Planting FlowersThis week, I planted flowers. Flowers are a vital food source for pollinators, providing nectar and pollen for bees, butterflies, moths, and many other insects. They also increase biodiversity, reduce erosion, provide oxygen, improve air quality, provide habitat, and much more.
I went to a plant nursery in Winston Salem called Franks's Perennial Border, that has a lot of native perennial flowers and shrubs. I bought 5 milkweeds and 4 creeping phlox. In order to plant the flowers, I first had to remove the leaves, sticks, and weeds. After I did that, I spaced out the flowers and put them in the spot I was going to plant them. I then dug a hole, removed the plant from the pot, loosened the roots, and planted it. Once all of the flowers were in the ground, I put mulch around them. Mulch keeps moisture retained in the soil, protects the plant's roots, prevents erosion, keeps weeds out, and just makes it look nice. I didn't have to worry about watering because it rained after I planted the flowers. I planted the orange milkweed plants together in a rock garden bed that has been empty for a year now. Milkweed is the only food source for monarch butterfly larvae, an endangered butterfly species native to North America. It is important to plant milkweeds so that the monarch butterfly can successfully reproduce and lay eggs. Milkweed flowers bloom in the summer, and will act as a food source for pollinators. I planted the creeping phlox around a fruit tree. I planted a pink variety and a white variety, two of each. Creeping phlox are small flowers that bloom in spring, and are a ground cover that will spread out around the base of the tree, providing food for pollinators when there aren't many other flowers blooming yet.
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Planting TreesThis week, I planted trees. Trees produce oxygen, improve air quality, conserve water, reduce erosion, provide shade, lower temperatures, provide food and habitat, mitigate climate change, increase biodiversity, and much more.
April 22nd is Earth Day, so I went to Lowe's Hardware store and bought a native flowering dogwood tree. Dogwood trees grow in the Eastern United States, and the dogwood flower is the North Carolina state flower. Dogwood flowers provide nectar for pollinators, and the berries are a food source for many birds and other animals such as chipmunks, foxes, skunks, rabbits, deer, squirrels, and bears. The dogwood tree is a host plant for 111 species of butterflies and moths. I donated a total of $35 to 3 different tree-planting organizations. Ecosia, the Arbor Day Foundation, and One Tree Planted. Ecosia is an online search engine that uses ad revenue to plant trees where they're needed most. Ecosia supports over 20 tree-planting projects in 15 different countries, and has planted over 150 million trees since 2009. Roughly 1 tree is planted for every 45 searches made. -ecosia.org I donated $15 to Ecosia, which will plant 5 trees. Arbor Day Foundation is a nonprofit conservation and education organization dedicated to planting trees. The Arbor Day Foundation has planted over 500 million trees in over 50 countries since 1972, and $1 = 1 tree. -arborday.org I donated $10 to Arbor Day Foundation, which will plant 10 trees. One Tree Planted is a nonprofit tree planting charity that has planted over 92 million trees across 80+ countries worldwide since 2014, and $1 = 1 tree. -onetreeplanted.org I donated $10 to One Tree Planted, which will plant 10 trees. I also planted 3 trees this week by simply walking. I have the app Treecard, which plants 1 tree for every 10,000 steps you take. The app connects to your health app to track your daily steps. Once you have walked 10,000 steps, you click "claim tree" and a real life tree gets planted through Ecosia, which partners with Treecard. Treecard is also a wooden debit card that plants trees as you spend money. Removing Invasive PlantsThis week, my goal was to remove invasive/non-native plants, weeds, and trees. I rarely get out and do this because of how time consuming and strenuous the process is, but I'm glad I got something done.
Invasive plants species are non-native plants that cause harm to the environment, and possibly human health and the economy. Once introduced, invasive plants easily adapt to an area, quickly reproduce and spread, and have the ability to cause extinction of native plants and animals, reduce biodiversity, change the food web of an ecosystem, and permanently alter habitats. Invasive plants reproduce & spread so quickly/easily because of a lack of natural predators, parasites, or competitors.
I spent about 1 hour removing invasive plants on my property. I used several methods: 1.) Pulling the plant up with my hands, 2.) digging the plant out with a shovel if the roots were too deep, and 3.) watering the plant with salted water to dry up the soil and dehydrate the plant's roots. I mainly used my hands to pull up the plant. I used a plant identification app called PicureThis to properly identify the plants to make sure that they were invasive. It is important that you remove the roots so that the plant cannot grow back. I removed a total of 9 different plant species: butterfly bush, Chinese privet, English Ivy, bigleaf periwinkle, autumn olive, Japanese honeysuckle, creeping Jenny, oriental bittersweet, and oriental false hawksbeard. I put all of the plants in a wheelbarrow that I will keep in our barn where there is no access to water or sunlight until they die. Vegetarian + VeganThis week, I ate vegan for 1 day. I have been a vegetarian for the past 2 months, so I wanted to try stepping it up by going vegan.
A vegan diet is based on plants. Vegans don't eat food that comes from animals, such as meat, fish, eggs, honey, dairy products, etc. Going vegan not only improves your health, but also improves Earth's health. By eating more plants and less animal products, you are reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing energy consumption, conserving water, stopping deforestation, and saving animal's lives.
I started off by going to the grocery store to buy what I needed. I bought fruits, vegetables, and two different frozen vegan meals, one for lunch and one for dinner. For breakfast, I had a bowl of fresh fruits: an apple, a banana, a mandarin orange, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. For lunch, I had baked cheesy cauliflower, chickpeas, and broccoli, the cheese being vegan of course. The brand was Wholly Veggie, which makes plant-based snacks and meals. The "cheese" tasted like real cheese. I rate this meal an 8/10. For dinner, I made brown rice and asparagus with "chicken" from the brand Daring, which makes plant-based chicken. The "chicken" tasted very similar to real meat. I rate this meal a 9/10. In between lunch and dinner, I had a bowl of peanuts. I drank water throughout the day. The easy part was not eating meat, but what was harder was not eating any dairy products. I had to plan out my meals and make sure everything I was eating was vegan. I don't think I could eat a vegan diet permanently, but I am glad to have been able to for 1 day and make an impact even if it was a small one. |
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