Ok Cosplayers, It Has Come To My Attention That A Lot Of You Don’t Know What This Stuff Is. Sit Down

The vegan to ecofascist pipeline

The basics of growing food

So, growing food sounds very intimidating, and in reality, it’s something people knew how to do thru all history, and it’s made even easier by new methods of ‘no till’ and ‘no dig’ garden. I didn’t know almost anything about it until 3 years ago, when I got a plot in a community garden and started growing food with no experience. Still it went good! Here’s what I learned:

The basics are as simple as ‘if you put a seed underground and keep it wet, it’s going to come out.’ If you start off from that, even if you know nothing else, eventually you will succeed. The additional stuff is done to ensure success. The biggest actual issue of gardening isn’t how, but when. When are you supposed to put all the seeds underground to get good harvest? For most of the plants, it can be as simple as 'Spring’. For others, it’s very important just when in the spring you plant it.

Let’s say you want to start your first garden, you want to plant some onions, lettuce, peas, green beans, tomatoes, peppers and zucchini. All of these can be planted in the spring! But these plants are sorted in 2 categories: Those who can survive a frost, and those who cannot. We call these 'frost hardy’ (those who survive the frost) and frost-tender (those plants will die if they’re exposed to lower than 0 temperatures). From the ones I listed, onions, lettuce and peas are frost hardy! It means you can plant them very early in spring, such as February and March, and they can be hit with snow and ice and be just fine. They can also be planted in autumn, and they only really start growing in the spring.

Green beans, tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini are frost-tender, meaning you absolutely can’t grow them before the chance of freezing temperatures is gone. This is known in gardening as 'the last frost date’. Every area has a different last-frost date, so it’s good to google yours to be sure you’re planting these when it’s safe to do so. For me it’s mid-April.

Now, since it’s a long time to wait for your plants to grow if you’ve only planted the seeds in mid April, people have found a way around it by planting the seeds in little containers inside of their house, or in a greenhouse, so they grow in a nice warm place on a windowsill, and are moved out in the ground when it’s warm and safe. This is a very fun thing to do as you will have bunch of little plants growing in your home. Important thing to know about it is to use really light and airy soil, not garden soil, (you can use forest soil!) and to make sure you’re not over-watering them and you give them as much light as possible.

Soil is another big thing in gardening, the grass grows so easily from it, but you can’t exactly plant your seeds into the grass; they will get suffocated. For a long time people have tilled the ground to make it empty of all the weeds and easy to handle; however this isn’t healthy for the soil, because it ruins the quality of top-soil, exposes it to sun and wind erosion, and it dries up very easily. Here are some beneficial methods of gardening: mulching and no-dig. Mulching means adding stuff like hay, straw, tree leaves, woodchips, pine needles on top of the soil. You’re protecting your soil from sun, wind, erosion, drying out, and if your mulch is thick and dark enough, no weeds will grow in your garden. You are gardening by science.

So what does this mean for you, when you’re standing before a patch of grass, thinking of turning it into a garden? You need to do this months before the actual planting, using time to your benefit is the smartest thing a gardener can do. You pick a patch of land and bring in everything you can on top: cut grass, hay, tree leaves you raked or found, straw if you have any, woodchips, anything that will stop the grass from growing. If you really want to build up your soil you can bring in compost too! All that organic material will eventually turn into compost and fertilize your garden as it degrades to soil. It’s important to not mix it with the soil, and to only keep it on top of the plants. Mixing it will deplete the soil of nitrogen, and you need nitrogen to grow anything green. If you keep bringing in organic material for years of gardening, and on top of that put some compost as well, in 3-5 years your soil will become so rich and soft you will no longer have to use tools to plant in it.

But, hey, if it’s your first time, you don’t need to aim for perfection. If you didn’t prepare your soil in the fall, whatever! You can still pull the weeds, dig around a little to make some clear soil, and plant your stuff! I’ve done this last-minute planting and it works just fine. Mulching and adding organic material is only the easiest, most scienc-y way to garden.

