Indoor garden

My roommate, Nadia, and I have been trying to grow an indoor herb garden for the past month. We started from seeds (mostly because I think it's a really awesome surprise to see a sprout pop up from a pot of what used to be nothing. And then something huge develop from what used to be a little speck dropped in dirt). While the basil has flourished well enough for us to split the plant in to 2 pots, the rosemary and thyme haven't grown much bigger than sprouts. Since I woke up 7 am on a Sunday (more like 4 am and by 7 I couldn't stay in bed any longer. I was REALLY sleepy last night. My bike broke so I had to really work out to get home yesterday so when it go dark I decided to crash early), I decided to visit the plant nursery nearby. Thus I learned that perennial herbs like rosemary and thyme need a year to grow to harvest stage from seeds. So I bought some starter plants to replace our sprouts. 1 rosemary and 1 mint (after standing in front of the herbs for awhile, I realized that I don't usually use thyme all that much. Whereas mint just smells awesome ^_^).

So now our indoor herb garden consists of rosemary, basil, mint, green onion, and 2 starters of cherry tomato and peas (I want to see if I can grow these ^_^).


Meanwhile, I got impulsive and bought a bonsai. As if I don't have enough to take care of. But I remembered seeing a maple bonsai tree and finding it so impressive how beautiful the tiny leaves looked. So I thought I'd give it a go. I got a bonsai starter, pot, and pebbles to mix in the soil (apparently bonsais thrive best when the soil is very coarse and allows water to flow through easily). I don't know anything about the aesthetics of bonsai cutting, but the starter looked like it could use some love and care. It had dead leaves, some deformed, and kind of twisting in to itself in several areas to create a kind of mess. Well, this is the first go at trimming:



It's still kinda messy, but better than before. At least all the dead parts have been removed. I figure, once I let it grow more, I'll know more about where to cut to make it flow nicely.

Oh and I also bought fertilizer. I thought I could go without it, but apparently when grown in pots, plants only have a limited amount of soil to grab their nutrients from. Without nature's flow and insects, they need other aid. I got this seaweed extract fertilizer that the saleslady as the garden nursery recommended.