The Hygge Project

The Hygge Project: An innovative person-minded attempt to reform the penal system of the United States. It's time we stop treating incarcerated individuals like they have a disease, and start treating them like people who need help, who need access. Time to stop tearing people down, and start building communities up.

[auntieashleydark]

So You Want to be Solarpunk?

If your neighborhood has a vacant lot, get some neighbors together and turn it into a community garden.

Organize a block party.

Create a maker space enabling folks to repair, repurpose, and swap their old stuff.

Organize a bunch of plant-savvy neighbors to help folks convert their yards from resource hungry yuppie lawns into something sustainable that fits the local biome.

Get a few friends together and clean up the trash on the streets. Make sure to recycle.

Set up Little Free Libraries and Little Free Pantries.

Get tool-savvy neighbors together to help folks with needed household repairs and upgrades.

The punk in solarpunk is about resistance to the alienation and consumer culture that makes our communities unsustainable and our environments toxic.

[vexwerewolf]

Abandoned golf courses are being reclaimed by nature

Despite occupying large green spaces, golf courses are not necessarily good for the environment. Conservationists are reclaiming and rewildl

Yo this rules and is genuinely uplifting

[ladyofthehouse]

It *is* genuinely great! So this is from October of '23! As of my reading this, it's now January 11 of '24. I think I'm around the 1,000th note on it though, which is and is not startling.

Were this a "golf courses have killed ______ species" or a "you're going to die 10 years sooner because of golf courses" piece, getting 1,000 notes would be a two-day affair.

I genuinely believe that at this time in our existence there is a moral obligation to share news about positive actions, and all the things people are doing to combat extinction at every level. There are so many things. Despair breeds inaction, and that's simply not an option.

Rewilding is *amazing* and very much an option for lots of areas. And YES it's happening.

[turtlesandfrogs]

Now is the easiest time of year to start a new garden bed (assuming "now" = early fall, day time temperatures around 45f). All you have to do is lay down cardboard:

Top it with still some nitrogen rich compostable matter, in this case grass clippings:

Some carbon-rich matter, in this case old wood chips:

And keep layering until it's pretty thick:

And then walk away and ignore it until spring. All winter long, it'll be decomposing, while killing the grass and weeds underneath. By spring time, the soil underneath will be nice & loose and fertile, and you'll be able to plant straight into it.

(If you want to meet organic standards, then make sure any cardboard or paper is non-glossy and black & white. This was for someone else's flower bed, so the red ink isn't going to be an issue)

[turtlesandfrogs]

To answer the weed seeds question, I personally usually top it off with a thick layer of fall leaves or wood chips, which doesn't give seeds a good place to start. Both of these are used as weed-preventing mulches here. It also helps that were going into the cold season, so they're not going to get much of an opportunity to grow.

I forgot to mention, but the name of this method is sheet mulching or lasagna gardening, so search those terms if you want more info.

[turtlesandfrogs]

This post came up in my notes again a little while ago, so I'd just like to mention it worked very well. There were a few weeds (because there always will be) but I think I spent less than half an hour on it all year. The plants also did very well with the hot, dry summer, and the raspberries were tasty. OK.

Here's some pictures from the spring & summer.

This post is also kinda weird for me, because someone who had been writing friendly, positive comments on a couple of other posts got really angry at me "destroying" the lawn and completely changed their tone before blocking me. I hope they're ok. Sometimes to make something, you're going to have to make changes, which may include destroying what was already there.

[rumade]

Just a heads up that this technique will not kill perennial weeds unless you have the resources to do a super thick layer, and even then, you may still have shoots coming up from roots that were left in the soil.

I've been doing this in my garden, and I still struggle with brambles, cranes bill geranium, bindweed, docks, and English ivy coming through. Sheet mulching straight over the intact weeds and roots will weaken them though, so if you can stay on top of plucking them out, you can slowly win the battle. The one I've struggled the most with has been cranes bill, which makes these crazy thick corms with loads of energy stored in them. I know now to do a little digging beforehand, and then keep the beds no dig after.

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

It was explained to me that first you cut the grass too short and leave the clippings. Then a thick layer of leaves, wet it down, cardboard, more water, more leaves and other compostable material, water, and top it with wood mulch.

I plan on doing this after all the blackberry bushes are removed (they're an invasive species and will take over everything and destroy privacy fences) as well as the English ivy.

My front yard came with six big climbing rose bushes. Would this be a good thing to do around the base of the bushes? I wanna get rid of the undesirables/weeds and make the soil rich for future perennials.

[turtlesandfrogs]

As Rumade said, it doesn't work with strong-rooted perennial weeds- unless you have enough material to go at least a foot deep and to cover a fairly big area so it can't just pop up nearby. I heartily recommend digging out as much of the roots as possible any time you're dealing with invasive species such as Himalayan blackberry and English ivy. Dock laughs at this method.

For around rose bushes, I personally wouldn't go that deep, and I might forego the cardboard*, depending on what weeds you're facing around the roses. I would knife out anything with a tap root and pull out as much as possible for things like bindweed while trying not to damage the roses' roots. Like, if it's lawn right up to the base of the rose, cardboard yes, but if the roses are in a bed with scattered dandelions and annual weeds, a nice 3-4 inches of mulch after getting the taproots out should do. Wood chips are my favorite mulch.

