As a first year serious gardener, I was soooo excited to get my hands dirty and start growing some greens. So excited that I started really, really early. End of February is when the first seeds were planted.
Fast forward to today, and we've got a ton of food starting to grow! Woo-hoo! I'm not a total failure! 🤪
Full disclosure, starting to grow isn't very marvelous. From February until the long weekend in May, the living room was like the wilderness. Foliage everywhere, every plant or seedling tray crammed together in the very few spots where the sun shines through. Plus moving them around throughout the day, following the sun wherever she goes.
Thankfully over the long weekend, we were able to move almost everything outside permanently! From hardy transplants to leggy transplants, repotting and reseeding. Everything received a new home and everyone looks very happy.
I've talked about the shitty shoe-rack seed starter before. Actually, dare I say, I love it now more than ever. It's been moved outside but still holds a very important purpose. It's holding the newly reseeded leggy lettuces and a few other babies. Partially shaded but still gets some afternoon sun, I'm hoping it will be enough to give them life. If not, then back to the drawing board I go!
The shitty white shoe rack
The other plants that were indoors, like the various big palms, all received a new pot and soil this weekend. They even stayed out for some extra fresh air. While they stood there, tall and proud, it felt so tropical 🌴. The leaves dancing in the wind is a new joy that I didn't quite discover before (cue the old lady in me ✌👩🦳). The honey bees were also very attracted by the big, colorful leaves. It definitely brings some decor inspiration whenever we can scrape up a few pennies....or cave under pressure and add it to the credit card 🤷♀️. Either scenario is totally plausible.
Another plant that actually ended up taking more room after repotting was lil' lemon 🍋. The lemon seeds all popped, and there were 4 sprouts growing within the same pot! They needed to be divided in order to make sure they all lived.
Something I learned while growing lemons from seeds, they will produce more than one sprout from the same root (!!). So one lemon sprout will soon have a little offspring near the base of the stem. I've let these grow and they're doing really well together! This is the first time I grow lemons, so I can't tell for sure what the end product will be. (Yes, I will be writing a post about how I grew a lemon tree once it (and my confidence) grows a bit bigger! 🤭)
Lil lemon in 3 separate pots
Now that the living room is a bit more breathable, we've sunk our teeth in a totally new method of growing - hydroponics! 🎉
This was a bit of a fluke and experiment. We found the pump at an auction sale, and the rest was pretty cheap or we made it ourselves with the 3D printer. The first seeds to take the hydroponics out for a spin are the lettuces! It's a bit of an unsightly thing, but right now I only care about the results. Aesthetics can come later. If this works....I'll be so star struck 🤩! I'll also be sharing the progress of this system when we have some actual viable results to share. For now, it remains an experiment 🤓.
Rigged up hydroponic system
If this is your first time gardening and don't have a greenhouse, I bet you're looking forward bringing everything outside, too! When the growing season is over though, it will be a good time to take step back and rethink how to grow indoors with the space we have, and how to make the transition outside better, now that we've both gained some expertise about it.
I love experimenting. To me, it's like a test drive to see what you can do with what you already know 🧠. Following that comes knowledge, and with knowledge comes wisdom. There's really no other direction other than to improve, no way for you to fail, only to rise 🌞! Give growing a try and feel the sense of satisfaction of growing your own food. It will take a few seasons for things to pay for themselves, but until then, it's all about the practice, joy, surprises and well, exercise 🏋️♀️ (for me, anyway).
Let me know if there's anything you want to know more about, or simply talk about any struggles more on these platforms! I love learning and teaching what I know to others (I'm a nurse by background, and teach other nurses for a living) so please, no question is too simple. Take it from me who just wrote a post about how much water the garden needs (it got autodeleted somehow...I plan to rewrite it soon!). Basic, right?
Happy experimenting, learning, growing & sharing, my friends!
Your nurse and beginner gardener, Liv 💚
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