The Legumes

• Name: The Little Forest (collective), Helix (only the ones that look like their leaves have been chewed up)
• Species: Red bean and lentil, although I want to add more into the mix.
• Current format: Growing in a big square plastic pot
• Obtained on: 29/03/23
• Obtained from: Supermarket
• Current status: Growing...

You know how, as a kid, you would try to grow beans into plants? Yeah that's what we're doing here. I love beans and legumes, they are delicious, and I'd like to try growing some of my own. For nostalgia sake, for fun, to see how far can I get. They are easy to grow, they're cheap, and I get lots of them so I can experiment with them (both gardening-wise and cooking-wise).

I don't know what other legumes are out there in the world but here we've got three big ones: beans, chickpeas and lentils. I'm going to start growing these and then, if I get my hands on another kind of legume, I'll add it to the mix.

• 29/03/23: Planted. Currently staying indoors and giving them heat from the modem.
• 30/04/23: Some roots are starting to come out from the lentils. Beans are splitting, but no roots yet
• 2/04/23: Wow, modem heat must have been one of my strangest ideas but it sure is working. More beans and lentils are growing roots as the days advance.
• 3/04/23: Beans and lentils are sprouting in masse, some rots are starting to grow "subroots" even!
• 5/04/23: Yesterday I bought a big pot so I can plant the beans and lentils in there. Again, this is a thunderdrome situation where I plant things, experimenting with them, and seeing how it goes and expecting plants to die. I planted all the beans (except a grumpy one who just refused to grow) and most of the lentils, but I kept some again back in their "greenhouse" to see how they develop. I should add more beans into the mix, and see how far they can go living off of tissue paper, water and whatever little soil that shedded from my fingers.
• 10/04/23: They grew!! Stems of about 5 cm are emerging from the soil. Most of them seem to be lentils, but there's one bean sprouting and many of them snaking just under the soil. It was a very pleasant surprise :)
• 12/04/23: The Beans Are Rising.
• 14/04/23: There's a bean that sprouted first that inexplicably has very chewed on leaves. It's the only one that turned out like this and there are no animals here that can leave such big holes. I think it was just born like this?? I'm naming it Helix.
• 15/04/23: I think I'm losing the onion I planted along with the beans :( Not only it's getting crowded here and the beans tower over it, it looks way sadder than usual. Guess I now know beans and onions aren't good friends.
• 23/04/23: On the other hand, all beans are growing spectacularly! They look like a little forest now.
• 06/04/23: The lentils have died :( I guess the beans were too strong. I plucked away all the wilting plants to prevent bugs. Only three are left, but I expect to take those away next