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15 reasons to build an herb spiral for your garden (By Jean Bardot, Natural News)

(By Jean Bardot, Natural News)

Whether you’re a city mouse or a country mouse — with a high-rise patio or 1000 acres — building an herb spiral near your kitchen allows you to partake in the sustainable permaculture revolution and have fresh organic culinary herbs at your fingertips. An herb spiral is a compact vertical garden built on specific principles allowing for individualized management of wind and water flow to create the ideal garden in a limited amount of space.

The spiral is a natural form that provides an efficient method for managing space, storing and sorting. Using the natural universal design of a spiral, the forces of gravity and water flow are utilized to their fullest allowing for proper drainage downhill. Herbs that thrive on drier soils live at the top, whereas those needing more moisture reside at the bottom where water collects. This form allows for planting of a widely diverse number of plants, and creates natural, sunny and shady areas — a perfect miniature microclimate landscape environment. The herb spiral as a permaculture form that allows you to create your own ecosystem and become self sufficient. The format can be adapted to large gardens if space is available.

Stone or block building materials allow for retention of heat and insulate plants in colder weather or at night, while acting as the backbone for the structure. Collect water at the bottom and have a small fish or frog pond or even a bog and grow edible water plants. An herb spiral can be built even on a concrete foundation and filled with the richest biodynamic, organic earth to support any plants included.

The spiral should always be built to move in the direction of water drainage in whatever hemisphere it’s located in — for example, in the Northern hemisphere, water runs off in a clockwise direction and the opposite is true for the Southern hemisphere. This allows for optimal positioning of the pond at the bottom and reduces evaporation. The spiral can be built as a round or oval shape to take advantage of the movement of summer sunlight.

15 REASONS TO BUILD AN HERB SPIRAL FOR YOUR PERMACULTURE GARDEN

1. Maximize growing space to grow more food. 2. Multiple microclimates available for optimal plant growth.

3. Healthier plants where growing needs are met and companion planting is easy to reduce insect problems and foster beneficial plant relationships for better growth. 4. Aesthetic garden focal point.

5. Maximizes space even in very small areas on top of concrete or in high-rise buildings. 6. Harvesting access is easy and all plants are effortlessly accessible. 7. No bending, everything is at waist height — hooray!

8. Save money by growing your own food. 9. Eat organic, using heirloom seeds and avoid pesticides and genetically engineered seeds. 10. Reduces maintenance, little weeding and easy to turn and mulch.

11. Manage water amounts and use natural forces to perpetuate the growing season. 12. Reduce building costs when you use local available materials. 13. Use drip irrigation or a small sprinkler for easy watering and irrigation.

14. Create a bio-diverse habitat for creatures who come to visit. 15. Build an herb spiral to grow medicinal herbs to avoid Big Pharm drugs.

Sources for this article: http://www.mitra.biz http://themicrogardener.com http://welcometovoluntarysimplicity.wordpress.com http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/creating-an-herb-spiral/

the-autisticats

What’s Visual Snow Syndrome (VSS), and why do so many autistic people have it?

I learned about this the other day, when I posted about palinopsia (visual trailing/afterimages) being common in autistic people, and a couple of our followers told me about their VSS. I did some more research, and discovered that I also have it.

Visual Snow Syndrome is a neurological condition that interferes with visual processing. It’s caused by hyperactivity and hyper-excitability of nerves in certain areas of the brain that process visual information.

The core feature of VSS is constantly seeing tiny, fuzzy “feedback” in the environment. It’s kind of like seeing the world through a staticky TV screen. Some people’s visual static is larger than others. Mine is relatively fine-grained, but it gets bigger and more obvious in low lighting.

Some of the other symptoms of VSS include:

Palinopsia (visual trailing/afterimages)

Photophobia (sensitivity to light)

Increased and enhanced ectopic phenomenon, such as floaters, phosphenes, and Scheerer’s phenomenon

Seeing glare, starbursts, and halos around lights

Difficulty seeing at night/in the dark

Seeing random flashes of light and/or color, without cause from the environment

It’s common for people with VSS to experience comorbid migraines, but VSS is not the same thing as migraine aura.

So, why do autistic people often have VSS?

