Sprout it out loud now!

What up everybody? 


         Spring is upon us and things are starting to grow so we here in the Elgin BVS House are starting a garden, which I for one am totally stoked about. Now you may be thinking, 
"This sounds familiar. Didn't the BVSers in Portland already do this?"
http://portlandispeacingittogether.blogspot.com/2011/04/we-planted.html


         Well, yes. Yes they did. But just because they got their plants in the ground first doesn't mean we stole their idea. We've actually been kicking around the idea of a garden for quite awhile now. We've just had a few obstacles that have prevented us from actually growing anything out of the ground yet. Mostly it's been freezing cold (bad for new growth) and raining (bad for working the ground and not entirely great for our enthusiasm about being outside) any day we've set aside to work on our garden. We can't all have the luxury of beautiful west coast weather. 


         However, we BVSers are a determined bunch and are not easily thwarted. With the help of our friend Anna we've got watermelons, green beans, basil and lettuce seeds planted in pots. Originally, the pots were kept at our office where there are nice big windows to let in lots of sunlight. But we couldn't leave the little guys all by themselves over weekends so they found their way to our house where they now reside in our impromptu atrium also known as my room.

         Growing has been slow for them since the last week has been cold and overcast with rain and occasionally snow (I keep telling the sky that it is April and it shouldn't be dropping snow on us but it doesn't like to listen to me). But despite the weather's efforts our little troopers are growing all the same. The lettuce has been doing very well. They are the over achievers of the group. They have all sprouted and are growing well.

         Just a few days ago we saw our first basil sprouts. They've steadily been coming in since then.

         And we've even got a couple of beans that shot up recently. This is a picture of the tallest bean sprout.

         So far we haven't seen anything from the watermelon seeds. But I think they'll catch up when it starts getting hot. Later on we'll also be growing other delicious edibles like tomatoes and peppers which I am most excited about.

        And here is the future site of the Elgin BVS House garden. This corner of our backyard is looking a little bare so I'm really looking forward to sprucing it up soon with some lovely vegetables, fruits and beans.

         We'll be taking a rototiller to this patch of land some sunny Saturday and hopefully we'll be able to start planting outside shortly after that. But that all depends on the weather.

        That's all for now. We'll let you know when progress with our garden is a little less halted.

Peace,

-Jeremy