I have a new bad habit. It’s not doom scrolling, I call it life scrolling…
I adore these time lapse videos of seeds growing. I particularly like the ones in glass containers, like this carrot or the potatoes. Every little seed is just a miracle! Isn’t Mother Nature amazing!
Are you uptight about climate change? Are worries keeping you up at night, or invading your dreams? You are not alone. According to Statista.com 74% of Canadians are worried about global warming. A poll in April 2021 showed 80% of respondents considered climate change a present danger.
Wikipedia defines eco-anxiety as ‘chronic fear of environmental doom’. The term seems to have been coined by philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2011, yes that far back. The attention to the problem increased around 2018 when Greta Thunberg discussed her own issues in the media. In 2018 the American Psychological Association issued its’ first report on the topic.
The symptoms can be many. Obsessive thoughts, existential dread, guilt, anger and frustration toward authorities, depression, anxiety, panic, sadness, trouble sleeping. Solastalgia is a yearning for the way your area, neighbourhood or country used to be. It’s a term that was first used, again by Glenn Albrecht, in articles in 2003 in the wake of ecological disasters such as mining accidents.
Research indicates Gen Z and Millenials are most affected. They are the people who have had the greatest access to the internet since a young age. The way the algorithms work on social media, if you stop to look at one disaster posting you will be shown more. Doomscrolling is a vicious cycle of seeing more and more bad ‘things’.
I don’t have a cure but I can offer an antidote. You need, in your inbox and on your social media sites, more good environmental news! Every day! There are many people out there in the world inventing new solutions, taking action, making a difference. You need to hear about it more.
Find Sam Bentley on almost any social media site or on his website. Nothing but good news for the environment and his British accent is lovely. On Tik Tok find @acorn_land-labs for sustainable solutions. As you may know, from this post here, I get a lift from watching groups getting out there to clean rivers and oceans. Find Sungai Watch, The Ocean Cleanup or 4ocean. A fellow that gets out and ‘tidies nature’ is Josh ‘Earthdrop’ Donaldson. Another lovely accent and beautiful music. I get a newsletter a couple of time a week from The Cool Down that is always full of interesting developments. And how about Re-Wilding Magazine; it comes into my inbox once every couple off weeks with stories about restoring Mother Nature.
There’s lots of great things happening; you just have to search out that news. Hopefully, it will make you feel better about what’s going on.
Peace to you!
All pumpkins are edible. Some are just much better than others for eating. The pumpkin family (Cucurbita) is a winter squash, with a hard shell. Although the shell is often declared inedible I do know people that eat the the skin, once cooked. Pumpkins are related to all squash, gourds and cucumbers.
To keep things simple I consider pumpkins to be in one of two categories: edible and ornamental. If someone has grown the monster, prize-winning 700 pound pumpkin it is ediblish… it’s just kind of flavourless and the flesh is stringy. The little tiny, cute white ones? Not much meat ( called pulp) and also rather flavourless. Over the decades pumpkins have been bred or selected to fill one of those two categories.
If you wish to cook or bake with a pumpkin you should be looking for a sugar, pie or sweet pumpkin, not a Jack-o-Lantern or carving pumpkin. At the grocery store they are very rarely named; you’ll have better luck at a Farmers’ Market, where the growers will know what they planted. Pie pumpkins are sweet and the flesh is smooth and dense. Most pie pumpkins are small to medium sized. Look for ‘Sugar and Spice’, ‘Baby Bear’, ‘Sweet Sugar’, to name a few.
May I offer a few alternatives? When we were market gardeners, we grew over twenty winter squash. Many are inter-changeable in recipes. Butternut squash pie? Absolutely! Acorn squash muffins? Yum. Kabocha loaf, yes please! Still, some of my favorites are Jarrahdale, a blue-skinned heirloom that is also decorative until you’re ready to cook it. Long Island Cheese is a flat, pale peachy-beige skinned squash so sweet! Oh, and the Hubbards! Big, sometimes blue-skinned with sweet dense orange flesh; delightful eating. Check out this list here for some great eating, also check out all their recipes on Pumpkin Patches and More. Although don’t look for pumpkin patches there unless you’re in America.
