Weekly Garden Update #14 – First Harvest, Pests & Knowing When to Stop

In this week’s update, some of our early crops were ready to be harvested. We’ll tell you what plants and how they turned out. We also encountered an unfamiliar pest and were forced to turn to non-organic pesticides. Finally, Magz helped me to realize that it’s okay to say we’ve done enough for this year and that the rest can wait until next year.

First Harvest

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been able to watch our plants grow by leaps and bounds. Our greens have developed their baby leaves, our bean and melon plants have their second sets of leaves, our corn is 4 inches tall, and our radishes have started to poke their roots above the soil. Taking note of this, we went out on Sunday and harvested about half of our French Breakfast radishes and took the first cut from some of our greens (Komatsuna and Cherokee Blue). The greens were harvested at the baby leaf stage and were delicious in a salad. They both had a peppery taste with the Cherokee Blue being the spicier of the two. Its spiciness is comparable to horseradish.

The radishes weren’t too big (about 1/2-inch in diameter and 3 inches long). This is slightly narrower than the seed packet says they should be, but that is likely the result of us not thinning them enough or the ground being a bit too compacted still. Either way, we ate them raw in a salad, and they were delicious. Radishes aren’t something that I remember people eating a lot of growing up, and most of the people who did eat them were a bit older. I only started to try them within the past few years and find that they add a nice little “pop” to a salad. They’re also very nutritious, providing calcium, Vitamin C, riboflavin, and niacin, among other nutrients.

Tomatillo Pest

Last week, when I was walking through the garden, I noticed that our tomatillo leaves had a lot of holes in them. Even worse was that something was eating its stem, which isn’t something I’ve encountered before. A quick Google search revealed that it was being attacked by the three-striped (also called three-lined) potato beetle. I did some research and learned that despite its name, this beetle doesn’t go after potato plants and only rarely goes after tomato plants, a relative of the tomatillo in the nightshade family. Trying to find an insecticide revealed the unfortunate information that organic measures generally don’t work against these beetles. Instead, you need specific chemicals to go after the larvae.

In our case, we found Garden Tech Sevin at our local Tractor Supply. While it doesn’t list the three-lined potato beetle among the insects it kills and repels, it does list the Colorado potato beetle, which is closely related. Since spraying the plant, including the undersides of the leaves, we haven’t seen more damage, but only time will tell if we caught it in time. It’s starting to produce buds, and you can see where the fruit will grow eventually, so we’ll see and keep you updated.

Knowing When to Stop

For months, we’ve planned on having six garden beds for this year. If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that we have plants in four beds, have one bed finished and ready for planting, and another that has been started but isn’t completed. I’ve been feeling stressed about needing to finish the last bed in recent weeks with all the other things that need to be done. This past weekend, Magz kindly told me that we don’t absolutely have to have the sixth garden bed this year and that it can wait until next year.

For a lot of people, this realization may seem obvious, but I’ve always struggled with reaching this conclusion. If I have a plan in place, I feel that I have to see it through, even if it’s unnecessary or not good for my physical or mental health. My natural inclination is to put myself in stressful situations by pushing through even when it isn’t needed. Having a wife who will help me to see that we can wait until next year’s garden to have that sixth bed is wonderful, because even at 33, I am unable to see that myself.

We still have starts and seeds that need to be planted in the ground, and we could certainly fill that sixth bed this year, but we also don’t have to. We’re going to have plenty of plants and work to do with our five beds. We will circle back to that final bed this fall, when we can till it for our winter cover crops.

Up Next

Over the next couple of days, we’re going to need to fence in the fifth garden bed so that we can plant in it this week. After a rainy weekend, plus thunderstorms in today’s forecast, Tuesday through Friday are looking nice with sunny skies. Our plan is to plant our squash and zucchini seeds this week and transplant our remaining melon, tomato, and pepper starts.

Happy gardening!

