Hi! Since we’re exploring a new reality during the pandemic, I've decided to try and grow some food at home.
In my first column, I described how I picked up some seeds at the grocery store and used what I had at home - some old compost, stale potting mix and my boyfriend’s grow lights.
Stuff started to grow!
Here’s the latest:
DAY 4
It’s alive!
So much quicker than I expected, little sprouts of lettuce, mustard and greens mix are popping up.
The soil is nothing special, just what was in the house - a mix of some recycled potting soil, seafood compost (around 20 percent) and some new potting mix.
Then I just watered them.
My partner, Mark, helped me set up his grow lights and progress was seen in no time.
OK, so now I have to read the instructions on thinning the plants to make sure they don’t crowd themselves out.
DAY 8
Thinned the mizuna greens and lettuce.
I planted way too many seeds. There was excellent germination and the little plants were growing on top of each other, so I went through the pots and plucked out the smaller plants that were too close to larger ones. I’ll probably have to do this again before too long.
As for the rest, there were a few sprouts in the spinach pot and a couple tiny hairs in the basil pot.
DAY 21
The goal is to get to eat something out of this indoor garden project - eventually - we might be on track for salad in the next few weeks.
The spinach and oriental greens are looking thick and dark green.
In the not-so-leafy-greens tray, the peppers have all sprouted - just one per pot, so the germination was about one in five.
The lavender that I was about to give up on has popped through and given me hope.
The green onions look like grass right now and I’m just not sure what’s going to happen there - I’ve only ever grown onions from seeds.
The dill is starting to flourish - not so much the basil, but it is about to leaf out too.
Lettuce and mizuna are so plentiful, I split them into several pots so they can grow bigger.
To do this, I wrestled then out of the pots and carefully pulled them apart before re-potting them.
There was a hopeless moment when the delicate leaves were all flopped over with dirt and roots were all over the place, but I kept at it, put the plants root-side down in some more of the same soil mix as before and I think it’ll be okay.
That’s it for now. Grow on, friends!
Alison Jenkins is a local journalism initiative reporter with The Guardian. She can be reached at [email protected].
