What's everyone's favourite flowers that aren't like. The normal ones. Like everyone's a fan of roses and sunflowers what's a more niche one. One you don't get in gift sets. Mine's sweet peas

Chicory, Evening primrose, Purple passionflower

Okay so I like daisies, which is a pretty stupid one. I also like morning glory, which, while a bit more unique, is still a boring one. But hear me out guys: stinknet. I know it’s so stupid and who likes a weed called “stinknet?” Only weirdos right? But it’s so pretty! It looks like little balls of sunshine! I feel oddly guilty for this, like I’m going to ruin the world by loving a thing that most people hate and want to demolish entirely. That does not change the fact that I love it.

Had to look it up

Orb...

Mine is rabbitfoot clover! The flowers are these delightful little delicately-colored green-purple puffs that are soo soft and photos don't do them justice

OUGH that's adorable

Joe Pye weed! It can grow as much as 8 feet tall, it blooms late in summer, and the butterflies like it SO much that they practically fight over it. That second picture I took while I was standing next to them; they're just that much taller than me.

I love dandelions. They are adorable little industrious and useful plants that grant wishes and make me smile. The whole plant is edible in various ways from salad to steamed or stir fried flower buds, or dandelion wine to dandelion root "coffee". They are so wonderful, and yet the world (or at least America) shits all over them as weeds, spraying them with poison and trying their damndest to eradicate them. But they continue to quietly infest lawns everywhere, bringing their sunshine and their early spring bee food with them. They are my absolute favorite.

How I weave in the ends in advance when changing colours.

If you’re making a striped shawl e.g., you can get rid of half the ends in advance.

(Doesn’t work very well when knitting in rounds or in the middle of a row.)

WHAT DOES 'SELF SUFFICIENCY' MEAN?

These are some spuds I harvested from my Winter (off season) crop. The off season crop is always smaller but still worth it. Especially as a way to deal with sprouted main crop tubers.

I can't remember the last time I bought potatoes to eat. But I have purchased seed potatoes to plant.

So, does this make me 'self sufficient' in potatoes or not? Does purchasing seed, manure, growing medium, root crowns etc. mean that someone is not truly self sufficient?

What say you fellow homesteaders? What defines a 'self sufficient' home food garden?

Discuss.......

I am of the belief that any necessary inputs that are obtained from outside render a person or system not truly self sufficient.

As such, I don't believe any one individual can or should be self sufficient on their own.

However. I do believe that small communities can and should be self sufficient. So if you input compost and buy seed potatoes, but you buy them from local neighbors who produce them locally, then you can say you are part of a self sufficient system. But if you buy them online from somewhere several states away or from a store that ships them in, then you are not part of a self sufficient system.

At long last, my brand new MUSHROOM FORAGING COMIC is here!!

21 full-color comics pages, covering the identification and culinary uses of 13 common edible species of mushrooms found in the eastern woodlands of the US, as well as introductory information about mushroom foraging as a practice! And, like all my foraging zines, you can read the whole PDF for free or pay-what-you-want -- mushrooms are free so zines are also free!

Read the whole comic here!

Knitted buttonhole

There are many different ways of making buttonholes. This is my preferred method of making buttonholes in a garter stitch button band: Make 3 backward loops, slip next 2 stitches knitwise one by one, pass first slipped stitch over the second, slip stitch back to left hand needle, k2tog. You have now bound off 2 stitches but cast on 3 stitches. In next row, when you come to buttonhole, knit 2 backward loops, then k2tog, i.e. knit the last backward loop together with the following stitch.

More medieval dyes for y'all!

Things I wish I had read in "beginner" sewing tutorials/people had told me before I started getting into sewing

I believe that's all - feel free to add unto it.

More medieval dyes for y'all!

Goodness, it's been a while since I've been here.

As you may have noticed, I'm not very good at making sure I have regular content to post. I have a day job and quite a bit to keep up with at home, and I have limited energy as it is. That being said, I just wanted to throw a little update out there with some encouragement and tips for aspiring homesteaders.

I'm a pizza delivery driver who lives in an apartment, but that doesn't mean I can't be more self sufficient, and frugality is a cornerstone of self sufficiency. So, here's a few things I've been doing lately since Covid-19 took hold to keep more money in my own pocket.