June 9, 2025 1

Potato Technology Spring Knitwear 2025

From L to R: Water Lily Swirl Dress, Peterborough to Saskatchewan Knit Tee, Painted Sunsets Knit Shorts

June 5, 2025 1

Playing Animal Crossing Has Improved My Style

As a kid, one of my favorite pastimes was designing. I loved the fashion styling flash games from Lizzie McGuire and My Scene. I designed my own catalog of clothes for a made-up brand with my friends in 4th grade, illustrating with my school supplies and piecing it together with scrap paper. Mary-Kate and Ashley’s movies captured my imagination through their use of clothes to characterize each sister’s personality.

That’s So Raven enveloped me in imagination, not from her psychic abilities, no, Raven Baxter’s closet pulled me in! Raven’s room was a stunner as well, like Zenon Kar’s space station cabin, and my Fashion Polly’s colorful playsets that folded out like Richard Hammond’s caravan. My friends and I discovered shows like What Not To Wear and Trading Spaces, which launched my sketches from clothing brands to interior design. I had a notebook full of room drawings. There were designs with slides, hammock beds, and intricate themes. I drew a Survivor-themed room with a tribal council area on the lower level, an outer space room with circular windows and futuristic lighting, even a beach room with a lofted bed, sunset paint scheme, and a pool placed in the middle of the floor. I wish I knew what happened to these sketches; it’s been such a long time.

When I discovered Animal Crossing in 2020, I was curious what the fuss was about, and later the next year, we bought a Nintendo Switch, opening a world of design I thought was lost to childhood. I was thrilled! Animal Crossing New Horizons debuted in March 2020, and because of the unique time, it had a huge following for its charming island life. You begin your game landing on a deserted island as part of a Nook Inc. Getaway Package, and assist Tom Nook in developing the island with the help of Timmy, Tommy, Dodo Airlines, Blathers, Isabelle, and the villagers who move to the island with you.

But what about the fashion and the home decor? This game first places you in a tent that you upgrade into a house, with subsequent expansions costing large sums, but with a relaxed payment policy. You also gain the ability to design custom things with Nook Mile redemption upgrades, craft unique recipes from resources on the island, and buy items from Nook’s Cranny and clothing items from Able Sisters. A ridiculous amount of my gameplay, even years later, comes from pairing and collecting new clothing items for my character to wear on her adventures. This game loves coordination!

As a player who is well-versed in the Animal Crossing fashion catalog, I wait and anticipate finding my favorite pieces with each new island. The game has four seasons, with clothing corresponding to the season at play, including specialty garments for holidays. Currently, as I play in June, it’s wedding season and Able Sisters is selling traditional Japanese wedding attire, Nook Shopping is selling Father’s Day items, and International Children’s Day pieces, which include a paper crown that is oh so cute!

How has this impacted my own personal style, though? Well, it has brought me back to the mindset of creating a full look. Working from home or working in professional painting at jobsites for most of my adult life has killed the style I used to have. I no longer felt the need to put together a look, but instead I got used to throwing on pieces and wearing things for function, not fashion. But that’s not who I really am, just what the environment of life drifted me into. I was missing intentionality, Animal Crossing lit that spark once again. My little character doesn’t just get dressed to do life; she wears a head-to-toe look with hats, bags, glasses, specialty socks, clever shoes, cute tools, and interestingly paired garments. This game got me out of jeans and a t-shirt, or a hoodie and leggings, because this game has trousers in many fabrics and shapes, shorts in colorful prints, skirts in a bouquet of fancy, coats, hats a plenty, tops that span the seasons – it’s a blast to explore! There are dresses – modern and traditional. I can where a kimono! I change her outfit at least once, maybe three times a session. You can also curate hairstyles and experiment with colors.

This exercise has shown me that pink hair is something I’d like to try. It’s my most-used fashion color. It has inspired me to introduce cute socks of varying heights and weights to my wardrobe, even making some of them. I’ve started wearing hats anytime I leave the house – it pulls the look together! My taste in bags has changed; no longer an option for a sleek purse that looks designer, instead give me a duck bag with feet. I love colorful knitwear, flowing skirts, and shoes that are beyond my comfort zone of boots and Converse. Taking those moments in the game to pair weird combinations together has positively impacted my design sensibility. When I plan a sewing or knitting project, I take into account what I’ve learned from dressing up my character, seeking to inject the whimsy and delightful wares of Animal Crossing into my real-life closet. I’m not the only one; I’ve seen this across Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.