Also, if you live somewhere with abundant fall leaves, then a nice 6 inch layer of leaves does a remarkably good job of discouraging things from coming up- excepting the aforementioned bindweed, english ivy, Himalayan blackberry, etc. Time of year also has an impact, because that gives you a strong clue to how much energy the plants have stored.

*This is because some studies have shown a reduction in gas exchange under the cardboard, so if I want to keep something healthy and alive, I skip that step. On the other hand, roses are remarkably resilient.

[asteroidtroglodyte]

It’s too late to save the world

Ash trees sprout in cracks in the asphalt. The gutters collect leaves, which become soil, in which dandelions sprout.

There’s nothing you can do

A man plants an entire forest. A young girl teaches a drone to deliver saplings. The elderly volunteer to clean up radioactive waste.

You might as well give up

Wolves return to ancestral hunting grounds. Bison return to the prairie. Otters return to the kelp beds. Young oaks push roots deep into reclaimed farmland.

Who cares anyway?

Children draw pictures of flowers. Festivals are held for cherry blossoms and pecans and apples. A crowd cheers as the last line is cut away from the ensnared creature.

I have disobeyed worse than you

The world does not die on my watch

[rebeccathenaturalist]

The Guts of Predatory Cats Can Destroy CWD Prions

The prions that cause chronic wasting disease in deer are nearly indestructible. So it's good news to learn cat guts are their mortal enemy.

Okay. So. You know how some people want to finish exterminating all large predatory mammals so they have less competition for deer and so they don't occasionally lose livestock? And you know how native deer species in North America have been hit increasingly hard with Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in the past couple of decades due to overpopulation thanks to the eradication of large predatory mammals that normally keep them in check?

We already have evidence that reintroducing predatory mammals to their native ranges not only knocks deer populations back to a healthier level, and now we've discovered that apparently the digestive systems of cougars and bobcats are lethal to CWD prions. Prions are among the most difficult pathogens* to eliminate; you have to heat them up to about 1,800 degrees F in order to thoroughly destroy them. And prion diseases like CWD are almost universally fatal.

So to find that these wild cats can safely eat CWD-infected animals AND significantly reduce the chances that the prions will be spread to other deer is a pretty big deal, especially since some other animals like coyotes and crows do pass prions undamaged through their digestive systems. And it's just one more example of why an ecosystem needs all of the species that have evolved in it over thousands of years, not just those are convenient for humans to have around. The spread of CWD is directly related to the overpopulation of deer, and it's likely that continuing to reintroduce large predatory mammals to their native range will help quell this awful prion disease.

[headspace-hotel]

!!!!!

SYMBIOSIS

[practicalsolarpunk]

Hi, I've only just got into solarpunk and find it really cool.

I was wondering, what sort of simple lifestyle changes would you suggest to start with when trying to live in a more solarpunk/sustainable way?

Hi! So glad you're getting into solarpunk! We think it's pretty cool, too, and we're happy you're looking for ways to integrate it into your life. Since you haven't included anything specific about your situation or what you're interested in, this list is pretty general - if you want more specific ideas, feel free to send in another ask!

In the meantime, here are a few recommendations for getting started:

Grow something. Depending on your situation, you may not be able to put in a huge outdoor garden. But there are many plants that will be perfectly happy in a pot on a windowsill, and still others that are happy to grow in low-light situations. Find something that works for your space and get some hands-on experience with growing things. (If you have a window, I highly recommend herbs - many of them are happy in pots and there's something incredibly satisfying about eating things you've grown.)

Compost. Unless your space is extremely tiny, you probably have room for a small composting system. Some can even go under a sink or in a closet. See this post for a general discussion, this post for vermicomposting ideas, and this one for info on bokashi composting. Also check out our #compost tag.

Mending. Mending is a great skill to have. The life of most clothing (and a lot of non-clothing fabric items) can be extended dramatically with some basic sewing skills. I've made entire dresses and quilts and I still find most of my sewing is repairing and mending other stuff. We have a mending tag, but I also love YouTube for this. Searching "how to mend X" (e.g. "how to mend hole in crotch of jeans") gives you a bunch of awesome tutorials. You can get even more use out of things if you're willing to embrace visible mending.

Reduce energy use. Try to use natural light where you can. Set your thermostat high in summer and low in winter and use the principle "heat/cool the person, not the space." Flush the toliet with graywater by removing the p-trap from your sink and dumping the collected wash water into your toilet tank (or directly into the bowl if you have an American-style greedy cup siphon toilet). Experiment with solar energy. What you can do depends on your situation, but see what kind of options you have.

Integrate the 7 R's: There are more R's to sustainable living than just "Reduce Reuse Recycle". See this post for a primer.

Build community: One of the foundations of solarpunk is that it's about community. Even if you start out doing it by yourself, eventually you need a community to do bigger things. My favorite way to start is by meeting the neighbors. Taking over some food (cookies are great) and introducing yourself is a great way to open a relationship. We also have a community building tag for more ideas.

