Yellow Thumb-Planting Season

Last week and weekend the weather in our area was gorgeous!  Like it was straight out of a Disney movie with all the blooming trees and twitterpated birds.

Jordan was in Vegas for a work trip alllll week long so I decided to get a few light chores done.  This included planting some fresh flowers and getting a few seeds planted in our new Growbox Garden.

Mom gave us two large Growboxes to try out.  They are supposed to be fool-proof (right up my alley).

Before I got my hands dirty (literally) I decided to do a little Googling to make sure I understood the instructions.  I found this extremely helpful video that takes you step by step through the growing process.  Watch below:

Doesn't that look easy?!  So I started right in with the few plants that I'd purchased.

Top Left: I bought a few pretty flowers to use in some existing planters that we have around the house.  These red geraniums always remind me of my Grandma and look beautiful!  Also pictured are a few baby tomato plants and cilantro.

Top Right: This was a heavy bag of dirt.  I used all of it and had to go back to buy another bag!  The planters really take a lot of dirt but I also needed a little for the other flowering plants.

Bottom Left: These are the seed packs I bought.  The planters seem large (and heavy) but the reality is that it can only fit so many plants/seeds, especially plants that need extra space or a trellis.  Since my plants fell into that category (tomatoes, cucumber, and pea) I ended up only using a few seeds from each of these packets.  If anyone needs a few seeds, I'm happy to give away leftovers!

Bottom Right: This is the "Growbox Garden" kit.  It comes with a planter that snaps together with a water reservoir and a "Nutrient Patch" which is basically the fertilizer.  You can buy the planter or replacement Nutrient Patches HERE.  I suggest finding a friend who also wants to start their own mini garden so that you can order together.  The price drops the more you purchase.

Top Left: I had 2 leftover tomato plants that I just couldn't fit into the Growbox so I put them in the largest pot I had.  I suggest buying small tomato plants rather than growing from seedlings.  The only trouble with this idea is that they typically come in a package of 6 plants.  I put 4 of them in one Growbox planter which I'm certain is too much too close together.  But I wasn't quite sure what else to do with the little plants.  I suppose extra plants helps my odds. Surely I can keep at least 2 of the 4 tomato plants alive, right?
Top Right: Each planter has this lip to help you fill up the water reservoir.  According to the instructions, as long as I keep the reservoir full, I can't go wrong.
Bottom Left: The planter kit also comes with these little plastic pins to help secure the grow patch in the dirt.
Middle and Bottom Right: These are my growboxes all done and ready to grow!  There is only so much you can put in each box so that's why I barely used any of those seed packs.  You can also see the little red flowers stenciled onto the nutrient patch in this picture.  This are pre-measured places to plant whatever you want! Very helpful.  This patch also seems to help the dirt retain moisture.  Kind of brilliant!

The rest of the weekend was a bit of a blur.  I was so glad when Jordan came home.  And I think he was relieve that he didn't have to do any of this planting!

Top Left: I tried the homemade bread one more time.  This one turned out even better than the last because I used a slightly different recipe.  The new recipe didn't require the dough to sit overnight.  I found the recipe HERE.  The biggest difference is that the dough was a bit more dense and had a tiny bit of sweetness from the addition of sugar in the recipe.  

Bottom Left: This is a random picture of Abby.  She was very preoccupied looking for Jordan the first few days he was gone. 

Right: My planted geraniums!