Gardening Hacks, Percolation, and KGB Agents
07-13th April 2025
HellooOOoOoooo,
This week we have had glorious days of uninterrupted sunshine in the North East of Scotland!!! Praise the lord!
Inspired by this I’ve shared some EXTREMELY EASY gardening tips that will give you years of niceness for very little money and effort. Flowers are good for the heart (and the planet).
I’ve also changed Consumption Corner to Art Corner in the spirit of how art can enrich your life and isn’t just something to be consumed.
Happy reading!
Now That I Think About It
I feel like I can’t move fast enough to keep up with the demands of a modern day writer. When I sit down to write about something, more often than not, by the time I finish I have written something I was not expecting. I’ve come to realise this process is important (even though it’s a bit of a mystery) as it allows me to get to the heart of what I’m trying to say.
Unfortunately, it is not condusive to producing a lot of ‘content’ quickly. Like the sound of fly banging against the window, I constantly have a niggling feeling I should be doing more to feed the insatiable algorithm. Yet everytime I try to shoe horn a piece of work into something click-baity or easily digestiable, the quality of my work drops. I lose the connection to what I’m trying to share and sacrifice the feeling I wanted to convey.
I envy the earlier writers who lived in slower times. Who could look out the window and look at the birds without feeling like they should create an instagram post about it. This was better for the mind, I’m sure of it, and better for the reader. I wish I could be more like Ursula K. LeGuin, who as you can see below, did not have to factor updating her social media into her day. Instead she could dedicate time to what was really important - being silly after 8pm.
Attempting to generate a lot of fast paced content in order to get reads in any social media space gets your work out there. I get it. But the process your need to produce your best is a sacred thing and should not be coopted to feed the attention economy. The balance that modern writers have to make, the speed they have to move at, challenges our dedication to quality over quantity. How do you fare in this regard?
Easiest Gardening Hacks Ever for Instant Nice-ness
These tips are for people who can’t be bothered or don’t really want to spend a lot of money on plants but appreciate the joy of having flowers around them. They are plants that you plant once and come back year after year making them super cost effective.
Violas and Pansies
These guys are virtually indescructable. I planted them in a few spots across the garden and they lasted all the way through the Scottish winter, unbothered by the ice and the snow. Adding them to your pots, hanging baskets or straight into the garden will guarantee colour practically the whole year round. They are always some of the cheapest plants in the garden centre so it’s a seriously easy win.
BULBS!!
Bulbs are minimal work for maximum gain. Shove ‘em in the ground when they are meant to be in there (mostly autumn time but you do get some bulbs you can plant in early spring or late summer) and then wait for them to pop up. Main winners are: crocuses (flowering late February), daffodils (flowering in March), tulips (flowering in April), and gladioli (flowering in June-August). They come back year after year too!
Try also a bulb lasagne for ultimate garden smugness.
Extremely easy to grow seeds
Nasturiums, sweet peas, and sunflowers. Done. Buy the packet, shove them in a seed tray or whevere you’d like them to grow, give them light and water and heat and BOOM THEY’RE ALLIVVVEEE. They are quite large seeds so the stems are robust and grow easily. In the same vein, courgettes, peas, and microgreens are good for beginners looking to move into food market.
Honestly, gardening does not have to hard at all and the impact of a couple of small cheap changes can be enough to lift your spirits after a bad news day. It’s a great way to remind yourself there is beauty in the world.
Art Corner 🎨
‘if i were a boy … i would not spoilerise’ - Beyoncé
🎮 Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (2002) ☆☆☆
A video game this week! I dug this one out to play with my nephews and safe to say never have I felt more of a boomer when those graphics appeared. However, I was vindicated in that they struggled to get past a few levels. Old games are glitchy, give you no clues, and have mininal saves. Hitman cares not for diplomacy and continues to enforce American cold war interests abroad.
Weekly Stats
Spam calls: 7 (received, not made)
Times I coveted thy neighbours wife: 3
Raspberries consumed: megatons
Lipbalms lost: NONE!! YES!!
Times I almost caved and bought a cat/rabbit/dog: 2
Gluten free / dairy free cake adventures: 0 :(
Next week on the rickleverse
I will tell you about a hidden gem I found in a forest nearby - hurrah!
Have a great week.
Love,
Rachael
