I have a set of “dumb” grow lights plugged into some smart plugs which connect to Home Assistant. It’s simple, it works, and I like getting the power consumption data as well. Having multiple “zones” would just require another smart plug.

The ornamental cherry is in full bloom, which is lovely! Yesterday afternoon we slapped together a trellis for some of the peas with some reclaimed building materials. Last weekend I planted out my two blueberry bushes, which are just starting to break dormancy.

This weekend’s task will be to thin the masses of volunteer tomato seedlings that have popped up, and maybe transplant some of the more intentionally grown ones!

I have two yards of topsoil/compost blend arriving this week, at which point I can plant eldest sister corn in the new beds!

I don’t have any of those species, but I do have a lot of invasive alder buckthorn (frangula alnus) which I’m cutting out and could use for mulch. Tempted to keep one or two around to coppice for trellis material or firewood/kindling since it seems to grow back pretty well.

Buckwheat and field peas are my current fall cover crop plans for later this year.

So many peas! I’m excited, I love snap peas. My hope is to succession plant them on the same trellis as my tomatoes and cucumber, we’ll see if they have enough of a head start for that to work out. Last year’s kale is also killin’ it out there, making the most of the time before the cabbage moths show up

My seed starting is not going quite as well as I’d like, only two cucumber coming up so far of the 10 or so I wanted. No peppers yet either, though that was old seed. Tomatoes are doing decently well, and I’ve got plenty of backups in the multitude of seedlings that have spring up outside where fruit fell off the vine last year!

I’m worried about the apples I planted around this time last year. They haven’t showed signs of leafing out yet, though I did have to cut a couple of suckers off the base of one. I might not have babied them enough last summer, and they did get some involuntary pruning by the deer.

On the bright side, I just received my blueberry bushes! Planning to plant them out this weekend, just gotta figure out where… Any tips on high-bush blueberry care would be much appreciated!

Thanks for the detailed response!

Did your Honeycrisp survive?

Neither of my apples have leafed out yet, which has me a little worried - though the Baldwin put out a sucker below the graft which I cut off.

Do you have purslane (Portulaca oleracea) there?

I actually do have a couple of (non-native) purslane species in the yard - I hadn’t thought about using them as a living mulch, but I like the idea. One of them has gorgeous flowers.

Do you compost your poop?

Not something I feel comfortable I could do safely, unfortunately. Especially since my house is in a saddle curve where a lot of storm water flows through into some wetlands conservation land. I’d be worried about runoff. Also not sure how my town would feel about it!

So you cover the surface of your garden beds with compost?

That’s the plan! I’d also like to do some cover crops and chop-and-drop this fall for mulch.

I’ve only grown Marketmore, which is basically what you get in supermarkets but with the advantage that you can eat it right off the plant rather than trucking it from Mexico or California. I grew it in full sun with a trellis, and the four plants I had last year were very productive. Make sure it gets consistent water or the fruits can develop badly or split.

With some cucumber varieties you have to prevent pollination by picking off the male flowers, that’s not the case for Marketmore.

I use Ultrasonic with my Navidrome server and it’s fine, but I really wish I could find a player that would replicate the old itunes style Genre -> Artist -> Album selection flow. The Genre tab in most players just gives you a list of songs, which is not helpful for large libraries.

Also just getting started! The only edible fruiting plant when I moved here in 2023 was a black raspberry bush. A year ago I added two apple trees (though the honey crisp may not have survived the winter, we’ll see). I had a very successful annual garden last year, hoping to continue that this coming season and try out the three sisters companion planting method.

For perennials, this year I’ll be adding two blueberry bushes, inoculating some logs with shiitake and oyster mushroom spawn, and encouraging some volunteer black raspberries that have popped up elsewhere.

Pruning hasn’t been an issue yet, but I will need to more actively manage the raspberries this year.

In the future I’m hoping to add lots more edible native shrubs, and maybe more trees if I can find good spots for them.

I’m in the northeast woodlands bioregion of the US, zone 5. I have two compost bins going with leaves, grass clippings, shredded paper/cardboard and kitchen scraps. Last year one bin produced enough to cover about one and a half of my 4x8 ft garden beds. I’m planning to order a cubic yard or two from a local business again this year to top up the annual garden. I don’t really expect to get fully self sufficient on compost anytime soon, but I’ll keep producing as much as I’m able.

These lil dudes are also starting to pop up

It’s glazed ceramic - I do pottery as well, this was someone I know from the studio I go to. Trading for stuff is so much more satisfying than paying/being paid for it.

That’s a great idea for reusing vinyl blinds, wish I’d thought of it when I lived somewhere with blinds that kept breaking!

Got some stuff starting to come up (:

Need to do the majority of my summer crop seed starting this weekend, I think

I’m happy to get to use the plant markers I traded someone I know for - I designed/3D printed a “cookie cutter” so she could make these faster, and in return she made me a set

Last weekend I planted peas, kale, arugula, and radish outside - just the tiniest hint of some arugula coming up so far, but an indoor tray of radishes are germinating very nicely.

I’ve been eyeing the native trees and shrubs in an email I got from Fedco - I think in the future I’m going to have to plant a bunch of viburnums! Need something to replace the invasive buckthorn that pops up all over here.

@LallyLuckFarm I also just planted and scattered some of those milkweed seeds - thanks again for that!

The snow is almost all gone further south here, and I’m gleefully watching the garlic I planted last fall start to pop up. The pot of chives is also starting to show some green.

The six weeks before average last frost date has snuck up on me, I really need to get my seed starting started!

I went with a “Bluejay” and “Blueray” to start with, though I’m hoping to add more (and other berries) each year.

The beets were a few different colors, but here’s one of them -

As far is fun veggies go, I grew some “carnival” beets last year that had really fun patterns when you cut them open. They were very tasty roasted!

My seed order from Fedco recently arrived and I’m thinking about planting some radish and/or lettuce inside to get things going. Also eagerly awaiting some high-bush blueberries coming later this spring!

The solid ice we’ve had for the last couple weeks is finally melting, and I biked to work for the first time today since before the holidays, so that was nice! I’m excited to see things start to come up again soon, and to go on another crusade against the garlic mustard once it starts showing its face in my yard

I love this idea! Looks fantastic

freesewing.org has a boxer briefs design if you’re interested in making your own.

:D glad to hear it!

Loofah/luffa is so fun! I’ve posted pictures of mine here before, but I recently did a writeup of my experience growing them on the little personal website I’ve been making for fun - https://xylemphloem.xyz/blog/luffa/

This week I brought in a pot from outside to plant some pothos cuttings, forgetting it was the pot I had grown dill in last year! So now I have some baby dill seedlings popping up alongside my pothos!

I was just reading your post on solarpunk games - thanks!