The next big thing in gardening is spacing and depth: how far apart should your plants be? And how deep to plant them? For depth, the rule of the thumb is 'twice as deep as the seed is tall’. But I’ve seen people pull various shit in this area and succeed so do what you want. As of spacing, I would also say, try out what fits for you. It takes a year of gardening to get a sense of just how big the plants get, and what would be ideal spacing for each of them. I decided only on my third year to plant tomatoes VERY far apart, because I realized in this case, one plant will give me more than 8kg tomatoes and it’s much less work than planting 3 times as many plants that are close together. Peas seem to like to grow close tho, for some reason. Sometimes you can decide you want a bunch of tiny plants because you’ll eat them young, so you don’t space them on purpose, people do that with lettuce, leeks, spinach. If you want your plants as big as possible with as much yield as possible, give them half a meter and see what happens.

Fertilization is another big thing in gardening; if you add a lot of compost and mulch your garden consistently, you won’t need a lot more; however there’s a cool free trick you can do (if you’re not currently sick): you can mix your urine with 10x water, and water your plants with that. And I really mean mix it with 10x water! Plants can get very fried by it and start to wilt if they’re bombed with too much fertilizer at once! There are rules for this: use it when you want your plants to grow a lot of greenery, not if you want them to flower or produce fruit. This fertilizer is rich in nitrogen, and nitrogen inspires plants to grow more leaves! If you wanna fertilize them later in their growth, put a lot of nettle plants in a big container with water, leave it in the sun for 10 days; when it starts to smell real bad, it’s ready. (you can also do this with comfrey). Also dilute it with 10x water! Don’t use these fertilizers on bean or pea plants, or any legume, they don’t like it.

Now I’ve given you so much info at once, you’re probably struggling to take it all in, so here’s a good youtube channel where I learned all I know: Roots and Refuge. If you watch this lady garden for long enough, she will tell you all of the secrets.

I remember being a first time gardener overwhelmed with worry; what if I fail, what if nothing grows, what if I kill all the plants, what if I have a black thumb, what if the plants die because I am stupid, what if I put all of this work in and get nothing, what if people make fun of me, what if I run into problems I won’t be able to solve. Here are some of the answers to these!

A part of what you grow will DEFINITELY DIE. I can guarantee it, it happens to everyone, every single garden in the world has had plants die, sometimes for no reason at all, but in no case will EVERYTHING die. We all count on a part of our plants dying, becoming slug food, not doing well in general, and we always plant 30% more than we absolutely need. Even if you are personally responsible for killing the plants, the plants will not hold it against you! Plants appreciate you spreading their seed regardless of success, they understand that by trying multiple times you will eventually succeed and they absolutely want you to learn thru occasional failure. The answer is again to plant a lot, and it never ever happened that nothing came out of it. Most often, it’s not going to be your fault at all. Sometimes the year will be good for tomatoes and carrots, and bad for peas. It’s all okay! Because you just planted extra peas, and you’ll get more tomatoes than you expected to have.

If you have the desire to plant food, you do not have a black thumb; the green thumb is in the heart that yearns to grow. You’re not stupid if your plants die, plants die for everyone. And people are likely to come at you with million advice; listen to no one, try everything yourself. If they make fun of you, they’re gonna look real stupid when you have home-grown food. Any problem you might run into while gardening is google-able! Or you can join a page of gardeners and they’ll be happy to identify the issue.

The real main issue with gardening are slugs and bug-type pests, and that is a problem for another day because all I know to do is to yeet those away by hand and shake my finger very sternly at them. Hope this helps!

Hey Ship, so I've just found out that my aunt, in a huge streak of protectiveness, has apparently been... hiding the climate crisis from her children??

This came up because my uncles were discussing it around my 14-year-old cousin, who actually started to cry because it was so upsetting to her—and they suggested that she go ask me to learn more. (Because less threatening from my generation?) So, now I have a very young, very smart, very empathetic teenager suddenly encountering climate change and the danger the world is facing for the first time in her life, asking me what's going on. How the HELL do I start explaining this to her without causing trauma or severe denial?

