I must do something with these now.
The petunias (not shown here) set at the window receiving strong indirect natural light are still tiny, but these planted at the same time under 40W fluorescents and with a heated blanket skipped well ahead.
So these large plants must be replanted now, leaving room to plant more and with enough time left before Spring to fix any oversights.
But the poor petunia development at the windows shows me that natural light in those two spots is still insufficient to take over where these fluorescents leave off once they are replanted into their containers. The natural light is not strong enough yet, not direct yet, and the days not yet long enough. Did I jump the gun perhaps?
No! What's with the second guessing and self-doubt creeping up in here already?
I think, but I am not sure, I must now invest in a few more lights to fill the light-length and light-strength at the window for a month or so until the sun moves and the days are longer. Only until the plants can be left outside. Eh, they're cheap enough. All garage-type shop lights. Very effective. I got the fluorescents on eBay. I have 25 of them. Clearly, they work very well. Even better if I knew what I was doing. This is one of those live and learn as you go things. It's just the idea of storing all that when not needed.
The petunias are growing much faster than when I did this before with a small plastic greenhouse and without lights. That year, those petunias did very well once outside, better than the larger more developed supplemental petunias purchased later. I wrote the seed-company and told them I didn't expect much from the 10-each seed packs of nearly microscopic seeds that took so long to get going but once they took off the plants poured out of their basket containers with surprising and long-lasting profusion. They wrote back and said,
"THANK YOU FOR SAYING THAT !
Nobody ever does. It means so much.
I forgot what these plants are, but they sure are cute. I have a feeling these are going to spread like crazy.
These tiny two-leaf things just starting are coleus. It occurred to me after some of the first round failed that most arrangements I saw around last summer had some kind of coleus in them, often mixes of various coleus species. Once I began noticing then I noticed them everywhere, new species I hadn't seen before. Intriguing large-leafed plants with wild patterns and very wide range of colors. I found an online source and bought seed packs from each category of coleus, the full range of sizes and colors and types. These shown above are the type that grow large as dinner plates. They're grown for foliage, not for blooms, but their foliage is so bright and so varied they're like blooms. They grow well in shade, appreciate bright light, tolerate direct sun. Pretty much a perfect container plant. I think they will work well in my situation.
They are very easy to grow, a beginner's plant, the first houseplant I owned, but I never started them from seed before. This is going to be fun. I bought ten or so packages of seeds. Some packages have 10 seeds, some packages have 250 seeds, it's insane. All failed cups from hereon get some kind of coleus seeds and help with heat and light to get started. That's the plan for now. See that naked cup up there? It's already planted with dragon coleus with dark compact fuzzy and convoluted leaves.
This is a pepper, I think. I'll know when it blooms, probably pretty soon too.
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Last night I transplanted the last of the geranium starters to 4 inch pots. Scarlet Bullseye and Salmon Confetti.
Doing the transplanting has been a royal pain in the ass in years past but it wasn't all that bad this time.
And I did it without raiding the beer fridge in the basement, so I'm kind of proud of that, which is not at all the same thing as saying I wasn't well-hammered during the process.
Woke up to 20º below this morning. High today of 14º, then.............
Into the thirties tomorrow and on. Back to average temps.
Monday, I had my septic tank pumped because my toilet wouldn't flush. Septic tank wasn't frozen, but the pipe to the drain field must have froze. Very, very cold February with hardly any snow cover.
I bought this place in 1973 and it's the first time I've had problems with the septic system.
(1) I just visited TOP and resisted the urge to post a snarky comment. Guess I'm typing this out, here, because I feel the need for some positive reinforcement. Mental masturbation. Hey, we do the best we can with what we've got.
(2) In other news, I had a nightmare last night where my elderly dog was lost in the ruins of an ancient castle. I found her outside, cold and wet, huddled up in a corner of rubble being attacked by a pack of dogs.
I kicked them all aside and scooped her up. She was shivering.
Holding her in my arms, she died right then and there, with her coat and skin rotting off of her right before my eyes. As I looked at her bare skull, my horror became combined with the realization that she didn't have a dog skull. I was looking at a cat skull. And in real life it's been a little more than a year's time since I made the decision to kill my cat because he was very sick with no hope of recovery and I'm still grieving.
Have a nice day.
Green. I forgot what that color looks like. Thanks.
I know white and brown.
A Chip post is always a good place to be wowed by artistic talent and also knowledge above and beyond the scope of my various repair manuals.
Yesterday it was the office chair that was given to me that was missing the height adjusting lever. I got tired of it being too low so I had to completely disassemble it to have access to the bottom of the adjustable hydraulic cylinder, then drink a lot of coffee trying to figure out how I could adjust it. After a number of failures I stuck a sharp awl into the bottom of the cylinder which released pressure that made it higher. Then I put it back together.
Now, as I sit on it, I'm wondering if maybe it isn't a little too high....
I like the piano stools that you spin around to make higher or lower, now that makes sense because you get to spin around with each elevation-related decision. If spinning up makes you dizzy then spinning down makes you undizzy. There's logic to those piano stools.
Yesterday was 71° here and I'm kicking myself for not planting the new Casa Blanca Lily bulbs. Right now we have 26° and rain.
The wood over the well housing in back has finally succumbed to the elements. Turns out that inside the cinder block walls are marble walls. How weird is that?
Those look like peppers. They don't look like my peppers, though, because the cats keep eating my baby pepper plants... not enough to kill them, just to turn them into pepper sticks until they manage to grow more leaves. I suppose they'd die eventually if the cats keep doing it.
Anyone want some cats?
On my street even the cats don't want more cats around but they keep making them.
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