I think whiteflies have attacked my seedlings. :(

I wintered over a pepper plant.  When I moved it outside this weekend, I noticed a bunch of little white flecks of something around the area where the pot was.  I didn't think much of it.

About two feet away, my vegetable seedings are on shelves next to a window.  Tonight I noticed that some of the cilantro, parsley, leek, and pepper seedlings are starting to look rather unhappy.  The leaves of the cilantro and parsley are getting pale, and they have very pale spots on the leaves.  The leeks are just droopy - so maybe they have another issue going on.  The peppers also have the pale spots, but their overall color looks OK.  

After running a few internet searches, I found a picture of the litle white specks that were apparently living on the overwintered pepper.  They were identified as whiteflies.  

The overwintered pepper is now outside.  It's not coming back in.  

I guess tomorrow I need to go look for whitefly traps.  I read somewhere about spraying infected plants with neem oil or diluted soap.  I'm a bit wary of this - they're just seedlings!  But if the bugs don't go, the plants will probably die since they cause leaf loss, and seedlings don't have many leaves to lose.

*sigh*

It's late, I guess I'll sleep on it.

I didn't plant my potatoes today because it's going to rain for 2 days and not be particularly warm.  (The high temperature tomorrow is supposed to be 50. Gah!)  I thought the potatoes would not appreciate being dumped into already soggy ground, chilled thoroughly, and then rained on again for two days.  Hopefully it will be warm and sufficiently dry next weekend.

I need to replant the carrots, definitely.  After I described how I planted them, my mom says I planted them too deep.  I was supposed to scatter the seeds, then scatter a thin layer of dirt over them.  Raking 1/2 an inch of dirt over them with a hoe was not a good plan, it seems.  Live and learn.

Also on the live-and-learn front, all of my oregano seedlings shriveled up and died in their nursery pack. They dried out too much, I guess.  I'm still trying to decide if I want to replant them or not.  If I ever do get around to planting oregano again, now I know that they need to be kept with a baggie or some other humidity-hood over them so that they won't dry out.  The other plants are fine, but the oregano seedlings were also pretty tiny and fragile compared to the others. 

The coleus and nasturtium in seed batch 2 sprouted today.  I have a bajillion chamomile seedlings - OMG!  I am NOT looking forward to transplanting them all.

I mulched all of my shrubs today after learning that there really ought to be some sort of DMZ between the shrub and the weeds when a weed-eater is involved.  One of my hydrangeas got an accidental trim today.  Whoops.  Anyway - while mulching, I discovered the first signs of life on the crape myrtle and beautyberry - so they'e not dead after all!  Yay! :D

I wonder when/if the lilac is actually going to bloom.  It looks like it has buds, but it's looked that way for several weeks now, I think.  Eh, it's still a cute little shrubbery even it isn't blooming yet. :)

Three days after being transplanted, one of the oregano passed on to the Farplane.   Eh, that's not bad.  The next great danger the seedlings face is when I finally put them outside to start the acclimation process.  I'm waiting at least a week for them to get their roots established in their new little homes before I subject them to that.

The second batch of chamomile is coming right along.  A few tulsi seeds have sprouted.  I'm starting to think that I have bad luck with shiso - which is unfortunate, because it's one of the herbs that I'm not likely to find in nurseries around here. Poo.

I'm wondering at what point I should just replant the carrots and onions.  I have some more carrots seeds - I ordered some about a week ago.  I might have to go scrounge up some onion seeds, though.

The alyssum has already sprouted.  I planted it 2 days ago.  Wow.

The transplanted seedlings have all survived their first 24 hours, so that bodes well.  I was worried that some of them would be irreparably droopy today from the shock.
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OK, I guess that IS a bit of a sensational headline. :P  I've been at Carraba's drinking tasty, tasty wine.  We got home while there was just enough light for me to see the garden.  I threw an old sheet (the one I ripped ribbons off of  last year to make tomato ties) over the mustards.  The sheet also covered the areas where I planted onions and chard.  The carrots and chrysanthemums haven't sprouted yet, and are at the mercy of the elements.

I guess they really weren't kidding about the last frost date being around April 15.  I was hoping to cheat a bit.  Meh.

