The Tulip Experiment or Hydroponics at Home

February 27, 2014DIYAngelina OberdanComment

I love tulips in the Spring, but since I rent, planting the bulbs and then digging them up when I move has never seemed worth it. And then I saw one of my colleague had a vase filled with rocks and a little bit of water growing amaryllis in her office in December! I looked up the idea on Pinterest, and found something very similar.

Materials:

Jars and vases scavenged from around my house
Decorative rocks ordered from Amazon Prime (Who knows where to buy rocks!?)
Tulip bulbs on Etsy (I felt more comfortable buying them from a person who like tulips rather than by the box in a aisle at Lowes.

Original Setup:

I placed approximately 3 inches of rocks and 1-2 tulip bulbs in each vase or jar.

Starting to Sprout:

The below is from about two weeks into my tulip experiment

Getting a Little Crowded:

As you can see below, the jar that I planted 2 bulbs in (which sprouted 3) is starting to look crowded. I also am still not sure the best height for the tulip vases.

Growing Higher:

Below are pictures from this week. They’re shooting up!

Wait, Basil?

I was so successful with the tulips (they may actually bloom, that when I noticed my basil was dying (as it always does of root rot in a traditional pot), I decided I pick the healthiest parts and see if I could get them to root in regular water. And they did! I even upgraded them to a vase with rocks.

I'll let you know when the tulips bloom!

A Little About Angelina-

Angelina is a poet, a writer, a teacher, and a creator. She is everyday a creator of comfy outfits, of reckless hair buns, of garden patches, of food, and of decorating schemes. She is a creator of her own strength: strength of body and strength of soul. She is a creator of the life she loves.

Featured

Finding Delight in 2018

I did sort of make a resolution for 2018, but it is not quantifiable at all. And thus it doesn’t demand anything like: Write one blog per week.

Instead my 2018 focus is on finding delight.

So I Wrote a Thing About My Aunt Sue: Oh-- Sue

I wrote a thing about my aunt, Sue, who passed away last summer.... I still don't know what to do with this, really, but sharing it feels right today, especially as my grading slows at the end of the term, and I have some time to reorient my life, to find my way back to creating a life I love.

My Mom's Perfect Gift

While Dan and I sat outside, my mom’s most recent, sweet gift sat on our kitchen table. It was a box of hot chocolate from Amazon. It was simple but so considerate, and it's the perfect illustration of how gracious my mom is.

The Most Positive Person in the Room - Not Anymore

I have always been a billboard for positive thinking. But not anymore.

I know how I got here, how I became this positive-thinking evangelical. I got here by combating anxiety with positive affirmations, moving toward success through imagining it, beginning with the end in mind.

George Saunders--Be A Dog for 15 Minutes Each Day

A Little About Layla-

Layla is an 8 year-old, somewhat grumpy, Carolina Dog. Despite her grumbling and growling and barking, no one listens to her at home, and so she blogs. She is much smarter than her people, and she manipulates them into, usually, doing whatever she wants: giving her bones, giving her pancakes, giving her all the room on the couch. Yes, she's been carried home from walks because she didn't feel like walking anymore, and yes, she was saving her energy to chase that squirrel in the backyard. She also lives with a cat named Trouble and two other dogs named Finley and Bogart. (Finley's instagram account is linked up top.) She whines in the middle of the night to make her people scoot over so that she has enough room on the bed, and she has her own chair in the den because she is a princess. And that's how it should be.

Featured