Today I went to Landsburg Landscaping and picked up two bags of their highly recommended potting soil (the kind they plant their own seeds in). We stopped at Dollar Tree to pick up river stones (8 bags = 16 pounds), and made a quick trip to Fleet Farm to pick up a net trellis and other supplies. Tony cleaned out the old 30-gallon tank we had previously used for gerbils, and the kids and I carefully put a layer of rocks on the bottom of the tank. After the rocks were in place, we filled the tank with the two bags of soil. I then picked the biggest of the cucumbers and peas to be moved from the pellet tray into the new indoor garden box. We took the biggest of the "rainbow" peppers and planted it in there too. We then hung the net trellis from the top of the blinds and draped it over the top and front of the tank to give the plants the best opportunity to grab hold and start climbing!
Almost done with the rock layer at the bottom of the tank!
Cucumbers, peas, and a pepper plant - and the trellis I hope the first two will climb.
The net trellis is 10-feet long, so we had to drape it over the front and top of the tank, with a little dip in the back before it rises up to the top of the blinds (which will be removed to allow the sun in).
As I was munching on a mango for breakfast, I decided to look up how exactly the seed in the middle could be planted. It turns out that you can apparently use toothpicks to hold it over a glass of water and it will magically sprout a tree in just two weeks. Another experiment in the making. While at Dollar Tree to get rocks, I also picked up a neat glass to be the home of my new mango experiment. Maybe it will grow, maybe it won't. I know the tree won't survive indoors, and it won't survive freezing outside, but it will be fun to see if we can grow it anyway. Maybe I can send it to a relative that lives further south and see if they can make it survive. Assuming of course that it actually germinates and starts a new tree. We started it today (2/20), so two weeks would be March 6th. I'll check back to share the progress of this project.
Mango seed in a glass of water. And yes, that is an umbrella toothpick. I thought the mango might want to feel more tropical with the snow coming down outside today.
The cucumbers, peas, and broccoli are doing well and continuing to grow quickly. The bell peppers are mostly up now, or at least should be in the next day or two. There are about 7 pellets without any seedlings coming up yet, but maybe they're just late bloomers.
Bell pepper plants, 12 days after planting.
Cucumbers, peas, and broccoli, 6 days after planting (before I removed some to put into the tank garden).
And lastly, I'm so excited to try out the cloth diapers I've been waiting to use on #5. We're finally out of disposable diapers, so today was our first experience using cloth diapers. So far so good!
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