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Well, the little dudes are living in new homes now. :)  It took me an hour and a half to move them all! Argh! 

I'm not really  a fan of transplanting seedlings from the initial pot to nursery packs, but I haven't thought of a better way.  I tried starting the pansy seeds in nursery pots, but that turned out being pretty wasteful.  

The problem with transplanting seedlings is the danger of snapping their stems or ripping too many of the roots off.   Poor little dudes - I hope I didn't break any of them.

And now I am going to go try to get all of this dirt out from under my fingernails ...

Oh - I did remember to plant the nasturtiums.  I almost forgot, but I spotted them before I'd finished putting all the transplanting supplies away.  Those seeds are huge!  They're only slightly smaller than an M&M.  

All of the transplanting work took place inside since it's weirdly cold again.  Oh well - the mustards that are outside are tough, and the others haven't sprouted yet.   It's a good thing I did do the transplanting inside - it was well after dark when I finished.
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Today I planted more seeds.  Some of them are repeats of batch #1.

• Platycodon (balloon flower) var. Mariesii  - 10
• Alysum, Aphrodite Bold Mix - dunno, seeds are very small!
• Coleus, Wizard Mix - 10
• Chamomile - tiny seeds!, second planting
• Aka Shiso - 12
• Tusli - tiny seeds, second planting
• Dill - didn't count these either, second planting

While planting the flowers, I noticed that the seed packets said MUST HAVE SUNLIGHT TO GERMINATE.  Huh.  Since I didn't get great results with the chamomile, tulsi, or dill that were trying to sprout in the dark, I decided to put them in the sun this time, too.  

I also planted Swiss Chard (Rainbow Five Color Silverbeet) and chrysanthemum greens in the garden.  The carrots and onions still haven't sprouted.  Apparently, I was supposed to be watering them. Oops. *sheepish* 

And I have some nasturtium seeds soaking in water.  Apparently you're supposed to soak them in water overnight.  I found that out when I read the back of the seed packet this afternoon. :P  Oh well, so they'll get planted tomorrow ...

I have potatoes to plant, too.  I'm waiting until the dark of the moon, which is next weekend. 

And the batch 1 seedlings need to be transplanted.  I wanted to give the newer sprouts time to get their stuff together before I move them, but the older ones are starting to topple over under their own weight.
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Most of my little seedlings are happily growing in the dining room window now.

The leeks are quite strange.  They don't have two little seed-leaves like all of the other seedlings.  They're just tiny little stalks.  The stalk pokes out of the soil with a sharp bend in it, and then it gradually unfolds and straightens out.

I have to replant some of my seeds.  Only two of the Amish Paste tomatoes sprouted.  I also only got two dill sprouts.  When I checked yesterday, only a few chamomile had sprouted.  None of the catnip came up. ( I think I didn't get a good germination rate on them last year, either.) I also think that we might need more than four tulsi plants - assuming that I actually do make tea out of them this year. 

I think that I may have covered the seedlings with too much dirt.  I'm actually worried about the same problem for the outdoor seedlings.  

Regarding the outdoor seedlings, I think I saw some mustard sprouts when I looked yesterday, but I'm not sure.  There are little weeds sprouting too, so it's hard to tell.  When the sprouts (hopefully) appear in a mostly straight line, then I'll know that I'm definitely looking at mustards. :P  I just slogged out in the rain and looked, and I'm fairly certain that there are mustard sprouts.  They have two leaves, and each leaf is kind of heart-shaped.  Without the point bit on the end. Each leaf has a dip in the middle like the top part of a heart.

I'm not sure I like this whole direct-sowing thing.  I've been batting around the idea of planting plants that are supposed to be direct sown into starter containers that are outside and somewhat sheltered.  That way I'd know how many seedlings I'm dealing with and can then transplant them, and the seeds would sprout in regular outdoor conditions - so there would be no need for acclimating them.   Now I'm concerned that I'm going to have bedraggled patches of veggies with lots of gaps instead of evenly planted rows. *sigh*

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Some of my indoor seeds have already sprouted!  Here's what is up already:

• leeks - 3 of 20
• Lollipop tomatoes 3 of 5
• tulsi - 1 of 8
• Amish Paste tomatoes 2 of 8
• Gold Medal tomatoes 8 of 10

The Gold Medal seedlings look like especially robust little seedlings.  The leek seedlings are strange-looking - there's no sign of leaves!  They look like tiny little naked stalks. 

