Is this hobby you want to start actually something you find fun or something you think you’d enjoy if you were the person you think you are?

My tricks to get going; Talk to people about it, this gives me external accountability. It then becomes ”I said I was gonna do it” and I don’t want to be someone who just talks shit. Or the person joins the activity and that makes it much harder to skip.

Think about the end goal or find a critical point. If i want to be a hobby farmer, i need to do the boring part of soil prep. Otherwise summer comes and Ill again be a shit talker. If i don’t sow these seeds now, theres nothing to farm later.

Prepare a work station and leave stuff out; In place and in the way. I make little specialised toolboxes or work stations. Its about lowering the barrier to getting started.

Simplify your ideas. You don’t need to see A-Z. Just reaching B can change circumstances and create inspiration. I employ ”donkey mode” by briefly considering the consequence of doing a bad job, how poorly others have done it but still succeeding, and repeat the mantra donkey mode donkey mode. I can deal with the consequence of my poor labour after the fact. Someone already made it worse than I did.

If things feel insurmountable; just focus on a small thing. I have many projects running in parallel and taking just a single step forward is great. When all the pieces are in place: execute. Dig that damn garden, don’t worry what gets planted.

And don’t be afraid to cut projects loose or shelve them. Having an infinite todo list where hobbies usually get knocked down, prevents the brain from feeling ”done and settled”, which keeps me from getting into something fun.

Cheers and good luck ✌️

Just added new pictures!

Not yet! Its been growing like crazy

I’ve heard of this brand, but I already have soap. When it runs out and the bins stop providing more I will consider it!

Oo this is interesting! What causes this degradation? Does regular liquid soap also degrade in it’s bottle or is it concentrated enough to last/effects to be negligible? Thanks for adding information!

Haha idk why you gonna be so stingy and throw around definitions of words, especially when using opinion sources rather than a dictionary. Don’t you know that language is defined by how it is used? Regardless,

• Frugality is Strategic: It involves planning, research, and aligning spending with personal values and financial goals.

This post is the research.  One of my values and goals is to consume as little as possible, let alone buying unnecessary stuff in a world of over production of garbage. I actually have a soap dish and hard soap for those that prefer it. Personally I tend to get terrible pimple breakouts from it tho.

The financial goal of this little project is to not spend more money than necessary in general and as most soap just gets put down the drain anyway I thought it a decent afternoon project to look into.

• Frugality is Value-Oriented: The focus is on the overall value received, not just the price tag paid.

Arguably the value added by diluting the soap is very small, but if successful would double the range of a soap bottle, which has intrinsic value in consuming less and producing less garbage (packaging and soap dishes) on top of the fact I don’t have to buy any soap 🤷‍♂️

On the other hand your solution is generating more garbage in form of packaging and a soap dish, whilst adding absolutely nothing of value to my bathroom nor does it adress the issue of wasting soap.

> *Frugality is Empowering: It gives you control over your finances, reducing stress and building wealth.

I have very good control of my finances because I chose to not spend my money where it can be avoided. Hence the dumpster diving to acquire said soap. I spend it on beer instead :)

Now, looking at merriam webster dictionary, which is the definition I actually when deciding where to post my question, it gives much simpler answer than the capital powerhouse you shared.

the quality or state of being [frugal]  : careful management of material resources and especially money

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frugality

Cheers

I’m not doing anything but asking questions to find out if its doable or not. I too can see the consensus is it’s a bad idea ✌️

For sure, figuring out solutions to silly problems to save pennies can be loads of fun :)

I’ll maintain that soap from the trash is much much cheaper than buying soap and a soap dish tho. Frugality is making things reach further with small means no?

Getting a new dispenser also spending tho. I tried modifying my old dispenser with a ziptie around the neck but the dispenser broke very quickly, which I think was due to the force you expect to put into it. But thats just a guess, could’ve been a bad pump too

But thats what lead me to looking into dilution/gelling.

But yea buying gum is another purchase whereas i already have plenty of starch.

I already have a lifetime supply of corn and potato starch, and my thought was that it wouldn’t require a lot to gel it up again. Time is not really an issue in my life so I don’t mind boiling some dilution water every now and again.