You can find even more ideas in these tags, depending on what you specifically want to do:

#apartment solarpunk

#dorms and small spaces

#community building

#activism

#fiber crafts

#diy

There's also some additional tips in this post and this post, which are earlier responses to similar asks.

I hope this helps! Followers, feel free to chime in with your best tips!

- Mod J

[headspace-hotel]

as promised, the transplanting tutorial

most sources make transplanting sound incredibly difficult, but transplanting young seedlings from areas with sparse dirt, like a driveway or roadside, is actually incredibly easy and can get you some great stuff. Once I worked out the method, i've had a very high survival rate

it took me like a month of trial and error to figure this out so you don't have to.

Feel free to repost, no need for credit

[seaweed-solarpunk]

FREE TREES AND FLOWERS!

It is a common belief that native plant gardening is hard and expensive but plants are free. They're everywhere. They just do their thing.

It is common for seedlings to grow in places they cannot survive longterm; the side of the road, pavement crack, gravel driveway.

How did they get here? Plants spread their seeds in a variety of ways. Some of the main ones are:

birds: when birds eat berries and fruits, the seeds are not digested and sprout in the ground when the bird poops.

wind: lots of seeds have fluffy parachutes of helicopter wings so they can be blown far away to find a place to grow

water: rain and streams can wash seeds away and leave them in a muddy area to sprout

mammals: acorns and nuts from trees are foods for families, who bury them later. sometimes they sprout into trees instead

A seed will do its best to sprout... whether it's a good place for a fully grown plant or not. Plants that sprout in harsh places are sometimes beautiful and vulnerable species, and they are easy to transplant.

Here's how:

you will need

a pot: A red solo cup is the right size for most transplantable seedlings- don't use anything much smaller. You can also use an orange juice carton or even a cardboard box. Make sure you cut holes or slits in the bottom so it won't be soggy forever when you water it.

potting mix: it's not the same as dirt- it's lighter, fluffier and drains easily.

a place to put it: put them outside where they get some sun, but not where they get direct sun all day long. If they're on a surface that gets hot, elevate them by putting them on a cardboard box or something.

The idea is to transplant seedlings that wouldn't survive where they are. Don't just uproot plants that aren't in any danger. Obviously don't do anything dangerous or illegal. AVOID roads with frequent traffic or main highways. Do NOT put yourself at risk of being hit by a car.

I collect from roadsides because I live in a neighbourhood with no outlet. If you grab an invasive species, it's in a pot where it can't hurt anything and you can just kill it.

NEVER plant anything in the ground without knowing what it is, though.

A seedling this size (about an inch) or smaller is most likely to survive. The two most important things are to keep as much of the root intact as you can and to make sure the roots stay damp. You can wrap the roots up in a wet paper towel.

How to transplant:

From gravel: seedlings growing in gravel or pebbles are easiest to transplant. Remove bits of gravel one by one and carefully pry up the pieces that are stuck, until the roots are exposed. Mulch can be removed the same way.

From a crack in the pavement: Very carefully pinch the stem as low to the ground as you can and shift and tug until you pull it free. Be patient! Breaking small roots is fine but if you hear the main root 'snap' RIP to the plant.

From dirt: Digging around the whole plant is hard to do quickly and seamlessly. Soaking the ground in water or searching after a rain can help you gently pull small plants up.

How to put them in a pot:

Carefully put potting mix around the roots. Don't crush them.

Don't touch any part above the lower stem with dirty hands... especially not new leaves. A speck of dirt on a delicate new leaf can make it start rotting which will spread to the whole plant. Water, immediately. Get only the potting mix wet, not the leaves (that can make them vulnerable to rotting).

Seedlings with broad, big leaves can dry up easily from direct sun exposure, but many aren't happy in the shade So you can cut one of these (cardboard toilet roll centre) in half and put the half around the seedling like a "collar".

How to take care of them:

After transplanting, plants are very weak. It's like recovering from an injury or illness.

Check on the plants at least a couple of times a day and water a little if the potting mix is dry. I like to adjust their location at different times of the day- newer seedlings might need to be moved to a shadier spot when it's sunniest, but later in the evening plants in the shade benefit from being put in the sun.

Don't be discouraged if they die, they had a very harsh early life and some of them won't make it.

As they get bigger you can identify the species you have and decide if you want to plant them. My policy is to plant only species that are native to my area. You WILL find invasive species and you want to get rid of those, trust me. Uprooting them and leaving them on a concrete surface kills just about everything. Don't throw an invasive plant in the grass and DO NOT try to compost them.

That's all. Embark on your life armed with this knowledge.

[orchidvioletindigo]

The text above is an image transcription.

[fenixfoxtrot510]

Does anyone know good resources for identifying the plants?

[headspace-hotel]

I advise becoming familiar with the invasive species in your area first and foremost. Then, iNaturalist will be a great help. You can also try plant identification apps (they're not perfect but they give you something to look up and compare) and for the USA, my favorite plant website is wildflowersearch.org. It has loads of links to other useful websites with every entry.

