Yesterday's project was trying to finish my plant table - basically a large table that'll sit in front of the living room window, so I can put seedlings and such there so that they get a lot of sun.
It's made from some reused wood from old (no longer usable) shelving units, and some garbage-tier hardware store wood for the frame; the new hardware store wood is actually *worse* than the reused wood in many ways...
Anyway, I've almost finished it; I just had to wait for the glue to dry, then flipped it upside down, and now I still need paint the top... and then it's completed!
(It doesn't look particularly nice but that's okay - this is more a practice project than anything, to try out different techniques and see what works, and if something doesn't work, oh well - it's just a plant table anyway)
Today's project was clearing out and reorganizing the garage, so that it is actually usable for projects again, and I can actually reach my tools and supplies properly. Pictures forthcoming, probably tomorrow! Battery too empty to make them now.
There's a lot left to do here, but I'm very happy to finally have the whole thing in a usable condition, at least! Instead of having to constantly navigate around all kinds of crap scattered on the floor (instead of being stored where it belongs).
Currently painting the new plant table; weirdly, the cheap primer I used claimed on the can to need 12 hours to dry, but it was fine after like 2 hours? I just applied the top (color) coat on top of it, and had no issues whatsoever.
This can of paint is one of my bargain bin cans - the local hardware store usually has a cart with assorted stuff on it that they are trying to get rid of, usually because they're no longer selling it. Discounts between 50% and 99% are not uncommon - at one point I got some 35 EUR table legs for 1 EUR each.
Sometimes there are cans of paint on there as well - presumably these are the result of some employee accidentally mixing the wrong color for a customer, and them deciding to try and recoup some of the cost for the erroneous can by putting it on the cart at a discount.
So I've been picking up some of these cans every once in a while, and now I have a decent collection of semi-random (and often unusual) colors for projects like this where I don't need any particular specific color!
Tomorrow, when the plant table is fully dry, I can continue with my *actual* project (for which the table and the garage were dependencies): pre-planting seeds for my vegetable garden.
I've also finally installed a garden hose box, because I am sick and tired of my garden hoses laying on the ground outside and getting damaged and needing replacement all the time (storing them inside is impractical because of frequent use and being wet)...
The plant table is done and installed! Quite happy with the result, considering that it was a practice project and all the wood involved was crap 😄
(Also, this is the first table I've ever built, I think?)
Cleared out some more invasive vines in the garden, and moved my flat greenhouse thingem to a new location! #gardening
There's nothing in there yet except for dirt, compost and vermiculite - but I'll probably be putting some lettuce in there soon, if nothing else.
The adopted strawberry plants seem pretty happy with their new home!
Completed! That's like, 3 years worth of vine backlog deleted. Now nice things can finally grow there, instead of just endless uncontrollable vine overgrowth!
I am so, so exhausted now. Did a second trip to Action today, bringing back a crapload of ground cover, so I was already tired by the time I got back, and then the vine removal... including removing the two 'base plants' which had developed roots with a diameter of like 8-10cm...
Today, I've made a Gridfinity paint tube holder, for the cheap tubes of paint sold at Action (that still didn't have a place of storage here)
I've also hacked together a rough dirt sieve from skewers and metal wire, to remove branches and roots and such from soil before I reuse it for something else
My paint tubes are now nicely stored alongside the rest of my everything :)
Put the 3D model for the paint storage bins online here: https://www.printables.com/model/1260340-gridfinity-12ml-paint-tube-holder
Well, today was mostly spent talking in Dangerous Professional to the manager of the local McDonald's, to get a friend of mine the salary they are entitled to. Things set in motion, and now we wait.
Speaking of which, if you work for McDonald's in the Netherlands and are on a part-time or full-time contract, check your pay slip. They *should* be paying you for your contract hours plus overtime, *not* for the clocked-in hours. But according to the local manager they always calculate by clocked-in hours (as per head office policy), which is illegal.
(Exception: they can shuffle hours to other weeks to make up the weekly contracted amount of hours. As long as it works out to the correct average in the end. But as we've found out, it is by no means guaranteed that that actually happens.)
Thanks to @pixouls I now know what happened, I think! I mixed some home compost into my potting soil, and in the past I've composted... tomatoes! So most likely these are seeds that survived in the compost all that time.
Which, funnily enough, means that I now have tomato plants as a type of weeds
@joepie91 sweet setup!
@joepie91
That is so organised and tidy. What are you growing?
@electron_greg Lots of things! Beans, tomatoes, lettuce, chard, cucumber, also an attempt at zucchini and a bunch of other miscellaneous stuff.
Not everything is doing well yet, so it's going to be interesting to see which ones I end up actually being able to plant and get results from! And then learn from that for next year.
@joepie91 That's a great variety! It's incredibly satisfying to nurture, harvest and eat what you've planted. And as you say, every year you learn something new. We've just planted a mix of red/green lettuce varieties in hanging baskets so they escape being eaten by slimy beasties! Skipped it last year as my wife used all the baskets for flowers.
Anyway, good luck!!!
@electron_greg Thanks! And yeah, I hope the slugs don't end up eating all my plants this year 😅
@joepie91 I'm surprised... at 50*C I'd expect them to be slowly roasting like they were in a frying pan.
@rallias Well *that* greenhouse was only 40C! The 50C one was the other, smaller one (whose flap wasn't open)
@joepie91 looks like it to me!
@joepie91 It could be tomatoes there are a few different plants that generally have "cotyledons" that look like that. The next set(s) of leaves will have a more distinctive shape that will be easier to identify. some pepper plants look very similar for example, but tomato is reasonable guess.
@pixouls Hmm, what sort of plants would you be thinking of?
(I'm in the Netherlands, if that helps)
@joepie91 sorry, i edit the post. sometimes peppers have a similar initial structure. tomatoes is a reasonable guess. if you are re-using soil, sometimes dormant seeds will be triggered by ideal conditions. tomatoes show up a lot in compost.
@pixouls Oh! The compost seems like a credible explanation... thanks!
@joepie91 They are tomato seedlings. The first leaves don't look like tomato leaves, but the second set of leaves will. They're doing good :D
@joepie91 Also great looking greenhouse!
@lisawilliams Thanks :) I'm pretty happy with the setup now!
@joepie91 They look pretty much like tomato seedlings to me...
These are tomato seedlings, right? I'm not missing something? Could they possibly be something else, like a weed?
(I ask because these are showing up in areas that I *definitely* didn't sow tomato seeds in, nor any similar plants...)
#gardening