📝 In This Week’s Nutty Goodness
This Week’s Focus: Don’t Let Hard Work Or Lack Of Know-How Break You
This Might Suit Your Fancy: Seeds, deep raised beds & the best but least expensive compost & mulch.
Where The Roots Meet The Soil: GenX Gardening Isn’t About Survival Or Prepping
Inspirational Stories: Farmers Restoring Habitats, Restoring Cloud Forests in Colombia, Beavers Do It Better Habitat Restoration
I've got a packed newsletter full of insights, stuff you should think of doing or getting, upcoming events, and inspiring stories.
🐝 This Might Suit Your Fancy
Seeds For Southwest US, True Leaf Market (large selection, heirlooms, etc), Botanical Interest (large selection), High Desert (high desert CO), SeedsTrust (high desert), Terrior Seeds (AZ based), San Diego Seed Company (regionally adapted)
Deep Raised Beds, Vego Raised Beds, deep, beautiful and they have a variety of shapes and sizes.
Pesticide-Free Mulch & Compost, Arizona Worm Farm, this place has been my lifeline and really helped me turn things around. They hold in person classes (sign up online), and sell only veggie, flower and succulent starts that thrive in the Phoenix climate. Plus they are worm composters on a next level scale!😍
🎙️Where The Roots Meet The Soil
GenX Gardening Isn’t About Survival Or Prepping
Gen X is really about self sufficiency, provision not reaction. That means figuring out what works best for your own situation, creating solutions from scratch or with what’s available and ditching what doesn’t work.
What that looks like when it comes to gardening, as a GenXer, it’s being willing to learn but not getting stuck on what’s always been done or what others are doing.
If you don’t get started figuring out how to grow stuff that’s on you, the Darwin Awards will be glad to have you.
Maybe you haven’t noticed the supply chain is changing and we don’t know what we can depend on. That’s why you need to grow stuff GenX style.
Key #1 Get Over Yourself Gardening
So your veggies cooked in the heat of the Phoenix sun last summer, get over it. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, find out what others are doing and try again.
Maybe you over-watered your last batch of plants? You obviously got it wrong. This time, instead of guessing and feel sorry for yourself, copy what someone else is doing.
You can cry all you want to (this isn’t baseball), even though crying is for babies, but giving up isn’t an option.
Key #2 If The Bugs Are Bugging You, Go Rambo On Them
I’ll be the first to admit I’m more than a little squeamish when it comes to bugs. But when I found the caterpillar that had been eating all my potato plants, I took no prisoners.
The chemicals in pesticides and herbicides are literally killers. They mess with your hormones and they either overstay their welcome or don’t stick long enough to be worth the effort.
I turned off our regular pesticide service, good riddance. I realized that if the pesticides were killing the bees, they were dropping from mid-air, then they were likely harming me and my family too. Not worth it.
It took about 9 months to wear off, one day I noticed other critters had arrived to do the same job but without Agent Orange.
Key #3 Make The Boring Gardening Crap Fun
As a kid I seemed to end up being the one cleaning the house, so I would just put music on, then dance and sing my way through it.
These days weeding is a chance to do deep squats (hurts my back less). Then I just go until I can’t feel the circulation in my legs and I stand up to get other stuff done.
I’m not sure my neighbors would appreciate the boom box the same way I do. So I wear ear buds.
But I do have a garden kitty 🐱 to annoy me and keep me company. It’s both irritating and entertaining. Both make me work faster.
If only Ginger would leave the lizards that eat spiders alone. 😣
🔖Did you miss last week when I talked about Struggling To Grow Anything Since You Moved To Phoenix, AZ?
Key #4 Your Garden Doesn’t Care How It Looks - It Might Not Be Pretty But It Works
2025 was the first summer I used shade cloth, and my backyard looked like tent city.
Not joking.
I started out small, only planting in one corner of the yard, got that working. Then added a raised bed and kept building.
It looked terrible and I had to run out after every strong wind to fix it, but it got the job done.
This year, I was able to put in t-posts with cattle panels to make shade trellises.
Next year, maybe I’ll want to put in permanent structures, who knows, who cares. I’ll care about it when I get there. The point is: don’t wait for it to be pretty to get started. I’ll bring the duck tape.😅
Key #5 Gardening Is Hard Work Until You Fix It Or You Enjoy It So Much You Don’t Care
I couldn’t be more tired of hearing, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Screw that.
If it doesn’t kill you, roll over and google it or better yet, drag your butt to the nearest class, nursery or hardware store and figure out something better, easier, safer.
Don’t suffer. But don’t let the hard work take you out of the game either.
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🦋 Stay Inspired
Ways That People Around The World Are Staging Eco-Interventions
Farmers Restoring & Enhancing Habitats: Practical Farmers of Iowa
Cloud Forests of Columbia: Planet Wild
Beavers Do It Better Habitat Restoration: Kings County Natural Resources & Parks
Till next time,
Elisa Navarette
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