RoboTastic

Well it has been about 20 days since I set up the Lee Valley Self Watering Seed Starter… and it is working great! All of my seeds except the Swiss chard came up. I think that is the fault of the seeds though. Of all the seeds that came up, I think only one square had nothing that came up. Since there are about 24 squares in each planter, that is about a 1/24 success ratio… and that is pretty. Also all the seedlings are doing really well. They are growing great and seem very healthy. Since there is a resivour for water, the seedlings can draw as much water as they need, and you don’t have to worry about watering them daily.

I highly recommend these seed starters. They take alot of the daily work out starting seeds.

Loving the: Lee Valley Self Watering Seed Starter

I just spent the last 20 minutes trying to scrub my nice shiny All-Clad 12″ skillet clean… What I was trying to scrub off was the polymerized oil, that brown coating that get on things after oil has been heated up for a bit. It is really not a bad thing though, it provides a non-stick protective coating. If this had been a cast iron pan I could have simply left it on. When you season a cast iron pan you are actaully trying to build up this coating. The one thing it doesn’t do though is make things look shiny… stupid popular stainless steel. From now on I am going to be using my cast iron for anything that needs a good sear.

The Pink Lady is a new type of apple that was breed in Australia and just started to be grown in the US. The skin color is actaully sort of pink… it definatly stands out a little. It is a natural cross between Golden Delicous and Lady Williams Apples. I looked around and people describe the flavor as tart and sweet… but to me it taste almost pear like. On top of that it is a nice crisp apple. Acording to the apple brands website the apple has lots of tightly packed cells that make it firm and store well. Also acording to the apple’s website (sound weird, right?) this is not the only cross between the Golden Delicous and Lady Williams, the Sundowner is another cross and considered to be its sister.

Overall this is a great apple that is worth giving a try. It taste a bit different than other apples, and looks good to boot.

I just got the Self-Watering Seed Starter from Lee Valley. It is a lot like all of those other plastic mini-greenhouses except that it always keeps the soil moist by drawing water from a reservoir underneath. This is really nice, because it should keep the seeds at the right moisture level.

It is pretty easy to put together and setup. It is made out of some plastic material that looks sort of like sytrofoam, but seems denser. It actually seems sturdy to me, hopefully it is. one you have it setup and filled with soil, you plant some seeds and fill up the reservoir. The directions say you are supposed to use a mixture of percilite, vermcilite and peat moss, but I couldn’t find all this so I simply used some potting soil. Anyhow I pressed it down pretty good because I thought it would help the capillary action.

I bought two trays, and plant a total of 6 different seeds. Since there are 24 “pots” in each tray I planted a total of 8 of each seed… and actually a bit more because I wanted to make sure at least one grew in each “pot”. I planted:

• Sweet Basil
• A Lettuce Mix
• Chives
• Sweet 100 Tomatoes
• Romenesca Broccoli
• Swiss Chard

I am not really sure what I am going to do with them all once they come up… I am a little short on space and light. Guess I will worry about that if everything actually comes up!

Self-Watering Seed Starter ~ $16 – Lee-Valley

I think Braeburn Apples are my new favorite apples… not sure I had one before, but these are definatly it now! The are sweet with a bit of tangy-ness to them. They are also very crisp, not mealy or mushy. Another great thing is that they do not really have a distinct core, so you can eat almost all the way through without hitting any yucky core. Watch for the seeds though, they WILL grow in your stomach… trust me.

A while back I saw this really fun solar plant. It is essentially a glorified, solar powered night-lite. You charge it up during the day in sunlight and then when it gets dark out it will glow. Fun! Right?

Unfortunately it is from Japan and I couldn’t find anywhere to buy it… and even if I could I am guessing it would be rather pricey. Luckily however I managed to stumble across a similar product that is cheap and available… and what is better than that!

The Solar Flower is a lot like the Solar Plant, except it is shaped like a tulip. It has a green bendable stem, which nice because you can aim it towards the sun. In the center of the “flower” is a little solar cell. It charges a battery in the stem. When it gets dark out, there is a little white LED in the flower and the whole things start to glow. The whole thing is quite fun.

Since the flower is frosted, it glows more than shines. It is bright but I wouldn’t go reading any books with it or anything crazy. It is probably enough light to show which a path goes in a garden or something… not quite enough light to disconnect your house from the power grid, in a desperate attempt to stick it to the man.

It is winter right now, we are not getting much light and on top of that it is also cloudy. Even with that the flower still manages to gather enough light to glow for a few hours. On sunny days has glowed for atleast 8 hours… I went to bed before it did.

The Solar Flower comes in 3 different colors, red, white and yellow. Since all the circuitry looks pretty simple, there is a lot of fun hacking that could be had. It would probably be pretty simple to rig up something just like the Solar Plant.

You can get them in a set of 3 from Amazon for about $30… And when you do that I should get a little piece of the action if I setup the link correctly. Also you can buy them individually from a different site, possbily the manufacturer.

3 Solar Flowers: Amazon ~ $30

Other website, about $12 each

Pros:

• Mother Nature makes it glow
• Yet another deliteful reason to replace plants with plastic
• Reduces our dependence on foreign oil

Cons:

• Lets be serious…
• It is a glowing plastic solar powered flower
• If that does not make you giggle this is probably not the right thing for you