Unfortunately 24 hour libraries, or even late night, are pretty much non-existent now because 1) parents use them as babysitters and 2) nothing against homeless people but librarians aren’t equipped or staffed to take care of them appropriately.

And now with the book bans librarians are in short supply too, which means shorter hours and even fully closing on some weekdays.

Support your local library, everyone! See if there’s a “friends of” group. It’s a great way to connect with your community.

I only have two humans and a dog in my household but we typically only generate one kitchen bag of trash a week by diverting a lot of our cardboard and food scraps into a small compost pile.

God bless Firefox reader mode.

Good VPNs have adblockers.

Everyone on the Internet should have one now. Also a password generator.

Just curious why gravel over mulch?

I have both and I wish it was all mulch.

Sheet mulching is great for the first few years but the cardboard will break down and you’ll have weeds again. With mulch you can just lay down more cardboard and go again. It’s not that easy with gravel.

Zone birthday cake A

To add on to your notes about maintenance: I have large gravel, mulch, and grass in my backyard. The gravel requires much more weeding time than the mulch. The mesh does nothing.

I’m a sucker for ferns so I’d cover that yard in ferns with walkways throughout.

I can’t help with outside of US but Wild Ones and Master Gardener programs are excellent resources.

Does your area have an ag extension office? Or a master gardener program? They should be good resources!

Just got my hands on a swamp milkweed this week. Very excited to see what ends up on it next year.

Also bee balm, phlox, western sunflowers, a variety of coneflowers, eastern Prickly pear, and an ostrich fern all hidden in my tiny backyard.