Ive had a veggie plot in my garden for a few years now and I want to try to garden more sustainably this year. Id like to try growing some crops in between beans that I can let decompose so it gives back to the soil and tills it at the same time. I was thinking of beets, but another root vegetable might be better. Do you have any recommendations? Im also thinking of building a herbspiral and other things so any sustainable gardening info is welcome. :)
If you’re growing climbing beans you could do Three Sisters! Idk whether it aerates the soil, but it’s a well-proven companion planting schema that makes excellent use of the space and reduces the work needed to grow
If you’re finding that the soil is getting too compacted, you can try planting a green manure mix over the winter - that’s a number of cover crops that improve the soil by breaking it up, fixing nitrogen, preventing erosion, and so on while you’re not growing anything there. I know people grow daikon radishes for this reason too, since their root penetrates really deep (daikon literally means “big root”) and so they’re grown over the winter and then left to decompose
Alternatively, you could mulch the soil heavily in the winter with something like hay, which will leave a freshly composted layer of rich, loose soil at the top while contributing nutrients further down as well. Tons of people leave used hay bales on their curb after Halloween for trash pickup, which is perfect for overwinter mulching if you just look around local neighborhoods to grab some. Three Sisters produces a lot of unused plant matter though, so you might not even need to get any!
i went to a community meeting last night about planning for the future of the interstate, armed with lots of research on induced demand to oppose any expansion, as well as concerns about bike & pedestrian safety & access, as well as thoughts about reducing congestion with mass transit! and i learned they are already planning on massively expanding public transit, mixed mobility infrastructure, and improving zoning requirements to encourage denser housing, & are only considering adding lanes as an absolute last resort. i got to ask a lot of questions & offer my opinions, and afterwards i chatted with some of the organizers & they were really impressed (one of them said i must be a “transportation nerd” which… i guess i am!) it was so exciting to be able to share my visions for a solarpunk future in a context where it might actually achieve something!
I’ve had a couple of bad health days these past few days, but I took them as an opportunity to work on a solarpunk zine that I’ve been planning since last summer.
It’s going to be accessible online for now, perhaps in two formats - a pretty one that looks good online and one that can be easily printed.
Anyway, if anyone wants to chat about it with me, hmu!
“Solarpunk is a literary movement, a hashtag, a flag, and a statement of intent about the future we hope to create.” - Ben Valentine
If you haven’t heard about it yet, SISEA is a bipartisan bill introduced in the US senate by Ben Sasse ® and Jeff Merkley (D)
It includes a series of overly strict regulations to be imposed on the online porn industry, and would basically have the same results as the tumblr porn ban, but internet-wide.
Here’s just a few of the rules it proposes:
Requires verified ID and signed consent forms for everyone involved in the production and uploading of adult content
Requires the PLATFORM, not the user, hosting pornography to include a banner or notice on the site that tells you how to request the removal of content if you didn’t consent to being in the video
Prohibiting VIDEO DOWNLOADS on all platforms that host pornographic content within three months of the legislation passing
These platforms are ALL required to have a 24hr MANNED hotline, staffed by the platform, for content removal requests. (No clarification on how the person requesting the removal would be expected to prove their identity, and this is IN SPITE OF the rigorous verification process the proposed law ALSO REQUIRES, so this is likely to be abused by trolls)
Requires removal of flagged videos within TWO HOURS.
Requires all platforms to have an algorithm to prevent videos that have been removed (by the host, not the uploaded) from being reuploaded after removal
The above is to be enforced by the FTC
Creating a DATABASE OF PEOPLE who do not consent to being in adult videos, which must be checked BEFORE ANY NEW CONTENT CAN BE UPLOADED, the specifics of which are to be decided by the Department of Justice, and failure to comply with this requirement will be punished with a fine
So I’m sure by now that everyone has an idea of how bad this will be for not only sex workers, but any and all platforms that people use to post adult content, whether it’s the platform’s intended use or not, as well as anyone who consumes said content.
The rules concerning digital content, as many are probably wondering, are incredibly vague. Here’s a breakdown on twitter of why these rules in particular would be disastrous:
Right now, I haven’t seen any petitions about this particular legislation, but I 100% advise and advocate for calling your state’s representatives and senators and demanding they speak out against this bill and it’s absolutely impossible requirements.
Here’s a list of current US Senators and their official contact info:
Look, we remember old filthy tumblr, right? And how SESTA/FOSTA absolutely wrecked it? Because the path of least resistance was to be overly restrictive.
For SISEA, the easiest and cheapest route to compliance will simply be to ban anything NSFW. Boom, done. Fan art, erotic sexting, you name it - it will get nuked.
The US Congress has been so absolutely wrecked by getting nothing accomplished that this would be an easy win for them, legislatively. This could coast alone on the need to show that they’re bipartisan.
Please reach out to your representatives. This will be disastrous for sex workers who are already disproportionately impacted because of the epidemic. It will censor social media platforms with impossible requirements. It will absolutely stifle creativity and sexual expression.
This blog is mostly so I can vent my feelings and share my interests. Other than that, I am nothing special.
If you don't like Left Wing political thought and philosophy, all things related to horror, the supernatural, the grotesque, guns or the strange, then get the fuck out. I just warned you.