[headspace-hotel]

Remember everyone:

Guerrilla gardening is for the neglected and barely-noticed little spots that see hardly any maintenance

For heavily maintained areas like golf courses, you gotta talk to people and organize. Find a person in your local government that seems most closely related to what you want to do or someone part of a gardening and/or environmentalist club or organization and send an email

Once you know your invasive species, you can get free plants from around May through about August by carefully yoinking seedlings from gravel and pavement cracks (look next to creeks, shrubby woods, and pasture) just don't get run over by a car

You must find retired old ladies who are avid gardeners. They will have all the connections you need

Volunteer at a nature center or preserve, even an hour a week, and you will learn very quickly all about invasive and native species and make lots of connections, and once you've proven yourself interested in being helpful and useful, they may let you transplant cool plants that happened to pop up in a parking area or mowed strip

If you've got access to a public library, they might host a seed swap

Happy plantcraft y'all

[myfootyrthroat]

You can occasionally get guerrilla stuff into heavily landscaped areas, but it's going to have to be extra well-planned. Stuff is mostly likely to get weeded when it looks new or out of place, so if you can get some fairly big transplants and get them in a pattern, they might sneak by.

But otherwise, yes, talk to people at your parks board, etc. The horticulturist in charge of landscaping at a bunch of my local parks puts a ton of edible "ornamentals" into her gardens as filler, and she doesn't care if people eat them.

Tenants at the house next to mine convinced their landlord to let them replace all of the landscaping borders with native plants and edibles as long as they did the work to maintain it. He even knocked some off of their rent since he didn't need the landscaping maintained anymore.

[sleepyowlet]

Just wanting to add real quick that invasive and native aren't opposites. Plants can be native and invasive, or they can be introduced and behave in a polite manner (for the US dandelions are one of those).

Native invasives are super valuable when it comes to greening up areas that have been destroyed by monocultures (like lawns). They're quick to take root where slower species won't thrive and will eventually phase themselves out.

[headspace-hotel]

I just call those guys by the ecological term Disaster Species/Pioneer Species...or by my favored term, "Weed."

Weeds are real, but they're not bad. They're just plants with a first-responder niche, aggressively taking over damaged areas and getting the restoration process going as quick as possible.

[venn364]

I appreciate the seed bombing of public spaces as a form of environmentalism as long as you're using native seeds but please don't do it to someone's front yard. I spent nearly six months constantly removing a plant I was incredibly allergic to only to catch someone seedbombing it back because it was 'pretty' and 'had every right to be there'.

My front yard is already filled with pretty and native plants. Even if it wasn't, putting seeds in someone's yard is a jerk move when you don't know them or their history.

I can't take care of a yard filled with plants that make me sick. My yard accounts for most of the neighbourhood's butterfly population on account of everyone else poisons anything in their front yard that isn't grass because of this kind of bad behaviour.

Yes, I'm cutting back a lot of the extra growth out front. It's a fire hazard, there's too much underbrush and I don't intend to be responsible for burning down the neighbourhood. Cutting back plants to reduce fire danger and ensure that I can take care of a garden neglected for over a decade is not a bad thing.

We got twice as many flowers this year because the flowering plants could actually reach the sunlight.

Stop seedbombing my front yard dammit!

[karmajam]

Looking through the replies and tags and I have no idea where so many people got the idea that seedbombing golf courses is in any way effective.

General rule of thumb with seedbombing is that blasting your seeds into private property (especially gated/fenced property) is way more risk than its worth. Not only is there a risk of getting tangled up in some dusty ass low level court, but cookie cutter suburbs and manicured golf courses with evergreen lawns and not a dandy in sight are far from prime seedbombing soil, as they'll most likely be herbicide-ed into an early plant grave.

And just to be clear, that's not a bad thing just because your efforts have been wasted or because the seeds were wasted, but rather because it just gives the owner another reason to bust out their Plant-Killer 3001EX and squirt a gallon of chemicals into the earth. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but depending on where it is and how much you shoot, it might not be that far off.

Anyway, I'm just gonna speak practically for a second here. Who is seriously out here spreading the idea that seedbombing a golf course (definitely private property, definitely manicured grounds) is somehow better- morally, logically, whatever -than seedbombing someone's frontyard (also private property, also has to be manicured to some degree). Take a second and really think about these things.

[headspace-hotel]

I've been saying this for a while

Guerrilla gardening has its place and that place is in empty, neglected areas that receive no attention apart from getting mowed or weed-whacked every month or two.

The idea is this: when your area was developed and buildings and roads were constructed, many plant species were extirpated from that area, and most plant species are becoming more and more isolated with populations in increasingly scattered locations

You are re-introducing plants into areas that either are suitable habitat, or where you could feasibly care for them

But the thing is

Guerrilla gardening appeals to the part of your brain that wants to stick it to The Man and do something exciting and risky and cool and "punk"

And I think that part of your brain can be ultimately self-serving.

Because many of the most effective actions you can do don't FEEL badass and subversive. They don't LOOK badass and subversive. Direct action is often boring as fuck and not illegal and won't be recognized as courageous and cool because it's very mundane and often tedious and sometimes gruelingly hard.