This afternoon I planted Dragon carrots, Red Wethersfield Onions from Monticello, and Southern Curled Mustard.  It's supposed to rain here for the rest of the week, so I decided that I'd better go ahead and plant the little dudes while I can. 

Here is a list of the seeds I planted in cute little neon green 3oz. Solo cups yesterday:

1. Bellingrath Pepper 8
2. Jalepeno Pepper 15
3. Cilantro 8
4. Chives 6
5. King Richard Leek 20
6. Dill 8
7. Oregano 10
8. Forest Green Parsley 12
9. Chinese Five Color Pepper 5
10. Amish Paste Tomato 8
11. Lollipop Tomato 5
12. Tulsi 8
13. Chamomile 20
14. Gold Medal Tomato 10
15. Catnip 6
16. Hungarian Hot Wax Banana Peppers 8
17. Thai Hot Peppers 8

I planted them in Ferry-Morse organic seed starter mix.  The little cups are in the kind of tray that you keep nursery flats in, covered with the clear lid, covered with a black trash bag.  They're on a shelf near a window in the laundry room.

We tilled the garden yesterday.  Some time this week I'll get around to planting the onions, carrots, chard, mustard, and blue potatoes, I hope.  I'm still tired from yesterday. Woo.

Against all odds, there was some garlic still hanging on in the garden.  I moved them to some flower pots on the back deck.  The garden needed to be tilled, and the poor garlic was in the way!  At least this way it has a fighting chance to finish out its lifecycle ...
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Last night I noticed that the bloody dock and dwarf bleeding heart have returned!  (Wow, with those names, my garden sounds ... like it might need some band-aids, huh? :P)  My tiny little lilac is covered with buds as well.  I'm still waiting for my Rip Van Winkle daffodils to actually bloom - they have buds that have been slowly opening for about a week.  The hydrangeas are starting to grow leaves as well. Well, two of them are.  I'm a bit concerned about the third one. The beautyberry and Muskogee crape myrtle still look like dead sticks poking out of the ground.  No more crocuses have emerged, so I guess the squirrels ate them all. :(  And I need to dig up the muscari while I can still tell where they are, before I start mowing the grass again.  

I think I need to get more sleep.  However, I'm not sure how, short of tacking more hours on the day.  I'm just so tired.  I think I'd be a lot less grumpy about the diet if I felt more well-rested.  I do realize that I don't need more caffeine - I need more sleep, but caffeine is way easier to come by.  I am still drinking green tea, but all things considered, my normal caffeine intake is always pretty low since if I drink too much, I get squirrelier than usual.  

Right now if I had a choice between a 3-hour nap and a sushi buffet, I'd go for the nap.  

I'm experiencing this weird "hungry/not-hungry" thing.  I think it's that I'm finally experiencing the difference between psychological hunger and physiological hunger.  Now that my only food options are things that frankly usually aren't as tasty my normal nommings, I realize that I actually am full more often than I would've normally realized.  But I'm still ... hungry.  And that part of me that's insisting that it's hungry really does think that a plate of tuna tataki would set everything right with the world. Ah, hormones - those little stinkers. :P (Wait - lack of sleep increases production of ghrelin?!? Oh ...)

I miss the flavors of things that I'm accustomed to eating.  I'm really looking forward to dinner at Chipotle tonight, because at least that tastes like the usual stuff (minus the extra tang of sour cream and cheese).  I wish I would stop thinking about that tasty salmon wrap at Harper's, though.

Alright, I'm going to stop whining and try to think about what I'm going to do about the sleep thing.

Every time I think about what a pain in the butt this diet is, I remind myself that I did manage to stop smoking cold turkey, and this is a comparative cakewalk.

(cake! *groan* ;) )

Oh! And I've managed to drop 4 pounds so far. 

