This is me slowly dialing in an intuitive understanding of planting and growing from absolutely no money spent. There are Jalapeños, three tomatoes in pots - experiments, and a pot of green onions.

These were just quick and dirty affairs of tossing the refuse from some Pico de Gallo in an empty egg carton and watering it daily. I transferred the individual egg carton pods into the most lazy of mulch and dirt from another dead plant. I didn’t even remove the plants from the cardboard carton because the roots were breaking through and embedded when I tried with one.

So I was curious how the tomatoes might battle it out in a plant-diator death match style, or at least that is what it has turned into. The right most pot is struggling the most with something like 4 egg carton pods that each consisted of a chunk of tomato guts and whatever seeds that included. The pot on the back with tomato plants and several blooms is only two pods. The black plastic pot is an anomaly. I also had planted a couple of egg carton pods of habanero peppers that never sprouted. Somehow I had a single tomato seed make its way inside and I just went with it. It sprouted later than the rest, and appears to be doing the best. I’m sure someone will be like ‘duh, everyone knows to grow single plants in pots’ but have you ever really tried it.

Here in SoCal, I have a little green caterpillars plague to contend with. I find leaves half chewed and the culprits underneath nearly daily. I could spray them, but the routine of hunting them ensures I get out and water the lot of them.

You can’t really see it, but there is aluminium foil with a paper towel and a bunch of green beans drying outside of their pods. These are for a future experiment between those that were dried in pods versus dried out of pods versus fresh de-/pods and likely a mix of larger and smaller beans too just to get an intuitive understanding of how each option seems to grow.

The green onions were a series of three bunches over the last 6 months that went unused and appeared ruined and ready for the trash bin. I planted them anyways and they are by-far the easiest, most useful, and productive thing I have grown. If there is one thing to have on a window seal for food use and a little color in a drab pad, this is it, do green onions.