it’s been really hot here, but I’ve gotten into watering all of the outside plants every day (I water my aloe and haworthia once a week) and they seem to be doing pretty well! even the tropical hibiscus, somehow.

I’m especially happy about my lavender and the roses, I’ve mentioned previously I think that roses are special to me because of my grandmother (my grandfather would grow them in the backyard in these huge rose bushes for her and bring them in) and these are the first ones to ever grow and thrive. they’re not purely red roses, but I do really like the pattern on them.

uploading images keeps erroring out and I’m not sure how to put an image in here from imgur, so here’s a link to the picture of the lavender and roses instead.

I didn’t particularly like the layout styling in Pop!_OS and being so new to linux, I didn’t know how much I could change aesthetics wise. KDE looks more appealing to me, I don’t know if it’s because it looks like windows, but that might be a factor? it’s the default on the distro I wanna give a try (Bazzite) which also has nudged me in that direction.

I wasn’t expecting so many people to have used Debian for things other than servers. I have it on a server myself, but I decided I needed something more set up for gaming already on my desktop. what led you to Debian specifically? the stability?

this is actually what I’m going to be giving a go! I have very little experience (I have servers that run Debian and DietPi, but I get help with those) with linux but I’m really excited to give the KDE version a try. and I’ve been trying to learn, too, because also my partner is going to be moving to a dual boot setup as well. been watching a lot of videos and reading a lot too, especially while my desktop is out of commission.

do you find that anything is missing in Bazzite for you?

I live with my mom and she has to have the news on borderline 24/7 while she’s awake. I hate it because I have very good hearing so I constantly listen to music instead.

when I lived alone, I simply didn’t have any sort of streaming service or cable, or what have you. my tv was exclusively for music and gaming on. that was even years ago.

frankly, I hate having to be around the news for the most part. I will sometimes read stuff on beehaw, but otherwise, no, not for me.

Heyo! So recently we got some new plants, and thank you for the tip a while ago to re-pot my aloe, it’s doing much better now, I think. The middle is still brownish red, but the rest is very strong and green, and there are still parts of it growing out of the center.

I’d post pictures but I’m on mobile, maybe when my power comes back on!

My mom bought a tropical hibiscus which I’m not sure will survive but we’ll see. It seems to be doing well enough. I managed to get an english lavender and I’ve been told by a friend who knows more about plants that it looks very healthy. And roses have been really hard to grow for us but one of the two rose bushes my mom bought seems to be doing well too!

Questions, though. I’ve read that lavender wants pine needles over leaf mulch, are they significantly better? I’m also wondering how much I should be watering it, we’ve had a lot of storms lately but I want to stay on top of it.

Thanks for any more tips and thanks for the thread!

I don’t talk here but I am a user and this community has helped me a whole hell of a lot. I’ll see if I can get a donation heading your way when I next get paid! thanks for your hard work.

I really enjoy the Hardware Haven videos. He makes things more understandable for a newbie like me.

why no hope for Revolt? I had looked into it self hosting wise, but when I realized they had made it really difficult, I lost interest and haven’t been following it since.

I actually had some issues with root rot previously, but those cleared up. however, because of that, I moved it into a smaller pot (a friend actually told me to, and advocated for a cut in half water bottle when I said I didn’t have anything else smaller) and while it did okay for a bit, now it has the browning center. I tried giving it some more sun like someone said I should, but that didn’t help.

I can certainly try to repot it, I have some soil leftover from when I went to a greenhouse, same place I got my haworthia. and thank you for the tip on the hyacinth!

Not sure if the first part of my question counts, since it’s about indoor plants, but I have an aloe plant and haworthia (I think is what it’s called) and while the haworthia is doing well, the aloe plant started to have it’s stalks in the center turn brown. I’ve tried giving it more sun like someone recommended to me, but it doesn’t seem to be improving. However, it does seem to still be growing.

I have one outside plant, a hyacinth, and it’s already started to come up, which is exciting even though it started kind of early(?) but I had a question. When it initially bloomed, it was super top heavy and flopped over. I couldn’t get it to right itself no matter what I did. Anyone got any tips?

I might be able to plant some more flowers this fall, but I’m not sure what to go with. I would love to do roses in memory of my grandparents, but I don’t think they would do well in my area.

I have tried different music with him, yup! he seems very partial to lo-fi, which is nice because I enjoy listening to it as well. my preference is to just leave it on for the dogs since it’s helped them stay mellow during the day, but my mom isn’t really into it.

and oh, I know how that goes! if I even leave to go to the grocery store (which is a couple blocks away, so I’m only gone a short period of time) or take a walk, Bowser and Champion will wait near the door until I return. they’re like “no!! mom!! no leave!! only stay!!” hahaha.

saving this article for later! thank you much.

Champion does shockingly well with the groomer (related, I know you can’t go to the groomer every time your dog goes running through the woods, of course!) I picked for him, but she’s a very kind and gentle person, especially with dogs. he likes her a lot, which I’m very grateful for. that said, working with my dogs is something I enjoy so I think exposing him to the stuff in the article (and Bowser too) would be beneficial anyway.

yes! Bowser likes fetch but only a little, he much prefers to hold a tennis ball in his mouth while one of my mom’s dogs plays with him. I’m hoping to get him and my mom’s very skittish dog Maggie out for walks now that it’s nicer out (Maggie loves being outside, she’s just fearful.)

ooo, can you explain “cooperative care activity” a bit? I feel like even though I was a professional, I’m such a novice at training and dog care.

oh man, 6 teeth is a lot! I’m really glad that recovery seems to be going well!

Bowser had to have one tooth removed (we thought it would be more) and had a seizure when they sedated him. things are a lot better now, but I know how nerve wracking it can be to have something like that done. give Buster some scritches for me!

I always do my best to make sure he’s happy and healthy, of course! he’s recently gotten on some anti-anxiety medication which has been doing a lot of work in helping in that too, so I’m really grateful for it.

I hope you get to see your cat soon too! where are you traveling?

I had honestly never had it occur to me to use “low energy” and “high energy” markers! that’s a great idea. “wow” is also great! I’ve been out of training stuff for a couple years since quitting the daycare job, so I’ve been working on this stuff on my own when I can.

I appreciate you teaching me something new today.

when I worked at a dog daycare and was taking training classes, the trainer stressed that we should try to make the “praise” word we used when doing training something unique, not like “good boy/girl” or similar. the one they taught in class was “yes” by default, which is what I used when I started.

now it’s become “thank you” which, even though it’s longer, makes me laugh when I think about it.

I’ll have to take some inspiration from this thread! I’m working with my dog Bowser lately on learning new commands.