Cute stone (brick?) with a nifty gutweed hairstyle spotted on the shoreline last week.
#MagicInTheMundane
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Helena
@Hellybootwader@mastodon.scot
mastodon 4.7.2Background in Botany/Plant Science. Growing food. Moving towards more perennial veg.
Trying to do what I can to live sustainably.
Currently working on habitat restoration/biodiversity and community food growing.
Photos by me, taken on a phone camera (unless otherwise stated)
Low interaction posts delete after 2 months
she/her
Alt: header is a bush vetch flower with greenery in the background. Profile pic is a close up of a Sarracenia purpurea flower.
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Joined November 19, 2022
Can we all stop using and recommending peat based composts please?
It takes so long to make, peat is a non renewable source
It does far more good storing carbon in the ground in situ than it ever will do in a garden, yes, even for growing food.
I’ve just seen a website recommending using peat based compost😭
Peat was introduced as a cheaper filler for compost mixes within the lifetime of people alive today. It was not always used. We can switch away
#Gardening #ClimateDiary
Some days you just have to put googly eyes on everything.
Makes the world a lot funnier & goodness, we need that.
#GooglyEyes
A harts tongue fern lives just under this old drain grate.
I love seeing fern leaves unfold, so this is an exciting time of year for me
Always searching for the perfect crozier tip.
#fern
Snail with a pretty shell
#Snail #MagicInTheMundane
I don’t know if this is #MagicInTheMundane because I think plants are amazing always, but there are a lot of leaves newly unfurled just now (Northern Hemisphere)
This was a phone photo with the sun shining through from behind the leaf, so much going on when you look at the detail.
#leaf #phonePhoto
Hawthorn is leafing out, soon the lichen will be harder to spot.
#LichenSubscribe
#MagicInTheMundane This oily residue on the beach reflected all the colours when it seeped onto a puddle left by the receding tide.
Kind of sad because it’s oil on a beach, fortunately just a small patch.
Weird day. Road closures on the main route made for an empty (relatively) car-less cycle to work (including a detour)
Saw people walking in the middle of the closed road, we were cycling without stress.
I could even do some roadside botanising & admire the trees that I’m usually too “head down, get up that hill” busy to appreciate.
It was like living in a solar punk future for a while.
Now I just want to cycle around closed roads.
#Bike #tree #ClosedRoads #CarFree
I’m enjoying the lovely bright greens of spring. And the mushrooms are popping up.
Replying to
Mwhahaha
2 more people left my presence with perennial leeks for their garden/allotment today.
One got a harvest of some leeks too.
Another person has been promised some perennial kale cuttings on Thursday. Will also offer perennial leeks - there’s a bit of crowding that could be thinned.
The perennial veg evangelism continues
#PerennialVegetables #gardening
Knitters of Mastodon: the enamel on my metal needles is wearing off at the points, any ideas about the best way to stop the ragged edges from catching the wool I’m knitting?
I’ve given it one coat of clear nail varnish which has helped a bit, but it’s not smooth yet.
I’d like to keep the needles, as they were my Granny’s
#Knitting #Wool
Replying to
@joannaholman
best low cost purchase lately: replacement gardening gloves. No holes in the fingers or worn waterproofing.
Being comfortable is good actually.
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@Broadfork@mastodon.green it’s been an odd spring.
I think it’s really useful having these points in the year to compare how things are changing, it’s easy to forget when things flowered/emerged last year, let alone 3 or 5 years ago.
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@Broadfork@mastodon.green excellent news! World domination by our perennial Vegetable overlords is nigh!
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@Steffi@toot.wales ouch! Hope your healing goes well.
As for books:
I’ve just finished Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn- not sure of availability on borrowbox.
If you like reading about nature reclaiming spaces there is also
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
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@Broadfork@mastodon.green same. I think the notes I made on the birthday calendar (that keeps getting turned over) about date of first wild strawberries really shocked me.
End of June in 2008
Mid June in 2019
End of May in 2025
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@Broadfork@mastodon.green exactly! And now my paths are leek free (unless I missed any more)
Win win
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@GinevraCat@toot.community
Hope we both get answers!
The needles are 2 and 3/4 mm and I don’t use them often, and now I’m mid project
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@Broadfork@mastodon.green it really was great!
Because of the road closure everything had an odd feeling to it. Normal had been suspended for now.
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@brianbilston actually found it hard to read the real words, not the phrases in my head.
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@MacNaBracha@mastodon.scot@andy@social.4142.io hope you managed to fit some heckling in to your busy schedule
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@afewbugs@social.coop I would love that, but we could also do a bit of short cutting. mind if I DM you?
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@Irisfreundin@troet.cafe I’ve not grown it as most of my leek needs are covered by the Babbington’s leek I grow. But I’ve been thinking about it. More leeks is good, right?
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@sahqon@beige.party @GinevraCat@toot.community I don’t have the gel /UV torch (or not a UV torch for nail varnish - will have to look at the wavelength requirements)
I had the clear nail varnish for sealing chips in cups/plates but could see the gel varnish would work better
Replying to
@afewbugs@social.coop off the tip or the whole needles? Or to smooth the transition between the enamelled and metal sections?
It seems to be where the enamel finishes that is catching
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@HelenLockhart@mastodon.scot thank you for making the trip to the post office & the notification that my wool has been posted. Sorry it was such a guddle.
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@marsiposa@social.coop hope you don’t mind me jumping in.
Perennials I’ve got that are providing a crop now are leeks (Babingtons), kale (Daubenton’s plain and panache) 9 star brocolli, walking onions, herbs (sage, chives, thyme, rosemary)
Soon I’ll have skirret leaves & rhubarb.
Hoping to harvest some Hablitzia tamnoides sown two years ago
The corn salad, bittercress, wild rocket & red orache seed themselves.
As well as the fruit bushes and trees.
Also looking for more ideas
@Kimberley@ecoevo.social
Replying to
@miffyhelen there is the home energy Scotland website, funding won’t be applicable but the advice should work.
https://homeenergyscotland-advice.est.org.uk/
Exciting!
My friend’s adult child (offsprung?) has just released their first single and it’s excellent.
If you are keen to listen and maybe support them you can listen here
https://ashaclarkson.bandcamp.com/track/metaphysical-hunger-2
There are swears in the non radio version
#BandCampFriday
Replying to
@Irisfreundin@troet.cafe have you tried Allium ampeloprasum var bulbiferum -native to southern Europe?
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@Irisfreundin@troet.cafe oh no! Do you know why? Or could you find a European supplier? There seem to be a number of different types of perennial leek.
Failing that, you could try treating the annual leeks like perennials - I’ve had ones regrow from the root before.
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@matt@oliphaunt.social I hadn’t thought about rusting!
I do know someone with a pottery kiln
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@marsiposa@social.coop it depends on the veg.
Perennial leeks you cut the top off leaving the root in the ground, the kale you harvest the leaves, and may need to start a new cutting every 4-5 years. Skirrets you eat the leaves in spring & roots in winter (replacing half the roots to regrow)
9 star brocolli you harvest the flowers, probably want to start new plants from seed every 4-5 years too
@Kimberley@ecoevo.social
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@MyWildlifeAllotment this is the story my granny told me, an old man (when she was young) told her to hit the ground with the back of a spade to scare off the moles in her garden.
I forget how often she had to do this, but they way she told it- it worked.
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@suearcher@toot.wales The Pennard Plants and Incredible Vegetable websites are good places to start looking, for UK based Perennial veg, also any books you can find on Forest gardening in the UK
@afewbugs@social.coop