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.
4 comments:
We have an Ikea near us and I've been looking for a bowl like yours. Is there any chance you also got the glass bell there? (probably not but I'll hope).
Nancy J. Bond: Thanks! Hopefully the seedlings have sprouted in time for Easter.
Melanie: My glas bell is a result of advanced dumpster diving (my hubby was a caretaker at the chemical department at Uppsala Univeristy, and the bell was about to be thrown away). Apparently they are called "bell jars" or "garden cloches" (I _finally_ found the right words, jay!). There's a mailorder company in the US that are selling a large variety of them: English Creek Gardens (http://www.englishcreekgardens.com/Cloche1.htm the link takes you directly to their garden cloche page). Try them.
The glass bowl is part of this year's gardening collection at IKEA. It's called "BLOMSTER" (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50113641) and is available in white or in clear glas.
Beautiful! How do you transplant them? Do you break the shells? And is there a theory behind using egg shells specifically (is there added calcium?), or is it just to use things you have on hand?
Thanks! I break the shells. You have to be delicate with the small lump of soil, but I appreciate that nothing remains that can 'cage' the roots of the plants like the plastic cover of JiffyPots(tm).
I don't think there is any theory behind more than that it's a good way of saving money. I plan to crush the shells and put them in my vermicompost once I get one started, since the worms are said to fancy them - but that's just about it.
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