I have been making all of my meals at home from scratch. I have reduced grocery shopping to once a month, and have cut out completely (expensive and unhealthy) premade foods like canned soups, boxed/frozen meals, and packaged snacks. Dry beans, rice, and oatmeal have become staples that I eat almost every day because they're very cheap (I got a 25lb bag of brown rice for $18, 16lbs of dry pinto beans for $12, and 4lbs of oatmeal for $2) and store for a very long time. Frozen veggies like green beans and broccoli are also cheap and storable long term, and potatoes, onions, and garlic are inexpensive produce that can last for months. Eggs last a surprisingly long time, so I buy the big box of 60 medium eggs for $5. I have turned my refrigerator temperature down to 34°f which keeps food fresher longer. I have cut my grocery bill in half by making these the main items I eat, and I never have food go bad. This may sound like a pretty boring diet, but by changing up the seasonings, cooking method, or adding something simple like tortillas, you'd be surprised how versatile they are.

I don't have a lot of energy after work (people drain me), so I usually take one of my days off to cook up several large batches of things that can be eaten throughout the following week. I usually have my slow cooker, rice cooker with steamer plate, oven, and stove all going at once, and I often freeze a portion for the occasional week that I have to work an extra day and can't have a cooking day. Generally when I do this, I'm only actually in the kitchen for the AM hours, aside from emptying the slow cooker in the evening. Making large batches of food and freezing the extra is a big time and energy saver.

I have stopped buying stuff. I pay bills and buy groceries and bathroom necessities, but that's it unless it's an absolute necessity, like replacing my work pants last week because after 8 years they finally wore through. Aside from that, I haven't bought anything since April, which is when the newest book in my favorite series came out (it's okay to have the occasional luxury, so long as it stays occasional).

I put blankets up over my windows so the air conditioner doesn't have to work as hard and it stays cooler in the apartment. Yes, I have to turn on lights during the day instead of using natural lighting, but with LEDs that still takes less energy than running the air nonstop would.

All of this has allowed me to continue chipping away at my debt, even with my income being so uncertain (since I make tips I get paid less than the standard minimum wage of $7.25 so my paychecks are a joke; yes that's legal, go look it up, and always tip your server/delivery driver/bartender/etc. because that's often the only place their rent and groceries comes from). Getting out of debt is my #1 self sufficiency goal, and while I still have a ways to go, it feels good to be frugal and able to keep moving forward, even if it's just a little bit at a time.

On the note of chipping away at debt, I recently bundled my car and credit card into a consolidation loan with a MUCH lower interest rate. This not only means that I'm paying way less in interest than I would have just leaving everything the way it was, but my minimum payment for the new loan is the same as it was for just my car. This means that my minimum payments for everything each month dropped by $200. That's HUGE!

I'm still trying to pay the same amount I was each month towards my debt so I can pay it off faster, but in these uncertain times it's so nice to know that if money gets tight I have some wiggle room.

If you have a ton of debt, particularly from different places like multiple credit cards and/or a car or whatever, I definitely recommend going online and getting pre-approved. What's the worst they can say, no? Credit unions often have the best rates, and reducing your monthly minimums can take a HUGE load off your brain, and gives you the potential to pay things off early.

Guys, MY FIANCE'S CAR IS PAID OFF! A YEAR EARLY!

That's $380 a month that we no longer have to pay. That's HUGE.

Now it's time to focus on the consolidation loan (my car and credit card), which should be gone in no time with an extra $380 a month to throw at it. I'm aiming to have that paid off in about a year, so hopefully this time next year (or sooner!) I'll be adding to this post again to update you all on progress.

After the consolidation loan is my student loans. Here's hoping they get knocked out quickly too.

New update (2, actually):

I no longer deliver pizza. Early this year I was, and I saw a sign at one of the many businesses that I delivered to on the side of the road that simply said "$18 an hour, $5k sign on bonus, no experience necessary, call this number".

So I did, thinking "what's the worst they can say? No?"

Well, February 28th was my first day. Fast forward 6 months to now, and I have already moved departments to something I like much better, and have gotten a raise.

