Dirt under my nails... My babies are growing 'up'....

Saturday, March 8, 2014

                      Family photo

As we all know, my potato eyes are coming along nicely. Someone should do a science experiment and see if there's a reason the potato in the orange cup is producing much larger sprouts than the one in the glass jar. They are side by side on the cabinet, neither get sun. 

Just sayin. 

My little sweet potato roots are getting longer. I'm a little disappointed there's still only two and no hint of any vegetation growing on top... I guess we will see in about a week or two before I give up on them.  

I googled the fuzzy stuff on the bottom. I think it's a virus, which would explain why it's not producing. That's not a happy finding. 

Sunday, March 9, 2014

It's amazing what a night and good day full of sunshine and no wind can do!!! Here's pictures from today: 

This is the sweet potato! We may get some sprouts after all! The dark purple on top is what we're looking at. 

I believe the 'sprouts' are called tubulars... I really think we may be able to pick them off, individually sprout them& plant them within the next two weeks! 

This is my basket with the sheet of carrot seeds. Can you see them???

Here's a closer view of my new babies... 

 There's 7 of them... My biggest fear is that the carrots will be too close together and then strangle each other.... We shall see!

The eyes....

The two potatoes don't quite have roots yet, but I noticed the green of their eyes are starting to come out now.

I'm so excited for the baby sprouts to come!!!! 

We have a root!!!!

Since our freak winter blast happened, the plants were all moved inside. Today, I noticed the sweet potato has one small root!!! 

Hooray!!! The regular potatoes look like something is happening, but nothing yet.

Carrots

On February 27th, I planted the carrots in a 3.5 liter bottle. It was a tall water bottle. I figured I wanted the tallest bottle I could find to help encourage the the carrots length.

So, I filled the bottle 3/4 full of vegetable soil and made sure it was moist. I then put 3 groups of seeds with about five seats per group. I then put another layer of dirt on top and watered it again. Now we wait. 

Jess got to use her shovel to help momma spread out the soil. 

Still beginning...

No changes... Man, growing a plant is hard work...being patient. I guess that serves my "instant gratification" heart right. I want it now!!!! 

I changed the potato sprouts-to-be's water. It was getting cloudy. Not sure what that means, but I sure don't want to be sitting in dirty water, unless it's a bubble bath, of course. 😉

I hope to get more soil and start the 'carrots in a bottle' this weekend. That's really what I'm most excited about! 

Dirt under my nails...the beginnings

Here's the thing... I love vegetables... Most of them. Not the gross ones like Brussels sprouts or cabbage- I mean, hello, but mostly, I love them. The flip side is that my husband dispises vegetables unless they are fried, and even then has his limits!

I work in the education system. More specifically, I work in middle school. So, to say that some days I come home and need to relieve some stress is an understatement. Don't get me wrong... I love my job but I can only take so much drama a day and anyone who knows me knows I bring enough drama to the table! 

Every summer I get bored and usually try to grow/kill something. It never turns out nicely for me or my plants. So, as I was randomly perusing Pinterest (at 4 am), I saw a pin on growing potatoes in laundry baskets and that's perfect for me! 

In an effort to save money, which rarely happens when it comes to my "ideas", I bought baskets from the dollar store. I lined the baskets with black trash bags, then filled them with miracle grow plant/vegetable soil. For the potato baskets, I only put a small amount of soil in at first. 

On this day, I also started 'watering my potatoes' to gain my little sprouts. After they sprout, I will plant several in each basket. 

I also planted carrots in one basket. I'm not sure how the first basket will turn out. I used a carrot seed roll. The intended purpose of the roll is to plant it in your prepared garden, then cover with soil. Since none of my stores had seeds yet, I decided I'd try this and see. I also plan to plant carrot seeds in a 3L bottle (also seen on Pinterest). So I watered my roll, then covered it with soil and now we wait. 

I know these may not work, but the bright side is that if they do, I'll have some lovely lovelies to snack on and if not, it'll be easily cleaned up and not a lot spent. Definitely beats a shoe shopping excursion!