Container Gardening – Take 2
This week saw stage two of my adventures in container gardening. Progress has been made and plants have been potted. Hazaah!
The Wonderful World of Dirt
While at Dollar Tree to pick up a few items for Easter this week, I found just what I needed for the lettuce; both a container and a bag of potting soil. I don’t know a lot about potting soil, but it said it was for general use and there were pictures of vegetables on the bag, so I decided why not. Besides, everything I read said I’ll need to add some kind of plant food/fertilizer to the soil anyway so I figured that dirt is dirt. This certainly had to be better than the dirt I have at home since my yard is covered in rocks without easily accessible dirt.
Contain This
They have a variety of containers, but the one I thought would be best for the lettuce is a rectangular green one. I’m not really sure how much space I’m supposed to put between the lettuces (I know I should have looked it up, but I didn’t), but the container seemed like it would work to at least start them. I figure if they start to appear too crowded then I”ll just re-pot them.
It does not escape me that this laissez-faire attitude could be why I’ve had such bad luck with plants. Next week, when I am not quite so busy cleaning and prepping for Easter I will definitely, most likely, spend some time to research the proper spacing and needed fertilizers for romaine lettuce.
Getting Our Hands Dirty
In the meantime, the kids and I put our splat mat on the back deck table and got to work. First I had them collect some rocks to put in the bottom of the container to help with drainage. I figured this would be the easy and quick part. They both love collecting rocks and there is no shortage in our backyard. It, however, became a hunt for the Goldilocks rocks; not too big and not too small, but just right.
The next parts did go pretty quick. Dumped a couple of inches of dirt over the rocks. Sat the plants on the dirt. Decided they should have more dirt underneath them. Pulled them back out and poured more dirt. Re-sat them in the dirt, spaced evenly apart, and poured more dirt around them. Once they were in place, as well as during the whole process, Peanut was right there with her water bottle helping me water the plants.
The romaine is now securely potted, sufficiently watered, properly placed, and waiting for me to get it some food.
Wholey Guacamole
On our other planting of the week … another round of guacamole and we had another avocado seed so we could attempt the dirt method of sprouting. It seemed pretty straightforward,
- Clean the avocado seed
- Peel the brown outer skin off of the avocado. Use a knife to slice the skin and then peel it away
- Fill a pot with soil. This could be new soil or soil from other pots or your garden that has been sifted for stray roots.
- Stick the wide end of the seed about an inch down into the soil.
- Water
- Keep it moist and wait for it to sprout.
Except for the fact that my attempt at peeling the brown skin off just resulted in splinter like shards of it going under my fingernail, it was easy and straightforward. The site I found the info on said this wasn’t absolutely necessary so I surrendered and left most of the covering intact.
The little pot is now sitting safely in my kitchen window, out of the reach of my two little ones but still very visible to them which means they ask at least once a day if it is ready yet. It’s going to be a long few weeks and I really hope it works.
Follow-Up
Happy to say the mums seem to be doing well. We’ve had a few rain showers this week so I have not added any additional water, but so far everything seems to be looking good. Woohoo.
