Seedblog

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Seedblog ~ Growing, making + teaching for a healthier Earth � All things gardening, zero waste, preserving, fermenting and low impact living � Welcome!

G'Day, I'm Katie Traill, creator of Seedblog. There are many varied things I incorporate into life and work - physiotherapy, education, yoga practice, swimming, and cooking - but my biggest love is Earth care. In recent years I've found myself addicted to the learning, excitement and connection associated with low impact living and believe we all need to prioritise our environment. Growing organic vegetables provides me with endless joy, fermenting foods and beverages is heavenly experimentation, and waste reduction is a necessary and fun challenge. Seedblog was created to share my knowledge, skills and passions - I adore teaching and have developed hands-on workshops in Geelong and the Surf Coast to facilitate embodiment of my values.

Please explore my workshops, courses, blog and Instagram profile using the tabs above, and find my contact details there too if you'd like an edible garden consultation, to collaborate or ask me a question. I'd love to hear from you! In the meantime, I'll likely be in the kitchen, at the local farmer's market, or in the garden. You can also find me working with Connections By LGC, B-Alternative and Towards Zero Waste Geelong businesses.

28/09/2022

Smoosh is growing fast - now the size of an orange 🍊 and I'm making great progress on my fundraiser.

TODAY any donation made to my page will be matched dollar-for-dollar, up to a combined total of $8,000!

That means if you donate to my fundraising page today, you’ll have DOUBLE the impact (and get me twice as close to my fundraising goal of $1000)!

All funds will help build climate action in Australia with the fab org I work for, 💙 We do this in many ways, but most powerful of all is our Climate Conversations program, helping people talk about - then feel empowered to take action on - climate change. We’ve reached over 11,500 people to date in this program alone.

I'm just $300 off my target - any amount you can give would be so appreciated. The more we can do now, the more likely smoosh will have a healthy planet to inherit 🤞🏽 Thank you for your support as always!

Head to the link in my bio to donate.

10/09/2022

First trimester - an homage 🌸

29/07/2022

🍯🌙 photo dump

Summary:
Slow
Beach
Champagne
Peri peri “chicken”
Nap
Walk
Donuts
Coffee
Read
Play
Room service
Shells
🐚

22/05/2022

About last night… I never used to give much of a s**t about politics (like many of us Gen Y). It’s often such a removed, all-talk-no-action roundabout of ego-spruiking that it’s never been worth investing time in (or so I thought). This year, I learned the worth worth taking the time to care a bit more.

My colleagues and other climate activists have shown me that people power doesn’t stop at grassroots movements. It starts there. This election was also - excitingly - different. Independents, representing constituents sick of the liberal (and labor) BS, have actually done their job as politicians and stood for change - and won! It was a night for the teals, and the Greens, which is a night for CLIMATE and people power.

Myself, friends and colleagues were all losing hope this week, terrified of the mental toll of another term of ignorant short-sighted liberal dominance. Thankfully, we were loud - and were actually heard. Labor is in power, while time will tell if via a minority (we hope) or majority, and the Greens have made history.

Another amazing thing to come out of this election is the number of women in power. Yes, people of diverse backgrounds, LGBTQ+ and BIPOC representation have a way to go, but I suspect more female politicians is a step in that direction. With near gender equality in the Labor party, they’re miles ahead of the past govt. This kind of move increases my interest in politics - and probably that of many other girls and women.

On a final note - Albo’s speech. Watch it in full. Did he write it himself? Probably not. Did he deliver it sincerely? I believe so. Who knew I could feel emotional watching a Labor PM deliver a speech (Cont in comments..)

02/05/2022

Local native garden progress (swipe for Nov ‘21 👉🏽 today)

Look out, first gardening post in seven months! 🙈 I’m loving seeing the progress in our front garden beds since J got into it almost six months ago. This is the first ornamental bed I’ve designed (that being said, we couldn’t resist adding a veggie bed in there with so much northern sun 😅) and it’s going really well. Slow growing with all this La Niña cool weather but recent rains have been ace.

The brief for this was: attractive, drought-hardy local species, and low maintenance. Tick! Some species are not local, or even native, but 90% are and those that aren’t grow really well in our area. I really wanted to stick with silver-grey colours with pops of green and brown, and lots of texture.

As this bed matures, some of these shrubs and grasses will grow taller than the fence, some half-way up, and many act as living mulch ground covers. Staggering heights and mixing textures are classic design principles easy to play with. Yet to come are two corten feature beds to fill the gaps, add intrigue, and grow more veg.

Designing, pruning and watering are now my delegated back-friendly activities while J does the heavy work (and loves it, thankfully). It’s been heavenly to get back into it!

Any questions or species names, feel free to comment below 🌿

06/04/2022

I know from lived experience that many people don’t know how to navigate the change in health or abilities of a friend or loved one. I can’t speak on behalf of everyone with chronic illness or disability - these are my own learnings and words. I’m sharing because they really do make a *world* of different to us!

If you’re also disabled or unwell, is there anything you would add?

Image description: all nine tiles have light text on a darkened image of Mt Hotham, with a small graphic of crutches and an arrow in each corner. Text on each slide is as follows:

How to support someone who's developed a life-changing long-term
health condition.

