day 16

day 16.  soon i will move the plants into their paper pots.  probably tomorrow or sunday.  then, i will take a picture of each one for sale and put it in a slide show to the right so you can choose online which plant you want.  i am seeing wee little bugs starting to be attracted to the plants.  i am going to try a simple hot pepper solution that i read about once to try to keep the bugs away.  there is nothing really aggressive-looking, so i think that should take care of it.  i posted the plants on ksl.com today.  hopefully once i get some better pictures and start making a personal profile for each plant, and they start getting big, then they will start to sell.  look at that gorgeous real leaf there!  oh, and look what i found for camping:  www.ecowareproducts.com.

day 15

day 15. there is something about new growing things that is nourishing to the soul. babies, seedlings, puppies. i am watching an episode of oprah about this girl who had no human stimulation for the first 6 years of her life. she is severely retarded because of this. they call her a "feral child". stimulation can actually be nourishing for your brain. literally, the brain grows. neurons in your brain grow. connections bond. it makes you wonder how the stimulation we get as adults effects our mental health. i think growing these plants must be good for my brain. i feel their little plant souls singing when they are growing happy and healthy. it makes me feel good.

day 14

day 14.  i have made some newspaper pots.  i shall fill them with lovely awesome organic potting soil.  i made the pots from pages of the salt lake city weekly 4th of july edition.  this one has a picture of my neighbor and friend, nick james.  he is an awesome d.j. as well as a hairstylist.  this pot features a blurb about him retiring from d.j.-ing.  cute.

we have also begun to get a few true leaves on the seedlings!  exciting!  in a few months we will be eating sweet juicy lambkin melons.

the soil i bought today for the newspaper pots is awesome.  it has bird poop and worm trailings in it.  real organic treats!  

i made the yummiest human treat the other night!  tequila-soaked watermelon!  it was a martha stewart recipe.  damn, i love that ol' girl.  she loves her liquor.  it's watermelon, soaked in a solution of tequila, triple sec & simple syrup.  then you chill it, squeeze limes over it, and sprinkle it with sea salt.  yum!  and in the same issue of martha stewart she tells you about her favorite brand of sea salt.  it's maldon sea salt from england.  and it really is delicious, folks.  flaky and mild.  it's some good stuff.  

day 13

day 13.  things are looking good.  i think the seedlings are about to need bigger pots.  tonight i'm going to try to create some newspaper pots to move them into.  i am going to give each seedling a number designation.  if the seeds are in a grid and the top left one is number 1;  the bottom right one is number 25.  number 1 got its baby leaves broken off when i was putzing around with the greenhouse cover last thursday.  number 3 looks weird.  it has not fully emerged, but the stem that looks like is emerging is really thick.  number 6 & 19 have not sprouted at all.  the rest are all looking really happy and healthy.  well, check back tomorrow to see what kind of fancy oragami i have come up with for pots!

day 12

sorry for the neglect. i was in the wilderness this weekend peeing in the woods and bathing in a river. it was great! me and my boyfriend went to sun valley, idaho for a camping trip. it was so fun! we experimented with new techniques of campfire cooking, got caught in a wild hail storm and i learned the proper etiquette for what to do when you poop in the woods. so, i guess you are wondering, "what is the proper etiquette when you poop in the woods?" bury it, people. bury it.

luckily, we went into town on a daily basis, so that technique did not get a lot of practice. but at least now you know!

ok, so my new grand business idea is to start a winery somewhere beautiful, with a bed and breakfast. sounds lovely, doesn't it? you just wait, one of these days i'm actually going to follow through with one of these ideas. it's gonna be so great you won't even believe it!

the other idea we came up with was to make burnable utensils for camping. see, you're not supposed to burn plastic. it's bad for the environment or something, but they don't make disposable utensils that aren't plastic. it's a dilemma that will earn someone a million bucks if they can solve it... and mass market it.

until then, i will make a little cash selling these lovely lambkin melon plants online. they are growing up big and strong! make room in your garden for one today!

well, it's been a lovely weekend. hope you all have enjoyed celebrating your independence!

'til tomorrow!

day 8

day 8.  it's raining.  which is fine.  rain is good.  i just don't want my seed tray to flood.  plus, the sprouts are taller than the ceiling of the greenhouse now so i've come up with a solution to prop the top open.  all but one of the seeds has emerged now.  

i am going out of town this weekend, so i will have someone else take a picture of the seeds everyday, but there will probably not be blogs until i get back on monday.  not sure where i'm going.  i think me and my boyfriend are just going to jump in the car and go whichever direction the wind takes us!  woo hoo!  happy 4th of july weekend! 

day 7

21 out of 25 seeds have sprouted!  the seedlings have nice big round healthy looking leaves.  some are still folded into the earth.  i think i got good seeds.  and i seem to have a good formula for growing them so far.  

my only concern is this one in the middle.  it looks like it's tips are sunburnt.  don't know why.

the pictures look a little different this time because i took them at night.  this was the plants' first night time photo shoot.  i was doing other stuff after work.

i went to an entrepreneur's seminar tonight.  it was interesting.  don't tell my boyfriend i went.  he's already scared that i will follow one of my crazy dreams and lose the family fortune.  what i am hoping for is that i follow one of my crazy dreams and i make the family fortune!  anyways, they talked about the importance of branding, marketing, and having a tag line.  we'll try the one above for awhile.  it seems to fit.  i also need to come up with a mission.

really, why am i doing this?  well, i am doing this to make a little extra money.  i am doing this because growing things fills my soul.  i could do it for hours and the time just slips away.  i am doing this because i want to be able to afford a housekeeper once a month.  i hate cleaning my house--no, i take that back--i hate cleaning, period.  she came here yesterday and did my dishes!  she did my dishes, people!  i don't have a dishwasher, and that is a big deal to me.  it was worth every penny.  so, yes, i am selling plants so that i don't have to do dishes... in a round-about sort of way.

but that can't be the mission for my company!  "to grow and sell healthy beautiful plants so that i don't have to do my own dishes."  i feel like it needs to be much more esoteric than that.  i'll keep working on it.