The truth is

Two or three friendly conversations with your neighbors about native plants are worth a thousand seed bombs

This type of popular image of "direct action" glorifies and lionizes this idea of an individual person doing something Cool and Illegal, and for the most part, this is a fantasy and a lie and a product of the terribly anti-human, anti-community, hyper-individualistic type of society we are in

Do you want to make your neighborhood into a lush paradise for native species? Talk to your neighbors. Do you want X institution to stop using pesticides on their grass and start a pollinator garden? Call them. Email them. Now find other people in your area who can support you and try again. See if your library can tell you about local environmental organizations. Reach out to the guy who runs the farmer's market or the lady who is in charge of the gardening club. Build up a list of contacts.

Do you know how you can get people to grow native plants? Do you know the number one super easy way to get people around you into growing native plants?

Grow native plants yourself, and when they spread or produce seeds, offer everyone free plants.

I cannot possibly recommend this method enough.

If you would throw seeds into someone's front yard instead of knocking on their door and asking, "Hello, do you want some seeds?" ask yourself why. Because the second thing has a much higher chance of actually having good results.

[headspace-hotel]

Also, as mentioned above

please don't seed bomb golf courses or any other place that is very heavily managed

Why?

It won't do anything. The plants will be immediately killed.

If, by some miracle, the seeds you planted matured and flowered, they would attract bees and butterflies...which would then be poisoned by whatever toxic chemicals are contaminating the area

Here's a small lesson about nature: the golf course is constantly being seed bombed already, by a group of plants we know as "weeds." (The more technical term is pioneer species or disaster species.)

These plants are specifically adapted for the niche of re-populating barren and destroyed areas. And activities like mowing, tilling, and spraying simulate extreme disturbance that in nature would result from floods, tornadoes, extreme overgrazing, and the like.

Thus, heavily manicured areas have to constantly use herbicides to kill weeds.

My use of dandelion as an indicator is based on my observations of it in the Eastern USA, so this may not be true of some areas...but if there is nothing but manicured grass in an area, with no dandelions, it's safe to assume that virtually any plant you could seed-bomb isn't going to make it either. Either because of spraying or because the area is just extremely hostile.

Dandelion is nature's perfect seed bomb and I'm not sure any human could improve upon it. What I'm saying is, if it's POSSIBLE for flowering plants to establish and bloom in a manicured area, dandelions are already there. If there's turfgrass and no dandelions, I would assume that the area is being sprayed or that it's simply too hostile for most life.

The value in guerrilla gardening is not "put flowers where there aren't any flowers" it's "re-introduce species that haven't been present since the area was bulldozed and buildings and roads built upon it." Ergo, you want to hit vacant lots, awkward little areas that get weed-whacked on rare occasions and are otherwise ignored...places like that.

[i-have-more-teeth-than-you]

I don’t think I ever posted this anywhere.

I usually use shredded paper instead of clay, make sure to throw them in places that get lots of water, and always make sure you don’t help out any invasive species or I’ll personally ruin your carpet :)

[practicalsolarpunk]

Let’s talk about seed bombs

They’re pretty cool, right? Planting flowers, saving the bees, guerilla gardening, what’s not to love? But there are some things to consider before jumping in, in order to ensure that they are effective and to avoid causing any harm to the local ecosystem.

1. Native species

Many of the seed bombs available for purchase are… less than responsible about what kinds of seeds they use, even the ones that advertise as native. Read the list of species, look them up, ascertain whether or not they’re actually native to your specific region.  Take the U.S. for example. It’s a massive country, and while a particular plant may be native to the country in general, it may be native to a state on the opposite coast. Do your research, make sure the seeds are actually native to your specific area. 

Some resources to help with that*:

https://www.audubon.org/native-plants

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/

https://www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder/Plants

https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/pollinator-friendly-plant-lists (scroll down on this page and there’s some international resources, too)

2. Where to place them

This one is a bit harder, because there are so many variables.  Is the soil bare? Why? Is the soil so poor nothing will grow there, not even the most tenacious weeds? Is it high traffic? Is it heavily compacted? Some kind of pollution leaking into the soil and making it inhospitable?

Or is the soil covered? Is it grass? Is it a native grass? Does it get mowed? Is it going to get sprayed? If it isn’t grass, what’s already growing there? Is it native species? Is it naturalized, polite, nonnative species that aren’t threatening the biodiversity of the regions? Or is it a highly invasive nonnative that will choke out anything else trying to grow?

Observe the area for a while.  What kind of sunlight does it get? Is it wet? Dry? Is there erosion? Mixing many different types of seeds together into one bomb might not be the best idea - even plants that are native to your area can have vastly different needs. The resources above should also have information about the growing conditions for the plants. Again - do your research. 

