Spring officially arrived on Thursday, even if it did welcome itself here in Utah with a nice, cold storm. Luckily it was mostly rain and just little bits of snow that didn't stick. With the arrival of spring, it reminded me of one of my favorite things I did last year: plant a garden. Since where we live we don't actually have any land, I do all of mine in planter boxes on our front porch. Last year's garden did really well! We had tons of tomatoes and herbs, which is what I limit myself to right now. Some day, though, I want to have a nice big garden where I can grow a variety of things. This year I wasn't going to plant a garden because of all the changes that are coming up for us, but I couldn't resist! I saw some recipes that called for tomatoes and basil and I just thought how much better it would taste if they were my own tomatoes and my own basil, so I got started! This year I discovered a wonderful product that has helped me get started on my garden early, without any worry of losing my precious plants to the snow and frost.
This great little invention lets you plant your seeds in individual spots. I know that doesn't sound so great, but the dirt starts out as a little pellet about half an inch thick, then you add some water to the whole tray and the little pellets grow. They are surrounded by a thin netting so all the soil stays in individual pellets. Then you add the seeds, pop the top on the container and put it some places warm inside the house until the plants are big enough to transplant to their own containers. You don't have to worry about pouring a bag of soil and making a mess, it is all right there for you!
These are my little plants so far. It has only been about a week and a half and they are already doing very well! They still have a few weeks of living inside before they get to move to their new home outside, but now I can start taking them out during the day to get a little sunlight. I can't wait until they start producing tomatoes and the leaves of the herbs are big enough to use!
These are my little plants so far. It has only been about a week and a half and they are already doing very well! They still have a few weeks of living inside before they get to move to their new home outside, but now I can start taking them out during the day to get a little sunlight. I can't wait until they start producing tomatoes and the leaves of the herbs are big enough to use!
5 comments:
That is going to produce enough tomatoes for your entire families, and then some. I know where I will be visiting in August! mmmm
Where do you get these little things? It might be good for me to use one too!
That looks so fun!! I was just telling Whitney and Laura last night that not being able to have a garden is the thing I'm most sad about when I uproot my life every summer and leave here, but am not anywhere else long enough to have a garden either. Maybe I could take one of those trays with me - do you think they'd let me carry it on the plane?
There are more than just tomatoes in there. I have tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, basil, parsley, cilantro and another herb that I can't remember right now. You can find this nifty little trays at any hardware store in the gardening section. I think there are smaller ones even, so who knows, Ruth, maybe you could sneek a smaller one on a plane!
Crystal- you are now my official domestic goddess source for all things baked, grown, and cooked. :) Thank you Thank you thank you...oh, and in the past two weeks I made both ritz treats and oreo balls for friends and they think I'm so cool. Really it's all you.
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