More Chard!

For a number of days, I was wondering if I was only going to have the two swiss chard plants appear. Boy, was I wrong. I had three more spring up in one day! Maybe they're coming in waves, and I'll see a few more pop out over the weekend. I took pictures over the course of a couple of days, so you can see how rapidly they are growing. Nothing I grow seems to grow as quickly as all the plants at the greenhouse, but then again, they use liquid fertilizer daily. I use a slow-release fertilizer. Maybe I should get on that...

Two of the newbies seem to have emerged from the same seed. Here they are when I first saw them, on Tuesday.

And this is what they looked like the next day. Pretty big difference, huh? Right now they're as tall as the first two are below.

This next seedling is the newest of the bunch. It's all by itself. I know you can barely see it in this picture; that small banana-looking object is its pair of cotyledons.

This picture is better, since the little tyke was standing up straighter on Wednesday.

These pictures are an update of what the first two seedlings are up to. If you were wondering, they're busy growing taller all the time. This was taken Tuesday...

...And this was taken Wednesday! Their little leaves look so happy. As you can see, all of my chard appears to have fuschia stems except for one that's whitish or yellowish. That's fine with me. I can deal with hot-pink vegetables this summer.

A couple of other bits of news: my zucchini is saying goodbye tomorrow and going to its new home. I'll miss it, but hopefully it can be outside and flourish in its new environment.

Also, I'm leaving for spring break, so I have to pack up all my plants. Normally, transporting plants is a stressful experience for the transporter and the plants, but I'm looking on the bright side: Scott lent me some boxes so I don't get dirt all over my car, and my house has a southern exposure. This means my plants are basically getting the equivalent of a tropical vacation.

While I'm home, I'll introduce Basil, my basil plant, to the blog. Basil is staying at my house for its better light, but I'm getting it back come summer. Which is exciting.

Next post: Winter in Retrospect.

It Has Begun!

I have a dream. I had a dream. My dream was to plant swiss chard and thyme seeds indoors and make them grow. My dream was is to turn:

(As the packaging suggests, these seeds were from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I strongly recommend them to anyone looking for weird (think blue squash and chocolate basil) or slightly different varieties. They sell vegetables, herbs, and flowers. They're into organic growing, if you're into that. They even sent me a free packet of sunflower seeds for ordering from them.)

 

and

 

Into food.

The "making them grow" part is still a dream (albeit ever closer to reality), but I planted said seeds last night, so I am one step closer to growing my first foods!

The variety of chard I ordered is called "Rainbow" (also known as Bright Lights and Five-Color Silverbeet, as it's a relative of sugar beets). If you look at my blog's (current) header, that's a picture of rainbow swiss chard. I think it's beautiful, and chard is one of my favorite vegetables--definitely my favorite green. And I have read that it can be grown indoors for baby greens. So I'm trying it!

Apparently soaking the chard seeds in warm water for 24 hours before planting aids germination and helps prevent root rot, so I'm soaking them as I type.

I know I'm not sowing very many, but this way I have plenty more in case something goes south with this batch. Once these are done imbibing that water, I'm going to plant them in this (possibly with a tray of some sort under it):

However, I did actually plant the thyme. I planted it in a basket (we'll see how that works as a container) that's sitting on my heater. You see, a heating mat would be nice, but that would cost money, so I just laid some cloth over my heater to insulate it and put the basket on top of that. Here's the cloth (some strips I cut off of some sweats today--I'm DIYing this thing).

And here's the seeds on top of it!

In addition to planting new crops, I transplanted some older ones into better containers. These little seed pots were generously donated by my mother. I was going to use coolie cups, but I'll save them for another time.

First, the spinach. Cameos by Scott's hand.

This one's looking a little leggy. It never hurts to try, though.

Next is the zucchini. It's actually getting a new home in a few weeks, where it can go outside and possibly produce fruit.

I also finally transplanted my wheat into this colander. Maybe I didn't do the best job, but I think it will work. It's crooked because it's been growing toward my window and thus light.

Here's the class photo!

And here's what my windowsill looks like now:

There you have it. My lilliputian bounty is on its way. Have you ever tried growing any of these plants indoors? What are your favorite seed suppliers? Have you ever had to rig a makeshift growing apparatus?

Next post: more greenhouse pictures (plus the planting of my Bright Lights)!