Planting Update

As you saw in the posts from last weekend, we decided to do some planting last weekend. This was in response to Nicholas' enthusiasm about the sunflowers they planted at school a few weeks ago.

They sent the sunflowers home on Thursday because they were outgrowing their little paper cups. As you can see here, this sunflower was in desperate need of a deeper pot and a lot more dirt:

From 2012 March

So we bought it a larger pot and transplanted it yesterday morning.

From 2012 March

The end result:

From 2012 March

(As a side note, yes, we know it is March, but he is obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse right now and x-mas pajamas were down to $4 at Kohl's.)

I am cautiously optimistic that the transplant worked because yesterday it was bending to get better light. But we'll see how it does in the long term because we have serious problems with sunlight in this apartment.

Which brings us to what we planted last weekend. We planted some baby lettuce plants, as well as flower seeds and rosemary seeds. We then promptly realized that even though we get a ton of light in the sliding door that goes to the balcony, the balcony actually gets a grand total of about 30 minutes of direct sun from 7:00-7:30 am at this time of year. Ooops.

We've been doing everything we can think of to get the plants some more light, through and including me working outside on a blanket in the grass in our complex for 3 hours on Friday afternoon in order to "babysit" the plants while putting them out in the sun. Now, I'm in no way complaining about working outside on a 73-degree March Friday afternoon, but it was a rare fluke of the schedule that allowed me to do that. In other words, it is not a good long-term plan.

In other words, I have been very anxious about this project failing and Nicholas' disappointment. But today, we saw this:

From 2012 March

The flower seeds have sprouted!!!!!!

We aren't out of the woods because the lettuce leaves are turning brown and this week it is supposed to be rainy and cloudy, decreasing even further the already limited sunlight available, but it is a very encouraging sign. And it made us all so happy!