So the triathlon is more on the back burner. I'm trying to eat more healthily and do some exercises. The exercises cause some major muscle spasms and neuralgia (nerve pain), so when I do exercise (read: aerobic dancing in my wheelchair! or working with small hand weights) I try to do it right after I've taken my medications and before they knock me out. That way I can sleep through the majority of the pain. Still, this dream is something I need to focus on more.
What I have been focusing on is the indoor gardening! It's awesome! Of course, I'm still in the baby stages, but this is taking a lot more planning than I bargained for. I'm having to be ultra creative on my extremely limited budget, but I find that it's not really the money that motivates me - it's the creativity part. I love to see how much I can do for free.
Immediately after posting my first blog, I read about using grocery scraps to garden, so I decided to try this with green onions, celery, and the bottoms of hearts of romaine lettuce. Here is day one. For lighting I chose a regular CFL bulb on a cheap lamp stand from Dollar General and then made a cardboard and aluminum foil cuff to direct 90 degrees of light towards the plant so the light wouldn't be wasted.
Above is about two weeks after I started! Both the romaine and green onions took off immediately. I was warned that the celery would prove to be much more difficult (and slow!) It's just now starting to show some celery stalks (lots of beautiful leaves though).
The romaine lettuce was delicious, though it was a tiny bit bitter because I waited too long to use it. I just couldn't help it, it was my pride and joy, and I couldn't bear to cut it. I finally did, and it was still yummy.
I have now moved onto soil-based gardening. I have started my own compost container, and when it's full but still composting I have yet another container waiting to be filled. I have been chopping up the leftovers into very small pieces before adding it to the compost container, so it's doing remarkably well and composting quite quickly.
So far I have bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, beefsteak tomatoes and cherry tomatoes (all started from seeds.) They have taken a lot of TLC, but are doing well. I have also planted a mixture of loose-leaf lettuce from seeds, and parsley. Today I also planted two sets of peas using this really cool method that recycles 2-liter bottles: http://www.desperategardener.com/2011/03/creative-containers.html (Note: I used white vinegar instead of bleach to sterilize the plastic bottles. Just seemed a bit safer and more organic.) Below is one of the two sets of peas I planted today. They are tiny batches, but it's just for one person, and I'll be planting a new set every few days. I used the self-watering container from the site above, but for this particular one instead of using just water I did a mixture of water and compost tea. (I stew the compost scraps in water for a while and then use that 'tea' to help water and nourish my plants.)
I also still have some green onions going. I cut off my first crop, and the bulbs are still producing. Next time I'm at the store I will probably buy another bunch of green onions and cut off the bulbs, so I can have a larger harvest of green onions. They are so great for cooking.
Tomorrow I plan on planting potatoes in a large bag that was used for dog food. I did a lot of reading about indoor gardening in bags - brilliant idea! I just need a little more soil. I still have quite a bit of the store-bought soil that contains fertilizer, but Brianna (my service) dog and I have been going out and digging for regular soil to mix with the expensive stuff. Digging for soil is not an easy task while you're sitting in a wheelchair, using just a soup spoon, but Brianna will sometimes start digging like mad to help me loosen up the soil. She's just awesome like that. :-)
