Leathernecks

I have never been a big fan of rocks instead of mulch. My grandma has areas of both, and I always hated pulling weeds and planting new plants in rocks. Not nearly as bad as lava rocks though. I rented a place with that, and it was the worst. I think mulch looks better and helps hold water and gives the soil nutrients, but it is definitely more work. Rocks aren't that bad of an option if you don't want the extra work. I know hostas are a really common shade plant around here (central Illinois). I'm not good at keeping flowers in pots either, so no advice there!

I'd probably wait, but since you're just doing pots (not doing pot!), you could always bring them inside and put them in a south facing window for a day or two if you really needed to. Also, there are tons of ideas out there for keeping plants warm. Can't think of any off the top of my head though.

@Seeking6 Like others have said, you should be good planting quite a few herbs in the same large pot, or planting them all in separate pots. If separate, I'd say 1 gallon pots would probably work well. Big enough to let them grow well, small enough that they aren't huge. You could go to a smaller pot if you want to save some space though. For you, or others doing it, I like to plant my herbs both from small plants, and from seeds around the same time. It helps give a lot longer growing season. Some herbs like basil, which others have mentioned, don't last that long. Cilantro is another one that bolts pretty quick. If you have the plants so they are a few weeks apart in development, you can get a lot more use out of them. Others last a long time though, so it kind of depends on what you are planting. For the peppers, you could probably get by with more than 1 in a large pot. They might not individually get as many peppers as if there was just 1, but combined you should get more. When you do your tomatoes, make sure you bury the stem a little ways. Roots will grow out of the buried stem and help support it. I would go even further than 1 inch below the top of the container since you're a little worried about how well you'll grow things. If the base of the tomato isn't that strong and is leaning, you can add a little more soil to help stabilize it. 1 inch is a good distance to shoot for stopping at. You can always add soil, but it is tough to take it away.

I'm stoked the new season of Money Heist comes out tomorrow!

Got my seeds going last night. Probably planted too many, but oh well! 4 kinds of tomatoes, 4 kinds of peppers, 2 zucchini, cucumber, cabbage, red cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, fennel, half a dozen herbs. I think some other things too. Now the hard part of waiting for them to start coming up.

I watched Designated Survivor this winter. I loved season 1 and enjoyed season 2, but I thought season 3 was awful. Way too much politics for me. I couldn't even make it through it. Just didn't care about the whole election thing they went for that season. Some Netflix shows I've watched lately that have been good were Stranger Things, You, and Money Heist. I wasn't sure what to expect from Money Heist since it is in Spanish and dubbed over in English, but I thought it was awesome. I got used to it quickly, and barely even noticed their mouths didn't match up with the words. Season 4 comes out April 3rd.

With the markets being up today, I would be surprised if it got finalized today. I'm guessing tomorrow it will get finalized to try to boost the markets up again. Unemployment numbers come out Thursday, and they're going to be ugly. Markets will probably take a hit that day, so they'll probably release the package tomorrow to give markets a head start for Thursday. Just my guesses.

It all makes sense, we've just been looking at it wrong. A lot of guys are spending more time at home...with internet access. I bet vaseline numbers have spiked too, people are just more discrete about buying 5 tubs of that than they are 5 cases of TP.

I like Brandywine's for the best flavor, but they're pretty low yield, and temperamental. In a bad year, they can produce almost no fruit, but in a good year you can get more than you can eat. There are other kinds that start early and produce for quite a while. One thing I found when I started planting from seed is that there are seemingly hundreds of options for everything. When you go to a greenhouse, they might have 10-20 different tomatoes, but that is only a fraction of what is actually out there. Same thing for about anything you can grow. You mentioned radishes earlier, and this site has 23 different options for radishes, and 136 for tomatoes. It can be overwhelming, but I think picking out and trying different things is part of the fun.

I usually plant mine outside in early-mid May. By then, they're usually 8-10 inches tall. They say a couple weeks after the last frost for planting outside, and for Indy, it shows the last frost is on average around April 25th. If you're planting just seeds outside, I'm not sure for that. It has to be pretty warm for them to germinate. Roughly 70-80 degrees is optimal. If it is too cold, they won't germinate. I've seen things online for making mini greenhouses out of things like milk jugs to help keep the seeds warmer. That should help you get them planted earlier. I would guess by mid to late April you could probably get them going. Worst case, plant them early, give them about 10 days, and if you don't have any growth you know it was too early. Then just try it again with new seeds. If you're looking to have tomatoes by the 4th of July, planning on a mid April plant date, you probably want a fairly quick maturing tomato. Something under 70 days, and you'll be close to having them by the 4th. Something like a Brandywine probably wouldn't be ready by then. A lot of it depends on the weather. A 70 day maturity time would be under optimal conditions, and usually in warmer climates than where we are. If it is a cool spring/summer, it will be cutting it close. If it is a warm spring/summer, it will mature quicker, and you should be able to get some by the 4th. A ton of different varieties out there based on size of the tomato, maturity, flavor, color, etc. Do you know what kind you're looking to plant?

