Waiting for stuff to arrive. Enrichment in my enclosure.
I ended up buying two Garden Up herb planters because they looked to have that self watering reserve at the bottom, which would cut me a lot of slack with remembering to water.
One big bag of potting mix (really should have bought two smaller ones as I might get injured or not be able to lift it).
The seeds: I wasn’t able to get to the seed library but Bunnings eventually came through.
I’m going for a tiny indoor container vegie garden. Leafy greens apparently need less light than the fruiting or root veg, plus spinach has shallow roots and can be continuously sown and harvested as baby leaves. So I chose Viking spinach (they didn’t let me get Medonia but Viking is still heirloom and heat tolerant. Which is important if still sowing into the warmer months. I can also save the seed if I want.). Being inside isn’t great for light but should protect them a little from bolting?
These may have to live on the windowsill for more light, if the pot is narrow enough to fit, but I got the small round Paris Market carrot seeds for container gardening. Apparently carrots are biennial?? Oops. And have to be left til the next year to set seed?? So instead of doubling them up with spinach as I planned they might need their own pot. Only if I wanted to save the seed though.
And cat grass to easily keep resowing it because I keep killing it and it’s annoying to try and dig it out from outside. Also the visiting black cat hangs out and poops out there (risk of worm or flea larvae).
I should have bought 3 of the pots maybe but am trying to keep things really easy and manageable. There is a way to make self watering pots with huge buckets that could scale down to reused yogurt pots but lazy. It wouldn’t get done.
Mushrooms are also really cool to grow and don’t need light or much room. They would be genuinely safe to eat, being from domesticated varieties and shop bought mycelium. But I can’t really eat too much of them and don’t know if cats digest them well either. (Melbcat likes cooked vegetables.)
Things like mini pumpkins in pots or potted citrus are not practical at the moment. Too much space, too heavy, too much light.
I also thought of making terrariums. Those need so little maintenance. But I would probably have to sterilise the jars and substrates. As well as buying special drainage gravel and potting mix. There is moss outside but no ferns.
I was looking at the cress but annoyingly I don’t eat it. And I did consider the stocking grass head! But that’s hard to re-sow when it dies.
I’m hoping the windowsill is enough, or I might have to put it outside and make sure the cat doesn’t slip out with me. Also apparently carrots are hard to grow… Oops. Maybe I should have gone with the windowsill strawberry kit.
This will be a learning experience /shrug
Edit: Worst case scenario the pots are vertical garden ones so I can probably buy the wire frame things and hang them off the fence. Or I can bum a lift to donate the remaining seeds in the packet to the seed library
Carrots aren’t hard to grow. Carrots that are dead straight and aesthetic are, because the smallest piece of aggregate and the root will head off in a different direction. If ya don’t care, you’re good.
I am extra glad I got the self watering pots now because apparently they can be sensitive to water levels and crack? And I saw a carrot on the internet that was all green tops and barely any root from screwing up the fertiliser or something.
I’m new to this.
They’re fun though. Tiny round pudgy carrots that can grow in pots and can grow in rocky soil. I really don’t mind what they look like or how much they yield. I’m going insane with low physical ability limiting what I can do
Water well pots are a good idea in Melbs in general, they will serve you well.
For fertiliser, the key is little to no nitrogen, otherwise it just plows all the efforts into the floofy green top. Look for one marked 0-10-10 or 5-15-15 (Those numbers are N-P-K ratios)
Thanks, I’ll try and look at the labels. I’m a bit disappointed with the tiny pots and shallow saucers attached to the bottom… those will have to be the cat grass pots.
I’m waiting for energy to sterilise the potting mix and do everything
Bunnings has troughs ‘water saver’ that are basically just very small wicking beds. Bigger reservoir on those, much better for carrots. Bigger footprint though
Waiting for stuff to arrive. Enrichment in my enclosure.
I ended up buying two Garden Up herb planters because they looked to have that self watering reserve at the bottom, which would cut me a lot of slack with remembering to water.
