I hope you have better luck in the future! I think all gardeners have at least one plant that’s just “cursed.” For me, it’s spinach. No idea why, but I have never been able to grow a spinach plant to the point of harvest, even though it’s supposed to be a relatively easy crop and I live in a perfect climate for it.

Do you harden off your seedlings? That can help with transplant shock. Also if you’re not using a grow light indoors, they might be getting a rough start (sunny window is rarely sufficient). Like many perennials you may need to be patient and wait until the plant is established and successfully overwinters before you can get any artichoke heads off the plant. It’s also possible you need to try a different variety.

I live in a low income area where people are clearly happy to receive free resources, even if they’re not perfect. Like my terminology; sorry it’s not perfect either.

Seed saving is a tradition that predates history, yet most people don’t practice it anymore for a variety of reasons, including for reasons akin to your attitude that home growers surely aren’t going to do it as well as a corporation would. And thanks to this, many heirloom species and masses of genetic diversity are now lost forever. I didn’t seed save for years because I was scared that I would do it wrong. And yes, I made some mistakes, but I keep trying anyway, and I hope my post has encouraged others to try too.

This isn’t my area of expertise, and I learned something today about being more careful about the term “bolt.” However I don’t think you should be out here discouraging people from engaging in seed saving (or other crowdsorced community efforts) because there might be some mistakes or imperfections. No one is forcing you to participate; if you’re too good for library seeds that’s fine. But I find your attitude unnecessarily condescending and privileged. Again, I live in a low income area where these types of programs are cherished, because a packet of seeds may not seem expensive to you, but that’s not everyone’s experience. And I want to see more people gardening, regardless of their financial situation. Even if it’s in pots, on a balcony, or yes, with imperfect, free seeds.

There is one bumblebee mixed in with the honeybees! The artichoke has been more popular with the honeybees this year; the bumblebees have been preferring other flowers.

I suppose it depends on whether you use the term “bolting” to refer to premature flowering or just going to flower. I use the term rather liberally; feel free to replace “bolt” with “flower” in my post.

bolted seeds are stressed plants

??? This is literally the normal lifecycle of many plants

I’m a little surprised too, although I was personally disappointed with the series (read the manga some years back, haven’t seen the anime). It was educational for a shonen series, but that’s a pretty low bar. I found the science references to be somewhat shallow, and they gave way to action pretty quickly, as if the series used science as an aesthetic rather than a premise. Felt like wasted potential imo.

It sounds like there’s something in their environment that they’re responding to poorly, like not enough sun or the wrong kind of soil or incorrect water levels, that’s preventing them from getting established and growing up healthy and happy. It’s possible they’re not getting enough nutrition, although in my experience perennial plants are hardier on that front. Do you grow from seed or starts? Do you always plant them in the same spot or have you tried a few different areas? Are you growing in-ground or in containers?

Just from a graphic design perspective, it’s way too busy. Too many slogans; pick one or at most two messages (e.g. one at top as into and one at bottom as outro). The text is way too small to read on mobile. When everything is highlighted text, nothing is highlighted text. The art style for the icons is not consistent. The rightmost column has to go; either put the info at the bottom of the image or delete.

What’s going wrong, specifically?

I grew mine from seed and it’s been a pretty easy plant. Regular watering, occasional fertilizer, mulch in winter is about all I do for it. I think I’m in an amenable climate for them; some of my neighbors have huge artichoke plants. I’ve had some issues with their getting crowded and shaded out, but they always grow back. This particular plant is about 3 years old.

One of the great things about anime is that it’s already somewhat niche and already attracts nerds, so why not lean into it? Make that historically-accurate horse-racing series! Recreate real plays from top sports games! Geek out about your special interest; there’s bound to be an audience of other otaku who are also into that! Unfortunately a lot of the especially niche subjects don’t make it to an official English translation, but that’s where scanlations come to the rescue to fill in the gaps.

I’ve never seen Umamusume, but from what I’ve heard it’s shockingly high effort; the historical accuracy doesn’t surprise me in the least. I’d be interested in a breakdown from someone who specializes in Chinese history of the accuracy of Apothecary Diaries (on the surface it seems at least somewhat accurate, but it also feels a bit romanticized… I want to believe!). Vinland Saga didn’t seem quite my taste so I’ve never seen it. Tanya the Evil is awesome, but I think it’s much more on the “inspired by” side of historical (makes for a great aesthetic, though).

Yeah the time to boycott FIFA was years ago, after the human rights abuses and corruption scandals. Way to have a spine now, I guess. Feeling like this is just an empty threat.

Then you spend the rest of the movie with greasy, gritty fingers, an odd taste in your mouth, and a wayward kernel stuck between your teeth.

No thanks; I keep my popcorn eating to home movie watching, where I can pause to wash my hands, refill the snack tray, and floss my teeth if needed.

Part of it was lucky timing; literally a minute earlier there were only three bees at the artichoke!

In terms of bees per flower, only sunflowers compare in my experience. Echinacea also has a good track record for this, although their flower heads are a good deal smaller, so it’s more like bees per square inch of flower.

Calling them “songs” is generous at best; they’re more like jingles with a heaping dose of copyright infringement.

I’m upvoting because I like the sentiment, but the photo looks fake. The “handwriting” is too perfect, the graffiti is behind the bottom text, and the rips look fake. Was this the original ad???

There’s a whole trove of portrayals of happy, loving single-child families out there! You just have to look to China’s one-child policy era.

“But Fireweed! This is literally propaganda!” It’s all propaganda, whether it’s “be content with one child” or “be fruitful and multiply.” Media depictions of large families appear fun and loving because the creators make it that way (the more kids the more you have to work with: there’s the jock kid, the geek kid, the uptight kid, the…). Even media about the difficulties of large families (e.g. Cheaper by the Dozen) still end with everyone being happy and loving because it makes for a feel-good ending; that doesn’t mean it reflects reality in the slightest. Society doesn’t like to talk about the darker sides of large families because of heteronormativity, but there’s some media out there portraying large families as hopelessly dysfunctional (Shameless for instance, or you can read about any of the large family “reality TV” shows that have ended in scandal).

Remember that we’re in unprecedented times; large families used to not only be the norm but were practically required (have lots of kids to work the farm, or because you don’t know how many are going to survive to adulthood, or because there’s no social safety net for when you become old/sick/injured except your family members). Nowadays it’s the opposite: more kids equals less resources to go around, and unchecked population growth combined with unchecked consumption is wrecking the planet. But media hasn’t caught up yet, and with influential, wealthy people out there screaming racist nonsense about “crashing birth rates” and “great replacement theory,” there’s pressure to continue to portray large families positively and small families poorly. It’s the same situation as the propaganda I linked above, but in reverse.

In other words, rejoice that you’ve eschewed the media narrative and done the right thing for your family! Also forget visual media (where creators use large families to portray the appearance of a happy family, because more kids = more hugs and smiling faces in the shot = more love, right?) and look to books, where there are plenty of depictions of loving, functional, single-child households.

Woah I’m the complete opposite of this; cool and room temp food (that’s intended to be eaten warm) tastes wrong, and kind of gross. Which makes sense on an evolutionary level: meat that’s warm is probably fresh, but if it’s cool who knows how long it’s been sitting out?

No, I did not know.

I’m sorry, what community is this supposed to be, again?

Drake meme? That’s a downvote…

(This format has so. many. alternatives. by now, there’s no excuse)