Death to the chard, long live the seedlings!

I thought I would sow today, but I haven't got any sowing soil. The best I can manage is that magnificent homemade potting soil I made. I think I overdid myself a bit... When the son returns home I'll bring out my worn pans and start sterilizing used soil from my cupboards. Will be interesting, especially when the hubby returns home and ask what's for dinner.

The true answer to that question is probably "something with chard" since I intend to empty that box today. It's interesting, the leaves have been left alone for quite a while and their stems have turned coarse. Normally you can cook and eat them lika asparagus, but when we tried it last time it wasn't a hit. Today I'll probably make a gravystew (it's a swedish thing I think - you make a bechamel and add stuff to it, like finely minced chard - I can't find any proper english word for it, but I may post a recipe later on) on the leaves instead, and add boiled potatoes and smoked pork loin to it, mmmmmmmmm. (And a thought strikes me, if you're a vegan, how do you replace the pork loin? is it possible to grow at home? indoors? I'll never be able to grow normal potted plants.)

Tomorrow it's time for sowing. I have an abundance of egg shells, a large stack of seed envelopes, for some reason with a majority of strawberry parcels, some funny looking containers and a lot of wild ideas.

Got a bit carried away there...

At last I've bought a bowl for my glas bell. The plastic trays didn't fit well, and the vast amount of underused space did irritate me. I went to IKEA (I'm swedish, so sue me) and bought a kind of flat flower bowl in the right size. (I'm still fascinated by the fact that I use an IKEA item in the way it was supposed to be used. Normally I bring out my tools and transform the stuff.)

Today I filled the bowls with leca and made a test stacking with empty eggshells. Jay! Instead of twelve I could now fit TWENTYTHREE shells into the glas bell. Inspiration kicked in and I sowed things in every single one of them. That takes a while, so you could say I should have thought of it before, but I had actually finished the job when realisation kicked in
"This will be twentythree 13cm/5inch terracotta pots in about three weeks. Where do I put them? All available space is taken!"

Ah well, it's soon Easter. I think I'll call it a centerpiece.

To whom the bell tolls

Yesterday I sowed the first batch of seeds from my new Impectadelivery. Nine different plants were given two chances (ie. two seedling pots) to grow. Since I like the thought of being frugal I'd collected empty eggshells (a classig according to mr Brown Thumb) and empty toilett paper rolls, and in addition I made some pots out of an old paper bag from IKEA. I choose the bag since it was made of uncoloured and unbleached paper - the only sturdy paper of that kind I could find. In the same time I handled the son, who wanted to help, and the hubby, who Was Kind (tm).

I put the different pots in empty takeaway containers. Well, I covered the bottom with leca to help the pots stand straight. As they were filled with soile I meditated on the question of cover. Last time I used the lids of the boxes (semi transparent), but that time I used empty egg cartons, these pots are a lot taller. I decided on using plastic bags, which is a classic too.

Wait a minute - I do have a large glass bell looking as if it's been made for the purpose of shelter seedlings. Since it's rescued from the chemistry department of Uppsala University I suspect it once covered some experiments, but that's not a hindrance to making it a mini greenhouse. I could see it from where I sat, it was tucked into an 'unika'basket on the top of our bookcases. Since our cases are two and a half meter tall (or eight feet four inches) I figured it wasn't possible for me to retrieve that heavy bundle while tippytoeing on a chair.

I decided on bags. Happy to have made a decision I continued my sowing, and then it occured to me; I do have a mini greenhouse! Why on earth am I tampering around with lunchboxes? Duh!

On the other hand I didn't remember where the greenhouse is, so I decided to sow the last seeds instead. Perhaps I should had given it a second thought, because when I tried to cover the boxes even our biggest plastic bags were too small for them. I quickly made my hubby bring down the glass bell
"Why not put the boxes in the greenhouse?" he asked.
"Becuase I probably put it under the stairs," was my reply.

He went to look at the wall of things that's behind the door to the understairs cupboard. For some reason a lot of irrelevant stuff have collected there, despite the fact that we organized the space minutely only three months ago. Understairs cupboards has to be selective black holes; eating stuff that can be of use, but leaving humans alone - so they wont suspect anything. I swear, if we ever clean this space out we'll find Harry Potter.

I tried to get all three boxes inside the bell, eventhough a quick occular estimation already had told me that only two would fit. For a short moment I considered cutting some corners, and then I did what any normal person would do; I put two in the bell, and taped two plastic bags together as cover for the third one. This is how it looks now:



In the pots I've sown

• Lemon balm
  
• Basil 'Genovese'
  
• Stevia
  
• Salvia
  
• Chives
  
• Nasturtium 'Alaska'
  
• Kyona Mizuna cabbage
  
• Leaf amaranth
  

My documentation is made on the back of an old envelope, which makes it possible for me to store copies of the catalogue posts for my seedlings. To be able to tell the three boxes appart I've named them Agnes, Cecilia and Katarina. The theme is female saints, in case you wondered.

Sowing, April

I finally did it. I've sown a new round of seeds. The nasturtiums and tiger nuts needed soaking, so the round stretched over three days.

The first day I put seeds in water and made sowing boxes for all my plants to be. I've found out that cardboardboxes for eggs, when split into four parts, fits into a plastic take away box - and since those boxes have transparent lids they make out perfect (?) mini greenhouses. In an attac of being minute I portioned the other seeds into their egg boxes, put them into their respective take away box and labeled them carefully. The iceplant seeds were ittybittytiny.

The second day I sowed everything except for the tigernuts - they needed some extra soaking time. Preportioning iceplant seeds turned out to be a mistake. The cardboad boxes needed some soaking too, since they would suck up moist from the soil otherwise. In other words I needed to empty the boxes in order to put them in water - and how do you do that without loosing the minute seeds among the grains on the table? I poured them onto the lid and with some extra detective work I only lost one of them.

With a plastic spoon from Max (swedish hamburger chain) I distributed soil into the egg compartments and put seeds on top. Those where then cosied with a thin blanket of extra soil and then I put on the lid upside down to ensure some ventilation. Since I have a twoyearold in the house I secured the lids loosely with some tape. I removed the lableling from the box and put it on the box instead.

The third day I sowed the tigernut, using the same method as described above, although I had very few nuts to use and had to be economical.

What I sowed this time was

• broccoli
  
• ice plant
  
• nasturtium
  
  
  
  • Garden cress
    
  • St. Clements
    
  • Alaska Scarlet
    
  
  
• strawberry
  
• tiger nut
  

Now I only have to sit and wait....