But what about interior design? Well, this game not only presents the opportunity to design your house and the island, but you can also download Happy Home Paradise to design vacation homes for clients. This has really challenged me in a fun sandbox way to care about how a room is put together. I’ve become far more intentional about my furniture layout, what types of pieces I want to bring into my space, and how I want to pair pieces for a style that tells a story.

Buying a house last year was the icing on the cake of this new foray into design, as we have painted rooms and dug the garden beds, I’ve felt like it is Animal Crossing come to life. I have this canvas to put my stamp on. Moving from rented landlord-beige homes to a space where we can be colorful, it has shown me that the little details do make a space more welcoming and conducive for creating. The simple act of moving our dining room table from one side of the room to the center, allowing for walkways on either side, has made the room a place I want to be instead of a place I pass through. By filling the empty gaps of cabinets in our kitchen with tables, shelves, and a microwave stand, we have transformed the empty space into a room that feels complete. The simple change of painting my sewing room lavender created an entire mood, a calming and happy vibe that makes me excited to work within those four walls. The garden beds and the screened-in porch have been works of dimension, the outdoor space has useful and designated spaces for us to use that make it more beautiful and purposeful.

I am filled with a sense of possibility again, like the girl who sketched those rooms in a notebook, instead of a person muddling through life. In this time when we feel burned out by AI and stale creativity, it’s been electric to feel the sparks of imagination. The crafting aspect of the game has inspired me to be more creative in my own house. We repurpose, re-finish, and build things in our house from scratch. Because of life’s twists and turns, I have a lot of second-hand pieces that at first felt like a let down, like I was poor, but now I see them as incredibly meaningful items that I have the pleasure of caring for in my home. The game’s customization tools, such as kits for sale or the custom services of Cyrus, demonstrate how a coat of paint truly pulls a room together without buying something new.

Did I think when I purchased Animal Crossing New Horizons that I would see an impact on my own design sensibility? Not at all, but it has been the gift that keeps on giving. It’s an incredibly cozy game, full of wonder that I have grown fond of, year over year. Four years later, I still look forward to running around the island, hunting for recipes, wishing on shooting stars, and besting those pesky Happy Home Academy judges. I hope that I never lose my zeal for dress up and design because it is such a fun little way to relax in this wild and wacky world.

June 4, 2025

Weekly Garden Update #13 – Building a Planter Box & a Germination Update

In this week’s update, I share a planter box I made over the weekend to grow some beans in, and we had a lot of germination take place. We also got to experience how gardening can help spark conversation and make friends.

Building a Planter Box

When we were picking our seeds for the year, we bought a packet of Chinese Red Noodle long bean seeds. These plants produce pods up to 18 inches long, and the plants can grow up to 7 feet. Safe to say that they need some support to climb that tall. But because these grow so tall, we couldn’t plant the seeds in the same space as our other beans since they grow to different heights. Instead, we decided to plant them outside our garden beds in a raised box and in a location where they can have ample space to reach their full height. A lot of gardeners would buy something for this purpose, but because I love woodworking and building things, I had to make it.

It would have been nice to make the planter box out of cedar, red oak, teak, or fir, but I didn’t want to waste the red oak I have on this project and didn’t have any cedar, teak, or fir. Instead, I had a bunch of pressure-treated lumber left over from our screened-in porch project. Pressure-treated lumber often gets a bad reputation, but it is a versatile product that is affordable and will last a long time if maintained. Decades ago, it wouldn’t have been safe to use in gardening applications, but it’s now perfectly safe as long as you aren’t chewing on it.

