And Then There Were Nine

Good afternoon!

As promised, an update on the growth of my recently planted terrarium. It has been a week and a day since my last post, and since the seeds have been planted and sure enough, there has been some botanical activity.

Day 7

There were actually about four little sprouts yesterday morning, one of which can be seen if you squint closely near the center of the above photo. As you can imagine, I was quite pleased and quite ecstatic upon seeing the little green shoots. It has been a (somewhat) secret fear of mine that I would kill anything I tried to grow, so it's good to see that that is not the case. 

I was also a little concerned by the fact that the condensation was concentrated towards the back of the bottle: I wasn't sure if that meant that all the seeds were in the back (evaporation, water cycle, and whatnot--perhaps I should do a post on that?) or if it just meant that the open bottle was causing all the water near the front to evaporate. 

Day 8

However, I discovered (quite happily) today that there was indeed a little shoot growing near the opening of the bottle. (Now, just a case of figuring out if I should be trying to preserve water near that end by keeping it open or not)

Furthermore, I also discovered five additional shoots for a total of nine happy little shoots! I tried my best to take pictures of them, but they're really quite hard to discern among the soil, so I wouldn't blame you if you don't want to examine the pictures, but they're there, I promise!

Hopefully, they will get easier to see and if not, I guess we shall have to wait until they have matured. 

Meanwhile, I leave you all with a picture of...Terrarium Against a Rising Sun. Because who doesn't enjoy the effects of a good sunrise glowing against glass?

Until next time~~

Thumb of Green

So I got a cool gift recently, courtesy of a close friend of mine, whom I shall refer to as Madame LYing. Break having ended, meaning that I'm back in my dorm, I only just got around to setting up my new gift. It's a great gift really because it allows me to try my hand at gardening, though I guess with my various jobs at the farm and garden, I have had my fair share of gardening. However, this will be my first time at solo-gardening (though I suppose the instructions and the nature of the gift in itself count as assistance). Overcome with curiosity yet?

Tada! It's my very own terrarium. This is a picture diagram of what the matured terrarium would ideally look like plus all the components that make up the kit.

And this, I suppose, is a photo of what the terrarium will (hopefully) look like. As you can see, the terrarium consists of a "repurposed wine bottle," which I think is pretty neat and the seeds are of the sedum genus of flowering plants.

The set up was a little harder than I expected, if only because it was meant to lay horizontally and the spoon I was using for soil dispersal was a little on the short side meaning I couldn't quite get soil to the back with ease. Another issue I had was with watering; the instructions say to use a spray bottle to create a "gentle rain" over the soil, but as I was without a spray bottle, I had to resort to using the spray faucet in the laundry room sink. While the soil "should remain damp like a sponge" I fear that I may have sprayed a little too much water, not to mention the force of the faucet might have disturbed some of the seeds a little.

Day 1

 Here is what my terrarium looks like! I don't know if you can tell, but the soil level is higher further in the bottle--a result of the danged faucet. Hopefully all turns out well though!

From the mouth of the bottle

While the instructions suggest placing the terrarium in "a windowsill with morning (eastern) sun," which, thankfully, I have, I am a little worried as it is winter after all, and my window gets pretty bad condensation (which you may be able to discern from the picture), which I'm afraid will filter out the amount of sunlight the soil it exposed to. Also the soil is supposed to be at 75-85 degrees for germination--not sure how I'm supposed to maintain that or even make sure the temperature is within the range to begin with, but here's hoping. Fingers crossed! The seeds are supposed to germinate in 7-10 days so expect an update then!

Thanks again Madame LYing for this awesome gift!!

Until then~

Get your own at http://www.pottingshedcreations.com!