As the redbud trees begin to blossom and the chickweed pops up a brighter green, I know spring is near and it’s just about time to start foraging the early spring edibles. Some of these wild plants can only be harvested while they’re young and tender, while others will continue to provide throughout the whole season and into the summer.
The meeting of human potential is crucial to the survival and proliferation of our species, and we partake in this movement through optimizing our state of perception as individuals.
The manner in which we rightly impact society directly correlates to the extent to which we move towards the fulfilling of our own potential. In other words, to elicit our “best selves” is to make the world a better place.
How might we accomplish this? How might we step into the realm of our own potentiality?
I love making my own ink! It’s almost like crafting something magical in a weird way. The first homemade ink I ever made myself was pokeberry ink. Let me warn you in advance -- it can be a messy project and some of the ink can permanently stain. My pestle and mortar remained a light magenta color for the longest time. A quick side note: I don’t recommend using the same pestle and mortar for your ink as you do for your food and medicine.
We are living in a time when industrialization is the norm, traffic is just a part of the day, and buying what we need instead of making it is totally acceptable. Light pollution can often blur day and night, and affect the natural processes of the world. . Light pollution is the artificial light that shines upwards and downwards, creating a skyglow which fades out the stars from above and also disorientating wildlife and insects down below.
Anything from an unbalanced diet to negative thought patterns can cause someone to feel ungrounded. If you are often stuck in your head or regularly eat a low-calorie diet, getting grounded should be a top priority.
Now that there are apparently several more weeks of winter (thanks, Mr. Groundhog), it is the perfect time to find creative ways to incorporate more green into your life. Not only is a thriving, jungle-like terrarium lovely in the colder, winter months when we’re all too ready for spring, but a cleverly crafted terrarium can bring joy throughout all of the seasons.
Mulching is an essential but oft underrated gardening tool. Let’s discuss some mulching recipes that are born of nothing but trash that even an amateur gardener can easily get to.
What does mulching do, and why should you do it? Mulching retains moisture so it’s a great tool for the dry season. It helps to maintain a warmer soil temperature and insulates plant roots, so it’s a great growing tool for the cold season. And finally, if you use appealing enough mulch, it adds great visual appeal to your garden.
Did you know that maple trees are not the only trees that provide us with the sap necessary to make syrup? There are several different trees that produce a sap sweet and sticky enough to make delicious syrups and sugars. The sugar maple is one of the most well known and most common trees tapped because it has the highest sugar content – which is key to a fine syrup.
For a garden that’s best described as exotic, you could try some of these carnivorous plants! The fringe benefit is that a part of your garden can now be free of pesky bugs, allowing you to enjoy nature without irritants!
Someone gifted you a gorgeous, exotic plant and suddenly you see that you no longer have any bugs around your house…Strange, sure, but okay—maybe the plant repels bugs. But if you seem to be missing a canary or that friendly little lizard, you might have a plant that has a penchant for flesh…
Thirty years ago and about eighteen miles from Aspen, Colorado, Jerome Osentowski built a “hoop house,” a tunnel made of polyethylene that heats up due to solar radiation. He had in mind a greenhouse and kept adding to it with recycled steel and other materials. Over the years, his original hoop house design expanded into five greenhouses that now produce food via climates ranging from Zones 6 through 12.