A plant update!

Well, since I wrote last week my garlic cloves have just exploded. Just look at this!

 You may remember these on Feb. 19, a day or so after being planted.

 Here they are on Feb. 21.

 Here is Feb. 22 (with a flash, for some reason).

 On Feb. 24...

 

And this morning (Feb. 26)...

I've never done anything more with sprouting garlic than smash it and remove the inside stem in order to use the clove for cooking. It's amazing how quickly these are growing. I've mostly been watering them by pouring water into the styrofoam tray for the pots and dirt to soak up (I have a theory this may lead to deeper roots, which is good for Texas plants).

This cold snap we're going through needs to hurry up and finish so I can move these babies outside. They're not going to stay comfortable in these tiny peat pots very long.

I also transplanted my carrot tops and bell pepper seeds yesterday. Of the original 15 seeds I germinated...

 You may remember this picture from Feb. 19.

... a round dozen of them developed roots. When I noticed two trying to stand up on Sunday, I figured it was time to move them from the nursery to individual rooms (in an egg carton).

The carrots got first dibs because I noticed their greenery starting to wilt; water on a paper towel wasn't enough anymore, I thought.

Because of the carrot tops, I had two seeds without egg slots, so they get to bunk together in an old applesauce cup, seen on the left. It was also kind of strategic: one seed, seen on the top right in the germination photo, was surrounded by yellow. I'm hoping it came from a yellow pepper, so I put it in the cup with a "Y" near it so I can keep an eye on how it grows (because it's really hard to tell the rest apart as I've moved them).

There was an issue with the cardboard egg carton absorbing the water before the soil could. I could have moved to the styrofoam carton I had, but I'd been saving eggshells for compost already, and remembered something from Pinterest about planting seedlings in eggshells (supposedly the whole thing can be planted, and the calcium in the shells is good for plants). So I spooned the dirt from the carton into (clean) eggshell halves and planted the seeds inside, using the end of a chopstick to make the hole.

Now we just wait to see who thrives in the dirt. The carrots I'm not really banking anything on, they're more of an experiment really, but I'm excited to see how the garlic and bell peppers turn out.

Brian and I got some radish and pumpkin seeds at Home Depot last week. I'm going to do it: I'm going to try growing my own pie pumpkins. They seem to be pretty fast growers (the packet says they take about 90 days), so I'm debating between planting late so they're ready in fall, or just planting early and harvesting/prepping/freezing as needed until it's pumpkin pie season. I just hope they leave some room in my tiny bed for peppers too. :-D