Greenin' My Thumb

The building that we live in has a great roof access.  Since we are the only permanent tenants in our building (the Landlord lives upstairs, but is in the States on business all the time, and the downstairs unit is 'long term leased' to a Japanese company) the Landlord has given us permission to use it freely.  One of the things we decided to do w/ this space is to try our hand at a small garden.  

I haven't even had a successful garden, either b/c I haven't had proper space, or b/c I had no idea what I was doing (and no guidance from Al Gore).  The last time I tried to grow an herb garden I killed most of the seedlings trying to transplant them.  So we found a tray that comes w/ individual peat tablets for starting seeds.

All we had to do to start was soak the pellets in warm water long enough to play a game of Order of the Stick (well, the first dungeon level, that is).  Once they were full sized we tore the netting back from the top and planted our seeds.

We decided on two types of tomatoes, parsley, thyme, and lavender (for drying!).  I am still looking for some basil (the only thing I have successfully grown and used ever), which grows so fast I am not worried about the time.

Oh, yes, and one lima bean, that The Kid brought home from school.  This will be a science project for her so she can track its growth.  She did this in Kindergarten at Ho'ala, but I have already established that this school is a little behind her old one.

The seedlings will be individually wrapped when it is time to transplant them, and should keep me from tearing their roots apart this time.

Until they are ready for the big world they will be living in our laundry room, on top of the Hauzen, which is the best place for them.

I saw a tomato planter a while back that grows the plants upside down so they don't bruise and allows you to grow herbs on top to save space.  We are going to see if we can replicate one for the roof.  I have seen a few simpler examples online, and most of them are really inexpensive to make.  We don't have a place to hang them, so I am going to try to fix up a stand.  This should keep me busy until our stuff gets here, w/ my crafting and scrapping supplies!  Wish me luck!