Sunday, January 20, 2019

This is a salad kit, aka a greenhouse

Just pottering about, crocheting, listening to Night Circus on YouTube, then looked around and found myself somehow at the Roots and Refuge channel. With a great mini greenhouse idea for growing a bit of salad in the winter. Go there and find it, credit is all hers. And she has a helpful ginger cat who whiffs his tail across the camera, wanting to be included.

Piper got me thinking about it, but my scope is more modest, and here's my kit.




Everything already in the house. I had kept a few packets of seed when I gave away a gardensworth to a young man trying his hand. The rest of the seeds are tender, also inedible flowers, so the two you see are the trial packets.And an unheated greenhouse is best for hardier seeds, so lettuce and parsley are good possibilities. I'd like a bit of baby lettuce in the winter and possibly parsley for me for once, instead of the dusky swallowtail caterpillars. I'll give them a pot later.

I dumped out my embroidery frames and hoops into a crate to use their container. No, you don't punch drainage holes in the container, it's unharmed, read on.

You punch the drainage holes in the bag of potting soil, see it outside the window, turn it over, rest it on the lid of the container, flat on the ground. Or, chez Boud, flat on the pachysandra, then cut an opening in the topside of the bag, just a window. I've used quite a bit of the soil from this bag, so the level will probably work. If it's a new bag you have to scoop some out, since it's compressed in the bag. Now scatter the seeds, invert the container over the whole doings. If the soil is dry, sprinkle it really gently. Mine's damp, may skip that. And voila, or walla, as those annoying diy ladies say.

I'll update you on how, and if, this works. If we have warmer days, it might need to be propped a couple of inches open to avoid too much moisture. But since tomorrow is frigid, it's not even going out till later in the week. This has real possibilities. Watch this space!

6 comments:

  1. great idea. plan on giving it a go when weather gets above -0c.

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  2. I can't wait to try it. If you do, krep me posted.

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  3. I wish Piper *would* start growing the vegetables around here ;)

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  4. I thought when I wrote it, that it wasn't quite right. Well, at least I didn't say Moxie!

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  5. Moxie is the one who actually helps with the vegetable garden! I don't know if she'd be interested in a garden in a box, though. We'll see! :)

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