Pop Bottle Carrot Garden

I've been tempted to give in to spring fever this week. The beautiful weather has been so enticing, I just want to plant something. Even the children have been asking if they'll be able to have gardens of their own this summer.

Then, we found this wonderful book by Jan Peck, at the library. The children, all six of them, listened intently while I read about tall Papa Joe, wide Mama Bess, strong Brother Abel, and sweet Little Isabelle (using my best hillbilly accent), as they planted, tended to, and made plans for their amazing carrot. We enjoyed the tall tale so much, we just had to plant some carrots, too.

Of course, it's too early to plant outside yet, in Montana. The 40 degree drop in temperature last night, accompanied by a strong wind, and snow flakes, was a pretty good reminder of that. So, even though, it's sunny, and warm today, we settled for planting our carrots in a pop bottle terrarium. I found a couple of sites, that had managed to grow small carrots that way, so I figured it was worth a try.

First, we peeled the label off of the bottle, and cut off the top, just below where the bottle becomes straight.


We cut four, small, vertical slits in the cut side of the top, so it would fit into the bottom, to form a lid again, after we filled it.


Then, we filled our bottle with a small layer of gravel, and about six inches of potting soil.

The children checked out the tiny carrot seeds.



And then, took turns planting one seed each, in the dirt.


We watered the seeds, put the top on the bottle, and placed it in a sunny windowsill. I offered to dance around seeds, like the Little Isabelle, but the children just rolled their eyes.



Instead, we marked the calendar, so we'll known when to watch for the little plants, at which point, we'll remove the top from our bottle terrarium.


The Giant Carrot, also includes a recipe for Little Isabelle's Carrot Puddin'. But, we still have to finish off our Thunder Cake. And quite honestly, after tomatoes in the cake, I'm not sure I'm ready for carrots in the pudding.


It's great to be a homeschooler.