Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

This fight is for everything.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

When we show up, we win.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Afternoon Garden Chat

Sunday Afternoon Garden Chat

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Because your host sucks, I waited until this morning to deal with my seedlings, so I was late getting the picture to AL in time for this morning’s garden chat. I had an amazing germination rate and very few failures per pod, so I took the strongest seedlings and put them in peat pots:

The laggards are being given some more time to get their shit together:

I need to get some more peat pots and organic soil. So far all I have going are a variety of tomato plants, a bunch of pansies, and herbs and spices. Bonus fun- I lost the sheet of paper that told me what was in each cell, so it’s all mystery plants until they grow up enough to be smelly or recognizable.

Starting my cauliflower and broccoli next.

Reader Interactions

56Comments

  1. 1.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Bonus fun- I lost the sheet of paper that told me what was in each cell, so it’s all mystery plants until they grow up enough to be smelly or recognizable.

    I love you so much.

  2. 2.

    Pogonip

    Sorry to interrupt, Cole, but I’ve seen no further updates on the Gahanna, Ohio cats, so unless I return with another message, readers should assume CAHS will have no further word on them. I myself would have liked to know if any were salvaged.

    That’s all, folks, sorry there was no further info. Bye!

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    Ah, shoot. Had figured on doing some mowing today. Weather forecast was propitious and it really, really needs to be done.

    Started raining five minutes ago.

  7. 7.

    Waratah

    My daughter planned a trip for us the end of May for fifteen days and I am not sure I trust our cat minder to water a lot of plants and pots. I will miss having a vegetable garden when I get back.
    I found out last year I have to stagger planting’s of cilantro so I will have some all summer.

  9. 9.

    satby

    And hey John, these are on sale today, with free shipping. I ordered the double sized one to replace one that got damaged when I moved, but the germination rate in these is close to 100%, and if you use the larger sized pods you don’t need an intermediate peat pot transplant step. step. Check them out for next year, they work better than other systems I’ve used. With less maintenance, because I want to putter around gardening, not exert myself ?

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    @satby: I ordered seeds but my friend Steve who always does mine along with his apparently isn’t doing that this year, due to health issues with his wife. So I might think about order this.

    Do I need grow lights with that?

  11. 11.

    satby

    @WaterGirl: I’ve done both: in a south facing window or with a full spectrum bulb in a regular light. I think a grow or full spectrum light worked better because it was more consistent, also if the light is kept close to the top the seedlings don’t get leggy trying to stretch to the light (not close enough to get it hot though).

  21. 21.

    WaterGirl

    What a difference a week makes. My little Henry is off all the pain meds, has one more day of anti-inflamatories, his incision is nearly invisible, and he starts with the water treadmill at some point later this week. So no more blow-up collar around his neck, he is happy about that!

    We have a routine now so everything is less stressful, and he has been sleeping a lot more now that he is off most of the drugs. Not sure why that would be?

    Tucker comes home on Wednesday, so that’s when things get complicated with trying to keep him quiet. But for now, we are good, and he hangs out with me on the couch or mattress on the floor for a couple of hours, three times a day. I have to hold onto his halter the whole time because we are screwed big time if he jumps off of anything or jumps onto anything.

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    Hell as frozen over. I normally find D.R. Tucker maddening and unreadable. In the article, I agreed with pretty much everything he said.

    Journalists Who Normalized Trump Betrayed the Public Trust
    D.R. Tucker
    March 11, 2018
    Political Animal

    You know, it’s not like they weren’t warned.

    CNN’s Brian Stelter was generally spot-on this morning in pointing out the dangers of the rhetoric that flowed from Donald Trump’s mouth Saturday night in Pennsylvania, but he could have gone a little further–hell, a lot further:

    Here’s the problem: Trump has been this way for years. There has never been a time when he wasn’t vulgar or vicious or vainglorious. However, from the outset from his campaign, the Fourth Estate has generally sought to downplay and normalize this abnormal figure in our politics.

    How many times did the press run stories about Trump “pivoting” to becoming “presidential”? How many times did major American newspapers–most notably the New York Times–run insipid, mawkish, borderline-unreadable “into-the-heart-of-Trump-country” stories? How many times did cable news networks–including CNN this morning–give valuable airtime to shameless Trump lackeys?

