Wednesday, January 18, 2012

New Years Resolution

So, as I think I said in my first post, I've started a Tea Garden for my New Years Resolution. Now, this is a perfect resolution for me on so many levels. 
First off, I've always had terrible luck with plant growing. I go to the nursery, buy the best looking plant, take it home, water it, and it dies. Now, honestly in the past my focus and determination were nottt the best, so the plant deaths were obviously going to happen. 
That's another reason why I wanted to start this garden though, to strengthen my determination and concentration on different tasks. There really is always something to do when you grow plants from seedlings. (Or any gardening in general)....:
  • You can always go and try and find more seeds to grow. 
  • There's daily watering. 
  • I monitor my plants progress pretty heavily, even look at them under a magnifying glass almost daily.
  • There's trans-potting/planting (I've decided to only keep my plants in pots rather than planting them into the ground, because the soil my house has is not the best and also I would like to not exactly what is in there with my plants-helps the heavy monitoring I like).
  • Once my plants are big enough I'll have to keep track of their feeding schedule as well. 
  • You have to make sure they're getting enough but not too much sunlight, or water.
  • Watch out for bad bugs!
  • I keep a schedule of when they should be sprouting.
  • I also chart their progress almost daily.
  • Along with the charting I try and take pictures of my plants growing as well.
  • If you're growing something you want to harvest you have to keep that under control in whatever way needed as well. 
Needless to say, there's a lot to be done. And I love it! I look forward to taking care of my plants, and seeing their progress, it's totally nerdy fun.
Today I got my first sprout from my Dahlia plant. SOO happy.
Now i'm not sure if there are any usages for Dahlias besides the general flower uses...but nevertheless it doesn't matter to me anymore.
At first I started this garden with the intention of only having plants you could make tea out of, hence the name 'Tea Garden' I keep throwing around. Tricky, huh? ;P After going to this wonderful nursery with Patrick though, i decided that I needed more seeds, more plants, more EVERYTHING. Now it's a 'Tea-ish Garden', which is going to be absolutely beautiful once it is in full bloom. I'm beyond excited for that.
  Right now I have a nice amount of plants starting out, but I'm far from done planting:
(Oh, I also plant them in groups. :P Things got a little OCD when I was trying to organize everything... )
Group 1 is Chamomile, Lemon Balm, Echinacea (purple coneflower), and Catgrass -the original garden/tea making guys (yeah, you caaan make tea out of cat grass...I'll let you know how it actually tastesss later. o.o)
This group is pretty much established, but still very small plants.
Group 2 is Dahlia, Foxglove, and Sweet Pea (The pretty flower group that is just now starting to sprout).
And Group 3 contains Sunflowers, California Golden Poppies, and Delphiniums (No progress on them yet, the Sunflowers should start sprouting next Tuesday though, and by the 28th of January all my plants should be sprouting/sprouted).
Now I do have other seeds 'on deck'. I'm waiting until February/March to plant them because they don't tolerate the cold as much. Thooose are a couple kinds of tomatoes, and moonflowers. I'm sure I'll get more soon though. I have a list of plants I want. :3
I'm so happy with the way things are going, my concentration is getting better and I have so much to show because of it. It feels wonderful. :)
Here's a little sneak peak of my gardens inner workings, The Progress Chart:

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