{"id":1576,"date":"2026-04-22T16:59:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T22:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cultofdarian.com\/blog\/?p=1576"},"modified":"2026-04-22T17:00:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:00:02","slug":"were-beaten-and-blown-by-the-wind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cultofdarian.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/22\/were-beaten-and-blown-by-the-wind\/","title":{"rendered":"We’re beaten and blown by the wind…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thirty-five out of ninety-six – that’s how many of the new tomato babies I managed to save (or more accurately, recover<\/em>) after the wind knocked down my seed start containers. There are a few in that number that still might not make it, but I’m crossing my fingers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyhow, that’s the reason for writing so late today. I had gotten up and it was beautiful and sunny again, so I took most of the plants outside and went about my business. Right about the time I would sit down to write, we heard a crash outside, and it seems the wind had picked up and blown the containers off my railing. I was meeting with the contractor who will be building my plant shelving system at the time so my wife quickly collected everything for me to recover those that survived. I had already planned on potting all the adolescents in larger pots this weekend, so I decided to avoid traumatizing the babies multiple times and just put the survivors into the larger pots right now. I am curious how they will do – it seems the sooner they go into larger pots, the better they can grow, so maybe some of these will end up doing well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yesterday, I encountered our first toad of the season! It was while I was cleaning up and prepping Toad Hollow – I had planted what I wanted and was cleaning up and rearranging the bark structure that I set up for them to climb into a potted horseradish plant that they all seem to love. I had moved the layer of bark, and was brushing away some debris when the little guy hopped out of his hole, and sat there staring at me – probably grumpy that I woke him early from his hibernation. <\/p>\n\n\n

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I quickly reset the wood and bark to cover him back up, so hopefully he just burrowed back in and the rude awakening will be just a weird dream when it’s the regular time for them to all emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few tunnels that lead in and out of Toad Hollow, likely old gopher holes. The toads use them in the summer to go in and out as they want, though I do my best to keep the habitat pleasant for them to want to stay. When I water the plants there, I usually also run a bit of water down the tunnels to soften the soil for them and provide moisture to those hanging out in there. At the bottom, I dug out a little area and took some of the clay soil to shape a small bold to capture the water and provide a small pool for them as well. I may some other small rock features down the line, though I really want to really fix up the whole thing into a more permanent display – but that will be sometime down the line after finishing the multitude of other projects that need my time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyhow, it’s late and almost time for dinner so…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Song of the day: Where the Streets Have No Name<\/a> by U2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thirty-five out of ninety-six – that’s how many of the new tomato babies I managed to save (or more accurately, recover) after the wind knocked down my seed start containers. There are a few in that number that still might not make it, but I’m crossing my fingers. Anyhow, that’s the reason for writing so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-1576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t