Gardening Update 9.28.11
Originally published at Guns & Blossoms. You can comment here or there.
More squirrel disasters again. I’m starting to feel like they’re pissed about me covering up the lettuce pot and are warring with me. I went out of town for a little over a day this past weekend. When I came back, things were a wreck.
First, the two yogurt cups containing lettuce seeds was knocked over on the ground with the soil spilled out. Second, a seed container containing wheat grass seeds was knocked over with the soil spilled out. Third, the terra cotta pot containing 4 transplanted basil seedlings was knocked over and broken, all the soil spilled out. I’m assuming what happened was the squirrel(s) were trying to dig through the containers and knocked them over in the process.
I wasn’t too concerned about the wheat grass but was more pissed about the lettuce and basil seeds. I tried to refill the yogurt cups with the spilled soil but I don’t know if there’s any hope for those seeds/seedlings anymore. I tried to put the basil seedlings back in a different terra cotta pot. I was only able to find 3 seedlings in the mess on the ground.
I’ve now placed more plants inside the white metal wire Target shelf (see picture).
Yesterday I pre-soaked and planted 3 more lettuce seeds in a new yogurt cup, since I feel pretty certain the ones that got knocked over by squirrels this past weekend are done.
The potted lettuce seems to be doing okay. I think the plant that got pulled out by squirrels last week is still alive, which is good. There is one plant that I’m thinking about just pulling out since it doesn’t seem to be growing.
In general it’s hard to tell if there’s been progress. Maybe I should start taking pictures of the plants every day.
Lettuce
I feel like the plants should be bigger than what they are but this is an experiment and there’s been various setbacks. I feel like these lettuce plants are kind of guinea pigs as I figure out different things like how much water, how much sun, protecting from squirrels, etc. Maybe the next batch will grow better.