Welcome to the jungle room

Anyone who has ever planted seeds before is familiar with the vague directions printed on the back of the package.  "Sow 1/4 inch deep, spacing 6-8 inches apart.  Harvest in 65 days."  The package might as well say, "Put in dirt.  See what happens."  And that is what I am doing.  I am taking the directions the supplier gives merely as suggestions.  "Plant 18 inches apart."  18 inches?!  That is so much space.  How about 12 inches?  I am sure that there is a reason they suggest 18 inches (each plant needs more room to spread out, competing for resources, etc.), but I am trying to maximize my space.

A few posts ago I reported on the seeds I had planted.  Well, due to my impatience, I planted more seeds inside about a week ago.  Realistically, I still have at least four weeks before I can plant any of these little plant babies outside.  My thought was that if I started them early, then they would be big and strong once I was ready to plant them outside.  One thing I did not count on, however, was how quickly some of them would grow.  My miniature greenhouse has a plastic lid to keep heat and water in.  Within one week of being planted, the bean plants have become so tall and so strong that they were literally lifting the lid off the greenhouse.  All of a sudden the story of Jack and the Beanstalk came back to me, and it all made sense.  Those weren't "magic beans!"  Jack simply started them inside in a small greenhouse way before he should have.

These latest seeds that I have planted have far surpassed the previous ones both in speed and strength.  Seriously, not only are these bean plants as big around as a drinking straw, but they emerged from the soil two days ago and are already nearly three inches tall.  The laundry room may soon become known as the jungle.

Early Risers

Two weeks is a long time in the life of a seed, so I have learned.  It has been two weeks since I planted some seeds in a miniature green house in my laundry room.  I had heard that it is a good idea to start things such as broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, and peppers inside several weeks before it is time to plant them in the garden, so I did just that. 

Every day after planting the seeds, I would stare at the dirt, looking for something to indicate that this was going to work.  After four consecutive days of being disappointed, on the fifth day things began to change.  The tiniest little green stem was sticking out of the dirt.  I didn't even care what it was, I was so excited!  Naturally, I beckoned everyone in the house into the laundry room to marvel at this little speck of green by yelling, "It's growing!!".  Every day after that, something new would sprout up until, eventually, all 50 pots had something alive in them. 

Now my spindly little forest is getting bigger and stronger every day, just waiting for me to plant them outside.  It's kind of funny how all of the plants grow at an angle toward the window, but within one day of me turning them the opposite direction they grow back toward the window.  What is even more incredible is that out of one tiny seed no bigger than the question mark on your keyboard will come ten, twenty or even thirty pounds of food.