OK, so it is really hard to find gluten-free stuff.  There is wheat flour in Zatarain's Red Beans and Rice, it's also in the Japanese Vermont Curry.  Our theory is that it's a thickening agent to keep the sauces from becoming runny.  *sigh* 

Also, J is totally right about needing a mid-afternoon snack ... that became abundantly clear after eating my sensible lunch of dolmates, refried beans, and Spanish rice.  Around 4, I was ready to chew through my arm.  Luckily I found a nut bar stashed in my office.  So it had a minute amount of cane juice ... the road to madness is paved with perfection. :P 

We did go to Earth Fare last night, and I have the makings of my own trail mix to get me through tomorrow's mid-afternoon snack attack.  Because none of the pre-made trail mixes were free of some sort of sugar or honey.  Oh! Oats!  G thinks oats contain gluten ... let's find out.  Oh.  People aren't really sure, but it's safest for people who have to avoid gluten to skip the oats. *sigh*  Some of that granola I saw yesterday looked tasty ...

And I lost 2 pounds.  G says there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for that. *rolls eyes* :P  He also asked me if I'd established a baseline for my weight, and the answer is "No." 

Today G and I are starting the diet that's commonly known as "Oprah's 21 Day Cleanse."  (I think it's more accurately called "The Quantum Wellness Diet." 

Per the diet, we're supposed to avoid:

• Caffeine
• Sugar
• Alcohol
• Gluten
• Animal Products

Also, I didn't know this when we decided to try the cleanse, but my total cholesterol is high!  (My LDL is a bit north of normal, and so is my HDL - but in the case of the latter, it's good to be higher than normal.)  So now I'm even more motivated to get animal-based products out of my diet.  ... temporarily.  After the cleanse diet is over, the fish is going right back into my diet.  I should probably make long-term plans to eat less cheese than I have been.  (I'm sure my acupuncturist will approve. :P )

I predict that I'm really going to miss cheese and red wine.  :(

I'm also a little worried about "stealth gluten" - I've got to remember to really read labels carefully.

And speaking of beverages, I'm not ceasing to drink my morning green tea.  The cleanse says no caffeine, and it is true that there is caffeine in green tea, but I'm not trying to get some sort of certificate for completing this cleanse thing, and I think the dietary benefits of green tea far outweigh the detrimental effects of a small amount of caffeine.  And it's tasty. Hmmph.

I'm not terribly concerned about weight loss.  I could stand to drop a few pounds, sure.  I happily predict that I will lose some weight. :)  But that's not the motivating factor for me - cleaning out my system is my motivation.

For lunch, we're going to Boba House.  After work, we're going to stop by Chipotle and have the usual naked burritos without the cheese or sour cream, and off to Earth Fare to procure provisions.  Luckily, both of us really like beans and rice. :)  

The daffodils are just starting to peek out of the ground. :)  They're about half an inch high at this point.  They're planted around the outer edge of my concrete walkway.  I'm very excited about them, yay! :D

I think the saffron crocuses that I planted around the mailbox are gone.  I'm currently pondering ways to keep the squirrels and other yard mammals from munching on the next set of bulbs that I plant.

The pansies that I started from seed are slowly puttering along.  Most of them are too "leggy" as my mom calls it - they grew weak, spindly stems that can't really support the weight of the leaves.  Ah well.  I apparently planted them at the wrong time.  Now I know.

A couple of observations on Obama's speech:

• Hooray for broadband in the boondocks! :D (No, really - he mentioned it.  Load the page, hit CTRL-F, type "broadband" in the search field - you'll see it.)  
• Mike Rowe is hopefully delighted. :) 

I'm pretty excited.  This is still a new feeling for me - actually being excited about things that politicians say.  I'm generally not into government spending, but we do have infrastructure needs, and there's the whole need for alternative energy sources.  I'm pretty OK with this blood infusion, we just need to make sure that the wounds in the economy get closed as well.  The gov can help with that at a regulatory level (and they should!), but there's also work to be done at an individual level. 

If we were to distill the economic crisis down to its essence, I think we'd find greed sitting at the bottom of the pot.  Financiers created financial vehicles that no one seems to understand in order to wring more profit out of the system.  Banks made higher interest loans to subprime borrowers, thus generating more profit on higher risk.  (and then of course they required mortgage insurance to cover it) People borrowed way more money than they were prepared to repay, I guess thinking that it was "magic" that they were suddenly able to afford houses and stuff.  Our economy became an unsubstainable system, and it unsurprisingly crashed. 

