The Indoor Lettuce Garden

OK, so yesterday I posted about the veggies and some flowers to go outside in a month or so.  Today I'm posting about the indoor lettuce garden...

I HAD a great lettuce garden going before The Ladder Incident.  Radishes, Bok Choy, Carrots, and 4 Lettuces.

Great Neighbor Deb watered them twice when I thought about them, but they usually slipped my mind.  Priorities were groceries, clean cat litter boxes, and laundry.

When I was able to get down to the basement again (barely), the indoor garden was in trouble.  I managed to water them a few times, but noticed "dust" on the leaves.  Turned out to be an infestation of nearly invisible tiny aphids.  It was too much to cope with at the time.

Thankfully, some plants survived anyway.  Last week I took the trays outside and sprayed them with Neem Oil (a tree-based organic insecticide most effective on small soft-bodied pests like aphids and mites but safe for humans).  The nights were warm, so I left them out 2 days.  Them I sprayed the HELL out of the plants with the garden hose and left them out another 2 days.  

The surviving plants looked bad!

BUT, they were clean of all aphids!  I harvested those.  Fine salads...

I emptied all the tray soil into a large 2'x3' plastic tub and sprayed Neem in the soil to get at any surviving aphid eggs and to let the soil dry a bit.  I don't actually know if aphids lay eggs in the soil, but I was being thorough.  And apparently it doesn't bother earthworms.  I found some beauties in the soil when I repotted the trays!  I moved the worms outside to rich soil.

Then I refilled and replanted the trays.  Bok Choy, Radishes, Red Romaine/Red Leaf/Green Leaf/Green Head/and Endive Lettuces will come my way in 6 weeks!  The nice thing is they are "cut and come again".  They regrow new leaves several times.

I'll show pictures when they are growing again (but they will look about the same as the top pics).  It was nice to be able to get my hands in soil again!  

I have snow peas soaking overnight for planting outside tomorrow.  There is still time for them to fruit before the hot weather hits.  I will be able to plant some seeds directly outside in a couple weeks.  Spinach, Pole Beans, Corn, Beets, Carrots, etc.  Can't wait...

Gardening can be a cruel hobby.  Last year, I had everything planted indoors and out on time but it stayed cold and wet all Spring, so most died and some couldn't be replanted (too late to mature or ran out of seeds).  I hardly got any heirloom tomatoes, no corn or spinach, and few peppers.  THe pole beans were OK.  

This year, the weather was good but I wasn't.  Still, hope springs eternal.  I'm not beyond the point of expecting some good harvests.  

I Surrender

There are times when you make what seems to be a good decision and it just doesn't work.   
I have struggled for almost 10 days now with the new Windows computer and I just can't make sense of it.  And I was a Windows user for almost 20 years.

Nothing makes sense.  Compared to my Mac, the Windows is very hard to organize, the file folders are hard to arrange, and I can't seem to control it much.  Windows FIGHTS user control.  I read that before I purchased it,and I hought I could force it to look the way I wanted, but my confidence was in error.  I can't get used to the loss off control.

If you have Windows and are used to it, wonderful. I don't criticize in the least bit.   Windows has one way of user management; Mac has another.  I'm the Mac kind. 

So, I'm selling the Windows computer I just bought.  

Yes, it will cost me something.  I paid $1,000 for it, I may be able to sell it for $600.  It is not returnable.  Sometimes you just make a mistake and have to bite the bullet.

I had several reasons to try a Windows again.  Several computer sites said Windows was about as stable as Macs (and it has not crashed this week).  Others said there were more apps.  Others said more people used them.   That seems to be correct.  

I don't want to start a Windows vs Mac war here. I just know that Mac software is more intuitive to use and easier to manage and get around.  I have more control over it.  

I had 5 malware attacks in one day on Windows. I had 2 Mac attacks in 6 months.  And my Mac software detected and deleted those.  That may not last forever, but I appreciate it now.

So 'Im going to sell the new Windows computer for what I can get (and it has additional software I've downloaded).  And buying a new Mac.

I hate to waste money.  But I expect this Mac to last 6 years or more and who wants to fight with their computer.  I'm going back to what I understand.  Because I realized I am just not ON the computer (with Windows) much anymore. 

I found a Mac Mini equal in Ram and memory etc to the Windows computer.  It costs more, but I can accept that.  

It will take 3 days to arrive, a couple days to migrate, and I should be up and working again then.  The programs will be familiar, the files will stay, the photos will be accessible again, life will be normal.

I should have just done that to begin with. But like I said, sometimes you make mistakes and mistakes aren't free.  I will be happier afterwards.

When you get down to it, that's what matters...