That works for me but my spidey senses say if that I can’t be instructing guests how to use the soap. I tried modifying the pump to have a shorter stroke, but the pump broke surprisingly fast, I think due to the downwards pressure people expect to need.

I would be delightfully surprised if asparagus showed up but its doubtful since this was just gravel and shrubbery two years ago. It started to open its top leafs so will take new photos tomorrow. Hopefully this mystery can be solved soon.

Haha yea, hay can be great! But, if you cover your land with hay as mulch it needs to be thick enough to starve out itself from growing. I know this because last year i turned my garlic field into a very dense lawn… The grass seeds really loved that fresh soil and took off like nobody’s business The garlic on the other hand suffocated under the mulch layer. I think the lesson is, mulch out, then cut holes in the hay carpet and plant in those holes. Don’t just cover your crops…

Yea, i get cow manure from my neighbour but i am very paranoid about bringing in slugs, an abundant pest in most of the country but absent here. Which is why I’m so stubborn on making soil from only local ingredients. I have my own gravel pit so thats no issue, and an abundance of trees. Rotted birch has been good but finding and hauling it in any quantity becomes too much work.

Yesterday was a very frustrating day as every blend I made just turned to poorly draining muck in my pots. Even though my last mix has been perfect for my seedlings. So posted here to get inspiration for soil additives to help with that. I think i will up the quantity of wood chips and try again. Good advice tho, for those leas scared of slugs!

Sounds close to what in doing, but with cow manure. Im very paranoid about bringing spanish killer slugs which are abundant all over Sweden, but we are one of the few areas that don’t have any. So the only external material is from my neighbour, who also don’t have slugs.

But my problem with the manure is drainage, which is what prompted this question. On the no dig garden its fine when mixed with whatever, but for things that live in pots it just turns to muck and takes hours to drain. Based on your information i will try a significant increase in wood chips tho.

Thanks for chiming in!

To my understanding, high nutrient soils can burn baby seedlings. This is especially true for blends of peat moss with artificial fertiliser but also uncomposted/poorly composted manures.

I usually go for last years, ie depleted, soil. For small seeds i just pulverise it with my hands for the top centimeter. This year I used soil made of composted manure mixed with sand/fine gravel, crushed terracotta, charcoal and woodpulp i took from some decomposing tree in the forest.

Tomatoes, kale, cauliflower, oregano, sunflower, paprika and chili all took off no problem. No signs of life from my cucumbers and artichoke, tho I think at least the cucumber got eaten by mycelium that spread from the composted manure.

I’m intensively staring at the compost to make it go faster, alas, it’s not ready yet :( And since I don’t yet have killer slugs I’m very hesitant to buying even local organic matter.

Pumice, perlite and leca are all mined products which I don’t want to spend money on. Looking for naturally occurring analogs. Unfortunately i haven’t found any clay on the property or I would try making my own.

Im sure their environmental impact varies but regardless I find it so silly that whatever’s already growing doesn’t care but when we go to plant stuff these things become necessary.

Im considering charcoal as i have an abundance of wood. Make a fire and just extinguish it mid blaze. The potash should help with acidity too, no?

And I forgot to mention that I’ve been crushing up old terracotta tile trying to emulate terra preta, which appears to remains fertile for a very very long time.

Hydroponics are super cool but get expensive fast and I have several hectares of useable land.

Yea the pile is cooking but spring is here so seeds got to get planted! I’m very hesitant to buying external anything since I don’t have killer slugs here (yet) and i really really don’t want them.

Leaves and sticks are the uncomposted (plant)foods I’m thinking of, not so much food scraps.

Fabric pots sound cool, will look into diy options for that, but yea, that takes time too.

Thanks for chiming in!

Yea the colours aren’t there either. It did prompt me to pot some ginger in my kitchen tho :)

The spot used to be a gravel patch overgrown by forest offshoots, mostly maple root sprouts, which I cut down early spring last year, cardboarded and covered. This is on the very edge which is why i suspected a root growth or something creeeping in. Most guesses so far have been rhizomal species, which all appear to have similar asparagus looking sprouts. The lily sprout looks similar too but there’s multiple differences, thus i don’t think this is it. Thanks for guessing!