[conspire] (forw) Re: Garlic

[Rick Moen]

I hope/assume Paul won't mine.

----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----

Date: Sat, 11 Apr 2020 13:22:11 -0700
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: "paulz at ieee.org" <paulz at ieee.org>
Subject: Re: Garlic
Organization: If you lived here, you'd be $HOME already.

Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):

> The conspire list has gone quiet.  I hope you are all well.

We are all doing fine, including the two (quite pampered) cats.

> What I wanted to say was that last fall I come home with a head of
> your garlic.  Part of it managed to hide itself in my kitchen.  It was
> starting to sprout.  I put it on some damp dirt and in a few days had
> roots.  Now I have garlic growing in my garden. Partial compensation
> for not being able to buy as many plants as I would want.  

Marvelous!  We might ask for the return favour of a head of garlic when
you have some to spare.

> BTW, the SCC officials say nurseries can not sell pick-up orders. Only
> delivery.  

You might find the plant racks outdoors next to The Home Depot on De
Anza Blvd. in Cupertino to be a reasonable source.  The variety is
better than you would expect from a Home Depot, albeit certainly not
great.  And I haven't seen better, under the circumstances.

Yamagami's Garden Center - Nursery got yo-yoed by multiple Santa Clara
County agencies and told a couple of times different conditions under
which they would be permitted to reopen a day after being ordered
closed, and it went back and forth for a while.  On March 8th, finally
the Sheriff's Dept. carried out orders from the DA's Office to order
them shut down _again_, and the DA's Office, when questioned about this,
passes the buck to an (unidentified) Health Dept. person whom the DA 
claims ruled that all nurseries are nonessential.  You can see any news
here:

https://www.facebook.com/Yamagamis-Nursery-Garden-Center-63172657808/posts/?_fb_noscript=1

I politely queried S.C. Health Dept. about whether what the DA told me
was correct, and have so far received no answer at all.

Anyway, between Home Depot (East Palo Alto, less variety than the one in
Cupertino, that I stumbled across later) and two successful trips to 
Yamagami before the 8th, plus flats of sweet corn found in plant racks
outside Grocery Outlet in Redwood City, I actually have enough plants to
have a proper vegetable garden -- not yet planted, still working on
preparation.

I also have a number of seeding trays going, but the seed in them is
mostly old and probably will have a low or zero sprouting percentage.
I have a feeling I don't have the knowledge for doing seeding trays 
right, but haven't yet taken the time to look that up.  Four of the
trays, with the most warmth-needing seeds (mostly peppers and tomatoes)
are inside, and about six others are on my porch.  Another neighbourhood
gardener was saying to me yesterday that she lacks lamps to give hers
more light, and it hadn't even occurred to me to try that.  (The
logistics would be difficult.)  I don't know how important that is, and
really don't know much at all, frankly, which is my point.

Anyway, if you're seeking plants for a spring vegetable garden, given
that the counties are being inflexible about nurseries / garden centres,
your best bet is probably hardware stores and groceries.


----- End forwarded message -----