Spiders and Seedlings and Jade, Oh My!

There have been so many recent developments that I don't even know where to start. I'll arbitrarily follow the order of the pictures I took.

My spinach seedlings are starting to develop their first true leaves! Notice the difference in shape between them and the seed leaves. It's quite the contrast, and it will only become more different as time goes by.

My other spinach plant is trying to do the same thing this one has. It may just need more time. However, it seems kind of limp, and I'm wondering if the stem didn't get injured when I transplanted it. Time will tell.

The next order of business is my zucchini plant. It's still miniscule, but I believe it's trying to flower. I don't know if zucchinis can flower multiple times throughout a season, but if mine goes through with it, its new caretakers are going to have some microscopic fruits. They produce pretty flowers, though.

Now for some really exciting news: my thyme has sprouted! Well, some of the plants have. I may have to thin the ranks at some point because thyme seeds are tiny, so I have no idea how many I planted. But for now, I'm just happy that the seeds germinated! I don't think I've ever grown a plant from seed before, so this is an important accomplishment for me.

As you'll notice, it's extremely difficult to get my camera to focus on something as small as these seedlings, so they are blurry. The green dots are the seed leaves. You can see some of the stems.

Fun fact: when I was little, I thought the lyrics to the Steely Dan song "Reelin' in the Years" were "Are you reelin' in the yeast?/Stowin' away the thyme?/Are you gatherin' up the teas?/Have you had enough of mine?" Yes, I was destined to be a foodie even then.

My chard is still looking like this, though.

Nada.

The biggest news from this front is my two new houseplants that I propagated in class. This one is a spider plant. Spider plants are very efficient at filtering air, and they're pleasant in general. Spider plants are thus named because they reproduce by sending out stalks that have another spider plant-shaped plant on the end of them. They look like little spiders.

My second houseplant is a jade tree, acquired in the same manner as the spider plant. Jade plants are succulent, but they form woody stems eventually. I find them aesthetically pleasing (and mine's putting on new leaves)!

Here's an aerial view.

So this is the new and improved windowsill shot:

Perhaps the chard will soon join this happening array of friends. But until then...

Next post: flowers in my hometown!