I picked up my very own Aqua Farm today!!!
I've been looking at this thing for at least a year now, I saw it once on a twitter or FB post and thought it was one of the coolest things ever!
I had been keeping my eyes on it and couldn't wait until it was available in Canada, and now it is. You can get them on amazon.ca or at Pet Valu stores, I got mine at Pet Valu today.
Here is the link for Amazon.
http://www.amazon.ca/Back-Roots-Aqua-Farm-3600gm/dp/B00CN52TRM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417401832&sr=8-1&keywords=aquafarm
Or here is the Pet Valu Website
http://www.petvalu.com/
I've had a couple of Beta fish in my life but never have I been able to grow food at the same time, this thing is so awesome. I love the idea of this little ecosystem, and growing food at the same time as raising a little fish is so amazing to me. The tank is a nice size for a beta and the growing trays on top are well laid out. I love the entire design, my only tiny complaint (and I wouldn't even call it a complaint) is that the top is white. There might be a purpose as to why it's white, but when dealing with plants or anything really I'm not a fan of white. There is no dirt however so the white might not even be an issue in the end :)
There is no light that comes with it but that lets you decide how you want to light it, I bought a string of battery powered lights and taped them to the back of the tank for in the evening. Turned out pretty cool if I do say so myself.
Perseus (the fish) is doing well in his new home and I can't wait to see what starts growing. I planted the organic basil and wheat grass that comes with the tank and also added dill, cilantro and lettuce. I'm so excited to finally have this thing in my house! It's so perfect for those winter blues! If you want to know more about the Aqua Farm here is the Back to Roots link.
https://www.backtotheroots.com/
Good night everyone and happy indoor gardening!!
I planted some more herbs this week, it's amazing how quickly you miss gardening when the snow starts to fly.
I really want to have my own fresh herbs for the winter, I know I'm a little late starting them now but better late then never :)
I have to get into the habit of starting herbs continueously so that I always have a fresh crop, so far I haven't done that. I will grow a batch feel very proud of myself, eat it and then I'm like "now what?" Then I have to wait another 60-70 days before the next harvest is ready.
Most things I've read suggest two week intervals so hopefully I'm going to give that a try, I'm thinking even if I can start a batch once every month that would be sufficient.
So I started from seed, basil, parsley, fern dill, cilantro, oregano, tiny tim tomato and transplanted thyme and rosemary.
I'm excited to see what happens, instead of starting them in starter mix and transplanting I decided to just grow them in potting soil and leave them in those pots until a eat it. Only the tomatoes I will transplant.
I'm going to fertilize regularly this year with organic fertilizer, I haven't in the past when I started thing indoors and I do believe my plants suffered for it. I will still add the epson salts, worm castings and egg shells but will also fertilize when watering every two weeks or so. Hopefully that will help.
Well time to listen to a little Christmas music and get some house cleaning done :)
Happy indoor gardening!
It was a beautiful day today, and my husband bought me a gorgeous Christmas cactus. I've always wanted one and when I saw this beauty in the local nursery today he picked it up for me.
I'm feeling better about the winter for now, lol. I know that it has just begun but I've set up my light garden for my transplants and with this gorgeous cactus blooming I don't feel so bad.
My amaryllis starting to grow as well so I'm super excited about that, it's also my first one.
Anyway to the kitty proofing. My cat LOVES plants (what cat doesn't) and he loves to pull them out of their pots, especially new baby plants. Twice now he has yanked out my thyme transplants, grrrr. Luckily I've only lost two, but still it drives me crazy. Last year he mowed down all my baby petunias, well this year I wasn't going to let that happen. Oh and BTW it doesn't matter if I planted him his own cat grass, he still yanks out my light garden plants.
So I brought my little greenhouse I bought last year into the house, set it up in my basement and placed my light garden inside, which works out perfect because I can close the door and it keeps him out and the moisture in.
It's a 5X5 collapsible greenhouse house and I think it will live in my house from now on. I put my African violets in there too so I can force them to bloom as well :) I think (hope) to invest in an aluminum or cedar frame greenhouse next year, fingers crossed.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone and happy indoor gardening!
My rosemary finally rooted in my window sill and I was very excited to transplant it today. Luckily I have 3 little plants to transplant.
I took my first plant out of the water and went to place it in my pot of dirt and figured because it was such a strong little plant I would just place it into the loose dirt and then pack around it.
DO NOT DO THAT!!!.
Because I didn't make a small hole to place the plant in I striped all the new roots right off the plant :( even though the roots look very strong and healthy they are still VERY fragile.
I did not make the same mistake with my other two rosemary plants. Make the hole first with your finger.
I put the rosemary plant that I striped the roots off of back into water and hopefully it will root again. I planted the other two and placed them into my light garden.
So with that, live and learn. I've transplanted a lot and I still make boo boos and will continue to make boo boos. Point is, learn from them and continue onwards.
Happy winter gardening!
I opened my mason bee house yesterday to see what was inside, I had lovely mason bee cocoons and also a little surprise.
There was a cigar like tube in a couple of the trays, and I thought "What the heck is that?!?"
So onto my trusted iPad I sent my husband and he googled "what bees use leaves for nest cells" the answer..... Leaf cutter bees!
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megachilidae
I am so excited that I have two types of solitary bee babies in my bee house.
I carefully removed all mason bee cocoons and leaf cutter tubes from the trays in my bee house. After reading online about the leaf cutter bee you do not want to get their leafy cocoons wet, so I just removed them and placed them in a cardboard box.
The mason bees however I removed all cocoons individually and placed them in cold water to wash off any mud and mites that may be on them.
I followed the instructions I received from WestCoast seeds where I purchased my first 24 mason bees early this spring.
https://www.westcoastseeds.com/productdetail/Gardening-Supplies/Pollination/Mason-Bee-Cocoons/#sthash.aERY1iCA.dpbs
After washing and drying my mason bees I placed them in a cardboard box then put them in the wooden hibernation box I painted for them along with the leaf cutter bee cocoons and put them in the fridge.
There they will hang out until spring when I will release them for pollination, with any luck I won't need to buy bees again!
I know I have some live bees because when I was washing them I accidentally squeezed one of the cocoons a little to much and it began to vibrate!
This has been one of the coolest experiences in nature I've had. So educational!
Here is a link to the pictures I took while opening and cleaning my bee house and cocoons.
http://youtu.be/4pmDUb-j5Jk
I have A LOT of new growth on my bonsai!
I came home from two days of meetings and watered and really looked at my bonsai, I hadn't really done that since I planted it. I saw amazing growth on it.
I planted it about 1 month ago and it is really doing well, especially for a project that I knew nothing about!
Now I just need to figure out what branches to keep and which ones to discard, but I will let it go awhile and see what happens!
It's very cool to see so much growth in such little time, especially for a bonsai!
I finally planted the cuttings I was rooting in my window sill, it took awhile and my rosemary is still not really rooting yet.
I think it's because the cuttings were a bit thick, otherwise everything else did pretty well.
I potted up everything (except the rosemary) in good quality potting soil and put them in the light garden, with luck I will be able to take more cuttings later and I won't need to buy any of these plants again.
