I debated adding the F, but SLRPNK does this weird thing where it adds a huge space after the degree symbol and it just looked weird. When writing for American audiences I prefer using °F as °C seems to unintentionally downplay the severity of warming, but either way it’s real bad.
Ticks move into lawns as well, and while I haven’t found studies comparing the density of ticks in shorter grass vs. flower beds, I would assume it’s a wash; even if there are less ticks in turfgrass, you’re walking/lying on that grass, allowing more opportunities for them to latch onto you. Whereas you’re not walking through flower beds, so even if there’s a greater tick population, you’re not coming into contact with them as much.
Read the article; it’s not abandonment, it’s intentional cultivation. The former is more beneficial to wildlife than maintaining a pristine yard, but in most cases it’ll just end up with your yard being taken over by invasives. The latter is managing your yard in a way that encourages native, pollinator-friendly (and beautiful!) plants.
My yard used to be hard-packed clay where only the most tenacious weeds could survive (field bindweed, burdock, thistle, dandelion), so my first step was putting down multiple layers of heavy cardboard to smother them, then covering that with about a foot of wood chip. That killed the latter three and helped to start softening up the soil (worms move in when organic matter is present), but bindweed just pushed through the cardboard and wood chip, so I had to hit that with (selective, judicious) applications of herbicide. It was a hobby for the first year, but now my yard is weed-free and the soil is turning more rich and loamy!
I’ve mostly used starts/seedlings to fill in my beds, but now that the weed pressure is lower I’ve started putting soil & compost over the mulch to encourage my plants to self-seed. I’m also filling in all the “blank spaces” with ground cover, to provide an additional barrier against weeds. A mature garden will require a little weeding now and then, but for me that’s something I enjoy (it’s a break from work, and time in the sun), and it’s definitely not as intensive as vegetable gardening.
Beautiful! I’m hoping I can get some established as well.
I’m on my 4th year with my pollinator garden (Colorado), and the goal from here is filling in every square inch of uncovered earth with ground cover and spreading plants. I love Western Sunflower for that purpose, and I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to get Violets established (I know, right? They’re considered a weed in most places) so I’m going to give that another go.
Trying out Blue Flax, Wild Strawberry, Lanceleaf Coreopsis, Wild Garlic, Wild Geranium, and Wild Phlox this year as well. Learned about Figwort’s amazing pollinator benefits last year, so going to plant out more of that in the side yard!
I’ve been watching Landman clips on YouTube and I have mixed feelings on it.
I think it does a good job of capturing the futility of this situation, in the sense that every stage of fossil fuel production (and consumption) is populated with folks “just doing their job,” providing for their families, following orders, etc. I watch this show and see the banality of evil, oil CEOs who genuinely believe they’re doing right by the world rather than burning it down.
But I’m also acutely aware that this is not the take most viewers will be walking away with. We’re talking about a general public that idolizes the likes of Tony Montana, Gordon Gekko, Patrick Bateman, Tony Soprano, and Jordan Belfort, despite their films/shows explicitly depicting their downfall as a result of their moral failings.
The vast majority of viewers are going walk away from these films feeling less guilty for their own fossil fuel consumption.