Of Greenery and Growing things

Life is always better with a garden. And one can almost always have one, I've discovered, as long as some amount of creativity is utilized. Several weeks ago the urge overtook me to start one of my own, and thus my gardening adventures began.

First, I had to find a good location. I scouted around the school a bit, and there were some places farther off, but I wanted something closer to home. I knew that come summer the plants would need care and watering several times a day, and that required a near enough location that I wouldn't forget to do it. I was somewhat at a loss for several days, until I remembered the fire escapes.

You see, Komachi dorm rooms all have fire escapes. They are right outside the windows, concrete platforms with metal railings about the size of a small balcony. Why not put a garden there? After all, its not as though the space will ever be utilized for anything else. So, now I had a location.

 The next step was finding something to use as flower baskets. After a little thought I decided to use some of the extra bike baskets from the bike graveyard I scavenged Chirada from. I found 3 that I wanted to use, and then the fun began.

I dug up dirt from outside the dorms with a rice paddle (shovels were not to be found that day) and enlisted the help of my friend Chase to carry it up to my room in a big plastic bag. I live on the fourth floor, and this was a significant amount of dirt. We decided he should be the plants' father for his troubles. This has led to several interesting conversations on the topic of eating our children.

He's also in 3 of my 4 classes, which means he gets doodled quite a lot.

After the dirt arrived I planted the seeds. I also made some signs out of what I had around at the time- paper, tape, and chopsticks. Good enough. 

The initial set up. If you look closely, you can see my rice paddle-shovel between the carrots and the basil.

In no time at all I was seeing sprouts. So far, only the carrots and the edamame have shown any sign of life, but I'm going to wait another week or so before I give up on the tomatoes and basil. I have some scallion seeds I will plant over them when I decide they're a lost cause. 

Carrot sprouts aren't very exciting.

Edamame, on the other hand, is quite the adventure.

(A little earlier in the growth process- aren't they adorable?)

I've also started collecting my avocado pits, and currently have three of them soaking in jars on my book shelf (for those who are unaware of this process, to grow an avocado tree one first activates the seed by suspending it over a cup of water, generally with the help of toothpicks, for 1 to 3 months. Once the root starts to grow and reaches around an inch in length, and a stem is beginning to form at the top, the avocado may be planted.)

Lacking toothpicks, I used sharpened chopsticks and some leftover skewers from the BBQ we had during Golden Week.

The weather's only been getting hotter here, so I believe by the time these show signs of life I will be able to settle them semi-permanently outside with the rest of my plants. I think they will like that. I've never grown avocados in a climate that actually supports such activities before, I'm curious to see how it goes.

My roommate probably thinks I'm the strangest exchange student ever.