Well, that's way more preaching than I intended to do today.  :P I just wanted to get that recorded for my own reference years later.  I also need to mention that I have a bunch of foolishly acquired debt myself.  I gotta work on kicking the credit addiction. 

So, without further ado, here's the link to the article -
NPR.com: Obama's Remarks on Stimulating the US Economy

While we were honeymooning in Asheville, I discovered a new potential breakfast food that I actually like - greens! We happily ate greens for breakfast several mornings at The Green Sage.  (We ordered the "Green Sage Plate." Their shiitake gravy is also to die for. Mmm....)

As a general rule, I don't like breakfast foods, so I don't eat breakfast.  But every bit of nutritional advice I've read - both Eastern and Western - stresses how important breakfast is.  *sigh*  What to do? Now it occurs to me (in the middle of the night *sigh*) that maybe I can eat some tasty greens for breakfast.  I especially like mustard greens. :)  But collards are pretty good, too.  And I like "chrysanthemum greens"  also.  Luckily it appears that some kind of green is in season for most of the year in North Carolina. (NC Fruit & Veggie Availability Chart)

I'm almost too lazy to make green tea in the morning, so anything I even consider preparing in the AM had better be dirt simple.  So now I'm wondering about cooking greens overnight in a crockpot.  I found a recipe that looks promising*, but it says to cook the greens for 6 hours.  Um, I'd like to sleep more than that. :P  I'm concerned that longer than 6 hours will render them into algae-like sludge. Eew.  Well, I guess there's one way to find out ...

I also wonder if cooking the greens for so long will destroy all the nutrients in them.  I'm primarily considering "breakfast greens" because they're tasty, but a close second is their nutritional value.  

*without the turkey and the brown sugar.  The addition of onion, garlic, and pepper flakes sound tasty, though.
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Well, I just planted some pansies, specifically these pansies.*  It was kind of a disaster, actually.  

This year I'm going to try to plant individual seeds directly into cells in nursery flats, one seed to a cell.  I figure this will spare the seedlings the trauma of being moved from a starter cup to a nursery flat.  This way, they'll sprout in the same patch of dirt that they'll be in when they are planted in the ground and their roots won't be disturbed at all except for the whole popping the plant out of the cell part. 

So I dumped the seeds onto a white sheet of paper and plucked up each one with tweezers and carefully dropped it into a cell.  When the time came to "gently press" the seed into the soil, I realized that I really should've packed the dirt into the cells more carefully before dropping the seeds in - a couple of cells were only half full!  Whoops.  I also noticed that the seeds were sticking to my gloved finger, which means they were not getting pressed into the soil at all.  *sigh*

So I stopped the whole smooshing-with-my-finger process and just sprinkled some dirt over them.  

When I put the lid on the tray of nursery flats, I noticed that it doesn't form a seal.  Hopefully it will still trap enough moisture to keep the seedlings happy.  I also wrapped the lidded tray in a black plastic bag, since the instructions say to start the seeds in darkness.


*but i bought 'em here.

While doing my end-of-year accounting of events and accomplishments, I discovered that I planted enough plants in 2008 to warrant their own list! 

Plants Succesfully Grown in the Garden

• Lollipop Tomatoes
• Striped Cavern Tomatoes
• Amish Paste Tomatoes
• Thai Hot Peppers

Plants Successfully Grown in the Front Flower Bed

• Tulsi
• Dicentra
• Heliotrope
• Echinacea
• Rosemary
• Green Basil
• Purple Basil
• Chives
• Parsley

Shrubberies Planted in 2008

• Nikko Blue Hydrangea
• 2 other hydrangeas that I can't recall the names of!
• Beautyberry (hopefully dormant?)
• Miss Kim Lilac (not sure if it's dead or just dormant)

Plants in Pots

• Scented geraniums
• Shiso
• Pansies
• Oregano
• Creeping Rosemary
• Coleus
• Chrysanthemum
• Lamb's Ears
• Lemongrass