Kids today! They grow up so fast!

Well, I thought it was high time for an update on my little gardening project! When was it that we began? A few months ago at least. You'll recall we started with nothing but SEEDS and a humble beginning in a laundry room in Norway.

I have become quite attached to my little seedlings. I mean, I planted them! I germinated them! I watered them! I talked to them! I lovingly tended to them through all of their awkward phases. Convincing the pepper plants that just because they were smaller than the tomatoes didn't mean that they weren't equally important!

I am emotionally invested. I am a proud plant parent!

And I think I might have killed all of my charges today.

Let me explain.

Today was a big day in Oslo. We knew it was time. The plants were simply too big for their teenager pots! They were getting big and leafy, and pardon the pun, were growing like weeds! Check out my tomato kids:



Can you believe how much they have grown!!?? So, I had a nice wooden planter prepared for the tomatoes. I put plastic on the bottom so all the soil wouldn't fall out of the slats, and punched holes all through it for drainage. For extra drainage, I put a layer of nice chunks of quartz and granite which seems to just lay around here in Norway. I also had some gorgeous, nutrient rich organic soil:



So, I filled the planter, and transplanted the tomatoes. I buried them about half way since the extra leaves will form more roots and make a stronger plant. Patted the soil securely around them and went to the gardening center to get more soil and an organic fertilizer and some stakes to tie up the tomatoes with. When we got home, I was met with this sad situation:



Are they dead?? Did I kill them?? I immediately came inside and consulted my good friend Google. Google had a lot of opinions, the most common being that the plants were in transplant shock. Do you think this is true? That maybe they will perk back up?
I will be so sad if I have killed the plants after all we have been through together these last few months!

The bell peppers and jalepenos don't look much better:



However, the tomatillos are looking ok:



I also have some peas and beans growing behind the door:



And a little potato project going on as well. I read about growing potatoes in a bag. So, I got some potatoes, let them sit in the sun for a couple of weeks til they were covered in tons of creepy little eyes, then I took a plastic bag, rolled the edges down, put down a layer of soil, popped the multi-eyed monsters into the dirt like so:



Then I covered them with soil. What is SUPPOSED to happen is that in about a week, the potatoes will shoot some leaves up through the soil. At that point, I roll the the sides of the bag up a bit, and cover it with soil again. The leaves will turn into roots and have more potato babies and will keep pushing up. So, basically, you just keep rolling up the bag and covering in soil until the bag is full. You let the last leaves come up, bloom and die and come September, you will have a bag full of new potatoes!!! I will certainly keep you updated on the potato project!


So, that is the gardening update!!!! I hope someone can tell me that I did NOT kill my little plants! That would be sad!!!

Lets all cross our fingers that the little kids will perk back up and continue on to their destiny of feeding us in a few months!