It comes down to the fact that VSS is caused by the hyper-excitability of neurons in areas of the brain that process visual information. A core feature of autism is hyper-excitable neurons, especially in areas of the brain that have to do with sensory processing. So it makes sense that autism would often inadvertently cause VSS.

Here are some illustrations of visual phenomenon that VSS causes, in case you want a better understanding of what the world looks like for me and many other autistic people.

Visual snow/static:

Palinopsia/image trailing:

Scheerer’s Phenomenon (tiny bright moving dots):

Starbursts around lights:

Floaters:

I hope y’all have learned something :)

I’ve found it very intriguing to realize that the way I see the world is more unique than I once knew!

~Eden🐢

kieraoona

An inventor in Bangladesh created a DIY air cooler with discarded plastic bottles, and he's giving the plans away for free, just in time for summer.

This you can even make with a cereal box, pop bottles, a craft or box cutter knife, and some duct tape. For those who are trying to beat the heat and don’t have an AC unit, or are trying to save money on their electricity bill.

To make your own, please follow the following steps for a window strip:

Materials: Cardboard (i used a cereal box), Duct tape (in the colour of your choice), pop bottles or water bottles (just the tops as you can see how they were cut), some cutting device to cut cardboard and/or tape, and a marker, or marking device of your choice that will mark onto cardboard

Step 1) Cut off your pop or water off at the widest point so it makes kind of a funnel shape

Step 2) you can make these bigger, but I made mine into a strip. Cut the cardboard into how big you want your panel or strip. Trace the base of your cap and mark the centre of where the lid goes with an X (thats where the opening will go. In the picture, I made mine just a bit wider than the pop bottle tops

Step 3) Cut the X where you marked it, and make it so it’s cut big enough to push the smallest part of your bottle through the X

Step 4) Secure all the spout parts with Duct tape (in the colour of your choice. Mine’s purple.) You do not have to do step 4, but it is advised so the pop bottle tops dont pop out of the openings you made.

Step 5) Place your strip or panel with the biggest part facing the screen or opening of your window, and have the smallest part facing the inside of the building.

The science: as the air blows into the wider part of the pop bottle cone, it compresses the air and cools it down as it goes through the smaller part, hence cooling the air around you without having to use any electricity to make this work.

I hope this tutorial helps you to beat the heat!

@solarpunk-aesthetic

sunlightporn-deactivated2019020

Underrated kink stuff: casual bdsm. Watching a film together but the sub is gagged and bound. Playing boardgames but the sub has a vibrator strapped to them. Cooking dinner but the sub has a plug in their ass and their nipples are clamped. Hanging out together reading a book or something but the dom has their hnds between the sub’s legs. The possibilities are endless.

wannabe-a-slut

This would be so much funnn

I'm so aware of my own problems that sometimes I even doubt them.

#mental health

suicide is back in town

they spill their guts and heir hearts to me and I can barely say "I'm fine" instead of "I'm good" when I'm definetly not either.

I'm so fucking anxious and sad almost all the time. when I should be happy.

bpddamn

No response within a half hour? Panic panic panic panic panic panic panic panic! calm dissociation SPLIT resume panic

I'm like 93% sure I'm a quiet bpd. and I want so so fucking desperately to talk about it. but I can't. I can't let them in. I can't be a burden to the ones I love. they'll just end up leaving anyway because my mental issues are too much, because I keep them under wraps most of the time. but I can't do this. I'm going to start using unhealthy coping mechanisms if I don't talk to someone. I need to see a therapist but goddamn they're expensive. this is stressing me out. I need to get drunk. right the fuck now. ughhhhhh.

#fml #quiet bpd

tequilamockingbird2015

Thoughts on Quiet BPD

When asked about BPD, most people who know about this disorder immediately think of the “classic” symptoms: impulsive behaviors and episodes of rage. The same holds true for even mental health professionals.

But rage and impulsivity are only two out of the nine criteria in determining whether someone has BPD. Some people with BPD—myself included—meet the criteria for a diagnosis but do not use these “acting out behaviors.”

So what does it mean to have quiet BPD?

You probably still suffer from extreme mood swings and emotional reactivity, self-harm and suicidal ideation, chronic feelings of emptiness, paranoid ideation, dissociation, a lack of identity, and the intense fear of abandonment we love so very much (disclaimer: we hate it.).

