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Favorite Gardening Book and thoughts on Facebook

Well, the day is nearly done but here I am, fully dedicated to getting the daily post out to my devoted reader.  Thanks for tuning in on this exciting Saturday night!

First a few enlightening thoughts on Facebook, which I know you’ve been waiting to hear from my generally enlightened position in life.  I had an account for a few years, took a few years off, and now I’m back for the long haul (I think).  During my FB sabbatical I came across multiple studies showing that the way people use social media platforms influences how they feel about not only the platform itself, but life in general (to some degree, maybe small).  In short, lurking friends/family/friends of friends of friends of former romantic partners = sad, while participating and engaging with people you know and like = happy (or at least neutral).  My first Facebook stint fell solidly into the lurking category and I truly felt bad about it.  It’s easy to fall into a social media hole and come away thinking everything and everyone is better off than you are at any given moment in time.  Now that I’m back I’m trying to take a whole new approach, with much more active participation (e.g., spamming you with this blog on the daily) and much less lurking (ideally none, but sometimes you wonder what your fellow 7th grade camp-goers are up to).  The other part that helps is that I do not have a smart phone, so the checking Facebook tic is automatically kept to a home activity.  Maybe I would feel bad again if I could check on things in real time.  The one thing I’m super glad about is that I did not have this social media as a teen.  Holy smokes, I can’t imagine the anxiety it causes people of that age.  Right?  Way too much ability to compare and contrast without full brain development and a wider lens on life.

What about you?  Love it?  Hate it?  Have an account but let it gather dust for long periods of time?  It’s an interesting challenge, but for now I’m finding it to be more helpful than hurtful.  We’ll see how that changes as time moves forward.

Well, the rest of this is just a snippet because I’m eager to settle into the couch and not move again until it becomes mandatory.

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If you love to grow edible things here in the desert, I have found the book “Extreme Gardening : How to Grow Organic in the Hostile Deserts” by Dave Owens to be extremely helpful.  He talks about how to plant things in companion groups to get beneficial relationships going (like pairing up corn, squash, basil and tomatoes in a small space).  He also tells you how to attract beneficial bugs, repel pests, enrich your soil, and the best commercial fertilizer to use, all using natural interventions.  And it’s specifically written for our region of the world, so it’s pretty much right-on, unlike the generalized gardening books you might find on the subject.  It’s nothing fancy to look at – no photos or glossy pages – but it’s awesome and makes me want to turn every spare inch of my yard into an organic greenhouse production paradise.

1 Comment
  1. thanks for visit
    new addittion for jwellary

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