Monday, March 29, 2010

Container Garden

I've decided to start a container garden this year, as my patio gets just enough light to get "stuff" to grow. I had started some stuff from seed, but only the tomatoes and peppers made it.

I planted a strawberry pot with lots of herbs, and another strawberry pot with strawberries. I have an Early Girl tomato that I bought from Home Depot, as I don't have faith in my tomatoes that I planted. I also bought another pepper plant, so I think I'll be making a lot of fajitas, chili, sloppy joes, and stuffed peppers with all the peppers I'll be harvesting.

My favorite roses are the Peace rose, and I bought one to plant. My track record with miniature roses is an across-the-board failure though, so we'll see what happens. I also bought a packet of Crystal Palace Lobelia to plant under the rose; I think it will make it look really nice.

I hope this experiment turns out well. If the strawberries don't last through the year I'll probably try alpine strawberries next year in the strawberry pot. I tried some years ago when I was in Amsterdam and thought they were delightful.

Here are some container garden resources:

Container Vegetable Gardening - from Ohio State University
Vegetable Gardening in Containers - from Texas A&M (pdf)

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Texting While Socializing

I saw this article on Slate and thought it would be interesting for discussion. (Is it just me, or are Slate and Salon hit-or-miss these days? Then again, I feel my blog is sometimes hit-or-miss, so I guess I shouldn't complain)

I was on a 2nd date once in an outdoor concert. My date seemed like a nice guy but I was bored to tears by him. I had a comrade text me several times about the date, and when I mentioned how awful it was turning out my comrade offered to call me with an "emergency" so I could leave. I didn't want to do that so I grit my teeth and waited the date out.

If I was genuinely interested in the guy I wouldn't have been texting my buddy. Then again, someone told me afterwards that if I was bored to tears then the guy deserved to have the girl be distracted/pulled away by other things. I'm not so sure I agree with that.

When I'm casually with someone I will answer phone calls and texts unless we are actively in the middle of a conversation. But if I'm just getting to know someone I like to give them my full attention.