But all of this means that I HAVE FINALLY PAID OFF MY CAR! That's $200 a month I no longer have to shove at the bank! Next and last on my list of debt was my student loans, but with Biden actually removing $10k in student debt, $20k if you got a pell grant (which I did), that means the $12k of student loans I have is also going to disappear. I WILL BE COMPLETELY DEBT FREE!

I am so excited. I cannot wait to look at my credit assessment and see $0's across the board. And then I will turn around and go right back into debt.

By buying a house. And then I will have a huge garden and backyard chickens.

I am so excited.

Well. I did the thing. I bought a house!

I'm still at the same job. I'm finishing my degree. And I'm making so many project lists for the house. So many. Hopefully I'll be more active now that I have more to talk about.

Things to Do that Aren't Related to Growing Plants

This is my second 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! 

Some of us just don’t have much luck when it comes to growing plants. Some of us simply want to aim for other ways to help that don’t involve putting on gardening gloves. Maybe you've already got a garden, but you want to do more. No problem! There’s a couple of options you can look into that’ll help attract wildlife in your area without even having to bring out any shovels!

Provide a Water Source

Oftentimes when I see ‘add a water source’ in informational articles about improving your backyard for wildlife, it’s almost always followed by an image of a gorgeous backyard pond with a waterfall and rock lining that looks expensive to set up, difficult to maintain, and overall just… not feasible for me. Arguably, not feasible for a lot of people. And that’s okay! There’s still ways to add water in your garden for all kinds of creatures to enjoy!

There’s tons of ways to create watering stations for insects like bees and butterflies. A self refilling dog bowl can work wonders! Add some stones into the receiving tray for insects to land on or use to climb out, and you’ve got a wonderful drinking spot for all kinds of insects! You can also fill a saucer or other dish with small stones and fill it, though it’ll likely need refilling daily or even several times a day during hot times. 

I've seen people online use all kinds of things to make water features. Some go with terra-cotta pots, pebbles, and a cheap pump to get a small and simple fountain. Others use old tires, clay, and a hole in the ground to create an in-ground mini pond system. If all else fails, even a bucket or watertight box with a few plants in it can do the trick--though do be wary of mosquitoes if the water isn’t moving. In situations like these, a solar-powered fountain pump or bubbler are great for keeping the water moving while still making it a drinking option for wildlife (it not even more appealing for some)--and these items can be obtained fairly cheap online!

Bird baths are an option as well--a classic way to provide for birds in your area, they can be easy to find online or in a gardening store! The only downside is that a good, quality bird bath can be pricey up-front. However, a nice stone bird bath should last a long time, be easy to clean and refill, and be enjoyed by many birds! I’ve also seen tutorials on how to make your own with quickcrete! Bird baths will be a welcome sight to birds, as they provide a space for them to drink and bathe to regulate the oils in their feathers for flight and insulation. Putting a stone in the middle will also help insects to escape if they fall in, and provide a place to perch so they can get their own drink. You’ll want to change the water and clean the baths regularly--as often as once a week, if you can manage it.

If possible, it’s highly encouraged to fill and refill water features with rainwater instead of tap water. Tap water is often treated, so instead of using hoses or indoor kitchen water, collecting some rainwater is a great alternative. Collecting rainwater can be as simple as leaving cups, bins, or pots outside for awhile.

Butterflies and other creatures will also drink from mud puddles. If you can maintain an area of damp soil mixed with a small amount of salt or wood ash, this can be fantastic for them! Some plants also excel at storing water within their leaves and flowers (bromeliads come to mind), making them an excellent habitat for amphibians as well as a drinking spot for insects and birds.

Bird Feeders and Bird Houses

Some of the fancy, decorated bird feeders are expensive, but others can be pretty low-cost--I got my bird feeder from Lowe’s for around 10 dollars, and a big bag of birdseed was around another 10 dollars and has lasted several refills! If you don’t mind occasionally buying more birdseed, a single birdfeeder can do a lot to attract and support local birds! If you’re handy, have some spare wood, and have or can borrow some tools, you may even be able to find instructions online to make your own feeder. You may not even need wood to do so! Even hummingbird feeders, I’ve found, are quick to attract them, as long as you keep them stocked up on fresh sugar water in the spring and summer!

