Eco-Containers

Amazing what a week can do. I planted veggies and flowers indoors 7 days ago to begin preparing for spring. This morning the zucchini and runner beans were doing so well they lifted the lid off my seed starting greenhouse!

 
I decided to transplant these out of the greenhouses so they would have room to grow, and so I could contain moisture in the greenhouse to allow other seeds to have a chance to germinate. I didn't have any containers, so made my own. The National Gardening Association has instructions for "eco-containers," homemade transplanting containers made out of biodegradable newsprint that can be planted directly outdoors in the spring. Since we've been iced in the house for the past three days, I figured this was my only option. I couldn't find any glue around the house like the instructions call for, and besides, I'm trying to garden organically and synthetic glue didn't fit the bill so I made paste out of flour and water and used this instead. Here's what I did:

Materials:
1. Scissors
2. Newspaper, cut into strips (3" for very small, 3.5" for smaller seedlings, 5" for larger seedlings)
3. Paste (flour and water, stirred together; consistency of thin pancake batter)
4. Spoon
5. Cans (8 oz for 3", 14 oz for 3.5", 20 oz for 5")

Directions:
1. Roll strip of newspaper around can, using a spoon to spread a thick line of paste to secure the seams. Be sure to let about an inch of paper hang off the end of the can so that it can slide off more easily, and so that you can have material to create a pot bottom.

2. On the end where the paper is overhanging, snip 5-6 slits in the paper.

 

3. Fold these flaps down in a circle and put paste under each one. Slide the pot off the can. You can also try to fold it like you would a gift, but I found that this did not work as well due to the round shape.

You can reinforce the bottom or cover any gaps by applying paste to small strips of paper and laying them inside and across the bottom.

Once the paste dried and hardened, I put them in a tray and filled them with dirt, then introduced the seedlings. Then I watered well and crossed my fingers that I didn't just kill them all.

And that's all there is to it!

Sprouts!

I planted my plan-in-advance seeds four days ago, and already I have some seedlings! Seems like broccoli is the quickest to germinate, the plants are already hitting the top of the "greenhouse." Dahlias, a few eggplants, and some zucchini have also started to sprout. This year I decided to plant more things indoors and earlier, to see if I can get the plants heartier before the intense heat hits. I also used peat discs this year, which I thought would be less messy than what turned out. But that stuff is holding onto moisture! Which means less watering, so I can just forget about it. Wonder what's going to sprout tomorrow...

Vertical Container Gardening

What a neat, space saving concept! Vertical planters, stacked up taller than me, a foot square, water flowing down, guided by gravity. And plants tucked into the corners of each cube. We saw this in Epcot, in their "Behind the Seeds" tour of their greenhouse. They'd be good indoors and out on the patio, like for herbs or strawberries. I'd bet they'd be a nice way to create a green space divider. You can buy the containers online from Verti-Gro but they're expensive. Need to figure out how to make them myself...

GreenSprouts

Welcome to my Blog, I'm excited for you to join me! While the move to TX from New England in 2009 was a culture shock and tough to say the least, it did afford us the opportunity to buy a house and with it, land. We have a small part of the yard in which to grow food and last winter we built a 4'x10' raised bed as well as put out several rows of containers for additional plants and a rain barrel to harvest water. We've also recently redone our kitchen (it was salmon pink with damaged raspberry counters when we moved in), mostly designing it ourselves. I also went back to school this semester to study culinary arts and am interested in exploring American culture's obsession with processed, low quality, cheap foods and finding alternatives to this.
"GreenSprouts" will document my attempts to develop my creativity while learning to grow my own food and flowers and cook.

I'm already planning for my produce garden for this year even though it's just January. Last year we planted in March, which was apparently too late to get started and as a result the heat interfered with fruiting. By the time September rolled around, the surviving plants gave a little fruit. By December we had picked about 450 tomatoes, several pounds of cucumbers, peppers, and beans, and pickled way too much okra for anyone's well-being.

So this year I'm starting earlier to hopefully spread it all out. I'm about to start seedlings indoors, order a few new kinds of seeds, and bug Josh to redo some of the irrigation lines in our raised bed. I'm going to try to grow tomatoes, okra, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, butternut squash, cantaloupe, onions, potatoes, raspberries, grapes, beans, peas, pumpkins, swiss chard, carrots, beets, eggplant, and a bunch of herbs this time around. I'm also looking for heirloom varieties and flowers to attract bees and butterflies.
Now I just need to figure out where to put everything...