It's been a long time since my pal Uncskainch and I have collaborated on a blog-a-long, so this is very exciting!
We, and our children, each made a carton garden with see-through panels to watch seeds sprout and root and grow! Uncskainch started hers first, and then shared her idea with us. Here's our version here:
We used a soymilk carton- cut off the top, and the main bulk of each side. Then, we reinforced the corners with chopsticks, so it would stay upright with all of that water and dirt. We also poked some drainage holes in the bottom, too.
Then we stretched plastic wrap all around the outside to make the viewing window. (secured with duct tape- something we have plenty of around here...) Then added moistened soil. Then we carefully added seeds right next to the plastic. Then we misted the seeds with water daily, and covered the top with plastic wrap to maintain the moisture.
About 5 days later, things started happening......
Hello, Sunflower!
What I
really liked (and hadn't expected) was the neatness of feeling the
seedlings and their roots through the plastic- what a whole new way of
experiencing the germinating of a seed! When the sunflower seeds
looked like they were swelling, we could feel that. (like a pregnant
belly) then we could feel the roots.......
More sunflowers growing........
Here is the carton garden just a few days ago. We planted 4 different types of seeds: (one on each carton side) Velvet Queen sunflowers, Lemon Queen sunflowers, carrots, and Foxglove. In this photo, there are sunflowers in front, carrots to the left, and Foxglove to the right.
Hooray for carton gardening!! Thank you, Uncskainch, for sharing your fun and exciting project with us!
Please go on over to Uncskainch's blog to see her carton garden! And plant-a-long with us, and share your carton garden gardens, if you are inclined!
It's a new photo widget!
Did you happen to see the National Geographic photo of the day widget on the Xanga front page? Here it is! Try it out...
I put it in my sidebar. Looking forward to the great photos every day! The widget has a link to the National Geographic's Photo Of The Day page, where you can view the photo archive, and download enlarged or wallpaper versions of the photos. Enjoy!!
(And that should be a GREEN thumb up in the Mini!)