You are using unfinished compost to support a potted vegetable plant. WHY? If you believe that compost has a purpose to give some nutrition to a plant's roots, then why bother with the initial stage of a compost pile to begin with, why not just put your kitchen scraps and other material in the pot when you first put the plant in. Articles that speak of why having and making use of a compost is a valuable resource home gardeners can do for their own use, speak of why such should not be used in an unfinished state. You can read the reasons for yourself. As far as the rain making a tea....that's phooey...the rain is just making its way through what soil is in the pot and picking up what garbage the water is affecting. Don't believe this? Do a little test, put your kitchen scraps into a small container under your sink and leave it for a time. Make sure to add the wet coffee grounds, the tea bags, the eggs still with albumen in them, the carrots you just peeled, the potato skins, the peas that weren't eaten, made an apple pie, put the peels in, lemons too, that lasagna that was left on the plate, the spaghetti, the eggs that weren't soaked up with the toast...the peanut butter the kids spilled on the floor when they dropped their sandwich and the jam that was with it..... and examine what is in the bottom of the contaienr after a week or so. Careful, don't spill it on your floor when you remove the bag to take it outside. don't put your face too close---don't gag... better to remove the entire container and bring out the bag at the pile. Then turn the container upside down to get all that goodness into your compost. Then take to where you can wash out the container otherwise the foul odour will go back into your kitchen. Tea....sure, tea and the bags they come from are a good addition. But, you could instead make another pot with the used bags and use the tea for watering your houseplants to give them a little acidness. Now appreciate what your pile has been given and better sill appreciate what the end result of finished compost can do for your garden.

Barrels made specifically for catching rain cost in the neighborhood of one hundred dollars but recycled barrels are available from several local businesses that advertise in the Yellow Pages(tm). Before you buy a recycled barrel be absolutely sure you know what it previously contained. One gardener made me promise not to reveal his !free! barrel source but says that gardeners should check with institutions that have large laundries, like hospitals and hotels. Their detergents are often shipped in fifty five gallon plastic drums. Walter Reeves writeS: Gwinnett County called Raindrops. Two women run it. Karen Alexander (770-813-0271) and Lynda Green (770-623-3226). Prices range from $65.00 to $85.00 per barrel. These women are still in business. I made mine by hand, all 6 of them. It wasn't hard but a bit fussy. If you can get your barrels from the same place in Mableton, I can give you directions to make the same barrels I did. The only trick is to have the correct tools. I got my barrels from Advanced Drum: http://www.advancedrum.com/ I have the white barrels pictured in their photo. No screw off lids. You must cut off the tops and alter them, which can be done. And lastly, these people look COOL!: http://www.rainharvestcompany.com/portfolio/sydell.php Good luck! GGG

