Garden is growing...

So my first seed trays didn't work. Wrong soil, too much wind? drying sun? cold nights? I have no idea. Sila built shelves in the kitchen and one is high, under the skylight. Its warm there. Also I did some research on the dumptrucks and series of tubes (Stevens, T. 2005) and discovered that a good soaking in tea will help soften seed casings and promote germination. On Sunday we emptied out the old trays and started over. We also bought some basil seedlings because, well, Sila needs pesto. The results:

A mini forest of basil, rapidly outgrowing its trays:

Basil sprouts in 3 days! The seed packet says 8:

Tomato sprouts in 3 days! (see blurry little seed leaves in foreground). Do you think it's my feel-good blue wall that's making the plants so happy? Or the tea?

I have plans for these little guys... in my garden diary

Dad sent me an ad for hanging upside-down tomato pots - I recently bought a gorgeous book called "Crops in Pots" that has some similar ideas - We are going to get wall baskets of coconut fiber and plant the cherry tomatoes out the sides and basil in the top. Pasta baskets!

Now that I have the perfect germination laboratory, I am ready to try my chilis again once I move these things outside. Stay tuned for excessive tomato consumption and hot recipes.

In unrelated news, been busy these last weeks with an XRF class and planning field work for 08 in Namibia and Mozambique. Working on an urgent paper with Francesca and a less urgent one with Emily and Francesca. Tired. Been swimming - this morning 1320m at the Obz community pool. It's just me and the Grammy Faye caps since school went back in session.