Plantings (18)
Progress Journal (138)
Wish List (0)
Indoor garden of seed startings, clippings, recent purchases, etc. Plants in this garden move around the house depending on state of plant and time of year. Sometimes it’s in the basement, sometimes it’s on the kitchen radiator, sometimes it’s in the three season room. Sometimes it’s distributed across several locations.
Photos
Plantings
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lemon grass
Cymbopogon citratus
Established on 01 Jul 09 Lemongrass isn't hardy here, so I bought a coup...
- 1 journals
- 0 faves
- 0 comments
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butternutling
Juglans
Transplanted on 18 Jun 09 Found it under the walnut tree. Funny, that.
- 2 journals
- 0 faves
- 0 comments
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thyme (creeping): purple carpet
Thymus praecox
Established on 05 Jun 09
- 1 journals
- 0 faves
- 0 comments
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thyme (creeping): coccineus
Thymus praecox
Established on 05 Jun 09
- 1 journals
- 0 faves
- 0 comments
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thyme (creeping): white moss
Thymus praecox
Established on 05 Jun 09
- 1 journals
- 0 faves
- 0 comments
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Prickly Pear
Opuntia polyacantha
Sown on 16 Apr 09 Seeds from puu.
- 0 journals
- 0 faves
- 0 comments
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pepper: mystery
Capsicum annuum var. annuum (Longum Group)
Established on 28 Mar 09 Found in a coffee plant.
- 15 journals
- 0 faves
- 0 comments
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Sea Kale
Crambe maritima
Sown on 17 Mar 09 I planted my sea kale seeds from puu today. I ...
- 1 journals
- 0 faves
- 0 comments
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Chile de Arbol
Capsicum annuum var. annuum (Longum Group)
Sown on 09 Mar 09 I'm not sure that these will sprout; they were ...
- 9 journals
- 0 faves
- 0 comments
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Chile de Arbol
Capsicum annuum var. annuum (Longum Group)
Sown on 09 Mar 09 I'm not sure that these will sprout; they were ...
- 11 journals
- 0 faves
- 0 comments
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Pepper: Joe's Long Cayenne
Capsicum annuum var. annuum (Longum Group)
Sown on 11 Feb 09 After pouring through pepper varieties, I was p...
- 14 journals
- 0 faves
- 0 comments
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Serrano Chilis
Capsicum annuum var. annuum (Longum Group)
Sown on 11 Feb 09
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Thai Chili
Capsicum annuum var. annuum (Longum Group)
Sown on 11 Feb 09 A small, spicy chili. It bears prodigiously.
- 15 journals
- 1 faves
- 0 comments
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Thai Chili
Capsicum annuum var. annuum (Longum Group)
Sown on 11 Feb 09 A small, spicy chili. It bears prodigiously.
- 24 journals
- 0 faves
- 0 comments
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Green Onion
Allium fistulosum
Transplanted on 05 Jan 09 I'm not sure why, but I snapped today and plant...
- 9 journals
- 0 faves
- 0 comments
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Prairie Fire Chilis
Capsicum annuum var. annuum (Longum Group)
Established on 22 Sep 08 These chilis were a gift from my real life frie...
- 12 journals
- 0 faves
- 0 comments
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Saffron Crocus
Crocus sativus
Planting Out on 04 Sep 08 I've always been curious about saffron crocuses...
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Rosemary cutting
Rosmarinus officinalis
Established on 26 May 08 Rosemary from Karen. Hopefully it will root, s...
- 6 journals
- 0 faves
- 0 comments
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Listen in on the Grapevine
Comments
Katxena wrote:
So I notice that you do not have any lights — do your seeds start ok with windowsill lighting? I’m thinking of starting broccoli seeds for fall, but I keep wavering because I don’t have any special kind of set-up.
Posted on 23 Jul 08 (about 1 years ago)
cmagnus wrote:
They’ve done ok (but not great) in the summer, but that’s a south facing window. And it’s an enclosed porch, so it has windows on three sides. In the winter, I used a florescent light. It was nothing fancy; it was just an old reading lamp we had lying around. Most seeds don’t need any light to germinate. Some of my starts did get a little leggy (which is the upshot of poor light), but most of them held up ok.
