Monday, October 15, 2012

Eggs, Basil, and a Balcony

Eggs, basil and a balcony sounds like a great idea right?  I love eggs topped with some fresh basil while enjoying it on my balcony.  Don't worry I'm not going to go in detail what I had for breakfast this morning.  To think about it.. my previous post was about the benefits of coffee grounds.  It's either I'm a huge breakfast fan or my ideas come to me while enjoying my breakfast.  While I sit on my.. ha.  Sorry I'm going off topic.
So this post is not about what I had for breakfast but on a creative way to getting your seeds to sprout.  I think it's a great idea which I saw on youtube.  As I browsed youtube for tips and advice on growing your own herbs and plants.  I stumbled upon Ramona Werst and her basil garden.  I'll put a link on the bottom for anyone that wants to see her video.  


Basically you'll need a few things: 
-Egg shells
-basil seeds or any type of seeds
-a mixture of soil (I used miraclegro)
-water

This is really simple so I feel guilty.  For those who are interested, I'll show you what steps I took.  Honestly, you might just want to scroll to the bottom and watch Ramona's video.  

Step 1: 
As stated on my first post, I have a basil plant that may be seeing it's final days here on earth.  Sorry basil plant.  I wonder should I give my plant a name?  Do you name your plants?  OK back to the subject.  I noticed that the flowers had been dried out.  So I'm grabbing any opportunity to learn from and expand my garden.  I learned it was the perfect opportunity to grab seeds from the basil plant after watching a couple of videos and reading plenty of blogs.  I was about to grab some seeds.  Sorry everyone I was not able to document it.  I was way too excited and didn't stop to write it all down.  Next time this happens, I won't miss the chance to show you.  

Well here is the seeds I gathered from a couple of flowers.  I didn't know there were so many!

Step 2: 
Grab your eggs!  Well egg shells really.  Next time you have eggs in the morning.  Try cracking them 2/3rds on one side.  If that's hard to do, just crack them in half.  It's not going to make or break the growing process.  Well unless of course you just use the tiny half of the shell.  Then you might have a problem.  Rinse the egg shells and dry them out over night.  Don't forget to turn them over or you'll just find water on the bottom. 
Step 3: 
Fill the eggshell with the mixture of soil.  Don't fill it to the top but rather 3/4ths of the eggshell half.  You'll want to leave room for the seed and more soil.  Plus at this time you'll be damping the soil with water.  The mixture that I'm using doesn't really mix well.  So water will tend to gather just at the top.  I usually just stick my finger in there and mix it.  You can use a popsicle stick to mix it but save the popsicle stick for later.  You'll be able to use it as a plant stick.  All you have to do is write the name of the plant/seeds on one end of the stick and stick it in the ground next to those seeds.  
Step 4: 
Add your seed!  Add a couple... about 3 to 5 seeds.
Step 5: 
Place somes soil on top of the seeds.  Not too much but just a pinch or 2 on top of the seeds.  You want them covered not buried.  Think of it as a blanket for the seeds to keep them warm.
Step 6: 
Add some more water and THAT'S IT!!!!  Simple, right?  Feel guilty how simple that was?  I don't but making myself sound like a pro... I'm guilty about that. 

Well that's it everyone!!  Now I'll tell you in a week or so if this works.  Ha Ha. Sorry this method was not tested before I posted it.  But think of it as an experiment that we're experiencing together.  But after watching Ramona, I feel confident that we'll have little baby basil plants soon enough.  

Here is the link to the video that has inspired me: 

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