February 6-10

Monday--again

I started some Red Mini Bell peppers, Patio Baby eggplant, purslane and lavender over the weekend. I plant to keep all of those inside. We are still a month and a half away from the time to start outside seedlings indoors. I cut and formed about two dozen starter pots from the tube cores from toilet paper and paper towels so I have plenty to start. I read bloggers who make hundreds of paper pots each year but they have large outside gardens and a lot of space for seedlings inside (if not in a greenhouse). Not my situation.

Everyone needs a good laugh!! I rather expected the punchline but it is fun anyway.

Ira Chernus has a very good article on Tomdispatch today on Trump's (in)security team.

Not much else going on. I baked bread today and when I do that I don't really want to do much else. Made a change in the recipe that we hope will taste as good as it smells.

Tuesday--

The bread turned out quite good. I used apple nectar in place of most of the water and included chopped, dried apples.

The purslane I started Sunday has already sprouted. I plan to get more cups filled and watered to start more greens and to transfer the lettuce and spinach into larger pots. I noticed new growth on the eucalyptus so the drastic pruning may have helped.

This should get interesting. California pays more in taxes than it receives in Federal funds. It has one of the top ten economies in the world. And California contributes a bit more than 13% to the U.S. GDP. It is an interesting question as to which would hurt worse if Trump follows through and "defunds" California.

Tom Englehardt has another good post on the future crimes of the Trump administration.

Wednesday--

Thursday--

Friday--

I did fill and water more starter cups and discovered that I need to be less liberal with the water. Four of the 20 cups I set up were beginning to come apart. Get the soil moist but don't soak everything. I moved the purslane to the other side of the planting area because the seedlings were getting too large for the space under the plastic cap. The tray forms a micro-mini-greenhouse. I think one of the peppers and one of the lavender are trying to surface. We'll see. I have had only limited success with lavender. I hope I have much better luck this year. Otherwise, I get seedlings from the local garden shop. I just started another group of orach (the first group failed), a group of stevia (which I have never had any success with), some Thai basil and more spinach. The tomatoes, spinach, and lettuce I put into larger pots are doing well. Since I planted the entire thing (plant, root ball, and cardboard cup) none showed transplant stress.