One big bag of potting mix (really should have bought two smaller ones as I might get injured or not be able to lift it).
The seeds: I wasn’t able to get to the seed library but Bunnings eventually came through.
I’m going for a tiny indoor container vegie garden. Leafy greens apparently need less light than the fruiting or root veg, plus spinach has shallow roots and can be continuously sown and harvested as baby leaves. So I chose Viking spinach (they didn’t let me get Medonia but Viking is still heirloom and heat tolerant. Which is important if still sowing into the warmer months. I can also save the seed if I want.). Being inside isn’t great for light but should protect them a little from bolting?
These may have to live on the windowsill for more light, if the pot is narrow enough to fit, but I got the small round Paris Market carrot seeds for container gardening. Apparently carrots are biennial?? Oops. And have to be left til the next year to set seed?? So instead of doubling them up with spinach as I planned they might need their own pot. Only if I wanted to save the seed though.
And cat grass to easily keep resowing it because I keep killing it and it’s annoying to try and dig it out from outside. Also the visiting black cat hangs out and poops out there (risk of worm or flea larvae).
I should have bought 3 of the pots maybe but am trying to keep things really easy and manageable. There is a way to make self watering pots with huge buckets that could scale down to reused yogurt pots but lazy. It wouldn’t get done.
Mushrooms are also really cool to grow and don’t need light or much room. They would be genuinely safe to eat, being from domesticated varieties and shop bought mycelium. But I can’t really eat too much of them and don’t know if cats digest them well either. (Melbcat likes cooked vegetables.)
Things like mini pumpkins in pots or potted citrus are not practical at the moment. Too much space, too heavy, too much light.
I also thought of making terrariums. Those need so little maintenance. But I would probably have to sterilise the jars and substrates. As well as buying special drainage gravel and potting mix. There is moss outside but no ferns.
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I was looking at the cress but annoyingly I don’t eat it. And I did consider the stocking grass head! But that’s hard to re-sow when it dies.
I’m hoping the windowsill is enough, or I might have to put it outside and make sure the cat doesn’t slip out with me. Also apparently carrots are hard to grow… Oops. Maybe I should have gone with the windowsill strawberry kit.
This will be a learning experience /shrug
Edit: Worst case scenario the pots are vertical garden ones so I can probably buy the wire frame things and hang them off the fence. Or I can bum a lift to donate the remaining seeds in the packet to the seed library
Carrots aren’t hard to grow. Carrots that are dead straight and aesthetic are, because the smallest piece of aggregate and the root will head off in a different direction. If ya don’t care, you’re good.
(Also checknout those lil’ round french carrots)
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That’s a lot of carrot. It’s like that joke about breeding chickens with extra legs
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Should have served it with Blinky the radioactive fish. Got some superpowers
(accidentally deleted other reply - fat thumb)
I am extra glad I got the self watering pots now because apparently they can be sensitive to water levels and crack? And I saw a carrot on the internet that was all green tops and barely any root from screwing up the fertiliser or something.
I’m new to this.
They’re fun though. Tiny round pudgy carrots that can grow in pots and can grow in rocky soil. I really don’t mind what they look like or how much they yield. I’m going insane with low physical ability limiting what I can do
Water well pots are a good idea in Melbs in general, they will serve you well.
For fertiliser, the key is little to no nitrogen, otherwise it just plows all the efforts into the floofy green top. Look for one marked 0-10-10 or 5-15-15 (Those numbers are N-P-K ratios)
Thanks, I’ll try and look at the labels. I’m a bit disappointed with the tiny pots and shallow saucers attached to the bottom… those will have to be the cat grass pots.
I’m waiting for energy to sterilise the potting mix and do everything
Bunnings has troughs ‘water saver’ that are basically just very small wicking beds. Bigger reservoir on those, much better for carrots. Bigger footprint though
I actually have some waterproof trays for plants but they have been used as litterboxes…
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