Oh, Jesus. That’s a hard one and I’m afraid I have no advice. I’m not sure there is a way to talk about it that isn’t traumatic and existentially nauseating; I can barely talk about it on my blog because I don’t trust myself not to hurt people. Focusing on ways it can be mitigated and stuff we can work towards is more palatable but a 14 year old who doesn’t even have voting rights is bound to feel especially helpless. My experiences with climate change education have mostly been specific things like teaching people about the carbon sequestration of wetlands, but I know some of my mutuals and followers are specially trained in educating about this exact subject.

i’m so sorry i just need to organize my reference tag so warning for long post and organization system that only makes sense to me

writing

names, dead languages, ancient cultures

99 ways to beat writers block

remember to deal with criticism

advice for writers vid

character bios

eye colors

writing prompt generators

naming things

character flaws

things to research

types of crying

rare words

injuries

format manuscript

can’t find the right word?

stop procrastinating

best apps for writers

online whiteboard

possible fanfic aus

(kind of) synonyms for said

character development worksheet

words

more words

even more words

writing resource masterpost

british vs. american english

surnames masterpost

character development chart

emotions vocabulary

things i’d put under writing references but aren’t actually specifically for writing

monsters

simple noble ranking thing

traditional japanese outfits

palm reading

palm reading 2

guns

ships (like ones on the sea not otps)

holding knives

knife blades

different kinds of knives

use for a plastic knife

fictional world generator

deterioration of the human body

movies/shows

movies for the nights you can’t sleep masterpost

version of romeo and juliet that sounds hella rad

pushing daisies

2013 movies

movie night masterpost

british tv

food

mug cookie tutorial

pastry folding 101

tomato basil pasta

mug recipes

fruit roll ups

desserts

kawaii holiday cookies

citrus gingerbread tree cookies

gingerbread stars

cookies

candy meth

apple pie in apple

pretty cakes

chocolate

pumpkin spice everything dear lord

pimp that snack

grilled banana nutella sandwich

cute food things

the science of chocolate chip cookies 

cute raspberry chocolate thing

beauty

how to cover up tattoos

game of thrones hairdos

beauty tips

homemade conditioners

diys

sugar scrub

makeup tips masterpost

spoons

face lighting? idk

burned paper nails

diy crayola lipstick

christmas tree nails

kool aid lip stain

eyeliner styles

more eyeliner style things

dry nail polish fast

health

hiv morning after pill

exercise like a superhero

period cramps

tone the lower stomach

free condoms

for sore throats

ginger tea cider

college/education/school

college survival masterpost

survive finals

college life hacks

reminder

educational websites

mit college courses

music

the best of whatever artist

british bands

arctic monkeys downloads

find new bands

make good music better

sounds

soundrown

art

shoulders

perspective

noses

paint tool sai

mouths

lots of tutorials

lips

get rid of art block

drawing lips with the help of beans

perspective thing in photoshop

adobe creative suite

typography

combining fonts

typography masterpost

fonts

more fonts

even more fonts

sewing/clothes

skirt sewing tutorials

shoe names infographic

visual coat glossary

taking measurements

visual skirt glossary

dress necklines (other guides in caption)

8 foot giant squid

diy draped vest

bra fitting

men’s suit fit with bonus tom hiddleston

make your own dress form

clothing life hacks

fix pilling

languages

swear in lots of languages

learn to read korean

why english is dumb

language of the fan

military sign language

cuss in french

nice words

communication

line (skype on steroids)

synaptop

personality things

myers briggs personality and characters

aura color

lots of personality tests

important things

how to find your dog

alternatives to leaving dogs at the pound

worst case scenarios masterpost

keys in the hand

for when you’re sad

break out of zip tie handcuffs

what to do when stopped by police

bleeding and don’t have a band aid?

