MOBOT Inspiration

I was fortunate enough to get a few days off of work and we decided to have a day trip to the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Besides the daffodils and blossoming trees, we found beautiful lettuces, spinaches, and cilantros growing in their small garden section. I found my new favorite sculptures that I want to try and build for our future farm. Lastly, we stopped off in the Climatron for a walk through the tropical atmosphere of plants and waterfalls.

Count them... one...TWO Reflector hoods!

Okay, so our garden plans continued to expand and we required more light! This time, we are experiementing with the Plant & Aquarium light bulbs offered at Lowes. I haven't gotten around to making the outside beautiful, but the plants seem to be digging the new light!

Helping our seedlings grown BIGGER & BETTER

Since winter never seems to end in Missouri, we decided to hang some extra grow lights inside the apartment to move our seedlings from the Aerogarden to 2"x2" biodegradable starter pots. It was warm enough one day that we took our Aerogarden outside and helped our seedlings make the switch from hydroponic to soil pots. Inside, the plants were put under two cool white lights and my homemade reflector hood - enhanced by aluminum foil on the inside and beautiful magazine collage squares on the outside.

So, this is why we do not plant in March...

I woke up to 3" of snow this morning. I am glad we waited to start our garden! I am wondering when winter will ever end!

Seedlings are getting sooo BIG!

With just a few weeks of growth, our seedlings were at least 2"tall. I love how some of them hold onto the original seed casing they burst out of.

Tractors and Goats!

We got to dream about being tractor owners and contemplated having a goat on our future farm while celebrating a farm-style 50th b-day party for Damian's friend.

Seedling Growth!!

First, our basil started growing. Then, we had broccoli, lettuce, snap pea, spinach, tomato, and pepper seedlings! It is truly exciting to see the beautiful green leaves start to emerge from the tiny seeds. Now the test would be if we could keep them alive...

Garden and Aerogarden excitement

We got an offer to start putting all of our organic farming to good use. Damian's sister, Chelsea, offered to let us start a garden in her backyard. Since we live in an apartment, we jumped at the offer!

After brainstorming how we could make this possible, I decided to dust off my old Aerogarden and purchase a new Aerogarden so we could start our seedlings indoors and transplant into the outdoor garden after the last frost. They are such beautiful and easy machines.

After planting our first seedlings in our Aerogardens, Damian began his serious plant observations. Every 10 minutes, he would check on the seedlings and explain, "I think they are growing!"

Seeds

Well there was a sale on seeds and I kind of went crazy. We didn't stick to all organic this time just for the sake of experimentation.