My goal was to use as many scrap pieces as I could without having to cut too many of the full-size pieces. That’s why there are smaller pieces between the two longer pieces on the sides. This allowed me to only take a little bit from one of the remaining full-size 1x6s I have left. All told, the box is 11 inches front-to-back, 40 inches wide, and 10 inches tall. There are vertical supports inside to attach the stacked side pieces to each other, corner supports to connect the four sides, and horizontal supports to strengthen the sides. There are also a few holes in the bottom for drainage and feet on the bottom to lift the box off the ground. It’s quite heavy and should serve our needs.

Once the box was done, we lined it with a couple of black garbage bags. A lot of gardeners will buy black plastic that is sold specifically for gardening, but it’s essentially the same thing as the thick garbage bags people use for collecting lawn clippings. They both serve the same purpose: lining the box so there’s some separation between the lumber and the soil. It should also help the box last longer and create less of a mess.

With the liner installed, we cut drainage holes into the bottom and filled it with soil and Garden Tone and planted the seeds. After a thorough watering, it was ready to go. The seeds are supposed to take 5-8 days to germinate, so we’ll monitor them. The box was placed on the side of our garage/my woodshop where the plants will be in direct sunlight for most of the day. The only time it won’t get sunlight is at the very end of the day. To accommodate the trellis system, I’m going to build two brackets that will hang on the garage. The brackets will have holes in them to hold a dowel or bamboo stake, which will have garden twine tied to it. That twine will hang down to the planter box so the plants can climb.

Germination Update

In last week’s update, I mentioned that we were going to restart some of our seeds. That was the result of some of the starts not doing well and the rain preventing us from transplanting them for a few weeks. It led to some plants being leggy. There was also the fact that I messed up starting some of them, and I wanted to get a second chance with them. Last week, I restarted all of our tomato varieties, peppers (Cal Wonder and Scotch Bonnet), melons, cucumbers, eggplants, tomatillos, and ground cherries. I took extra time this go around by pre-moistening the soil and pressing it down a bit to pack the cells a bit more. The soil remains light and airy, but there’s more soil now for the roots to grow in.

In the 5 or 6 days since sowing the seeds, most of the varieties have germinated. The majority of the tomatoes and nearly all the melons have already sprouted and are looking healthy. This morning, I moved the cells with germinated plants in them off the heat mat and into another tray under the grow light. I’m attempting to be a bit more proactive with moving the starts sooner this time. The goal is to have the starts inside for a few weeks so that they can develop strong root structures before moving them outside.

In the garden beds, we have also started to see the successful germination of seeds, including corn, beans, carrots, and beets. The root crops have been growing pretty well for a few weeks now, but things have been a bit slower with the corn and beans. Corn is a slow germinating plant, so patience is key, but with the heavy rains we had not long after sowing, as well as the cool weather, I don’t think we were overly confident in their germination. However, on Sunday, we noticed that both had sprouted. The corn stalks were only about an inch above the soil, and the beans about two inches, but sure enough, they’re growing. That is incredible news! And with how fast bean plants grow, we should see them take off pretty quickly since we’re supposed to finally get some seasonally-appropriate temperatures this week.

Meeting a Neighbor

Yesterday, when we were working in the garden, our neighbor from across the street walked over and introduced herself. She is an older lady whom we hadn’t met yet, but she wanted to say hello and bring us a few cucumber starts that she had. It was such a wonderful gift and a great way to get to know a neighbor. Gardening is a great way to make friends and spark conversation.

Up Next

That’s it for this week’s update. Between now and next week’s post, we’re going to finish tilling the last bed, plant some sunflowers in front of the corn rows, and sow some butterfly pea seeds in a store-bought planter box. Thanks for reading, and Happy Gardening!

June 2, 2025 2

Individuals Without Individuality

What does it mean to be an individual? Are you a person? A sum among parts? An island? A unique person, maybe? What does it mean to do things individually? What does individuality mean to an individual? I really wish this word, and its forms, weren’t so tricky to spell with my slightly dyslexic mind (not formally diagnosed, but it runs in the family). It’s a lot to digest, but this has probably been stewing in my mind for the past year, waiting for me to plate it up.