vital strike points

how to tell if someone’s lying

how to tape hands for a fight

just click this

survive the apocalypse

being an adult

becoming an adult cheat sheet

balancing a checkbook

getting an apartment

buy the things

free shipping omg

eyeshadow with funny names

general diy

calm bottle/glitter jar

pretty lace windows

flower crown

cool knots

bracelet

gifts in a jar

tumblr/computer things

hella lot of backgrounds

hd space wallpapers

themes

more themes

snow code

tumblr keyboard shortcuts

deactivated theme

airplane window textures

emergency dashboard

gif tutorials

save audio posts

anon hate

idk just things

how to disappear online

body language and interrogation

cheap things to do in nyc

why people slip on ice

book about aliens invading earth and being fought off by wildlife

filipino legends/stories/etc

make yourself do the things and form good habits

different kinds of islamic head garments

fantasy/historical clothing

how the uk flag works

how to walk like a queen

logic flaws

life hacks

arts and crafts blogs

fruit charger??

helpful websites

jar won’t open life hack

find people you’ve met once

video and photo editor things

banana wins all the awards

useless websites

time wasters

life hacks again

read minds

things to remember

uncapitalize caps lock things

masterposts by other people

icanttellyoubutiknowitsmine 2014 masterpost

blacklistecl’s bad days masterpost

some tips

a masterpost of all the things

im5-official 2014 resource masterpost

abercrombier’s 2014 help post

random websites thing

things for when you’re sad

more things for when you’re sad

cute games

cute games again

again very sorry for the hella long post but maybe this’ll be useful to some of you

The #1400challenge - How to turn stimulus checks into collective power | Inhabit

The last year has demonstrated just how razor thin our margin of survival is—from the brutality of the police to the viciousness of the virus, from the absurd ups-and-downs of the economy to the glaring incompetence of the government.

Now that they’ve been forced to send some cash our way, we’d like to propose a little something they maybe didn’t expect. The idea is simple: what if we took our stimulus checks and put them towards collective use?

In recent weeks Inhabit has been collaborating with groups around the country to put together a series of kits called the #1400challenge. The result is a handful of introductory guides for a variety of collective projects—from soundsystems and meshnets to pop-up dwellings and community gyms.

Each project is based on a proven and replicable idea, a working model that has already seen action in the streets and in neighborhoods. And each could be a jumping off point for new designs, new skillsets, new encounters, and newly expanded frontlines in the battle for the future.

No doubt many of us will have to spend our checks on necessities like groceries, rent, medical bills—all the bullshit it takes to stay alive in this bullshit world. But for those who can, and especially for those who want to pool resources, the opportunity is clear: invest in collective infrastructure that increases our shared capabilities, that augments our ability to live and to fight.

Here’s our wager. We have to translate isolated, temporary solutions to individual problems into the material and ethical basis for building collective power. We need autonomous solutions that scale at the level of neighborhoods, cities, and regions. Our power together unlocks more potential than we have alone.

It’ll take more than a stuck container ship to break the hold of the economy over our lives. Design and build new ways of living together, that lessen our dependence on their system at the same time that we cultivate trust in one another. Leverage all the means at our disposal—including their cold hard cash—to bring out the beauty, dignity, and creativity of our shared existence.

Read more…

If you want even more ideas, check out my #practical tag

DOGE just froze funding to vital Federal and Indigenous conservation programs devoted to supporting the very delicate and tenuous existence of the black-footed ferret.

I fell in love with these animals as a kid traveling to our National Parks. Their rarity and ferocity made me sharply aware, even as a child, of just how much of a responsibility we have toward our environment. I can't bear the thought of them being a fucking casualty of Trump and Musk.

Look at them! They do war dances.

if you, like me, get so angry when discussing or debating current issues with ignorant/bigoted people that you can’t articulate your thoughts, here is a list of arguments i’ve seen so far defending darren wilson or going against the ferguson protests, with suggestions as to how to counter and links to helpful posts to support your argument:

1. “It’s not a race issue!”

Actual KKK waving a Confederate flag as they walk the streets of Ferguson, celebrating.

Darren Wilson might even be affiliated with the KKK

White Man waves a gun at children in a park, is taken into custody alive

More examples of double standards in favor of white people: James Eagan Holmes, various other (unnamed but fairly well-known) cases

2. “The officer feared for his life. It was self defense.”

