Update on our window garden

You can imagine our surprise when came home from Seattle and found the girls seedlings had become full fledged plants! Sarah Elizabeth's sunflowers were huge. Unfortunately it appears that several days of watering was missed. Her plants are quite sad and droopy. I am in hopes that if we transplant them into better drainage pots they will come back. If not it is off the Greens Feed and Seed to try again. Our turnip had all but dried up~the growth on top however had been saved by draining all the moisture from the turnip top.

We have a new addition to our window garden peonies. Aunt Barbara gave each of the girls this really cool kit called an eggling. The kit came with seeds and a "egg" pre-filled with special soil. The girls cracked the egg, removed a little of the shell and placed the seeds on top of the soil. Add water and watch it grow. The girls had a lot of fun cracking their eggs and are anxious to watch them grow.

When I was at Target last night in the $ bins I found tiny little seed starters. A few more herbs, marigolds, lavender and a tomato plant. What luck! We are almost set with our garden. the girls would like to grow a few pumpkins, a strawberry plant, cucumber, zuccini and a red and yellow peppers. The girls are starting to get a little carried away!

Ever have one of those days...

Well it has only taken three days to make and plant our herb terriariums and start our flowers. The girls forgot to water them after they were planted..oops. The beans started on Saturday are already making progress. The seed covers have popped open on Sarah' Elizabeth's pinto beans as well as her navy. Emily forgot to set hers in the light and stuck them in her cubby...another oops.

Sarah Elizabeth planted Mamouth sunflower seeds and moonshine sunflower seeds. Emily planted daisies and sweet peas. I had the girls examine and compare their seeds in size before they planted them. I made copies of their seed packets and they glued these into their notebooks. As usual Sarah Elizabeth took hours designing her notebook pages and Emily finished in under 2 minutes! Typical.

The girls will keep a diary of the progress their indoor gardens make and eventually move them outside. I sure hope the girls have better green thimbs than I do! :0) If so we should have the prettiest flower bed on the block.

The gentleman in the picture is from Greens Feed and Seed. Check out the size of the seed started bag. Did we really need a seed starting bag that ummm.....big?

How does your garden grow?

Today we had a beautiful blessing of snow! Joseph was so excited when he awoke and found it snowing. It continued to do so into to wee hours of the morning. More than 6 inches! My poor SIL in Cleveland received more than a foot. Wish we were there!

Yesterday we went to Green's Feed and Seed store to pick out seed to germinate. The girls had a great time...just so many seeds so little space in the window! I am trying to home school on a shoestring since Jeff lost his job and I tell you it is so hard. Seeds and soil ended up costing around $20 (ouch!). Each girl had two different kids of seeds. I only hope that they either begin to grow before we leave on the 18Th or do not make their grand entrance until after we get back from Seattle on March 27Th.

On a side note: I know your thinking how can we go to Seattle with Jeff not working? Our son, Joseph, and daughter Sarah Elizabeth are going for medical treatment. Thanks to http://www.miracleflights.org/ we do not pay for airfare and we are praying that we will be able to stay at the Ronald McDonald House http://www.rmhcseattle.org/ Joseph has a caring page at www.caringbridge.org/visit/JosephSprouse .


The whole garden thing began back when I followed the suggesting form Heart and Trees to grow a winter garden. We tried sweet and white potatoes, parsnip, carrot and turnip. Nothing grew but the turnip. The girls have loved watching it grow as well as Emily's friend Lilith, Every time she comes over she checks to see how much it has grown.

The girls planted their seeds in egg cartons. We were going to cover them with plastic wrap, this still might happen while we are in Seattle so that they are watered. The last thing I want is for them to die while we are gone. Emily is growing sweet peas and daisies (both are my favorites, and I promise I did not prompt her choice!). Sarah Elizabeth is growing two different types of sunflowers.

When we return from Seattle hopefully our NASA tomato seeds should arrive. I am uncertain what list I got the address to sign up but it sound really cool and tied right into our space and plants unit. http://www.tomatosphere.org/ Tomatosphere is an educational outreach project that reaches over 9000 classrooms across Canada, the United States.