that Laura had rolled a nat 20 for the dex check and a nat 20 for the deception check and Matt just went ‘yup all your taxes are in order, whatever plot hook this is is now gone, enjoy just randomly serving customers for the next three hours’ XD It’d never happen, but it’s fun to picture

I’d totally be on the ‘let’s just murder hobo this dude’ train, but they are very respectful of obvious plot hook. XD

Then again I just realized this dude’s been drinking glass in his wine, he’s probably dead man walking

I am super surprised that Matt’s not teasing Aabria about the DM curse. Though, did this come out before ExU or after? Maybe they were trying to keep that hidden?

*looks through the comments because it’s late at night and I’ve lost focus* Someone described Mallory as a cross between Caduceus and The Owlbear and that feels spot on.

Oh dear, with combat not being standard 5e stuff I’m used to, it’s definitely going to have me zone out during. All weird spells and stuff….at least it’s the standard action/bonus action/movement it seems.

Oh hey, the only clip of this I’ve ever seen! Which is Laura swapping out her dice mid-game XD I lean towards Liam and Sam’s view of dice which is that the dice don’t care, but I do adore Laura’s rituals and such.

Plot device note found on a 6. Yup! Those you gotta find even on the nat 1s, just to make sure that plot can move along.

Sam goofing around that he doesn’t play ESO makes me wonder how they decide who among the main cast is going to be in the one shots. I always assuming that Liam’s in a ton of one shots because he loves d&d so much, whereas Sam is in a bunch of one shots because he’s the humor boy, but it does make me think. *looks at actual attendance* So Liam is in 31, Matt in 30, Sam and Tal at 29, Marisha at 28, Laura at 27, Travis at 24, and Ashley unsurprisingly at 11 (which I’m sure will pick up more now that blindspot is no more). (aww, it looks like Matt only got to play in 7 of them, had to DM the rest). You know, look at that now it’s actually way more balanced than I would have suspected! Though also looking at these, not sure if I’d actually count some of them as Critical Role one shots, as it includes the Campaign Tips/Critical Troll, as well as the Kinda Funny and Gamespot one shots as well. ...what is this Sloth and Sundry? *takes a peek* ….OKAY watching this next, I think. And the Stephen Colbert one shot is on here too….. ALRIGHT so my own headcanon list of what counts toward the ‘official’ count and whatnot is clearly skewed, so I give up XD

Speaking of costumes (we weren’t but that’s okay) I hope that everyone is a comfortable temperature. This group is such a mix of costume weights that I feel like either Michelle’s got to be freezing, or Taliesin and Sam are going to start sweating. Glad that Michelle’s ears look to be on a headband though, I was worried she had them actually on her ears cause that would be painful as fuck for any longish period of time.

Wow I have never seen Matt basically give someone proficiency just to get them past the point where they are stuck. (again, difference of a one shot vs a campaign, but still!) This group is rolling SO BAD. Also they have super low HP, so I wonder if they’re like, level 2/level 3?

Laura asks for and gets flanking, and then doesn’t roll with advantage XD aw bby

Ah! She remembers! Yay!

Grelnock is giving me the Barbarian!Laura that I’ve wanted. Tanky damage dealer, yes pls

It’s an interesting combination, I’m enjoying watching Aabria play, but at the same time this PC feels like all the NPCs from ExU. I think I said it at the time, but it holds true now. Creating a ‘character’ doesn’t need to be an integral part into d&d, because she’s just as enjoyable as the other players without feeling like ‘someone different’.

(I am NOT going to go into dRaMa here, but watching this is also reminding me that there are things that some CR cast does in their regular style of play which I just don’t vibe with overall.)

LOL Mallory looks SO disgusted by Baked Alaska, but intrigued by Bananas Foster

I love watching Matt desperately nerfing damage because all the rolls are TERRIBLE

When Slaughter yells the complicated order to the skull and throws it and Sam rolls and goes “NATURAL -” I 1000% thought he want going to say 20. I was not expecting the 1.

SLAUGHTER FINALLY GETTING A HIT, AND IT’S THE KILLING BLOW

Grelnock’s Skull. Hell. Yes.

#critical role #elder scrolls online one shot #laura bailey is too hot to be allowed #i apologize for my thirst

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