My culture is incredibly individualistic, and this is expressed in good ways and bad. One good way is that my country is a land of immigrants and indigenous people, meaning there are voices, ideas, and ways of doing things. But when there are people, there are forces of wanting to fit in, wanting to control and suppress, and prescribed ideas of the “best” way. I think this has been at the forefront of my mind because I see a vast amount of content being shared online saying originality is dead, or personal style has been killed by the algorithm. We are all core-ified or aesthetically boxed in, and social media has commodified subcultures. But it’s the internet, critiquing the internet, so we’re of course using broad, and extreme brushstrokes here.

Where my mind has drifted to is the sameness. I see people online discussing the boringness of everything from movies to the same cosmetic procedures, the bland landscape of interior design, and starter pack cliches for “types” of women. There is a sea of Petite Knit patterns, a galaxy of Marvel media that repeat the same formula, reboot television, and romantic tropes pushed by publishers and BookTok to make everything fit nicely in the digital marketing ecosystem. Then we fall into nostalgia, like recession pop, which I found myself listening to the other day, reminiscing about my first summer as a member of Geneva’s painting crew in 2010. Thinking about how different life was before I even had a Facebook.

What we talked about and the memories I made with the women and men of my team were tangible, not digital. We discovered what we liked based on environmental forces, like books assigned in school, books suggested by a friend, etc. Music was discovered and shared by radio play, recommendations from others, and shared playlists that your friend curated, not the music streaming platform or the algorithm. I thought a bit less about my appearance, I mean, in adolescence, you are quite aware, but not as much as the smartphone era has brought attention to the physical image of ourselves. I had fewer pictures, grainier pictures, but more memories. Strong memories are tied to tangible things, like songs, food, books, buildings, and movies. We were all very different from each other, yet we could find commonality, and this is where the gears in my mind started turning.

We were part of a group, but had individuality. Yet, nowadays I feel more like I’m in a void, of no commonality, except for how everyone is into the same things, and wears the same clothes, yet we are not connected, communicating, nor would I even consider that despite our shared things we are on a team or part of a community. It’s hollow.

I think we are missing the point of life. We are not working towards something together. We are not part of communities. We are part of aesthetics. We have become fans not of art or sport but of corporations like Target, Lululemon, Sephora, Stanley, and Tesla. Well, probably not Tesla anymore. Target is also being boycotted, so…anyways. Apple, Alo, Rhode, Kate Spade, Trader Joe’s, Labubu. That’s more 2025, phew. Why are we stanning companies? Why are we considering shopping for a hobby? This is not a way to connect; it is a way to consume and drown in stuff instead of substance. Our roots are becoming so shallow, and our debt is vast; we are plants choked out by the weeds of hyper-individualism. We have let originality become a thing achieved not by character formation and real-life community, but by the path of purchase. Purchases for ourselves. It snuck in so fast, I didn’t realize how the art of gift giving has become a self-care checklist. Yikes! It wasn’t until playing Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing: New Horizons that I was struck by how topsy-turvy my own culture has become. Our priorities are whack, and I believe it has made us lonely, shells, devoid of individual thought, buying our way to “happiness” because all we think about is our individual needs above all. We have forgotten that humans are fulfilled by the relationships and communities we are rooted in. It’s time to break the spell.

May 29, 2025

Weekly Garden Update #12 – Transplanting Starts, Watering, and Starting the Last Beds

In this week’s update, we were able to finally get our vegetable starts in the beds, spent a lot of time in the garden watering and weeding, and got a start on the last two garden beds. Plus, I share a few mistakes I’ve made with our garden and my plans to remedy them.

Transplanting Starts

In last week’s update, I mentioned that we had transplanted a bunch of flowers we bought last weekend. Those were planted in various places throughout our yard; however, due to cool overnight temperatures (high 30s) and a ton of rain (over 3 inches in a 24-hour period), we were uncomfortable with transplanting our vegetable starts. This past weekend, we were able to get them all in the ground. That included all the plants I started from seeds as well as a few starts we bought from the greenhouse. These were Black Krim tomatoes, tomatillos, ground cherries, and spaghetti squash. These were plants that we either didn’t have seeds for or wanted more security in transplanting larger starts.

