Today I realized with dismay that I had wanted to post something here this February, and then realized that thanks to it being a leap year, it was still February! Yay! The only unusual thing that happened to me was that my fortune cookie at lunch had no fortune in it. I don't know why I think weird things should happen on Leap Day, but I do. Which is perhaps not very nice to my cousin George, as it's his birthday.
So, what to blog about? My garden is coming along nicely, I have transplanted the seedlings into little pots. No mint came up, and only one rosemary, but my gardening books assure me that the rosemary is a miracle and never mention seeds where mint is concerned, so I feel pretty confident in my green thumb. However, now there is mold growing on the dirt in the pots, and I'm torn between continually watering the seedlings to keep them comfy and letting the dirt dry completely in the hopes of killing the mold. Any advice?
I have just discovered a vey cool website, Goodreads. I may have mentioned at the beginning of this blog that one of the numerous accounts I hoped to pull together was a record of what I read. However, I read a lot. I mean a lot. I read one book today, and two yesterday. I have read six books since last Friday, when I went to the library, and intend to read at least one more before I go back, next Friday. To be fair, most of these are for work, and therefore young adult books, and therefore fairly short and not too difficult to read. I also have a ridiculous reading speed that hovers in the 500-800 wpm range, depending on the difficulty and my interest. I spend a lot of my free time reading as I find it distracting and much better than narcotics (at least in terms of side effects) to deal with my chronic pain. But still, I think it would get boring for both of us if I was constantly posting "oh hey, I just read this book and this is what I think of it." I would like this blog to have a little more variety than that.
Then I stumbled on Goodreads, which is the fantastic answer to all of my half-filled reader's journals. You put in what books you've read, how much you like them (by a 5-star system, I would have really liked something more in-depth, but oh well) and then it recommends books you might like. You can also write reviews and sort your books into your own categories. I've got four: Paperbacks (books I read for pure enjoyment, including romance, fantasy, scifi, and magical realism to name a few genres), Classics (books I read as a sort of continuing-self education in literature), Comics (which conveniently combines comic books, graphic novels, mangas, and art-instruction books into one place) and Work, where I put all the books I've screened for my students to read in the hopes that I will get more ideas.
Best of all, you can share this with your friends! It's integrated into Facebook (which is how I came to hear of it). I have yet to fully use this option, but I only just discovered it today and spent way too much time cataloging the ridiculous number of books in my apartment, as well as trying to remember books I've read that I don't have any more. I encourage anyone who likes to read and discuss books to check it out.
So, there's my February post. I'm slowly pre-writing a post on "Why it sucks to be an artist in this town" but I haven't really hit on the right mood to actually sit down and write it. Which is probably a good thing.
For the mold on the plants, I would typically suggest watering like normal but occasionally adding a fungicide, however since these are intended for raw consumption, I'm not sure if that's a good idea. You may want to look into the safety of fungicides in foods. If you do choose to go this route, I think mom may still have some. This was a struggle with the hollyhocks I grew.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to do this moderately organic, since they are indoors and not regularly washed by rain, so I have to be careful. I have used potassium in the past as an insecticide (and waited a week before picking anything) and I've heard of using peppermint oil for a fungicide, not sure if that would work or not. Did the mold ever kill your hollyhocks? If not I think maybe I'll leave it alone. Which is saying something for me lol.
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