Look up keystone species, they’re the best bang for your buck

I really appreciate that! I made sure to make most of the things I planted look intentional, because my desire for wildness isn’t realistic in suburbia.

So I labeled every species with sharpie on paint sticks and defined borders, in the hopes that the new owners don’t just tear it all out

I did the math, though, and my gardens are roughly 1.8% of the lawn. Nowhere near large enough.

I told my wife that it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to me that at least 20% of our next yard is native plants and (she doesn’t know this) a functional ecosystem.

I read “Nature’s Best Hope” by Doug tallamy this semester and it gave me a glimmer of hope against my almost total conviction that things are beyond saving

Yeeahhh I know, that was there when we bought the house a couple years ago and I never got around to replacing them. We’re moving, anyway, and I didn’t have time to grow bushes to replace them

Honestly I’m probably just gonna wash the bowl out and pack it. I’m not uptight about my starter, I’ve killed and restarted mine at least 20-30 times, and I don’t subscribe to the almost mythological status people associate with old starters.

The microbiome is going to adjust to the way you treat it, what you feed out, and (to a much lesser degree) where it is. It doesn’t fucking matter that 100,000,000 generations ago the yeast was French lol

Made a grilled cheese, the cross section is passable

I think the secret is baking a fuckton of bread over the past few years. That and the Challenger bread pan, that genuinely upped the appearance and crust texture of my loaves

Yeah, just sourdough, it’s the tartine country loaf.

These were a mega-batch, so the ingredients were as follows:

1900g king arthur all purpose 200g whole wheat 600g pretty active, but fridge-cold starter 1400ish grams of water

Autolyse like 20 minutes? Then add 42g table salt mixed with 60ish grams water.

Folded like three or four times over a couple hours, total bulk ferment was maybe 4 hours?

Then I started baking first thing next morning, equating to roughly 18 hours in the fridge

This is their second year, if that matters to you. Last year they were wimpy little bunches with like four flowers each

Shit, my bad. Remind me of the recommended format?

Micromoths are my favorite. I studied them for a bit, and the variety in those teensy tiny little things is just amazing

Sorry, the title and text weren’t clear. I garden for the pollinators. Them bugs make me happy

Ginkos are very common. They’re ancient trees, and almost went extinct, but they’re tolerant of the rather extreme conditions of an urban environment and very pollution resistant

Well yeah, I guess I’m specifically interested in whether there is a predictable timeline once a bud reaches the state of the one pictured

Picture description: dark green, unopened flower blossom surrounded by a necklace of small, light green triangular sepals on a background of out-of-focus plants

Not sure what the preferred format is

Ahhhhhhh yeah that makes sense

Can you elaborate? I’m just not understanding for some reason

I love you

The video on pinball machines was absolutely incredible

Okay but what if I’m generally good at everything and this tactic keeps working for me and I just accumulate obscure skills

It isn’t cerebral or anything, but I really appreciated how the 300lb slab of meat typically only used brute force when pushed, at least from what I remember of the first season