Gardening, transplants, tomatoes — Transplanting a tomato start

Transplanting these was straightforward but time-consuming. Fitting the starts into beds that already have seeds takes some planning. We want our plants to complement each other by pulling and supplying nutrients in a mutually beneficial relationship. We also want to make sure we’re giving them enough space while also planning for more starts to be transplanted in the future. This process appears to have been successful.

We were very intentional in adding the appropriate soil amendment for each plant and also tried to keep the soil loose around the plant. If you remember back to the beginning of my writing about our garden, our soil is compact clay. We don’t think it’s ever been grown in, so the grass was pretty thick with well-developed roots.

Spending Time in the Garden & Watering

With seeds and plants in the ground, we’ve been able to spend a lot of time in our garden. We’ve largely transitioned from the planning phase to the establishing phase. We’re in the garden on a daily basis, checking for progress and assessing the need for natural pesticides or weeding. We also water on a daily basis at this stage while the seeds are still germinating or the transplants are taking root, and it takes a lot of water! We really enjoy watering with cans because it’s a more hands-on experience and bought a second watering can to help.

Regular watering also means we’re getting to put our rain barrel to use. Earlier in the spring, we bought a 55-gallon blue barrel and converted it into a rain barrel with water coming from our garage’s downspout. It’s difficult to believe how quickly it fills. A steady rain over a few hours will fill it from empty. It’s been nice not having to pay for the water we’re using. At the time of writing this, we have only had to fill one watering can with city water. Everything else has come from the rain barrel. I’m sure that will change throughout summer when it’s hotter and we may go a week or two without rain, but it’s still a wonderful blessing. We also plan to buy a second barrel for the other side of the garage. It’d be nice to eventually have three or four barrels around our house so we only have to use city water on rare occasions.

Starting the Final Beds

On Sunday and Monday, we got the final two beds started. On Sunday, Magz mowed down a large portion of grass and did the first pass with the tiller. On Monday, I followed up by tilling it a second time and also going back to a bed I started a few weeks ago and giving that one its first pass. With those beds started, we can see the finish line. We’re only a few tiller passes away from being done with that step in the gardening process, which feels like a huge accomplishment. It will also mean that the hardest work is done. When they’re done, the work will mostly consist of what I call maintenance: watering, weeding, and amending the soil. That will eventually lead to harvesting time.

What’s Next? Recognizing Seed Starting Mistakes

Between now and next week’s update, the plan is to continue tilling the last two beds, build a raised planter box for our long beans, and restart some seeds. The plan was always to start additional seeds once the first batch of seedlings was transplanted. We want to take advantage of the beds we have and grow as much as possible. What I didn’t plan for was the mistakes I made when starting our initial batch of seeds.

I have experience starting seeds and have had success doing so. However, before this year, it had been three years since we gardened, and I felt rusty. I turned to YouTube and blogs to refresh my memory, and I think they led me a bit astray. When putting the seed starting mix in the cells, I kept the soil loose rather than pressing it a bit, which resulted in the roots struggling to develop. I noticed a big difference between our starts and the ones we bought at the greenhouses. The greenhouse starts had roots that wrapped around the soil and allowed everything to come out in one cube. Meanwhile, our starts were loose with shallow roots. I think the soil composition had something to do with this. Other things I’m confident I messed up are how I watered the seedlings and the way I thinned them.

Moving forward, I’m going to make the following changes:

Tamping down the soil a bit before adding the seeds and also pressing down the soil that is added on top. In recent days, I’ve read about the importance of having contact between the soil and seed, which makes sense.
Pre-moistening the soil rather than relying on watering after the seeds are sown.
Watering from below rather than above. I went back and forth between using a spray bottle and a cup to water the seeds/starts. It became difficult to not flood the cells or potentially damage the young starts. This time, I’m going to fill the trays and allow the cells to dry out a bit in between waterings.
I will be thinning the starts by cutting them at the soil surface rather than plucking. I’ve learned that pulling the starts disturbs the roots of the plants you want to keep, which I saw evidence of.