Jennifer, Thanks for the seed report on SESE. About 6 or 8 weeks ago I saw the handwriting on the wall with the coming pandemic and ordered my seeds for both the 2020 and 2021 garden from them. I'm glad I did. And, see there, I am being optimistic and believing I'll survive the pandemic or I wouldn't have ordered seeds for next year. I'm glad you're seeing signs that people are being proactive, and I hate that churches may not be able to have their usual Easter-related services and activities. We have to remember that a pandemic is such an incredibly danger public health risk and daily life, as we know it, is changing a lot. I know that people are not used to quarantining, and I'd rather be out and about than stuck at home all the time, but I truly feel the time to stop going out as much as possible and to stay home as much as possible is now. The new cases in Texas are exploding now, and many of them are community-acquired, meaning that the patient had no known contact with anyone else who has been diagnosed with the disease, did not travel anywhere outside the local area and, thus, obviously became infected from someone in their local community. I expected the numbers to move pretty fast in TX once I saw the initial reports, but they're increasing probably a little more quickly than I was thinking they would. At least we are not in the same condition here yet as a few other states like Washington, California, New York, New Jersey, Florida and Louisiana. Texas was ahead of OK by only a couple of weeks in terms of COVID-19 cases spreading, so we still have a chance to react quickly here and maybe have it not get as widespread as quickly. I am not going to violate anybody's privacy here, but want to say that our family knows some people who are ill, have been tested and are awaiting their test results. It is shocking when you hear news like that, and that is especially true when it is people just like you who have been pretty careful, only going to work and back home again, and just grocery shopping or buying gasoline as needed---no travel, no going to the mall or the gym back when those still were open, no obvious crossing paths with infected people as far as they knew, etc. I think for most people in north central TX near us, the time to stay home and stay away from people probably was about 2 weeks ago, and now that they have community spread, it is almost too late. Their governor is issuing new directives and restrictions almost daily, so maybe they can halt the virus' spread. In OK, if we all start being as proactive as possible now, maybe most of us can avoid the virus as it makes its first official round through our state. OK hasn't had too many cases yet, but I've noticed that as soon as one case pops up in any given county, a second or third one is not far behind. We need to change our mindset now, if we haven't already, to avoid becoming one of those cases. I just hate this, but at least we all can retreat to our gardens and keep ourselves busy at home. I just want to add that Tim and I have one set of rules to keep track of on the south side of the river and another on the north and it is confusing. We'll want to go somewhere, so we'll say to one another "is it safe?" and then we have to figure out if that sort of place is open on the Texas side or the Oklahoma side, or both, or neither. It wears out my brain to the point that I think it is just easier to stay home. I am very concerned about small businesses all across the nation. Here in our county, one guy made a list that since has been forwarded around via various apps and FB, telling us which small businesses are still open, what their operating hours are now, whether you can call ahead and order what you need, etc. We need to remember to patronize our local, small businesses so we don't lose them from our community for good. Nancy, I am angry about all the coverups too. I have been tracking this beast since mid-January and was just beside myself with frustration from early February onward because I thought that was our nation's best chance to stop it in its tracks, and there stood all the politicians implying or even stating it was basically the flu, which it is not, and that it would go away as the weather warmed up, which also is false. The only thing I knew for sure at that point was that the government wasn't going to act in time to protect us, so we had to do everything possible to protect ourselves. I think Tim and Chris thought at first that maybe I was a little too obsessed with it, but then they got on board pretty soon thereafter as they watched it spreading across the world. One of the things I thought was heartbreaking was when Jana told me that she and Chris were going to go ahead and take the girls to the Texas Gulf Coast last week so they could make memories that the girls would have to hang on to "in case anything happened". That told me that Chris and Jana both clearly understand the front-line risks they face in their careers and know that tomorrow or next month or next year is not guaranteed for any of us. How I wish their vacation could have been just a normal vacation with the kids, not marred by fears of what comes next in this pandemic. Both of them expect to be exposed and quarantined, a concern heightened by the lack of proper PPE to keep them safe. No entity---no city, state, county, hospital, fire department, police department, nursing home, etc. has enough PPE stockpiled to deal with this crisis. Since most of it is made in China, and China has been shut down production-wise since early January, there's no quick relief in sight either. I fear for all our first responders and medical personnel. Jen, I agree that modern-day technology offers us options not available in previous times of crisis. I'm glad you're finding a way to make it work for you. Larry, I totally understand how you feel. Tim and I said we wouldn't go out and about when the virus started getting close to home, and then he took a week of vacation and we went somewhere pretty much every day, even knowing we might be exposing ourselves to infection. Sometimes being bad is fun, and I'm glad we were able to eat at a couple of our favorite restaurants in Texas before the governor shut them down at mid-week last week. We do carry wipes with us everywhere, and have hand sanitizer in our vehicle and I carry a mini-bottle of hand sanitizer in my purse. I hope we've done enough to stay safe. We didn't hear a single cough anywhere for days, and then noticed a lot more coughing in public yesterday, so I take that as a warning sign. After a quick trip to the feed store and to Lowe's today, we are officially staying home. Well, except Tim has to go to work each day and that is just unavoidable, but I'll be cleaning and disinfecting everything he touches when he comes in from work. I suppose he won't let me stand at the back door and spray him down with Lysol before he enters the house, will he? I think Tim should pack a suitcase to carry in the car just like he does before a forecasted snowstorm and should be prepared to hunker down and stay in Texas if anyone issues a stop-movement type edict while he is a work, particularly if such an edict prohibits crossing state lines. I don't know if such an edict is coming on either a statewide or national level, but if it is, he'd be in better shape if he has a suitcase full of clothing,medication and toiletries. Remember the good old days when all we had to worry about with the garden was just weather and pests? Dawn

Water flows downhill. It could be your upper windows are not adequately flashed. It's always useful to see what's happening when it is raining. Go out in the next windy downpour and look. We had mystery water leaking and crawling around under the porch in a downpour --- utterly miserable --- made everything blazingly clear. We fixed the problem and have had no more water in the basement. The fact that the door has an awning suggests flashing is an issue.