One nice thing with broccoli is that if brassicas get leggy, you can just bury them deeper when you transplant them and they’ll turn the stem into more root. I did that with my kale in the spring and it suffered no ill effects. I’m not sure what families you can do that with besides brassicas and solanceae; most other plants don’t like it.
Posted on 24 Jul 08 (about 1 years ago)
Katxena wrote:
Thanks for the information — I have a nice window at work, but it faces West. Still, that might be the best option for seed starting this year. I’ll have to think about setting up some sort of florescent light arrangement next year.
Posted on 25 Jul 08 (about 1 years ago)
TropicanaRoses wrote:
Are those deli department turkey containers?! That is so cool!! I never thought of that! What a neat idea! I will have to remember that! I would like to grow herbs throught the winter this year if we stay here. I like it!
Posted on 12 Mar 09 (about 8 months ago)
cmagnus wrote:
No! They’re deli department chicken containers! I’ve developed an embarrassingly large collection of them since they started selling allegedly happy chicken at our local grocery store deli. I think they’re the best thing ever. They’re just bigger than the Indian takeout containers (which, in these parts, are little plastic pie-tin type things that are about the size of an individual pot pie) and sturdier than the Chinese takeout (which, in these parts, for runny but not soupy stuff at least, is aluminum with a clear plastic lid)…
Last year I used a lot of Chinese takeout containers because we had some friends with a new baby and the best way to socialize was to invite ourselves over for dinner. But one of the containers developed cracks by the end of the seed starting season. It was ok because I had enough clear by then to move the seedlings into, but it has made me leery of them. Not that I’m not using a bunch of them this year anyway; I just don’t have enough chicken. I’m also using all my Indian takeout containers again, although I’d dearly love to eventually accrue enough chicken containers to cycle the Indian takeout containers back into the kitchen as storage for leftovers.
Posted on 12 Mar 09 (about 8 months ago)
ceae wrote:
OK … where did you hide those instructions for your newspaper boxes????
I want to plant some seeds today! I’m out of cups, but I have LOTS of paper, so I’m going to give your newspaper pots a try. Actually all I’m looking for is what size paper you use? I’ve made the boxes before (for other things) and surprisingly remember how to make them, but mine are coming out really large. I keep making the paper smaller, but they still seem too big to me, so I was just curious how large you make yours … oh, and how many layers do you use?
Posted on 27 Apr 09 (about 7 months ago)
cmagnus wrote:
Well, I made mine out of dissertation draft, so it was 8.5×11 or roughly A4 paper. The first page of instructions is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26718288@N02/3273718263/
Hmm… looking closer at the instructions, it’s clearly not my dissertation draft, but a draft of my partner’s logic textbook that he’s released under a creative commons license…
I only use one piece of paper, but I leave the edge I fold down from the rectangle to make it a square tucked into the box instead of cutting it off. Mostly that’s to save labor and not because it does any structural work. Since I am using decent weight paper (it’s just a draft, so it’s not the crazy heavy weight cotton stuff, but it’s printer paper), I wouldn’t use two pages. But with newspaper I might go for 2-3 layers. If my plants are in them a long time, the paper does start to break down and get flimsy. If I treat them like soil blocks they’re ok, but I have learned not to hold the boxes by the edges of the paper and expect the bottom not to give out. Although usually the bottom holds until they’re planted. Depending on what I’m planting and how well the box has held up, I either bury the whole box or rip it off and compost it.
Posted on 27 Apr 09 (about 7 months ago)
cmagnus wrote:
Wacky. I never noticed before that you could post comments in flickr. I’ve seriously been neglecting people. Must go catch up…
Posted on 27 Apr 09 (about 7 months ago)
ceae wrote:
Right … I had forgotten it was your dissertation, not newspaper!
Thanks that’s very helpful. These are going to be only used for a couple weeks (cucumbers, zucchini and the like) so I’m actually hoping that they fall apart fairly quickly. I think I’ll try 2 sheets of newspaper and see how it goes.
Posted on 27 Apr 09 (about 7 months ago)
cmagnus wrote:
I have to say, I think it’s more cathartic if it’s your dissertation. It’s like it’s finally gone out into the world to do something useful…
Posted on 27 Apr 09 (about 7 months ago)