I will follow up with how successful these changes are. Have you made mistakes in your garden that forced you to make changes? If so, I’d love to hear about it. I hope the mistakes I learned can help you in your garden. Happy Gardening!

May 27, 2025 0

My Spring 2025 Soundtrack

Turning grass into unearthed soil – The Tiller

Chirping – Robins

Battleground – Stray Kids

K.K. Oasis

A cut hitting rock – The Shovel

A trickle of water – The Rain Barrel

Staple Jam – The Upholstery Stapler

Cutting Fiberglass Screen – Utility Knife

Slingshot – Nmixx

Glug Glug – Watering Can

Coughing – Garden Tone

Disgust and Fear – The Big Earthworm

K.K. Adventure

My Place

Stalling on Tall Grass – The Mower

Booms that Shake My House – Tannerite from Reckless Community Members

Ice Cream Cake – Red Velvet

Cinema – Lee Know & Seungmin

Humming and Cool Air – The Window A/C

Shock and Gasp – Acid Reflux in the Middle of the Night

Great British Bake Off Theme

Know About Me – Nmixx

Buzzing of Bees

Mia Pulling on the Carpet – Bunny Teeth

Frustration, Fear, and Worry – Trump’s Non Stop Executive Orders

Autism Awareness Content – Fighting The RFK Jr Ignorance

May 27, 2025

Unmasking is Hard

The term “unmasking” was new to me when I first learned of my neurodivergence. I saw it on Pinterest and Instagram, displayed in captions and little relatable memes, but what did it mean?

I felt the full experience of what it means a few nights ago when I was invaded once again by rising anxiety, flooding through my mind, and this pressure, invisible yet firm, closing in on me. I knew deep down that I was close to having a meltdown, from environmental things that a neurotypical would brush off. I also knew that I couldn’t melt down; it wasn’t safe to be me. I couldn’t stim, that would be looked down upon with pity. I had to put on that mask, the normal-brained facade I’ve studied my whole life to become invisible and just blend into the sea of normies.

I feel this pressure to mask the most when I am interacting with my family. My mom and her side, for a brief time, my dad and his side. It’s a quagmire, being the offspring of two very domineering, neurotypical, narcissistic humans.

It’s a lot of work. Why am I sharing this? Because if you feel this way, you are not alone. I see you. I support you. I am rallying for you and I to make it through these moments holding space for us to be as we are, and to feel like we are enough. We don’t need to be fixed, we need to cope with this wild world that doesn’t understand us.

Like an ill-fitting garment, the clothes are the problem not your body. Your brain is not the problem, the world favors one way of doing things and that doesn’t make it right. Being louder doesn’t make your point more correct. There is nothing wrong with who you are and who you were created to be.

I hope wherever you are, this finds you well. That you are safe, loved, valued, and being kind to yourself. The world needs more kindness. Know that I love you and support you. Take the mask off, breathe, stim, and find peace.

Until next time ❤

May 22, 2025

The Most Beautiful Seeds I’ve Ever Seen – Kebarika Beans

I originally wanted to write a seed history post on this seed, the Kebarika bean. Unfortunately, I have struck out with my research. Instead, I wanted to share the seed’s beauty with everyone and also discuss some of the information I was able to find. It’s an heirloom variety from Kenya and was probably introduced to the United States sometime in the 1970s or 1980s. According to sources, it first appeared in the 1985 edition of the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook. It was later provided to the Victory Seed Company by seed conservationist Mark Futterman in 2004. Victory Seed Company has an excellent resource that compiles Futterman’s seed notes; however, for the Kebarika bean, it only mentions the years he grew it.

Beyond that, there’s very little information. It doesn’t appear to be an overly popular bean and has a relatively short life as a commercially-grown seed. I attempted to determine the word’s meaning in Swahili, but that led to a dead end. Also, the auto-detect feature of Google Translate read the word as being of Malagasay origin, which is one of the languages spoken on Madagascar, so that’s very confusing.

