Countdown

Pre-Tub Installation

Week 1 - little garden lights courtesy of a friend -
they are solar powered and change colors and adorable!

Week 2 - cucumber and pumpkin seedlings have started to sprout!

Week 4 - squash, pumpkin, and cucumber seedlings are sprouting
watermelon is taking over the bathtub!

21 more days until students enter my classroom
8 more days until Teacher Induction Program begins!

I am getting very nervous and antsy at the same time to start teaching! I am re-reading the Harry Wong book and starting to pull information together I want to post in my syllabus. I planted a veggie garden in my backyard about three weeks ago with the help of a friend and his old used bathtub. I planted in a bathtub in effort to keep the packrats out of my vegetables! My backyard shares a fence with a huge wash and as a result, our whole neighborhood has a rodent problem! As you can tell from the pictures, so far so good! I will have to pull some of the seedlings out once they grow big enough to keep enough room for everything else to grow.

I wanted to plant a veggie garden to teach myself about planting. I am hoping to have my students plant their own vegetables at home and monitor the growth as a lab project. How it will work out I am not exactly sure yet - but it is a work in progress.

I used the existing drip system to plumb a water line up through the main drain in the bathtub. I put large rocks and some gravel in the bottom of the tub, then a layer of landscaping cloth to keep my soil from running out the bottom. From what I have learned, you have to have some room for drainage in the bottom or else you run the risk of mold and fungus infesting your garden! For this reason, the tub was actually positioned slightly un-level with the main drain resting lower than the opposite end of the tub. On top of the rocks, we put some mulch from my godfather's nursery, then planted the veggies!

I bought a couple of potted plants that were on sale at Target; watermelon, big daddy sweet pepper, anaheim chili, beefsteak tomato, and basil. I planted those on the left side of the tub, then on the right, I planted from back to front.... squash, pumpkin, cucumber, and roma tomatoes. I put the wooden framed screen over the seeded part to keep the stinkin' birds from eating all my hard work!

Using a Y on the hose bib, I purchased an electric water regulator from the hardware store, and a soaker garden hose. I trenched from the hose bib to the bathtub and installed the soaker hose through the overflow drain. I set this to run every 12 hours for a minute which is plenty of time to soak the bathtub.

I was (still am) super excited, but slowly losing enthusiasm. It is not very exciting watching plants grow everyday - BUT.... looking at the week 1 picture in comparison to the week 4 picture, it is hard not to be a little giddy! Maybe I will have some pumpkins in time for the fall?!?