1 - Ask to understand
If you're not sure how they're going and what they can/can't do, ask rather than assume.
Remember it's a stressful and confusing time for the person and their close circle - they're often trying to figure out their new life too.
It's not always an easy topic, so starting with 'is it OK if I ask you about -- ' is really helpful! Sometimes we're up for it, other times not.

2 - offer support, not advice
The biggest mistake we often make is assuming what they need - often, advice on a cure. We're already doing, or have been through, this hugely scary process.
Unless someone is actively seeking advice, it's best not to talk about that amazing doctor you once saw who cured your x, y, z.
My favourite question to receive is: 'is there anything I can do to support you right now?'

3 - keep them in your life
Even though we might regularly decline invites to things because we're too unwell/disabled to attend, keep inviting us! It's not a reflection of our 'want' to come, and one day we might be able to.
Ask them what modifications might make activites more accessible - would a quiet close-by cafe be better than a loud bar that involves a drive? Would different seating, times or days make it easier? (Continued in comments…)

27/02/2022

“I know I should post on IG, but I f*cking hate it” - 😂 client sentiments of late! Is this you, too?

Most of us with businesses cbf spending the time and effort, or feel totally out of our depth. I get it!

Save this post for future reference to make life a little easier 👆🏽(start at #1 as it might save you a tonne of time!)

18/02/2022

In honesty, my brain is truly fried after a big week, with another still to go. So I turned to J’s words instead for a little ethical business 101.

He said this the other week as we were talking about the kinds of characters you meet in different industries, and this was his motto. Can you imagine what workplaces might be like if this was the norm? 🤍

09/02/2022

If you didn’t know you, and you came across your project or business’ IG posts and stories, would you get a good sense of the human behind it all?

A quick scroll might show the country or area in which you live, maybe you or your team’s fab faces, and [hopefully!!] what you’re offering to the world. Maybe your stories indicate you’re partial to a nap, *need* that latte at you’re local at 9am, and other little BTS snippets.

They’re great additions, but what about the big stuff? Do you let your followers know what you value? The why behind the sales or services? Do you hint at your personality through design?

The stronger someone believes in your venture, the more likely they are to buy/book/hire you. Regularly. Building trust through humanness, transparency and a lil vulnerability helps a LOT! This alllll applies to your online presence - website, socials, eDMs, the works [not just the gram]. My fav people to follow are ones who are open, personal and make you feel like you know them already.

When you reveal your values, it might look like sharing about the charities you donate to. The actions you’re taking to back your reshares on workplace inequality. The compostable packaging your biz uses and *why*. The books and podcasts you consume (true crime doesn’t count as a value soz 😉). Even the colours, shapes, images and text - do they help to convey how [insert trait here] you are?

Are there changes you’ve made, or wanna make, to show a bit more you in your brand this year? Jump in the comments👇🏽 or slide into you-know-where 😉

31/01/2022

Plenty of you were keen to know how I went about moving away from after they were bought by last year 🤦🏼‍♀️

Swipe across to read about my process and let me know if it’s useful at all to you! Have you changed providers? What helped you decide?

28/01/2022

You buy from them, seek them out, or aim to be one. You engage their services, feel good for supporting them, and want to see they’re making a difference.

So what actually is an ethical business? Is it a unicorn, or a real tangible concept? And what does an ethical business look like?

Above are some *crucial* words I associate with ethics in the workplace (and beyond). Yep, I know what you’re thinking - isn’t it a bit subjective? Oath it is.

Organisations like B-Corp and Green rating programs aim to formulate some objectivity around these grey concepts, which is great. But as an outsider it can be so hard to know if a group is ethical or.. not 🚩 🚩

I, like you, have my own idea of what constitutes an ethical business and apply that criteria to my ‘dream client’ base, because I want to make positive change - not go backwards (especially where Mama 🌏 is concerned). Look to available information and for transparency when making your own mind up.

What do you think makes a biz ethical? Tag your faves below to give them some love! 🧡

🎵 Warm Thoughts ~ 🍑

24/01/2022

Things you do 🤙🏽 and don’t 🙈 need to share about your ethical business online:

• 🤙🏾 DO tell people *exactly* why you do whatever it is you do. We wanna know your why because it gives a lil peek into your life with a saucy side of vulnerability. Your clients love to feel they’re supporting something, or someone, worthwhile. If it’s a bit uncomfortable to think about publicly declaring your passions, that’s often a good sign to do it 😉

• 🙈 DONT tell lies. Like, ever. Fastest way to lose a client base? Empty promises.

• 🤙🏻 DO share that new project you’re not sure anyone would even like. Because someone always will. As long as you’re 100% behind it, share that sh*t.

• 🙊 DONT share details of employees/others without permission. We love a BTS yah, but with consent (side note: this includes others’ artwork or IP even if you tag ‘em)

• 🤙🏿 DO share h o n e s t l y 💫 People love a relatable brand, and chances are you’re going through things (good and bad) that clients are too. Had a rough week and took 48h offline? Go you! It’s nice to know you’re human, too ☺️

• 🙈DONT spruik your goals and achievements for the wrong reasons. We lurrrve action towards equality and climate action, but for the sake of these causes, NOT for that woke tick-box 🤨

Whether it’s on your website, blog, Insta, LinkedIn or Twitter, sharing your humanness is a good thing for your brand! You don’t have to go all in and tell us all how bad your IBS is this week, sure (I mean, you can if that’s your thing 😉) - but a sprinkle of the people behind the screen goes a long way ✨

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