I'm a big fan of gardening. Actually ordered a bunch of seeds this morning, and probably going to start planting inside next week. I have a couple grow lights set up in my basement. At least I live in Illinois, so that isn't as suspicious anymore! I start in the little 1 inch pots that have 6 of them together. Get a handful of them in a large tray, so I can start 30-40 different seeds at a time. What I do is plant 3 seeds per cell, so about 100 seeds total. All kinds of different things. 4-5 kinds of tomatoes, a few different peppers, red cabbage, sauerkraut cabbage, broccoli, some herbs for early cuttings, and a few more things. If it is a seed that I need a lot of, when the plants are about 2 inches tall, I separate them into 4 inch pots. If I only need 1 or 2, I get rid of the worst looking ones. I give some plants to family and friends too, so I end up not throwing away many of the shoots. I set a fan up that blows on them at low speed to help give them stronger stems. A couple weeks before I'm planning on planting them outside, I start setting them outside. I grow them by my egress window in my basement, so it is easy to take them in and out each day. First for a couple hours, then for the whole day. I have a handful of things I only plant outside. Most herbs, lettuce, kale, peas, beans. There is definitely something fulfilling about growing plants from seeds and eating the final product. Looking forward to getting my garden going again this year!

Gotcha. I would plant a few seeds in each pot, and once they are about 2-3 inches tall, leave the best looking one and cut/pull out the other ones. One per pot is good for tomatoes and peppers. I haven't done them like that, so I'm no help for pot size.

Are you planning on keeping it in the pot for the duration or moving it to the ground at some point?

Nice! They had a stud baseball player, Ryan Bird back in the early 2000s. Played well in the minors for a few years. I was a sophomore when he was a senior. I had faced him a few times before, and didn't do much. First at bat that game, he threw a low 90s fastball behind me. I had a pretty good reputation by that point, so I felt like it might have been on purpose. I tried to stare him down, not sure if that worked or not haha. Later in the game, I hit a 2 run home run off him in bottom of the 6th inning to put us up by 1. Put it into the pond at our baseball field. Definitely a memorable home run!

We always played Armstrong-Potomac when I was growing up. One of my best sports memories was against them in baseball.

North and a little west. Maybe they got a little more so it could build up some.

That's about 45 minutes from where I live, and it has snowed here most of the day. Nothing really sticking, just a constant light snow.

So you're saying this is the face of the coronavirus? No wonder people are scared of it!

Sure! I'll have the flight stop by and pick you up on the way! I went about 8 years ago, and loved it. I almost moved out there. I got my Hawaii teaching license, but never made the leap. Still might some day.

All Illinois public schools are closed from Tuesday thru March 30th. I kind of want to take a cheap flight to Hawaii and hope I get stranded out there for the next month. If I'm going to be stuck somewhere, might as well make it Maui!

What area do you teach at? I teach about 100 miles south of Chicago in a rural district in Illinois, and we're really up in the air on what is going to happen here. Wouldn't be at all surprised if Illinois shuts everybody down like a few states have already done.

I'm all stocked up on Chlorox wipes. Wipe is in the product name, so I figure I should be good.

I feel like this is something that never happens at IU. A lot of teams have top prospects that they have a connection to that can help lead them to that school, but it seems like IU never has that. I'm sure being a historically bad program has been part of that issue, but maybe someday we'll have that. Like for you guys, Karlaftis played right next to the stadium, and Moore played at the high school that Brohm went to. Not that it is anything against you guys, you still have to do a great job recruiting them, but for once I want IU to have the inside edge on a high 4 or 5 star guy. You jerks!

I was able to find a way to get a lot of my tools for "free." I have a Discover card and get cash back with it, and then with the cash back you can buy a $100 Lowes gift card for $90. Then go on Ebay and buy a 10% off at Lowes for a buck or two. I was able to get a Dewalt table saw, and a Dewalt drill set only using the cash back. I completely gutted an old house, and added a full basement underneath it, so I've needed all the tools I can get. As far as my DIY projects, gutted it myself, put up walls, ran all the electrical (64 can lights was a bad choice!), painted, and laid luxury vinyl tile throughout the kitchen, living room, dining room, laundry room, and 2 bathrooms. Did a lot of other smaller jobs along the way too. The previous lady who owned it was old and had been in a nursing home for the last few years, and we literally couldn't walk through the back yard because it was so overgrown. I don't really have any grass, so my next big project is to rent a trencher and run irrigation lines in the yard. Never done it before, but all the videos I've seen look like it would be pretty easy to do. Completely unnecessary to do, but it was such a piece of crap house and yard that I just want it to be over the top. The advantages of being a bachelor lol.

Paste the link, hit enter, and it should pop up after a few seconds. That dog was crazy! Barely even hesitated! I would have peed myself haha.