Luck, Earth Day, and Phase Two

Fantastic Earth Day news! Although I thought the cherry tomatoes and the butterhead lettuce plants were dead... they are not. Or, they came back to life! Either way, after a little TLC, most of the cherry tomato seedlings and much of the butterhead lettuce perked back up. Just in time to make the trip to Katherine's house for our first attempt at planting in the containers outside.

See the cherry tomatoes here: Very perky! So, after the rain stopped today, I took a cab ride with the tray of all the seedlings over to Katherine's. We began Phase Two in celebration of EARTH DAY. Our primary goal was to sort out who would be planted at Katherine's house and who should move to our second location on the porch of Samson's house. Also, we wanted get some of our lettuce and herbs in the larger containers.

So with the soil we had available, we got to work planting the chives, basil, and mesclun lettuce in the hanging planters at Katherine's. You can see that we put about three to four plants in each container for the time being. It is hard to believe that these little seedlings will become big enough to fill a whole container by themselves (and yes, the containers are old plastic colanders lined with either newspaper or coconut liner). Katherine says that using coconut liner (as well as the newspaper) is supposed to give our little plants some extra nutrients and love.

We were able to get all the chives and basil planted, as well as the bulk of the lettuce. We filled up six hanging containers and one additional container that we found in her yard and freed from some non-vegetable yielding shrub.

To the right you can see the post set up with the three hanging containers. Ultimately, we are going to have two separate posts -- each with three containers.

Unfortunately, we ran out of soil and could not finish. But we have three thin, long containers and one round, deep container (plus a number of other tubs and buckets) remaining to work with. We will finish up Phase Two at Katherine's tomorrow by planting another cuke (we already got two in a round container) and the remainder of the lettuce (which will hopefully continue to make a full recovery).

Another huge accomplishment was to relocate all the tomatoes and cukes to some new, bigger homes. Now, each plant is separated out and has more space. I am hoping this keeps our tomatoes alive until we can get them set up on the porch. All the seedlings look very happy after having moved to their new homes.

I was getting ready to leave with my tray of newly arranged tomatoes and cukes when Katherine and I went outside to check out our babies again in their new homes. As we reflected on our accomplishments, we both looks at each other and smiled, "Do we really want to leave them outside tonight, alone and in the cold?"

As you can see (to the right), we are nervous new mothers and had to move all the plants inside for fear of the cold. Katherine promised to move them outside tomorrow morning before work.

Tomorrow, the seedlings will move outside and after that, we will see what happens next...