Growing Things in January

I’ve mentioned that I got Spring Fever way too early this year. I’m sure it has to do with the fact that all my livestock are gone, so there’s no outdoor chores taking up my energy or giving me that pleasure of raising living things.

I’ve been trying to get my aquarium up and running for months, but my first attempt at adding fish was a total disaster. Lost everything within a week. Cycling a tank for the first time is always challenging — the water is either in a healthy range or it’s fatal to the fish. Many people work to get their tanks in that healthy zone by using live fish to manipulate the chemical balance and often kill off the first “sacrificial fish” to do it. I was trying to avoid that, but it didn’t work. Bums me out—I hate failure.

The tank looks kind of fun, and the plants are doing well. Even a small handful of “volunteer” snails that came in with some mail-order plants I got are doing fine. If I wasn’t leaving in a month for a two-week vacation in Scotland, I’d be about ready to try fish again. I’ll do that when I return. Just need to keep the plants going until then. In the meantime, the tank will be guarded by Aquaman. I hope he’s non-toxic.

Aquaman in his watery realm.

The succulents are plugging on. I think I’ve already overwatered a few of them but I’m still learning. A bunch of the leaves I set out to propagate have started growing babies, so that’s super awesome! I got another batch of microgreens harvested, and I’m not eating them as fast as I can grow them. Will look around for some folks to share them with!

Baby succulents spring from discarded leaves. Just add patience…

I finally got my big terrarium started over the Christmas holiday. There’s no real rhyme or reason for the layout… I’m not the landscaping artist of some other folks I know of, but it still makes me happy to look at it. I love the moss that I brought home from our friends’ lake house in East Texas. Moss is so cool. And, of course, I had to add the dinosaurs so that no one would take the project too seriously.

I’ll try to get another shot at night when the glare isn’t so bad.

Today I’m going to start some African Violets from leaf cuttings. I’ve always wanted to do this and with all the shelves and grow lights going, this is the perfect time to try it. With my trip coming up soon, I can just set them up, and leave them alone to do their own thing. Hopefully when I get back, there will be new baby violets to enjoy!

Another experiment. It works on Youtube, so I hope it will work for me. I just love violets…

But my big surprise project is the most exciting — an aquaponics system! I’ve been reading and watching Youtube videos like crazy, wondering if I could build my own system, and wondering if I could learn it well enough to export the idea to my friends in East Africa to help them feed the village. (Briefly, an aquaponics system is a fish tank and vegetable growing bed, connected so that the nutrient-rich fish water is pumped up to feed the plants, who in turn filter the water that is then returned to the fish.) I was putting some stuff up on Craig’s List and happened to see this small aquaponics system that a guy had helped his son build as a science fair project — PERFECT! Better yet, he lives less than 3 miles from me! Here was a small, indoor set up, close to home, for $100. Couldn’t beat it with a stick. So I hauled it home, filled up the water, plugged in the water pump and filter, planted some spinach seeds in it, and we’re off! It will take the seeds 3-5 days to germinate, God willing, and then I’ll check the water chemistry. When the chemistry sorts itself out, I’ll add some goldfish and the system will be off and running. Again, the trip to Scotland may briefly set the plan back, or I could get brave and set up the automatic fish feeder to keep everything running in my absence.

Fish will go in the bottom section (accessible through the hole) and plants in the top. This photo was taken before I planted some spinach seeds. Let’s see what it looks like in a week…

So, the growing continues, and also begins in new ways. It’s all experimental, but that’s how we learn, right?