3. Saving the bees

Not to stir the pot too much, but honeybees, while facing issues due to pesticides primarily, are not really in danger of extinction, they’re supported by humans enough to survive.  Native bees, on the other hand, are, and we depend on them just as much, if not more, for pollination of our food than we do on honeybees. Pretty much globally, native bees and other pollinators and insects in general are in dire straits.  They are desperately in need of love, less poison, habitat, and food sources.  So, what kinds of bees and other pollinators do you have in your area? Which ones are most threatened? What do they eat? Where do they live? Many times, native insects have their own niche they fill, with specific plants that they depend on, and those plants depend on those specific insects in return.  It’s pretty fascinating to do a deep dive into local insect and plant species, and their interactions. Once again, research is the way to go!

Some resources*:

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/plantsanimals/pollinate/

https://saveplants.org/pollinator-search/

4. Over seeding

Ok, some of the recipes I’ve linked below call for absurd amounts of seeds per batch - don’t do it.  The seeds won’t spread out, so they’ll all be attempting to grow in maybe a few square inches of space at the most.  Each bomb should only have a few seeds, otherwise in their fight for space, sun, nutrients, and water, they’ll all die.  Putting a dozen or more seeds in a single bomb is wasteful, expensive, and counterproductive.  There is literally no benefit to it, please, for the love everything green and growing in the world, don’t do it.

Now that we’ve covered some of the things that need to be taken into consideration, let’s talk about how to actually do this, hopefully successfully!

1. Seriously consider making your own! The process of making them involves wetting all the ingredients, including the seeds, which may start the germination process.  If they then dry out again, they likely won’t grow.  It will likely work best to make them right before planting, and toss them before they have a chance to dry too much.  Also, if you make your own, you can be 100% sure that the species are well suited for the area, because you’ve done your research! Good for you, working hard to ensure those little bombs have a big impact!

Here’s some recipes, take your pick! (But, as mentioned above, ignore the parts that say to use too many seeds - you only want a few in each bomb. depending on the type of seed.)

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions/how-make-seed-bomb

https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/make-seed-bombs-earth-day-activity/

https://seed-balls.com/basic-seed-ball-recipe

And a handy image via this site:

[photo id: a graphic titled How to make seed bombs. Below it reads: You will need: meadow flower seeds or seeds collected from the garden, peat-free compost, water, powdered clay from craft shops - use clay soil if you can’t find any, mixing bowl.  1. In a bowl, mix together 1 cup of seeds with 5 cups of compost and 2-3 cups of clay powder. 2 Slowly mix in water with your hands until everything sticks together, then roll mixture into firm balls. 3 (no words, but a drawing of seed bombs laying on grass). 4 Now for the fun bit - plant by throwing your seed bombs at bare parts of the garden!]

2. Toss them out in the spring (or whatever season they germinate best in), when you know there will be a few rainy days in row.  Seeds need wet to germinate, and good, steady moisture for the first bit of growing.  If that isn’t feasible in your region, consider going back to water them gently at least once a day for a few days or a week or more, until the seedlings are strong enough to withstand a bit of drought.  Unless, of course, the seeds are wet loving, and have been tossed somewhere that already maintains a decent moisture level for them.

3. Where to get seeds

Collect from native plants already growing in your area, that you have permission to collect from, or that are on public land.  Make sure you are 100% sure of your id - don’t want to be spreading invasive species around!

Buy them from a reputable source such as*:

https://www.prairiemoon.com/ (they have lots of awesome info about native species in north america - a great resource!)

https://www.nativeseeds.org/  (focuses on food crops mostly, but a fantastic resource all the same)

https://www.seedsource.com/

Another method if you’ve got space is to buy seeds, but plant them in your own garden and collect seeds from them. Those seeds can get really expensive, so this way you only need a few, and then with time they’ll multiply!

Try to make connections with people in your area already growing native plants - they’ll probably be happy to help you get started with some seeds!

Phew that was a lot of information! I hope it helps you all in your bombing adventures!

- Mod S

*North America focused, I’m sorry, I tried to find resources and databases for other regions and couldn’t find ones that looked reliable or comprehensive. If anyone has any, please add it on or send in an ask.

[solarpunkani]

Easy To Grow Seeds

This isn't like a cohesive list or anything, but here's a brief list of plants that I, a gardener in Florida, have found easy to grow from seed.

Granted, most of these are things that I put concentrated effort into growing from seed (daily watering, selecting a specific spot, starter trays, etc.) but also tend to just. Pop up even outside of my intentions for years afterwards. I mostly do pollinator gardening, but if this list helps inspire your seed mix for guerrilla gardening, I'm glad I could help!

- Zinnias: I've grown zinnias from potted plants before, and I've grown them from seed as well. When I grew them in my garden box, the plants grew back the next year with genuinely no input from me whatsoever--they just popped up! The zinnias tend to be popular with butterflies, and occasionally bees and hummingbirds, and add a nice pop of color to things as well!

- Sunflowers: Sunflowers are an all-star in my yearly garden, my Dad and I grow them every year from seed and they do great! Just give them a sunny spot and some attention and they'll grow great! Sometimes they get so tall the stems break, but by that point they've provided some color, pollen, and nectar for the local bees and butterflies! They come in all sorts of colors, heights, and sizes, and they're all lovely to look at! They even sell big bags of sunflower seeds that have started seeds in pots on my patio when birds drop them! My Dad and I really like growing sunflowers and zinnias together, for pops of colors in all heights and sizes!