My plan is to continue researching the seed and its history in an attempt to learn anything about it. In the meantime, though, we’re going to see how it grows and tastes. It’s a shelling bean, so we’ll dry the pods to save the beans to be rehydrated in the future. I’m also planning to do actual seed origin posts in the future.

May 21, 2025 0

Weekly Update #10 – Installing Our Fence, Exploring Greenhouses, and Planting Flowers

In this week’s update, the rest of our fence materials arrived, and we were able to install it around the majority of our garden beds. We also visited two local-ish greenhouses on Saturday and Sunday. This is our first chance to buy flowers to decorate our yard since we bought our house last year, and we’re taking advantage of it. After we bought the flowers, we spent some time this weekend planting the majority of the flowers we got.

Installing Our Fence

If you’ve been following the blog for a bit, you’ll know that we recently decided on the type of fence we’re using with our garden and purchased the materials we needed. As a refresher, we are using an extruded plastic mesh fence that is often used at orchards to prevent deer from getting to their fruit trees. Our fence came in 7-foot x 100-foot rolls and included zip ties and ground staples for anchoring. We bought 5-foot bamboo stakes in a pack of 50 that we attached the fence to.

The stakes went into the ground 8 inches, giving us roughly 50 inches above the ground. We placed a stake every 5 feet and used 3 zip ties per stake to attach the fence. We then put a garden staple between the stakes to anchor the fence to the ground. In general, it was a great process, and I think we made the right decision. It took about 45 minutes to install the stakes and another 45 to attach the fence. We were surprised by how easy it was to unfold the fence since it was folded into fourths. We also didn’t have too much of an issue with the fence stakes pulling over as we tensioned the fence.

We know that this fence won’t keep out everything, and a deer could jump it if it really wanted to. But at the same time, we’re pleased with how durable and affordable it is. We would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a cost-effective garden fence option, especially if you’re planning to upgrade it in a year or two. As an aside, we initially planned to put a smaller fence around each of our individual garden beds but ultimately went with one big fence to simplify things.

Greenhouse Exploration

This weekend was highlighted by visiting two greenhouses in our area. Both are family owned and have been in operation for over 80 years. Actually, one has been in business since 1919. Between the two greenhouses, we bought quite a few plants, including hibiscus, salvia, and begonia. The majority of them are perennials that can overwinter here. We also bought a few annuals and wildflower seeds for our furthest back flower bed. Almost all of the flowers and seeds we bought are pollinators.

Finally, we also bought a few vegetable starts. They are either plants that we didn’t have seeds for or really like the vegetable and wanted to ensure we had a great start to build upon in case we have trouble transplanting our starts. We also bought two cilantro plants to keep Mia (our bunny) in a constant supply.

After we got back from the greenhouses on Saturday and Sunday, we planted some of the flowers but still have a few that need to be transplanted. The weather was uncooperative both days, with a cold front coming through our area, which has led to cool weather, cloudy skies, and wind. It’s not a lot of fun out in the garden when it’s that windy and cold, so we planted the flowers we could and will handle the rest over the coming days.

Up Next

With the fence up, we are finally comfortable with planting most of our remaining vegetable seeds and transplanting our starts. The starts have been on our screened-in porch hardening off so that they won’t experience shock when transplanted into the ground. With the fence up, the risk of little critters getting to the plants has dropped considerably. We’re going to start transplanting our starts today.

We have been having successful germination of the seeds that Magz directly sowed last week. All of the greens and brassicas have germinated, while the root crops (carrots, beets, parsnips, and radishes) should germinate sometime this week. Once the rest of our seeds are planted and the starts have been transplanted, we’re going to start some more seeds inside to increase our potential yield, get our potatoes into the ground, and finish the last two garden beds. At that point, all of the prep work will be done…finally.

How is your garden coming along this year? Have you been able to get your seeds or plants in the ground yet? We’d love to hear from you. Thanks for reading. Happy gardening!

May 19, 2025 1