Pictures of Darren Wilson’s oh-so-life-threatening injuries + full-body shot

Darren Wilson says he would do it again

Darren Wilson is 6’4” and 215lbs (needs source), in a vehicle with a loaded weapon. Mike Brown was an unarmed teenager walking down the street.

(Speculative) He got married while on leave, possibly so his wife wouldn’t have to testify if she knew something.

Wilson did not complete an incident report, which is a violation of protocol

Article about why Darren Wilson shooting Mike Brown was illegal no matter how you look at it

3. “Michael Brown stole from a convenience store. He was a thug and a thief.”

Statement from the store owner saying that no one called the police and nothing was taken

This is disputable and the time stamps on the video don’t sync up with the story.

The cigarettes he allegedly stole were paid for and there’s proof

Remind them that even if Mike Brown had done some petty shoplifting, that’s no reason for him to be shot six times in the middle of a street.

4. “The jury saw all the evidence, they know better.”/Something about insufficient/unreliable evidence.

“It’s Incredibly Rare For A Grand Jury To Do What Ferguson’s Just Did” + only .0004% of grand juries fail to indict

All 4 eyewitness accounts of the murder in chronological order

Every piece of evidence in the case against officer wilson

Prosecutor supported Wilson, and other problems with the case

Remind them that even “people get charged with manslaughter when someone dies in a car accident” and Darren Wilson wasn’t even charged that

The National Bar Association and its president know the jury’s decision was bullshit

5. “The riots and protests are out of hand and unnecessary. It’s just an excuse to be violent and steal things.”

Video of protesters getting shot with (I think) flare bombs and tear gas by police. (warning: flashing lights and loud sounds)

Video of protesters quietly sitting down

Video of protesters peacefully but firmly chanting outside the supreme court

Video of the National Guard arriving with automatic weapons

Crips and Blood gang members preventing looters at the riots (from the first riots back in august)

Community working together to clean up the aftermath of the riots

6. “You can’t fight violence with violence, what would Martin Luther King say?”

“It is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots…..” -MLK

Remind them that as pro-peaceful protests as MLK was, he still got shot in the head.

If after all this, they’re still arguing in defense of Darren Wilson or the jury, just give up because there’s no way you can change the mind of such a complete fucking bigot.

Some masterposts I used that also have more information: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 

If there’s anything I should add or fix, please let me know

I just watched a kid break down in the bookstore because his books for the semester totaled $600 and that’s the american university system in a nutshell

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hobbies masterpost!

a really excellent way to reduce anxiety is to pick up a new hobby. find something you’re interested in, learn it, then use it as a healthy and productive way to cope.

learn to play guitar

learn how to make interactive stories with the free program Twine

learn how to make pixel art

learn another language

learn how to build a ship in a bottle

learn how to develop your own film

learn how to embroider

learn how to make chiptunes (8-bit music)

learn how to make origami (the art of paper folding)

learn how to make tumblr themes

learn how to make jewelry 

learn how to make candy

learn how to make terrariums

learn how to make your own perfume

learn how to make your own tea

learn how to build birdhouses

learn how to read tarot cards

learn how to make zines

learn how to code

learn how to whittle (wood carving)

learn how to make candles

learn how to make clay figurines

learn how to knit scarves

learn how to become an amateur astronomer

learn some yoyo tricks

learn how to start a collection

learn how to start body building

learn how to edit wikipedia articles

learn how to decorate iphone cases

learn how to do freelance writing

learn how to make your own cards and

learn how to make your own envelopes

learn how to play the ukulele 

learn how to make gifs

learn how to play chess

learn how to juggle

learn how to guerrilla garden

learn how to chart your family history

learn how to keep chickens

learn how to do yoga

learn how to do magic

learn how to raise and breed butterflies

learn how to play dungeons & dragons

learn how to skateboard

learn how to do parkour

learn how to surf

learn how to arrange flowers

learn how to make stuffed animals