Monicas Creative Room

Last May I bought a bunch of African Violet seeds. I thought it would be fun to try sowing them because the plants available in the flower shop are quite ordinary. I want a little more different and unusual varieties.

Oh my, how small the seeds were! I’m used to sowing Petunias and they have small seeds, but these were like the finest grains of dust. I sowed them and got some of the varieties to germinate but not all of them. Anyway, it doesn’t matter because in the end I got more than enough plants.

As the plants got bigger, they needed more space. The windowsills throughout the house were filled with small plants. In the storage room, I have extra lighting over a couple of shelves by the small storage window. They also became overcrowded with plants.

Building new shelves

I have long wanted a stylish solution with shelves in the kitchen windows. Since I can’t find a ready-made solution to buy, I decided to build two custom-made shelves with integrated lighting.

I ordered aluminium profile 2020 with t-slot, as well as corner fittings and shelf brackets. I bought wooden shelves that I sawed to size and rounded the edges before painting them light gray. I also ordered self-adhesive led strips and power supply for this.

I cut the aluminium profiles to the lengths I needed, then I started the assembly. My husband cut and soldered the LED strips to the correct lengths. Then I attached them to the shelves. The aluminium profiles were screwed together and the shelves were put in place.

We lifted the shelves up in the window and my husband plugged them in. We also anchored them at the top so they couldn’t tip over.

Then I replanted a large pile of African violets in nice new white pots and placed them on the shelves. One thing that bothered me, however, was that I was blinded by the lighting above the top shelf. A couple of days later, that was fixed. I got an L-shaped aluminium profile that I screwed to the top front of the shelf.

Now three months later it looks like this!

And I still have a pile of plants left in the storage room.

I am so happy with the new shelves. They are so pretty and they hold a lot of plants. The light can be dimmed and I don’t have to run it at maximum because it will be bright enough anyway. A timer ensures that it is lit 14 hours a day.

Are you wondering how many African violet plants the seeds produced? 174!

Unfortunately none of the plants have names. I know what the mother plant is but not the father. So all of these will be nameless. As they start to bloom, I take photos of the flower and give the pot/plant a number. I have made a list in Excel where I have listed the photos with the number and the name of the plant mother. Just to be able to keep track of them all.

Here are all the ones that have bloomed so far:

/Monica

Yesterday I received some pictures from my daughter who lives in the southern Sweden. There the cherry trees are in full bloom and the grass is green. I’m getting a little jealous because here we still have a lot of snow, I went out and measured and it’s still about 60 cm. However, this season that we call spring-winter is quite beautiful. The nights are cold but during the day when the sun shines it drips from the roofs. The scenery is beautiful, especially when the sun shines and the white snow glistens.

In a couple of weeks, I’ll try to shovel my way through the snow to the greenhouse, because in mid-April it’s time to move out all the plants I’m growing and currently storing in the garage.

/Monica

Ever since I was a child I have loved to crochet. Mom taught me when I was 6-7 years old, and I don’t know how many tablecloths I’ve crocheted since then. In recent years I haven’t crocheted very much because I have had so many other things I wanted to do. But now I’ve started again, and it’s so much fun! I like when the patterns are a little more challenging.

This is what I have managed to do so far and there is more to come!

/Monica

I’m sorry for the lack of updates! I just wanted to show some beautiful winter pictures! Right now we have really cold weather. The temperature has been between -36-39℃ (-33-38℉) for several days now. This does not prevent me from going out for my daily walk around the village. You just need to put on several layers of clothes.

It’s so beautiful with all the snow. We don’t have much daylight yet. The sun rises at 9:45 a.m. and sets around 1:30 p.m. This means that the sun just manages to rise above the horizon before it turns back down!

/Monica

A few days ago we chipped away the ice closest to the house so we could set up a couple of chairs. Afterwards I took a well deserved break in the sun.

Today I have carried all my plants out to the greenhouse and started replanting them in larger pots. I haven’t been growing as many flowers as I used to, because I usually end up with way too many plants.

I also saw that two of my tomato plants have started to flower! 🙂

We still have cold nights with several degrees below zero. That’s why I have a thermostat controlled fan heater in the greenhouse. The potatoes will be planted in about five weeks. By then all the snow will hopefully have melted and the soil will be warm enough.

We still have a lot of snow on the ground! It is not yet possible to walk around the house because the snow is too deep!

The cucumbers I sowed at the beginning of March are thriving indoors by the living room window. I will be able to harvest the first cucumber within a few days! Yay!

/Monica