- Milkweed: Mostly talking about tropical milkweed here (its the kind I've got the most experience with), but it is mad easy to grow these from seed. I don't even have to cold stratify them, and they do just fine! They flower a lovely orange and red, and they make so many seed pods I can't collect all the seeds even when I'm trying to. And those seeds make new milkweed plants easy as pie, even with no input from me! Butterflies love them, and they're the host plant for Monarchs as well! I'm still trying to grow other kinds from seed, but I've heard of others having way more luck than me!

- Mexican Sunflower/Tithonia: A new plant that I just grew from seed for the first time this year! These are mad pretty, they made so many flowers and attracted soooo many butterflies (we'd get 6 on the plant at the same time, some mornings!) and we've already got seedlings starting to pop up near where the plant was! It's also pretty easy to collect the seeds yourself, so I've got plenty of backups in case these seedlings don't make it for some reason. Could be a lovely addition to a seed bomb!

- Peppers: a 'flowering' plant that's more known for food, its something I've grown from seed a lot! Sometimes with specific care, but last year I just tossed some seeds from a grocery store bellpepper on the ground and covered them a bit and left them alone after winter break, and I still got a few seedlings that grew to full size! If you wanna do some edible guerrilla gardening, could be a nice option.

- Basil: I grew these from seed for the first time this year, and it was mad easy. I feel like I barely did anything other than put them in the garden box and water them! The flowers attracted bees, though if you wanna eat the basil I think you're not supposed to let it flower?

- Watermelon: Most years I had good luck growing these from seed, though I'll admit this year they didn't seem to come up? I think they like a nice thick bed of compost to grow in, probably more than a seed bomb could provide. Not to mention all the space you'd need to manage the vines--those vines are no joke, they were stretching halfway across the backyard any chance they got.

- Borage: I've grown it from seed, and it started easy but then died because I. Forgot to water it. Another gardener I know said they're easy to grow from seed, and just keep popping up even after you remove the main plant! An edible plant, the blue flowers are mad popular with bees as well!

- Mustard greens: not only was it mad easy to grow from seed, they produced big leaves real quick, nice yellow flowers that were popular with bees not long after, and they make tons of seeds right after!

That's about everything I can think of right now! Not sure if all of these are super helpful for guerrilla gardening, but if even a little bit of it helps than I'm glad!

[solarpunkani]

Things to Keep in Mind when Guerrilla Gardening

Okay I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on guerrilla gardening or anything. I'm still a novice at best, a shy little baby who feels awkward scattering seeds when even one other person is on the sidewalk with me. So lets consider this a starting guide, for people like me who haven't done it much before and want to try for the best results quickly.

So, first things first, let's talk about your seeds. Gardeners have got to consider what plants they're growing in their environment, but especially guerrilla gardeners. If someone plants an invasive plant in their backyard, they can attempt to wrangle it or at least contain it to only their backyard. Guerrilla gardeners are gardening out in the open, where things can probably spread even more easily and cause even more problems. Keep in mind that not all nonnative plants are invasive, but also keep in mind that a native plant will be better for your projects/environment than a nonnative one. That being said, if you wanna grow a nonnative noninvasive plant in your guerrilla garden, I'm not going to be the one to stop you, but maybe give it some native friends. They'll be more acclimated to your environment anyhow.

Next, let's consider location! If you're going to be guerrilla gardening, where you do it is of great importance, and may even impact your seed selection. Empty lots, grass along sidewalks, empty tree pits are all popular from what I've seen online. Roadsides can also be an option, as long as you stay safe. Consider how much sun your location gets, does it tend to puddle up with water when it rains, or does it stay dry a lot? Is the soil good, or is it dry and not very fertile? Are there weeds growing, or is it entirely barren? Do you need to clean up some trash before you start planting? Does it get mowed often, by private owners or the city?

Also while you're picking your locations, consider how often you can/would go back to that location, as it might impact how you choose to disperse your seeds. If you can visit it often to weed and amend the soil and whatnot, you can do your gardening differently from someone who can't return often or add to the soil. Also consider that, if you're planning to grow edible plants, you may want to get the soil tested first--as well as avoid planting super close to roadways. Not to say planting near roads is impossible or a 100% bad idea, but consider how such close proximity to cars and all their exhaust and other such things may affect your plants.

Consider the timing. Plants are going to need water to grow, whether you choose to use seeds or transplant seedlings. Take a look at the weather for the next week or so! If it's going to be rainy, you probably won't have to drop by to water it super often--if it's going to be hot and sunny, you might want to go back once every few days at least. Consider what month it is--is it even the right time to be planting the seeds you're planning to plant? Is it too hot, too cold?

At this point you might choose to reconsider what seeds/plants you decide to use for your project, which is 100% fine. Now you also need to consider how you're going to plant them. Depending on how easy the place is to access, you might be able to just plain scatter the seeds--I've just grabbed some from my bag and scattered them with my hands, but I've seen people use salt shakers and even salt guns for this same purpose. (While I'm sharing their links, the tiktok account SFinbloom is pretty rad. bee outfits optional btw) If you want to toss seeds out further, or make sure they don't get eaten by birds, options like seed bombs and seed paper/seed confetti are always good options! Though, I do recommend making these yourself, or at least making sure the seeds in any purchased ones are native to your area/noninvasive. If you don't want to plant seeds, you can always start seeds at your home, or buy seedlings/plants to then transplant in your desired location--this'll likely get you a quicker result!

