Ole Paul/Ranching About an everyday experience as a ranch girl, what its like to become a horseman.

Turn your small balcony into a lush green retreat with the right plants. From fragrant herbs and colorful flowers to leafy privacy plants, even tiny spaces can thrive. Choose based on light, wind, and your care routine. Try basil, cherry tomatoes, or strawberries for edible charm, or petunias and ferns for vibrant color and texture. With smart design and vertical planters, your balcony can bloom into a calming escape in the heart of the city.

Healthy soil is the foundation of any successful garden, but understanding what’s happening beneath the surface can feel like a mystery. Testing your garden soil at home is an easy, budget-friendly way to uncover key insights about pH levels, nutrient availability, and soil texture. In fact no lab coat is required. From using DIY methods like vinegar and baking soda to affordable test kits from the garden center, there are plenty of ways to analyze your soil’s needs. Whether your garden is struggling with compacted clay, missing essential nutrients, or just off balance in pH, a simple soil test can reveal what actions to take. With just a few tools and a bit of mixing, you’ll learn exactly how to amend and enrich your soil for healthier plants and better harvests. Make soil testing a seasonal habit to stay ahead of common problems and help your garden thrive from the ground up. Knowledge is power. In the garden, it starts with the soil.

Spring is the perfect time to start your vegetable garden, whether you have a backyard or a balcony. Cool loving crops like leafy greens, peas, root veggies, and brassicas thrive in early spring conditions. With longer days and moist soil, it’s the season of new growth and fresh harvests. Learn what to plant, when to sow, and how to make your garden thrive.

Discover how houseplants can improve mental health, reduce stress, and bring calm to your indoor space. From snake plants to peace lilies, learn which green companions offer the biggest emotional boost and how to start your own indoor sanctuary.

Composting kitchen scraps at home is a simple and satisfying way to transform everyday waste into garden gold. It reduces landfill trash and greenhouse gas emissions, creates nutrient-rich compost, and closes the food loop. Compostable scraps include vegetable peels, coffee grounds, tea bags, eggshells, bread, grains, and paper towels. Avoiding composting includes meat, fish, dairy, oily foods, plastic, glass, or metal. To start, collect scraps efficiently, choose a composting method, and maintain the compost by adding dry material and turning it every few weeks.

Where affordable living meets high-end morality —the cleaner the hospitality; has it costing .25. And that’s only the beginning to why we leave no soldier behind.

In this chapter I will explain what herbology and botany are, and how they differ, as well as begin to indroduce knowlege from both categories. Stay tuned for a fun fact about one of my favorite subjects, PLANTS! Please let me know if you like it and include whatever critiques you have, as I may turn this into a book at some point. Thanks.

It's now June! In this entry, I identify plants, talk about summer and give a recipe for a summer drink.

These are the last two entries to complete April. April 08th was the eclipse and I discovered a fungi that will literally make you a funeral.

I'm burnt out...what do I do? I'm in such a toxic place right now, that I'm no longer even looking forward to the next day. Any tips or tricks to help? I need to get out of this...and fast.

* Diverse Art Forms: Covers painting, drawing, digital art, and more. * Live Tutorials: Learn new techniques and skills in real-time. * Community Focus: Connect with artists of all levels. * Constructive Feedback: Improve your skills through critique. * Inspiration & Growth: A supportive environment to explore creativity.

Whispers of the Forest is a lyrical poem that invites readers into the serene and mystical world of the woods. Through vivid imagery and gentle rhythm, it captures the forest’s timeless secrets, quiet wisdom, and the deep connection between nature and the soul. Each verse paints a scene of tranquil beauty and introspective calm, encouraging readers to slow down, listen, and rediscover peace within the natural world.

"the gardener" is a poem that I wrote back in 2022. It mentions a man who takes care of his flower garden, and uses rhyme and metaphor to convey the lives of the flowers. The poem shows the gardener's life cycle as it comes to a close. This poem was actually the first poem I ever wrote, back in my sophomore year of high school. It is almost entirely the same as it was when I wrote it, with only a few minor adjustments. I hope you enjoy :)

Alright, folks, gather ‘round because I’ve got a story that will either make you never look at garlic the same way again or make you run to your kitchen and start gnawing on raw cloves like a health-obsessed squirrel. Either way, it’s a wild ride, so buckle up.

The different types of ways to make your own essential oils. Step by step instructions for whoever wants to make the oils on their own. Will help ones just beginning or even how to start the process and what will be needed to do so.

how to make remedies from plants that I have listed for people who are in multiple areas so the topic will be relevant to others and to educate people of interest.

Building a homestead is a fulfilling journey toward self-sufficiency, starting with careful planning and soil preparation for a productive garden. By raising animals for food and learning to cook from scratch, you can nourish your family and preserve your harvest year-round. Embracing sustainability through composting, water conservation, and renewable energy makes your homestead not only a source of food but a lifestyle rooted in independence and environmental stewardship.

The Theme Is: Seasons of Change I wrote this piece to symbolize my struggles with seasonal depression. Especially living in New York, the cold tends to attack you with very little mercy. I suffer pretty badly from the changing of the seasons, but this piece was written to hold me accountable for seeing the good of change. This was published in my school's literary magazine in 2024.

I figured I'd take a smell at the little things in life. This man of God, he is, nearly makes me believe that I was designed to be his wife.