Plantlets

Robb and I love our plants so much that we sleep with them. Not that way, you sickos! What I mean to imply is that our bedroom is the sunniest room in the house, so it tends to be where most of our plants live. And right around this time of year, our sunny bedroom becomes the incubator for our seedlings...all those veggies, flowers and herbs that will, in approximately 8 weeks time, be transferred out to our garden to become the lush greenery of our backyard retreat. (Ooh...I just got a tingle writing that sentence.) To add to the perfection of our bedroom greenhouse, our plant growing contraption sits on top of a very cute covered radiator that's just next to a westward-facing window. Steamy radiator plus indirect light = kick ass plantlet locale.

   

And as you can see, the plantlets are totally digging their home. We planted them just one week ago, and they are already shooting out of their hard little shells.

 The tricolor cherry tomatoes are like, what's up?

 The basil is like, Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi!!!

 And the thyme is contemplating, as a community, how thrilled they are to be alive.

  

Now, you're probably wondering how I know which plantlet is which. After all, there are no popsicle sticks with a varietal name sharpied on it sticking out of each cell! Well, this year, Robb and I decided to get really fancy and make a chart. See how fancy it is? That's right, we used our counting skills and felt tip markers to keep track of what we planted where, and then we taped it to the wall next to the plants. Instant cheat sheet! We are so smart I can't believe it sometimes!

 

I am not, however, smart enough to know how to spell broccoli without spell check.(See where I tried to make the two "l"s look like one "l"?)

As a final testament to the awesomeness of our bedroom greenhouse, I give you a sneak peek of (drum roll please)...the pepper plants that we dug up from our yard last fall and that have been living in our bedroom windows! They are ALIVE! It's crazy. I really did not think that they were gonna make it. No joke, they have looked like ass all winter long...constantly dried out, a sort of sticky residue on them, not exactly "pretty." (What must the neighbors think? We have no shame.) But in actuality, it seems that the pepper plants went into a sort of hibernation. Just this last week, though, they have started to develop these bright green leaves and the pigment is retuning to their stalks. It's a miracle! So, the verdict is this: occasionally, you can mess with nature and not lose. (I say that fully recognizing, however, that we have no evidence that these puppies will bear fruit. We shall see...oh yes, we shall see.)

But for now, how about we go ahead and just be happy about life. Eh?