They Got Their Big Boy Pants!
Been a while since I updated here!
Soon after that last post I got some lights, a boot tray (for catching water), a thermometer, and a water resistant power strip off Amazon with part of my covid payment, and my indoor multilevel greenhouse was a go. I sprouted two types of lettuce (Butter King and Sanguine Ameliore, both heading-types), red veined sorrel, a dill, a very pink lavender, and some lemon balm which oddly isn't growing very much beyond its initial leaves. I have decided to grow half of the lettuce indoors and half outdoors, just to see what happens, so 22 SA and 5 BK are in litterboxes (clean and new! Except for the holes in the bottom!) in the greenhouse and 19 SA and 15 BKs and all 5 sorrels are out in a small layer garden in the garden bed, for which I needed to buy yet more dirt because I didn't have enough for the top, surrounded by masses of diatomaceous earth to fend off the fiends. The SAs are SO TINY, because I just tossed their seeds on dirt in a box for a light set that didn't work but couldn't be returned because they were bought 4 years ago, while the BKs and sorrel got some leftover jiffy pots so they're much bigger, but oddly also floppy. Its not shock, they've been like this the whole time. May be a butter lettuce thing, I've never tried to grow them before. I also tried growing orca bean sprouts in the littlebox, but they failed. The dill and lavenders need more time so they're also still inside. Lavenders apparently need about 5 months before they're ready for the outdoors, so it may not get out there until next spring. My repotted aloes are still recovering from my suckage at growing them. Its shocking the mother plant has survived almost 10 years now...which is how long I've been back on this side of the mountains to endure more rockiness with the family dynamics. My birthson and his family may not be speaking to me anymore - I don't know, I haven't heard from them for a few years now.
The rise in SNAP benefits has been a HUGE boon, as I haven't had to pay for groceries out of my pocket for a few months now, and Amazon has on occasion put superfood drink powders under it which helps with keeping healthy veggie-wise, as has snagging veggies that people put downstairs that they get in their foodbank boxes. And I was able to use my own funds to FINALLY get a new breadmaker once they were back in stock...and not in Chinese. *facepalm* Unfortunately it looks like the traitor-in-chief may be putting and end to that soon...I find out tomorrow if I'm back to just $16. :/ Oh well, I've got superfoods and flours to eat!
--Zhora