Saturday, July 21, 2012

Spaghetti Garden Success!

A spaghetti garden is what dreams are made of.  After planting everything that you'll need to make your own homemade spaghetti dish, you sit back and wait, watering it when necessary, until it grows into perfection.

Every day, you walk outside and smile as the plants become taller.  You watch the basil leaves as they turn a bright green, while the oregano stems grow long and healthy.

Last, your salivary glands go into overdrive as your spaghetti tree starts to produce long, thin noodles for you to harvest and then dry for storage.



Ok, maybe not.

Wouldn't that be cool, though?  The video was actually created by the BBC as a brilliant April Fools Day hoax in 1957. When I first began my gardening project, a good friend pointed this video out to me, causing me to transform into a big pile of giggles! 


Of course, the reality of a spaghetti garden is just as smile inducing, though perhaps not as prone to giggles.  This gardening project started with just a few seeds, a large pot, and some dirt.  You may remember the original concept, pictured below.


Since that day, the tomato, oregano and basil have been growing very nicely.  The chives decided that this pot just wasn't right for them, and therefore decided to die off almost immediately after they sprouted, but everything else has been perfectly happy.

Well, ok... I kinda forgot to keep the soil moist at one point when the chives first sprouted, so the chive death was really human error, but I like the other reason far more, so we'll go with that!

My spaghetti garden now looks like this:


The oregano and basil are doing a nice job of filling in for the lost chives.  You can see the tomato stems in the center.  The reason they don't have a great deal of foliage attached is that I've had to remove quite a few non-producing branches in order to ensure enough nutrients are getting up to the thirsty tomatoes at the top.

See, the tomato plants have gotten so huge that I've had to bring in some extra support.


I had to stand pretty far back to get the whole thing into this picture!  Yes, it's that huge!  I'd say this is definitely a nice addition to my edible garden.  I hope my neighbor doesn't mind that I managed to get a large portion of her house into the photo, though!

You'll also notice that the desk to the right (something I'll be using for a future green DIY project) has some actual water (Gasp!) on it.  Yes, we finally got some rain!  Hooray!!!

Even without the chives, I'm calling this gardening project a success.  The basil is totally thriving with vibrant green leaves, and while the oregano growth is pretty slow, I don't use quite as much oregano as the average person, so it works out perfectly!

And the tomatoes?  At present I have seven tomatoes beginning to grow, and twice that many beautiful yellow flowers!  My spaghetti garden has turned into quite a joyful experience.  I highly recommend planting one of your own.

This is possible, even if all you have is an apartment balcony to set a pot onto.  To top it off, if that's all you have to work with you won't have to worry about forgetting to water the pot, and therefore losing the chives, like I did!

Bonus!

No comments:

Post a Comment