Tag: Gardening

Propagation Stations ~ Tiny Space

At some point in time, I lost control of the propagation stations, or lack thereof.  But propagation stations ~ tiny space = imagination!  There were random things with water in them pretty much everywhere.  They fell over during travel because they were forgotten in the mix, we’ve knocked them over, the cats knocked them over.   It was a watery mess a LOT of the time.

So Zach and I came up with some fixed stations that house more than one propagation at a time.    We still have a few that are in random bottles, but most are just about ready for dirt, so moving them to a permanent prop station seems silly.

My goal is to have all my prop stations in a place where they don’t have to relocate during travel days.   So they need to be attached to something.

It’s all a work in progress, but we’ve had success so far with these stations traveling well with water in them.   I leave space at the top anyway, and never had a drop spill out.

So first up, is my Ice Cream Station.  This one is my favorite   It is almost exclusively filled with Hoya cuttings (Zach has a Hoya problem).  The one sole difference is my Wandering Dude cutting!   It was a candle holder (I wish I took before pics)

But even though I did not take before pics, I DID manage to find the exact same one online, and that is what this pic is!

 

I used ceramic ice cream cones that I found in a unique shop in Alma, Arkansas (A To Z Gifts & More).  I only found 5, so I had to improvise with the last one (I call it the sundae cup)!

 

 

 

Cut one leg off completely. Cut the foot off the other leg and drilled a hole into a piece of wood to set the leg into.  Then attached the piece of wood to the wall.

 

 

I also have this one that Zach created for me.  We found 3 of the 4 glasses at one thrift store and the fourth at another!

Empty And Full

We found these trays at a thrift store for 50¢ for both (no clue what they are/were, someone thought an insert for an instapot, but i really don’t know!)  I didn’t know what exactly to do with them, so I started with just the bottom for about a minute.   Added the cut foam in so the plants had a place to prop themselves on while they were rooting in water.   Then I got the idea to cut one of my walking sticks in a few pieces, used one piece to attach these 2 trays together.   I used the other two pieces to make hanging herb drying racks (post to come later)

 

And just some random prop stations.   These are the ones I still need to move.   In the end, it’s a lot less than I had going on before.   And I’ve stopped propping outdoor plants, so my needs are far less at the moment.  I have all of my glassware, prop stations and all that stuff put away in totes.  I’m sure I will use all of them in rotation again  😀

 

As always in bus life, it’s a work in progress.  But I do have to say that with each change we make, our ready to travel time decreases.  It no longer takes me an hour to prep the front of the bus!  I’m down to about 15 minutes!  Next on the chopping block is the awful overfilled bathtub during travel!   When we travel for multiple days, it drives me batty

Propagation Stations ~ Tiny Space

 

Bus Life Gardening 101

This has been a rough gardening transition.  I am usually great with houseplants, herbs, vegetables and everything.  But Bus life has changed all that   Not for the worse, just for the different.  I need to learn new ways to acclimate my plants under various conditions.

When we left on this journey,  I had 2 plants: a kalanchoe that a friend’s daughter had given me, and my beloved Hoya.   The kalanchoe was a bit sad and my hoya was in dire straits.  The hoya had holes in her leaves, and hadn’t done any kind of growing in a very long time.  She was just sick.

Now we have an extensive garden, growing in size a few plants at a time.   Some things have grown fantastically and some have grown into fantastic disasters.   Cilantro and I are no longer speaking 😠

Gardening

I KNOW we are asking a lot of our plants.  When we are stationary, they are out in the sun (or shade, whichever they prefer) and have the wind blowing through them, and all is dandy.   But then we travel, and they go into the back of the truck that is towed behind the bus.   So life gets pretty dreary for them.  We are switching out trucks in the near future, so upgrading the current one for our needs seems silly.   But, when the switch happens, there will be a cap on the back of the truck that is hinged so the plants can get some sun, we will also have a grow light and mirrors available when the sun isn’t.   It’s a truck, so I feel confident that soaking them down with a hose will do no harm.

We’ve learned what just doesn’t work, cilantro being #1 on that list!   I cannot get that to NOT BOLT!   So sad

Here’s what is still surviving and thriving!

Geraniums

   

Begonias

Hoya Carnosa

This little girl has grown so much in the bus.   She had horrible leaves on her, full of breaks and holes.   And maybe there were 3 of them.   They are currently sitting in water in propagation mode.  Roots on it, just waiting for some new pretty leaves before I pluck the yucky ones off.  I’m super excited that she is thriving now!!

Here’s what just doesn’t want to travel!!

Tomatoes

So here I got a vine of green cherry tomatoes that just refuse to turn red!  I haven’t given up on them yet tho!   And the little red guy is from my sad compact cherry tomato.  The one with like 3 leaves left on it!   And I pluck a snack from him every few days!  And honestly, I have no idea what that tomato in the fourth picture is doing.  Does it think it’s a Roma (We got it from a plant sale at a humane society and they had no idea what anything was!) Or does it think it’s a pepper because it was hanging out next to one in the truck??   No clue!

Peppers

Now we have had minimal success with peppers, I’m putting it in the unsuccessful category  because we have gotten 3 peppers, from about 6 plants, so that’s a fail to me 🙁

Lettuce

We may have done this one in ourselves by not clipping it properly.   ooops

Broccoli

Clearly not enough sun, we tried but having this one in the back of the truck made it REALLY stretch!! 🙁

Cauliflower

Seriously, growing all crazy, no sign of actual vegetable growth.   And I’ve never grown it before, so there’s that  😐 

Gardening

 

We haven’t given up!  We know this is a learning process and it will take some time for us to figure out which varieties of vegetables work best in our crazy conditions!  We eat a lot of vegetables and would love to be able to grow our own! So back to basics.  Back to gardening 101

We plan on pulling what isn’t working and starting over with new varieties of vegetables and different ones altogether.   I’d love to have a 100% success rate, but for now I’m willing to continue the search for the perfect plants to adapt to our environment!

Up next …Propagation Station Overhaul!   This is a MESS!!  I have prop stations everywhere inside.   In jars, glass milk jugs, butter containers.

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