Whatever kind of pumpkin you have, do save the seeds. Roasted pumpkin seeds are delicious and healthy snacking. Here’s the steps of the process here. Our chickens and goats loved them, too. You may find some claims that pumpkin seeds are an effective de-wormer for your critters, but do read this article first.
Pumpkins and all winter squash should store well in a cool (but frost free) place with low light. We’d wipe them all down with hydrogen peroxide to eliminate mold and fungus, we’d eat first any with blemishes and soft spots. We’ve eaten winter squash from our garden well into the New Year. And the variety that is possible is amazing: pasta sauce, soup, stew, risotto, muffins, cookies, cheesecake, bread and loaves. Check out this gallery of pumpkin recipes here from Delish Magazine.
Happy Pumpkin Season!
We are a society that likes convenience. Instant gratification. Quick fixes. There is little, in the gardening world, as instantly gratifying as laying sod.
The people across the street had half their front lawn dug up by the city last year, due to water main issues. It sat that way for over a year, a big patch of gravelly soil. Finally, a few weeks ago, the city returned to finish the project. In ten minutes flat (with crew of five) a beautiful lawn appeared. Like magic!
There is still time, here on the Canadian Prairies, to seed a lawn or lay sod. Seeded lawn can take two weeks to a month to sprout. Then it’s patchy for a few weeks, then it starts to look like lawn. Sod? Instant! The preparation is the same for the two applications. Clean the area of rocks, clumps of weeds or soil, smooth the surface with a rake, improve the soil with a layer of compost, seed or sod.
Your local landscape supply or garden center will offer seed or sod appropriate to your area. Seeding is more cost effective, a bag of seed to cover an average front lawn would be around $20. Sod in this area is selling for $5-7 for a piece 2′ by 5′ (.61m by 1.5m). Laying sod can be a DIY project; it’s a great arm workout because healthy pieces can be a little heavy. The sod pieces are fitted like laying hardwood flooring and tamped down for a good fit to the soil. They are easy to cut with a box cutter or small saw so they can easily be worked around curved sidewalks or shrub borders. Then water, water, water. For more detailed instructions check out this post from The Spruce.
Sod is a perishable product so most often you must pre-order so that the supplier can bring in just what is needed. You would have a couple of days to get it installed while it is fresh. There are no returns. Occasionally you can get a deal if a landscape supplier has a bit too much on a Friday or Saturday as their own installation crews will not be working on a weekend.
Are you ready to re-fresh your lawn?
It’s the Autumnal Equinox. At 2:50 AM EDT the Sun passed the equator and the Southern Hemisphere welcomes Spring. Here on the Canadian Prairies it has felt ‘fallish’ for a few weeks. The days are much shorter, we’ve had a few nights get as low as 2o Celsius (35oF.) with light frost in a few areas. Trees and shrubs are changing colour, leaves are already dropping, birds and butterflies have been gathering to migrate.
Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ with Blue Spruce. Photo taken September 21, 2021. Note the Monarch Butterflies and Bees. Photo Author’s Own.
What does every Fall garden need? Fall blooming perennials. Those perennials that start blooming late, and can bloom right through light frosts, are a joy to have now. For Zone 3 gardeners look for hardy grasses, Mums (Chrysanthemums), Asters (Asters), Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), Coneflower (Echinacea) and one of my favourites, Sedum.
If you have deadheaded summer blooming perennials you will likely get a second flush of flowers from such as Sage(Salvia), Russian Sage (Perovskia), Speedwell (Veronica) and even Bleeding Heart (Dicentra) may make a comeback as the weather cools. As plants are on sale at local garden centers, it’s a good time to indulge.
It’s not just the beauty of Fall colour; pollinators, other insects and birds really need this source of food. Monarch butterflies will feast on nectar before beginning their migration. Birds will fatten up on seedheads of grasses and flowers.
Get out the plaid clothes, grab a pumpkin latte or muffin and enjoy the Fall garden!
Peace Signs and Pruners 