Herbs and fruits and veggies, oh my!
I'm gardening this summer! I may not be much of a green thumb, but I've got the power of YouTube AND my local garden center on my side!
June 18
The next batch of strawberry flowers are on their way!
June 06
31 May
The sage got fertilized, so seeds are growing inside. They look so weird somehow...
The morning glories have been getting big! Sorry for no timelapse; it's been hot recently, and with no heat shielding, I'm concerned about the camera overheating. But look, the big leaves are coming in! And half of them are kinda fuzzy~
Lastly, I noticed that one of our strawberry plants has a mix of three- and four-leafed stems, while the other has only bunches of three leaves. I wonder why?
23 May
Went on a five-day trip with no rains to help my garden along. Came back to find mostly everything intact: curled hydrangeas, crackling pea leaves, but almost no irreversible damage. The shiso sprouts actually look great, and there's a big juicy strawberry on the vine! But the mint babies are gone. I'm pretty bummed. I'll try to get a grown one from the garden center this time. Poor babies. They never even got to grow... Speaking of seeds, it's probably about time to sow the sunflowers. Woo!
17 May
Hung some herbs to dry!
15 May
Just some photos from around the garden today! We've got shiso leaf coming up and a new container for green onions in an old coffee can. Flowers are appearing on the lavender and sage! The pea vines are beginning to make their way to the nearby post. And look at this mutant strawberry from the garden center!
14 May
I got some mushroom spores and a couple grow bags! I've never grown mushrooms from spores before, only from grow kits (the kind that are already fully colonized). Hopefully they make it to fruiting stage!
10 May
Look who came to help me with my morning watering!
Also another timelapse from yesterday and the day before!
08 May
Here's a look at some of the shelf babies! I've got some mint just pushing up (it's still a little cool out here), my succulents, and basil that sprouted from last season's seeds.
07 May
I left the camera out overnight by accident and made a video of the timelapse footage! I cut out most of the night sequence since nothing is really visible.
04 May
Agh, I forgot to set the camera out today AND yesterday! Yesterday I had to jet around 8:00 and was rushing to get ready in time -- after working on the water all day I was exhausted... I slept twelve hours! And I was so disoriented when I woke up that I forgot about the camera. Tomorrow for sure! I taped it into a glass food container that should be closer to waterproof, so we'll see if that makes positioning it any harder.
Good news though: I got a little shelf for the garden today! It's three-tiered with a hanging bar overhead. There are already a few things on there, but I hope to add maybe some hanging vines or flowers, more herbs or veggies maybe?
02 May
So today, I did something I've wanted to for a while: I rigged up a rudimentary timelapse camera for my morning glories! I've been wanting to tinker more lately, and I just ordered a Raspberry Pi Zero and camera for this project. They cost about $30 all together from eBay. (I know, I probably could've gotten it cheaper elsewhere...). I used this official tutorial as a base — minus LEDs of course — and used this post to figure out how to interface with my Zero without a monitor.
I programmed the Pi to take a photo in 1920 x 1280 every five minutes. Is that overkill? We'll see! After setting up the script to run on boot (I used crontab), I set about housing it. I don't have a 3D printer, and my local library isn't offering 3D printing right now, so I figured I'd reuse something because why not? Saves something from the bin and saves money for me!
I simply drilled a small hole into a clean plastic tub and taped the camera bit to the hole. (No, it's not waterproof, but we aren't expecting rain for a while! I have time to think. Maybe I can put clear tape over the hole??) It sort of looks like one of those hat robots from Meet the Robinsons!
Then I set it outside and plugged it in. I can't see the light from outside, so I'm not 100% certain it's working, but I assume it's powered and fine.
I'll post a GIF of day 0.5 tonight... if I remember. :P
EDIT: Here it is!!
01 May
Morning glories are growing steadily! I'm so sad I'll have to thin soon... maybe I can keep them all? I'm not sure exactly what criteria to use when thinning. Research time! Strawberries are also doing well. This red one will probably be ready tomorrow.
30 April
In other news, worms have come to the garden! I ordered them online. Big L. They took forever. The darlings are all alive (whether or not they're well remains to be seen), and I've put them in the soil. They smelled horrible!! Must've been living in manure. Don't worry, I washed my hands VERY well afterward.
29 April
28 April
Strawberry is lookin RIPE oh man. OH MAN. I'm so excited to eat it. I'll split it with my mom maybe? The flowers just keep blooming, too. So beautiful! I took apart an old laptop some time ago and took out the hard drive disks. Turns out they make a light reflector/bird deflector! Teehee.
Morning glories have been soaked and sown. My mom says they grow pretty fast, so I'll try to take a photo every day to document that. Speaking of sowing, my main planters had some red and green basil last season that seem to have dropped seed. I am picking the itty bitty sprouts as they appear and repotting them in another pot. Yay, baby basil! Can't wait for some crazy pesto this summer.
Lavender looks like it'll bloom soon~ The hydrangeas we got from the garden center are in full bloom. They're my mom's favorite, so we had to bring one home.
24 April
Strawberries are growing well! The first to grow is turning pink at the very top. The catnip is growing well too; my cat tries to nibble it when he gets up on the railing! I set up a little succulent pot in the sunshine. Not sure how they're doing, but they're not wilting, so that's a good sign... right? The peas are also settling in nicely, wrapping around a cut ziptie end. That's from the trellises, which I didn't photograph. Set up a couple of those. Morning glories, here we come! Just need to remember to soak the seeds first...
I use Flickity for the pictures! :)