Pandemic Garden Club

Welcome to the first monthly Pandemic Garden Club! Growing good things in strange times!

Anyone is welcome to comment with what they're growing right now, things they would like to try, problems they're encountering, and questions they have. Share resources, answer questions, shout encouragement.

As for myself...

I mentioned previously that my club gave us a homework assignment in March: a baby Haworthia retusa "White Ghost" to raise, with plans to share our progress at the end of the year. So here's my new child, all potted up. (Did I use craft store seashell chips as top dressing? Yes, yes, I did.)


Also, it needs a name. Special baby is special, so I really need to name it. I've been trying to think of a ghost-themed name that isn't annoying ('Casper' makes my eye twitch) without success.

I don't really have any fancy pots to my name. One of the local garden stores stocks these smooth-sided terracotta ones, which I'm rather fond of. In a better world, I would put haworthia in a wide, shallow style pot. Haworthia pup readily--that is, they send out runners to nearby open spaces of soil that come up as small offshoots--so giving them a wide radius maximizes their opportunity to form a mat of plants. I didn't happen to have any wide ones handy, though, and this is at least wide relative to the current size of the plant.

Meanwhile, I finally got the butterfly garden seeds planted. This year, we laid down a couple strips of hardware cloth in an attempt to thwart the gophers. Aaaand they have already burrowed up between the strips, where there really shouldn't have been room. I...hate them like burning.

What are the chances I can convince the neighbor's goats, who wander into our field daily, to go carnivorous and start hunting small, burrowing rodents?

Oh gods, I'm going mad scientist over here...

Lake Lewisia #514

Every Friday afternoon as soon as she got off work, she did her hair and dressed up and went out to flirt. Long nails trailed down spines, setting the objects of her attention all aflutter, the faint smell of flowers making them trail after her in swarms. Lucky for them, she had plenty of attention to spread around, and a whole week to fill, so sometimes as many as a half dozen feral books would be lucky enough to go home with her.

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LL#514

plague journaling

I had been planning to go out today to a different grocery store, because I need some stuff that I can only get there. This...did not happen. I'm not entirely clear on how it all went down, but Mum and I went from "I just need to shower and get changed" to "well, okay, what if we don't go today?" Now the issue has been pushed down to tomorrow, and I have no idea if it'll happen then either.

It's probably my fault. I just got kind of...paranoid about going out again. Mum already went out twice this week--medical appointments that somehow didn't get canceled--and that made me nervous. I also mentioned that I no longer know what is a good idea versus too risky. Apart from cowering in one room of the house. That seems like the one safe option these days. Somehow that comment escalated into more or less doing that.

I genuinely need to get things, but...what is "need" these days anyway?

Also, I officially got the call from the pharmacy: while they have renewed my prescription with the doctor, they cannot fill it. There is no hydroxychloroquine to be had, though they are continually trying to order it. They said I could try to find it with other pharmacy chains and this one would send my prescription over. But it doesn't sound like there's any real chance of that succeeding.

I'll keep taking it on my normal schedule for the next month. If there's still no resupply available at that point, I'll have to start weaning myself off it. That'll buy me a little more time, for one, and it'll let me adjust to the resurgence of pain that will come with it.

I am filled with a sense of helpless resignation. This is just a thing that is happening to me and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I will cope with it however I can. What other choice is there?