Garden Party

Tonight the Girls Team let our green thumbs glow in our first gardening project since the creation of Make It Happen Mondays! Check out our Paperwhite and Mini Basil plants! 

Paperwhites are good indoor flowers because they do not require chilling to bloom and bloom for a long time, providing a pretty, fragrant flower during the depths of winter. Planting our Paperwhites was simple as we followed these steps:


Step 1: Get the materials. We bought two long, skinny, clear vases (they are about 4 inches tall) and mini river rock pebbles at Michael's. We got our bulbs at Orchard Supply Hardware.

Step 2: Fill the vase with pebbles, one inch deep. 

Step 3: Fit as many bulbs as possible into your vase. No need to be gentle. Shove them close together, sitting directly on the pebbles. 

Step 4: Cover the bulbs with pebbles, until only the stems are sticking out. Then add water, just enough to touch the bottom of the bulbs. If you add too much water, the bulbs will rot. Remember this as you water your bulbs daily! 

Step 5: Pick a home for your new Paperwhites where they will receive some sunlight (but not direct sun) and wait 6-8 weeks for them to bloom! Updated pictures to come as ours bloom :) 

After planting our flowers, we planted Mini Basil in biodegradable temporary pots. Once the basil gets large enough, we will re-pot the basil in a permanent pot. Planting the basil was easy, but we'll see how it grows...

After filling the pots with 3/4 dirt, sow the seeds one inch apart in the seed starting mix. This was almost impossible to actually measure due to the seeds small size. We ended up sprinkling seeds around :) Then put more dirt on top, water and set aside to grow! With some TLC and water, the basil should grow in 4-6 weeks. 

Indoor gardening was a fun (and warm!) winter activity that would be great for all ages because each project took about 15 minutes and was as simple as following a set directions :) 

Are you guys avid gardeners? What's your favorite flower to plant?!