    Journalists who genuflected to both Trump and the voters who either embraced or ignored his bigotry bear partial responsibility for this madness. Those journalists had a moral and ethical responsibility not to downplay the threat this man posed to the civic soundness of this nation–and they neglected that responsibility.

    I have observed that Trump and George W. Bush should be regarded as equally vile and equally injurious to our democracy. Trump and Bush are also equal in terms of the extent to which Fourth Estate figures kissed their rear ends in the interests of false balance. Remember the coverage of the 2000 presidential campaign, when Bush was depicted as a nicer, funnier, more interesting figure than the allegedly dour, boring, overly wonky Al Gore? Remember the coverage leading up to the Iraq War, when the press refused to ask the hard questions about whether or not we were being sold a bill of goods?

    Journalists who normalized Bush in the 2000s effectively aided and abetted Bush’s deadly deception in Iraq (to say nothing of his hubris at home). Journalists who normalized Trump in the 2010s made the same despicable decision, for the same rancid reason.

    Reporting comprehensively on the profound character flaws of Presidents or presidential candidates who happen to be Republicans is not, and never was, a form of “liberal bias” or “Democratic cheerleading.” Kissing up to those who are comfortable with racism, sexism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia is not being an “objective journalist”; it’s simply being a fool and a chump.

    In response to Trump branding him a “son of a bitch,” NBC’s Chuck Todd kinda misses the point:

    “I bring my kids up to respect the office of the presidency and the president,” Todd said during a brief appearance on NBC’s Washington affiliate. “I don’t allow them to say anything negative, ever, about the president.” He added, “It creates a challenge to all parents when he uses vulgarities like that.”

    What happens when a president doesn’t respect the office of the presidency, or the people that president is supposed to serve? What happens when a president willfully divides a nation, pits group against group, lies on a seemingly minute-by-minute basis and attacks the Constitutionally-protected press and his political adversaries in the most diabolical of ways? What happens when a president cultivates support from white nationalists and voters who don’t think white nationalism is a problem? Doesn’t the press have an obligation not to sugarcoat the hazards of this sort of behavior? Todd didn’t play pattycake with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin this morning, but how many times have we seen Todd’s colleagues play pattycake with Trump acolytes in the name of “respecting the office of the presidency and the president”?

    In the wake of Trump’s repulsive remarks in Pittsburgh, it’s time for the press to pivot, and stop normalizing this nonsense once and for all.

  29. 29.

    grandpa john

    @satby: Park Seed huh? I live about 15 miles from them. Their gardens are always beautiful in the spring and are open for public tours.

  33. 33.

    chris

    There’s so much to take in these days that I forget things like how much I like David Roberts. He should nail this twitter thread to the front door of the FNYT.

    1. All right, this controversy over conservative columnists in @nytopinion is bugging me. Everyone is dancing around the central point! (The same central point everyone dances around in *numerous* contemporary controversies.) So I'ma lay it out.— David Roberts (@drvox) 11 March 2018

  39. 39.

    Gin & Tonic

    It’s one of those heartbreaking early-March days here: glorious blue sky, a few puffy clouds, mid 40’s, most of the snow has melted, here and there some crocuses have bloomed, and you think we’re on our way to springtime, so I went for a nice bike ride. But no, winter storm watch from Monday into Tuesday, 4-8 inches more snow coming.

  44. 44.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Gin & Tonic: It’s been raining the past few days here(thank FSM), but tomorrow is supposed to be nice for the urban hike madame, the kid, and I are supposed to undertake. The rest of the week, it’s supposed to rain(thank FSM).

  54. 54.

    cosima

    I have been eating a really excellent broccoli + cauliflower hybrid veg for a couple of months, and it’s perfect. Since you’re trying them separately, try to find seeds for a hybrid as well.

  55. 55.

    cosima

    @WaterGirl: A good start would be A) not going to the Sarah Sanders show, and B) not reporting on his tweets — if he wants to make official announcements (mostly likely badly), let him do it as it has been done by other presidents in the past.

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