Sunset

[jal_ut]

[jal_ut]

"But in regards to starting indoor gardening, unless you want to get into doing it quite a bit I wouldn't do it. One plant leads to another and another"

How about a one gallon size ice cream bucket? Just one pot, I promise..............

[applestar]

Ha. Didn't it used to be a 6 inch pot?

[ButterflyLady29]

I've got a basement, shed, and living room full of my indoor winter gardening plants. Then there are the tropicals in the bathroom and kitchen. It all started with a pot of bulbs, an aloe and a miniature rose. The danger of starting with just one pot is that you'll need a spot for it. Then you decide you need more light so you get a grow light set up. Under the light there is room for just one more pot. Then you figure you might as well start your own peppers and tomatoes. Those will grow fast and will need more room and more lights, maybe even a heat mat. Then since you have potting soil left over you decide to plant a few more seeds. Summer comes and everything moves outside so you take a break. But there will be the plant you want to save over the winter, so when frost threatens you bring that in and set it under your light. Then the whole process starts all over again except you now have a plant already under the light. A well-meaning friend then gives you a Christmas cactus or an amaryllis. If they are not well-meaning they'll give you a poinsettia or a Norfolk Island pine tree. The collection will keep growing and soon you'll be buying wire racks and shop lights to pamper your new addiction. You can't just stop because then all the plants you've carefully tended will die and that will make you sad. The only way to break your addiction will be to pass it on to someone else. Unfortunately that will open you up to the aspect of trading plants.

When my grandma passed her children split her collection among themselves. I got a sad little Christmas cactus. It's not doing well but is still alive, barely. I'll have to try the peroxide trick to get rid of the fungus gnats that love to eat it.

Next thing you know you'll be checking clearance racks looking at flower pots and visualizing them with plants growing in them.

[jal_ut]

"Ha. Didn't it used to be a 6 inch pot? "

OK, I confess, it is an ice cream bucket, about 8 inches in diameter. I have growing in it a couple of pea plants and 4 or 5 radishes. I planted some spinach at first. The spinach germinated then died. Guess it didn't like the low light situation. Oh, I did poke in one Scarlet Runner bean seed. It hasn't came up.

.......... and just the one bucket........... I promise!

[jal_ut]

With an outdoor high of 11 degrees F today, this window sill growing is quite exciting. The only thing growing outdoors is ice.

[ButterflyLady29]

Those wire racks sold in most stores (I bought mine at Lowes, Sam's Club is another source) are excellent grow stands. The one I bought most recently is 48 inches wide and 18 or 20 inches deep, and 6 feet tall. I've got 5 shelves on mine, plants are on 3 shelves with the bottom 2 holding shoes and a bunch of hubby's junk. A 2 light, 4 foot long florescent shop light is hung on the bottom of the top shelf. Even though the shelf is setting in a south facing window the light is necessary. It's on a timer, on at 8 am, off at 8 pm. I should have a light on the next shelf down so the tub of amaryllis bulbs will get more light. This shelf was a new addition last year. Before that there was a cabinet setting there with only a few plants setting on it. Also last year I put a shelf and light over the bathroom door so I had room to grow some cuttings.

The year before I put up a bunch of hooks by the florescent light over the washing machine in the basement. My hanging basket collection had overgrown the floor space and had to go somewhere.

It takes about an hour a day to check and water all those plants. Took 2 hours yesterday to put up some cuttings which had outgrown their peat pellets. I've got cuttings for market plants scheduled to arrive in March and I need to get seeds planted so I have nice sized plants for the spring swap meets. By May I will be tending plants 2 to 3 hours a day, every day. Once the ground dries out a bit I have to go back to work on getting the greenhouse framed and set up. And I have a shelf outside for setting pots of seeds that need to be cold stratified. So you can see where just one or 2 pots of plants can lead you.

At one point I had lovely wide marble windowsills on which I set dozens of plants. Unfortunately those were removed when we replaced the aluminum frame windows. The kitchen window is the only one with a shelf under it now. How I miss those nice wide windowsills. Sweet peas would look amazing growing up a string trellis across the window. Those purple flowered garden peas would be pretty also.

Shame on you, now you've given me more ideas. I've got a west facing window where I could put a window box on a shelf and string some twine up and down for an indoor pea garden. I've got the materials for that project on hand. I just bought some pea seeds today too!

[jal_ut]

ButterflyLady 29: "It takes about an hour a day to check and water all those plants."

Not for me..... No...... don't get me going....... my one ice cream bucket will suffice. It takes me half a minute to dump a cup of water on it daily.

[pomerinke]

Those are some beautiful pictures. I really miss the mountains in Utah and back home in Missouri.

There used to be a cabin up in the mountains near my uncle's house in Utah. We camped up there once or twice. I guess the cabin burnt down in wildfire quite some years ago. It's been about 10 years since I've been to Utah, so I'm certainly due for a trip back.

I'm not sure if I'll ever get to see the mountains in Missouri again. I'm always swamped with family and I never get any time to myself when I do go back. Maybe one day I'll sneak off a plane in Kansas City when no one knows and canoe the Missouri river from Kansas City to down to St. Louis.

[jal_ut]

A shot of my home town from a hill across the valley.

[jal_ut]

Thank you pomerinke. I have an online folder with a bunch of pictures you may browse if you like.

http://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/

[pomerinke]

I really appreciate you sharing that link with me. I haven't seen the leaves change color for years. Even if it is in pictures, it was refreshing to see.

I figured I'd share some of my own since we had such a gorgeous sunset recently.

This one is at the edge of the beach. About 5 minutes walk from my apartment.

This one is a few minutes walk down the same beach.

When it's nice and warm in the summer, you can walk all the way to the end of the beach and there's a bar with the perfect view of the sunset.

[jal_ut]

Beautiful Pictures pomerinke!

I have been playing with cameras and pictures for many years. Started out with a 620 Film camera, then later 35 MM cameras. I got to spending too much money for processing and printing so I got my own dark room setup and did my own. Then came the computers and the digital age. I confess, I have really enjoyed the digital photography and being able to share photos online. I have never sold a picture nor did photography for pay.

Then along came cell phones, and when it was time to get a cell phone, I went looking for the one with the best camera in it. I ended up with one with a 10 MP camera in it. It does an excellent job and is always in my shirt pocket, You know, just having a camera when a photo opportunity comes up, is the first step of getting a picture!

[pomerinke]

Thank you.

I have always envied anyone who can understand what to do with a camera other than point and click. That's about the extent of my abilities.

I did buy a camera years ago, when I was on vacation. I used it for a few years with the traditional roll of film. (I think it was 35mm) It wasn't anything special really. Just a point and click, but it was small enough to be convenient, and took decent pictures. I was quite proud of it until suddenly everyone had cell phone cameras. Being in my teenage years, I didn't take so well to people making jokes, (even in good fun) so I let it sit in my closet until I eventually moved out of my parent's house and forgot about it.

Of couse, I just went to my 10 reunion, and everyone wanted to see all those pictures I took, unfortunately they were all stolen when someone broke into my dad's storage facility.

[jal_ut]

As we go through life, catastrophies do happen. Things crash and burn. Yes, I have lost some of the old photos too. Now days, I am happy to have Photobucket, where I can store some pics online, and I can also burn some to disc for storage against a crashed computer. I don't do much with pictures on paper these days, but share them on the computers.