And it may well be that your relationships are stormy as well—even if the other person has no freaking idea how distressing said friendship is to you.

How is that possible? Well, we feel the same things other people with BPD feel: we idealize you and become deeply emotionally attached to you, then suddenly we become emotionally cold and distant toward you over just a minor disappointment, we’re kept awake at night by paranoia that you secretly hate us because you didn’t text us back immediately, we spiral into crushing depression over the littlest things you say and do.

But the difference lies in how we express it.

With “classic” BPD you may tell the other person what you’re feeling. You may accuse the person of lying to you, avoiding you, abandoning you, etc. You may display anger toward the other person or get into arguments. The other person becomes aware of what you’re thinking and feeling. Not so with quiet BPD.

I almost never tell my friends what’s going through my mind unless they ask. I’m too terrified of being a burden to them. I internalize this tempest of dysphoria, letting it fester for weeks and months. I will drop off your radar, distancing myself from you without you even noticing. Unless you reach out to me, you’ll never hear from me again. I’ll isolate myself, forever convinced you hate me and that you’re better off not dealing with my burdensome self… even if there’s no evidence to suggest this. Even if we’ve literally been best friends for years.

You may not notice this shift at all, simply because I don’t express it. The friendship may not be distressing for you, but it’s sure as hell distressing for me. I’ve cycled through so many friendships in this way, in near constant agony as a result—and the vast majority of my friends had no idea.

I’m obsessed over this idea that I’m a burden. That my very existence is an annoyance to everyone, and so I very frequently deny myself the very emotion so often associated with BPD: anger.

I loathe myself so much I feel I don’t have the right to be angry for myself.

Sure, I can feel anger all right. If you slight a friend or family member of mine, I cannot begin to describe the rage that wells up inside me.

But if you insult me? I’ll sink to depression and probably agree with you (this has happened multiple times).

People with different types of BPD respond differently to the same triggers. For some, if they feel you’re going to abandon them or that you don’t care about them, they respond with anger. Others act impulsively in hopes of relieving some of their pain. But I respond by turning inward. I justify these “signs” that everyone in my life hates me—the same signs recognized by people with “classic” BPD—by deciding that if I’m going to be abandoned, well, it’s because I deserve to be. If you do hate me, it’s because I am, in fact, absolute scum. My BPD takes these signs and twists them into reinforcement of my extreme self-loathing. If anything, I’ll be angry with myself.

This translates into “acting in” behaviors that aren’t as obvious as impulsive behaviors. I self-harm and don’t tell a soul about it, I lock myself in my room and cry for hours, I become so emotionally numb I just stare at the wall all day, I’ll sleep for an entire weekend to escape my pain, I’ll even deny myself food because what’s the point of extending my lifespan, especially if I don’t deserve it?

Any kind of BPD sucks, quiet or otherwise. But raising awareness about quiet BPD is crucial: professionals may not realize we have BPD because we don’t fit the “classic” model, and thus we end up spending years misdiagnosed or in treatment that doesn’t address what’s actually going on with us. We could be spared YEARS of additional suffering by getting the correct treatment as soon as possible. So let’s raise awareness, shall we?

bunlidoen

That moment when...

You want to open up to someone because you feel alone and worthless but even the thought of talking to someone makes you regret life.

apricityjane

That Quiet BPD feel when you want people to know how much you’re suffering but you can only fantasize about acting out

it comes out of nowhere. with no warning. no trigger. I feel the spiral start.

I try to shake it. i sing along to a happy song or smile in am effort to push it back under the rug but it always finds the surface.

I really thought I was done this time. that I had it easy. it was only one day and it wasn't so bad. was that just the pre-show?

I don't want to do this.

I have too much to do.

#fml #mental health

you either get to be happy and fuck everyone else's lives up or you live with less than to make others comfortable. just figure it the fuck out.

I'm completely aware of my eating/weight problem. and I'm honestly supporting .yself to get thinner. I want to get down to 110. but then I know I'll want to get down to 100. and then 90. it's a vicious and disgusting cycle and I know how it works... yet here I am?

#mental health #eating disorder #ed

I didn't eat breakfast this morning. by noon I was starving. and it scarred me. cause it felt good. I didn't cave, I ate lunch. but I wanted to skip it. and that is really shitty considering I've just started gaining weight..

#eating disorder

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