Chicago: New growth, found art, & a strawberry plant

The mini garden is thriving this week. I love coming home every day from the hospital and checking to see how the seedlings are growing. Thanks to my tlc these babies are shooting up. I have sprouts for every type of plant except the poblanos. I just put the germinated poblano seeds into their little containers so I should have seedlings soon. My germination method with the wet cloth and plastic bag worked great. I already have red pepper and serrano pepper seedlings growing even though it isn't even near 80 degrees here.

All the seedlings are growing great!

The serrano peppers are just emerging from the soil.

Look how much the zucchini has grown in 1 week! I hope it won't outgrow its little container too soon because it is still a bit chilly here! It is leagues ahead of the other seedlings even though it just sprouted. So neat! I find that I am enjoying starting my seeds indoors this year because you get to see progress so quickly. I'm also hoping that they will be stronger than transplants I would pick up from the garden center. We'll see how they do when they get outside- still a few weeks away from hardening off.

Just 1 week of growth for the zucchini.

I realized I didn't put up a picture of my found art planter last week. Look how pretty it is! Imagine how wonderful it will look with lettuce spilling over the edges. No sprouts of lettuce, spinach, or carrots yet but hopefully they will be popping up soon.

Gift basket container turned gourmet lettuce planter.

I have cheated a little bit because I did purchase a strawberry plant that was already started. Dina suggested I try strawberries this year because I get so much direct sun on the back patio. I'm still afraid it is too cold to put outside right now so I am keeping it in the window with my other seedlings to give it some sun but keep it toasty warm.

The strawberry plant in its neat strawberry pot.

Stay tuned for more updates from the Chicago garden!

Roma tomato seedlings are going strong!