An important note with bird feeders is that you have to make sure you can clean them regularly. Otherwise, they may become a vector for disease, and we want to avoid causing harm whenever possible. Also keep an ear out and track if there’s known outbreaks of bird diseases in your area. If local birding societies and scientists are advising you take your birdfeeders down for awhile, by all means, do it!

Bird houses are naturally paired with bird feeders as biodiversity promoters for backyard spaces, and it makes sense. Having bird houses suited to birds in your area promotes them to breed, raise their young, disperse seeds, and generally engage in your surrounding environment. Setting them up takes careful selection or construction, preparation, and some patience, but sooner or later you might get some little homemakers! Keep in mind, you will need to clean your birdhouses at least once a year (if not once per brood) to make sure they’re ready and safe for birds year after year--you wouldn’t want to promote disease and parasites, after all. But they could be a valuable option for your landscape, whether you purchase one or construct your own! 

Again, do make sure you're putting up the right kind of boxes for the right kinds of birds. Bluebird boxes are some I see sold most commonly, but in my area I believe they're not even all that common--a nesting box for cardinals or chickadees would be far more likely to see success here! And some birds don't even nest in boxes--robins and some other birds are more likely to use a nesting shelf, instead! Research what birds live in your area, take note of any you see around already, and pick a few target species to make homes for!

Solitary Bee Houses

A bee house or bee hotel is a fantastic way to support the solitary bees in your area! For a few dollars and some annual cleaning, you can buy a solitary bee house from most big box nurseries. Alternatively, you can make one at home, with an array of materials you may already have lying around! You can even make them so that they’ll benefit all kinds of insects, and not necessarily just bees.

Though you don’t even necessarily have to break out the hammer and nails, buy a ton of bricks, or borrow a staple gun. Making homes for tunneling bees can be as simple as drilling holes in a log and erecting it, or drilling holes in stumps and dead trees on your property. You might even attract some woodpeckers by doing this!

Providing Nesting Area

There are tons of different kinds of bees, and they all make different kinds of homes for themselves. Not all of them make big cavity hives like honey bees, or will utilize a solitary bee house. Bumblebees live in social hives underground, particularly in abandoned holes made by rodents--some others nest in abandoned bird nests, or cavities like hollow logs, spaces between rocks, compost piles, or unoccupied birdhouses. Borer, Ground, and Miner bees dig into bare, dry soil to create their nests. Sparsely-vegetated patches of soil in well-drained areas are great places to find them making their nests, so providing a similar habitat somewhere in the garden can encourage them to come! I do talk later in this document about mulching bare soil in a garden--however, leaving soil in sunny areas and south-facing slopes bare provides optimal ground nesting habitat. Some species prefer to nest at the base of plants, or loose sandy soil, or smooth-packed and flat bare ground. They’ve also been known to take advantage of soil piles, knocked over tree roots, wheel ruts in farm roads, baseball diamonds and golf course sand traps. You can create nesting ground by digging ditches or creating nesting mounds in well-drained, open, sunny areas with sandy or silty soil. However, artificially constructed ground nests may only have limited success. 

Providing Alternative Pollinator Foods

Nectar and pollen aren’t the only foods sought out by some pollinators! Some species of butterflies are known to flock to overripe fruit or honey water, so setting these out can be an excellent way to provide food to wildlife. You may want to be cautious about how you set these out, otherwise it can help other wildlife, like ants or raccoons. Butterflies may also drop by to visit a sponge in a dish of lightly salted water. 

Bat Houses and Boxes

Big or small, whether they support five bats or five hundred, making bat boxes and supporting local bats is a great way to boost biodiversity! Not only will they eat mosquitoes and other pest species, but you may also be able to use the guano (bat droppings) as fertilizer! Do be careful if you choose to do that though--I’ve never had the opportunity to, so do some research into how strong it is and use it accordingly.

Provide Passageway Points

If you want your area to be more accessible for creatures that can’t fly or climb fences, allowing or creating access points can be an excellent way to give them a way in and out. Holes in the bottom of walls or fences can be sheltered with plants to allow animals through. 

