On Monday, March 21, 2016 at 1:45:55 PM UTC-4, Muggles wrote:
On 3/21/2016 12:07 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
SWMBO is heavily into gardening. In fact, part of her job entails
running a greenhouse. She often brings home cuttings, seeds, etc.
so I wasn't surprised to see some 6" long seed pods sitting on the
table by the front door last Saturday morning.

I was in the kitchen on Sunday when I heard some strange noises from
the living room, like somebody had thrown marbles or something -
tick-ting-tap. I looked into the living room but didn't see anything.
SWMBO was upstairs, so I figured she must have made the noise.

A few minutes later I heard the noise again, this time louder, with
even more of the tick-ting-tapping.

When I went into the living room and looked more closely, I found
that all of pods had split in 2. Parts of the pods were on the floor
and some of the seeds were 6 - 8 *feet* away from the table. The
noises I heard were the seeds being shot into a lamp, a closet door,
etc. Each seed was about the size of an M&M.

I called SWMBO down and when she saw what had happened she got all
giddy. "Isn't nature wonderful? They must have thought the warm
house meant that it was spring. The pods exploded and shot out their
seeds."

Based on the location of some of seeds, it was obvious that a couple
had flown right over the recliner that I usually sit in. I could
have been killed! ;-)

I gotta admit, it was pretty cool. I just wish I had actually seen it
happen.


I love gardening! Last November I planted beets in my raised beds, built
a frame over it and covered it with plastic. I watered it about once
every couple of weeks. Despite it being pretty cold at times, the beets
grew and now that it's spring I opened the cover to let air in, but kept
it directly over the top to shield it from heavy weather. I'm getting
beet roots now, about 2 months earlier than I would have if I planted
them in the spring. It was just an experiment, but might be something I
can do every fall.

--
Maggie

Well, you basically built a greenhouse. The one my wife runs is *huge*,
with automatic ventilation, a 4 zone timed watering system, etc. It's
part of a day-hab for special needs adults, located on a county owned
farm. People with special needs, farm animals and plants. SWMBO's passions.

The seedlings for the annual plant sale fund raiser are ready for sale.
The special needs adults help her in the green house and in turn the
proceeds from the sale can be used for "extras" around the day-hab,
outside of what the state provides as part of their care - in other
words, fun stuff.