| | Window Planting BoxIt all started with Uncskainch. She posted this really neat idea for learning about plants, and suggested a blog-along. Crunchy got her hands on it and posted her version. I was so intrigued by the brilliant simplicity, that I was inspired to follow suit. So, without further ado, here is our version of the see-through carton garden.
  We started off with a orange juice carton. Sunshine is still a little young to cut the holes, so I did that. We decided to go with two large windows so that we could try two different types of plants while still maintaining the structure of the carton. Only time will tell if this will work as we hoped.
Next, we wrapped the whole thing in plastic wrap to make the transparent windows. I sealed the bottom of the carton afterward, and then put the whole thing in a plastic dish in case it leaked. I cut the excess plastic from the top so we'd have clear access to the inside of the carton. Having since reviewed Crunchy's post a second time, I see that we probably should have left some of the plastic there on top to keep things moist. I'll fix that later today. Moisture's going to be important, especially in this very arid climate.
Next was the fun and dirty part. We filled the carton nearly to the top with potting soil. (Thank goodness for the iRobot Roomba!) Sunshine had fun getting his hands dirty. When it was completely filled, we went through our seed bags to see what might be interesting to watch grow.
 We started with sunflower seeds because they are big and fat and easy to see. We planted two seeds on one side of the carton, being careful to press the seed up against the plastic to keep it in view. Sunshine (who is still five) felt a little bit of confusion about how the window worked, and he wanted to "dig a hole" to plant the seed. I showed him how to put it up against the plastic and he caught on quickly.
 For the other side, we wanted to try something completely different, but also easy to grow. Marigolds! Marigold seeds are pretty odd looking things. They are spiky, long, and papery seeds that Sunshine quickly pointed out "don't look like seeds" at all. Due to their fragility (and their pointy, plastic poking ends) I planted the three marigold seeds. I'm not sure which of us is more curious about how they will sprout (compared to their sunflower counterparts). I'm pretty sure it's me, though. 
Next, we watered our seeds. Sunshine was fascinated by the way the water infiltrated the dry soil. We'd never seen what it looked like from below when soil is watered. We made sure to get everything nice and damp.
I explained to Sunshine that it's going to take some time for our seeds to sprout, but he was convinced that it would happen immediately. It was actually pretty cute. He sat, staring at the seeds, waiting for them to "break open". At one point, he hollered up to me that he was just sure that one of the seeds was "squishing" and getting ready to burst open. After about ten minutes, though, I think he began to believe that it was going to take more than a few minutes for nature to take her course.
  On the left is a picture of the planted sunflower seeds. (It's clear that I'm going to have to find a more appropriate form of lighting to photograph these further.) On the right, is a real close up picture of one of the marigold seeds. It's actually only about a half inch long, but I enlarged it a bit to show the shape.
We'll check our seeds everyday, and when they sprout, I'll be sure to get pictures. Thank you, Uncskainch and Crunchy for the wonderful idea. It's a great homeschooling project. We are really having fun with it, and learning a lot to boot!
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| | Posted 5/8/2008 4:01 PM - 2 comments
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Thank you for your comment (and for continuing to read my postings!) You're such a sweetheart.
The date went really well...scarily well, actually. It's amazing the breadth of people that are out there to meet.
Anyways...I'm thinking you should post something here soon! :)