If you want to cover a lot of ground, or make it more fun, consider recruiting friends! Or maybe meet people on social media and join up to guerrilla garden together! It could be a fun time, and you could make a day of it--grab lunch together while you're out or something. If you want, you could even get reflective vests for yourself/everyone, so it looks like you're working for a volunteer group/the city. It may keep people from asking questions!

About that, also consider that guerrilla gardening is a revolutionary act, and as such, some people may be more opposed to it than others. People may come bug you, and depending on the person, may even try escalating things further. Sprinkling seeds or using seed bombs is less likely to draw attention, but keep this in mind as you go out there.

Once the deed is done, the deed is done! Wait for the rains, or return to your spot and water things yourself! You can do guerrilla gardening in an anonymous sneaky fashion, you can share your progress online, or you can even be loud and proud about it everywhere! That's all up to you, this is just some basic advice I've garnered from online posts.

Feel free to add your own advice as well! And if I said anything incorrect, please let me know!

Happy seed yeeting!

[scrollypoly]

(Via: smokeyrgreens https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTdWmgDUv/)

[bolaneno]

eco-friendly winter solstice decorations

[reasonsforhope]

Finally, The EU Is Banning Fashion’s Dirty Secret: Destroying Unsold Goods

The ban is part of a raft of new measures designed to make the fashion industry more sustainable.

It’s an open secret in fashion. Unsold inventory goes to the incinerator; excess handbags are slashed so they can’t be resold; perfectly usable products are sent to the landfill to avoid discounts and flash sales. The European Union wants to put an end to these unsustainable practices. On Monday, [December 4, 2023], it banned the destruction of unsold textiles and footwear.

“It is time to end the model of ‘take, make, dispose’ that is so harmful to our planet, our health and our economy,” MEP Alessandra Moretti said in a statement. “Banning the destruction of unsold textiles and footwear will contribute to a shift in the way fast fashion manufacturers produce their goods.”

This comes as part of a broader push to tighten sustainable fashion legislation, with new policies around ecodesign, greenwashing and textile waste phasing in over the next few years. The ban on destroying unsold goods will be among the longer lead times: large businesses have two years to comply, and SMEs have been granted up to six years. It’s not yet clear on whether the ban applies to companies headquartered in the EU, or any that operate there, as well as how this ban might impact regions outside of Europe.

For many, this is a welcome decision that indirectly tackles the controversial topics of overproduction and degrowth. Policymakers may not be directly telling brands to produce less, or placing limits on how many units they can make each year, but they are penalising those overproducing, which is a step in the right direction, says Eco-Age sustainability consultant Philippa Grogan. “This has been a dirty secret of the fashion industry for so long. The ban won’t end overproduction on its own, but hopefully it will compel brands to be better organised, more responsible and less greedy.”

Clarifications to come

There are some kinks to iron out, says Scott Lipinski, CEO of Fashion Council Germany and the European Fashion Alliance (EFA). The EFA is calling on the EU to clarify what it means by both “unsold goods” and “destruction”. Unsold goods, to the EFA, mean they are fit for consumption or sale (excluding counterfeits, samples or prototypes)...

The question of what happens to these unsold goods if they are not destroyed is yet to be answered. “Will they be shipped around the world? Will they be reused as deadstock or shredded and downcycled? Will outlet stores have an abundance of stock to sell?” asks Grogan.

Large companies will also have to disclose how many unsold consumer products they discard each year and why, a rule the EU is hoping will curb overproduction and destruction...

Could this shift supply chains?

For Dio Kurazawa, founder of sustainable fashion consultancy The Bear Scouts, this is an opportunity for brands to increase supply chain agility and wean themselves off the wholesale model so many rely on. “This is the time to get behind innovations like pre-order and on-demand manufacturing,” he says. “It’s a chance for brands to play with AI to understand the future of forecasting. Technology can help brands be more intentional with what they make, so they have less unsold goods in the first place.”

Grogan is equally optimistic about what this could mean for sustainable fashion in general. “It’s great to see that this is more ambitious than the EU’s original proposal and that it specifically calls out textiles. It demonstrates a willingness from policymakers to create a more robust system,” she says. “Banning the destruction of unsold goods might make brands rethink their production models and possibly better forecast their collections.”

One of the outstanding questions is over enforcement. Time and again, brands have used the lack of supply chain transparency in fashion as an excuse for bad behaviour. Part of the challenge with the EU’s new ban will be proving that brands are destroying unsold goods, not to mention how they’re doing it and to what extent, says Kurazawa. “Someone obviously knows what is happening and where, but will the EU?”"

-via British Vogue, December 7, 2023

[kropotkindersurprise]

Take up guerrilla gardening to beautify your city and provide food for bees and other insects!