Leaves! And a Grade School Science Experiment

Remember in grammar school when we were given birdseed, paper towels, and plastic bags?  We wet the paper towels, put the seeds between two layers of them, and sealed them in the bags... and sprouts grew.

We did the same thing here the same night as we scattered the other seeds in the aquaponics tub, only with green beans & cucumbers.  Today, we opened 'em up.

They grew a ton in just 6 days and rooted right into the paper towels, which was pretty funny.  So into the rock bed they went!

Meanwhile, we noticed yesterday... leaves!  Leaves on the shoots in five days!

And today, they're just going crazy!  A ton of growth.

And if you're wondering about the fish, we're down to five, as we lost three while the system stabilized, but those five are doing well.

I love coming home to nifty things!

We come in through the back, since we park toward the back of the house.  Conveniently, delivery guys tend to leave our packages in the back on the deck, especially when they're big.  When I got home today, there was a big one waiting for me!

Of course, I always check the return address first.  It was for me!

I'd completely forgotten that I ordered dowels, cake boards, and a fleur de lis fondant cutter for my planned Mardi Gras topsy turvy cake, as well as green sprinkles for the accompanying cake pops, so this was a great surprise!

And then... a peapod!

Our first peapod!  This is very exciting.  I've never grown a single, solitary vegetable before.

I thought we also had some green beans too, for a second.

And then I realized they were really just new, closed leaves.  Like these, which are a little more open.

Still cool to see so much growth.  As for some more updates...

The dill looks like dill!

See how it's getting those hairy dill-looking bits?

Right?

And of course, the cukes, basil, chives, and onions are lookin' good.

It was so gorgeous, I just hung out with Meg on the deck for an hour or so.  I love a day like this!

They Grow Up So Fast

That pea-looking thing?  Our first pea flower!

Oh, and as for the other plants?  This green bean is trying to grow up a tiki torch.

And the others are looking pretty good too!

Wow.

From one day to the next...

Flowers! ... or am I raising Audrey II?

So... the vegetable plants out back are doing great, and just a few days after we planted the flower seeds in the seed starter, we saw germination... much faster than the seed packets let on.

First came a couple of these big guys.

And then a multitude of these little ones.

See him to the left there?  Little green guy?  There are a lot of those.

And they're really hard to photograph.

But... this is today...

Still a ton of the little guys.  But what are those monsters?!

I was so excited to have plants that will flower... but now I'm kind of frightened.  If they eat the cats, I'll be really pissed off.

I Created a Monster. Perhaps Two.

So... remember the beer garden?  The cute Valentine's Day idea I had for Eric, since he loves beer so much, and I thought it'd be fun for him to have a wheat/barley/hops garden, even though he'd never really have enough from it to use in beer?  This one.

Well, it turns out Eric loves growing things.  In fact, (and this I knew before) he went to one of those specialized NYC high schools and this one had an agricultural program, so he'd been pretty good at growing things.  A good foil for my brown, thumb, really.

(And I do mean brown thumb.  I can kill cacti.  I have killed 'em... as well as orchids, Bonsai trees, California jades, and an aloe plant.)

Anyway, Eric also had a veggie garden in his yard as a kid, and he loved taking care of it.  I had no idea how much.

So... this little bitty beer garden, a fun gifty item I got him, led to this:

Yup, veggies in a seed starter.  Now, I'm not going to lie and say I don't like fresh veggies.  I love 'em.  And I'm kind of excited at the prospect.  But the seed starter led to bigger containers, of course.

And bigger.

So now, we've got this happening...

(Yes, that's still the beer garden you see in these photos.  The wheat and barley are still going strong, after a short haircut from the cats before it was moved outside.  Still no hops, but hops are tough, so we're not worrying about them.)

We've got veggies and herbs out there all over our big deck which suddenly doesn't seem so big anymore.  We've got another seed starter with herbs in it, and chamomile, which I'm really exited about because you might notice I really like tea.

And then I got in on the act too.  Flowers!  I wanted flowers.  So we got another seed starter, and I planted flower seeds yesterday.  No little compartments for me, just a sea of soil.  I want a wildflower kind of look happening; I much prefer that to the manicured, orderly gardens that make sense when it comes to veggies.  I did basically plant taller stuff to the "back" of the plot and shorter stuff to the front for better visibility.  I didn't bother with photos, since right now it's just a bunch of dirt and you can't see anything interesting, but I've got sunflowers, lobelia, Johnny jump ups, morning glories, alyssums in white and purple, a maravilla tea time mix, snapdragons, primroses, Canterbury bells, hollyhocks, scabiosa, sweet peas, and lavender.

We didn't buy the lavender; I had the seeds already.  See, two years ago, the wedding shower my sister and bridesmaids threw me was a garden party theme.

See those centerpieces?  That green watering can in the foreground is the watering can we're now using for our plants.  And those little boxes at each place setting?  Those favors were lavender startup kits.  Each one has a tiny terra cotta pot, a soil disk, and lavender seeds.  So it was one of those lavender packets, from leftover favors, that I used in my garden mix.

Once this one is ready to plant outside, I'll do it again, and plant some more!

So... yeah... I created a monster (Eric).  But I think I might become one too!  And hopefully Eric can help counter that brown thumb of mine.