In a somewhat similar manner, if you’re adding a water fixture, it’s important to provide animals a way to get into and out of the pond--no way in, and they can’t use the water. No way out, and they may drown. Creating a naturalistic ramp out of wood beams or sticks, or stepped platforms out of bricks, stones, or logs can do the trick. 

Get or Keep Logs and Brush Piles

I’ve already mentioned logs a good handful of times so far in this post. To be used as access ramps, or as nesting areas for solitary bees. But they have value as much more than that! Logs on the ground provide shelter for all kinds of animals, especially depending on size--anything from mice, reptiles, and amphibians to things like turkey vultures and bears will use fallen logs as shelter. Inside of a decaying log, there’s a lot of humidity, so amphibians are big fans of them--meanwhile, the upper sides of them can be used as sunning platforms by things like lizards. Other animals can also use the insides of logs as nest sites and hiding places from predators too big to fit inside. Fungi, spiders, beetles, termites, ants, grubs, worms, snails, slugs, and likely much more can be found inside rotting logs, using the rotting wood as food sources or nesting places. They can then provide food for mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and birds. They can also be regarded as a landmark or territory marker as wildlife get more familiar with your space.

So how do you get logs for cheap? Try Chip Drop! I talk about them more in a future post, but you can mark saying that you’d like logs in your drop, so they’ll give you any they have! In fact, you may even get a drop faster if you're willing to accept some logs. You may also be able to approach arborists you see working in your area and ask for logs. There may also be local online listings for people selling logs for cheap, or just trying to get rid of them. If there’s land development going on near you, you may be able to snag logs from trees they cut down to make space. Do keep in mind, you don’t need to have huge gigantic logs laying around your property to make an impact--even small logs can help a lot.

If possible, creating and leaving brush piles on the edge of your property can be a great boost to biodiversity--even if you may not see the wildlife using it. They’ll provide shelter from weather and predators, and lower portions are cool and shady for creatures to avoid the hot sun. The upper layers can be used as perch sites and nest sites for song birds, while lower layers are resting sites for amphibians and reptiles, and escape sites for many mammals. As the material decays, they also attract insects, and as such they’ll attract insect-eating animals too. As more small animals find refuse in your brush pile, their predators will be attracted to them as well. Owls, hawks, foxes, and coyotes are known to visit brush piles to hunt. Making a brush pile can be as simple as piling branches and leaves into a mound, as big or as small as you want. You can even use tree stumps or old fence posts near the base, and keep stacking on plant trimmings and fallen branches. Do note that you don’t want to do this near anything like a fire pit.

Don't forget, with all of these, your mileage may vary for any variation of reasons, so don't worry if you can't take all of even any of these actions! Even just talking about them with other people may inspire someone else to put out a bat box, or leave a few logs out for wildlife!

That's the end of this post! My next post is gonna be about ways to get seeds and plants as cheaply as possible. For now, I hope this advice helps! Feel free to reply with any questions, success stories, or anything you think I may have forgotten to add in!

Making Desert Land Fertile with Water Bunds

In 2018, Justdiggit and the LEAD Foundation worked with the village to transform a barren 50-acre test site, digging a network of semi-circular bunds with a raised perimeter around a shallow trench, into which seeds were sown. The bunds, roughly five meters by two meters large, were laid in an overlapping fish scale pattern with their depression facing uphill to capture rainwater flowing off the land, slowing its movement and allowing it to penetrate the earth. (source)

The design and function is similar to swales and african planting pits

Seeing this leafcutter bee absolutely made my day.

Leafcutter bees are solitary and use these leaf circles to build their nests. The leaves are formed into small cups, into each of which pollen/nectar and an egg are deposited, and then another leaf section is used to seal up the cell.

All those little circle cut outs, it looks like she likes this plant!

New comic alert!!

One of my side projects this spring has been a brand new instructional foraging comic PDF, this time about relatively easy-to-find-and-ID fruit in the Eastern US! Like wild fruit, this comic is FREE (though you can leave a tip as a thank-you if you'd like.)

Read it here!