Propagation Update

Here are the spider plants. I think they look bigger, maybe. They have definitely rooted. I found a website that said you can tell if a transplant has rooted by gently tugging it. I tugged, nothing happened, so they are rooted!

Here's the bright green plant. I think it has rooted. At least at each end, but not the middle. The tug trick pulls the middle, where the big leaves are, up but not the two ends. At the tip that was growing has gotten bigger, so that's a good sign right?

An Experiment

I like plants. I like gardens. I just like them.

Currently we don't have an outdoor space and I thought I would be okay with it. But, the further we get into our lease with this place, the more I notice that I miss having an out door space. So what do I do?

I decide to see if I can propagate some plants from the plants at my preschool. I had to move my pots from our neighbors patio, so I threw some of the bigger ones out, and thought that a couple of the smaller ones would work well for houseplants. I'm about two weeks into this project currently. Here's a couple of pictures of the plants as they are right now.

I don't know what type of plant this is, but it's a nice bright green color. I had one back in Utah that my mum tried to kill repeatedly, but never succeeded. 

These are Spider Plants. I'm super hopeful on these ones, because they were shooters from the original plant and already had started their roots out the bottom. After some research, I found out that Spider Plants are supposed to be really good at cleaning air, reducing the need for filters. 

I know, this looks like just a pot of soil. Look closely. There's an aloe leaf in there. According to the internet,it will eventually start roots out one side the side facing down in the soil, and the other side will grow the new plant. 

These are some rescued succulents. They have been around since before our trip at the beginning of June and are looking better than they did before. I'm calling them a success so far!

This is a Baby Jade. It's supposed to be easy care (like the succulents and aloe). This is another plant that I chose because it was a shooter already developing roots and looking for a place to grow!

Finally, here's another picture of the first plant. That little stem coming up out of the soil wasn't there when I first tried to propagate it. I think it's a good sign, right?

The succulents and Baby Jade are in the living room, and for now the rest are in the Craft room on the windowsill. I will move them around once they all get established a lot more. While they are baby plants still trying to get their roots in and start actually growing, I will keep them all right in the windowsills.

I also am attending a class on propagation in the next week, and will hopefully learn some good pointers to help these plants all grow up and be awesome!

Fall Planting, A New Experience

I'm a Utah girl. And, as a Utah girl, this time of year is when you break out the sweaters, scarves, and hats because the first snow is a few weeks away.

But, I don't live in Utah anymore.

So, this time of year you are thinking about maybe getting the sweaters out. Maybe. But the biggest adjustment for me is that here you are doing your Fall Planting for your winter crops.

What?! Winter crops?! (at least that's what the snow bound Utah girl says in my head)

Yep. I've spent the past few days getting the garden at the preschool pulled up. No more tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, cucumbers, etc. And today we started our fall planting. We planted lettuce today.

Over the weekend, I very creatively and carefully got some new soil for my container garden. (I'm still experimenting on getting the right type of soil for my container garden, the Spring choice was bad. My peas died... and I only got 2 tomatoes and 2 peppers.) I transplanted some broccoli and spinach, and planted some spinach seeds in the optimistic hope that I'll be able to have a staggered harvest of spinach since I love it so much (but only raw... whoever cooks spinach is really doing themselves a disservice).

I'm going to plant some lettuce too... If I'm lucky and can get a couple more containers on sale. I'd love to get a deep one for carrots. We've planted carrots in containers at the preschool and they did great!

So, here's to a new experience for this Utah girl! I'll keep you updated on how the container garden goes ;) Maybe you can learn some from my trial and error with it!