Let's start small

Every morning I enter the agency through an employee-only side entrance. Beyond being conveniently close to my office, it's also conveniently south facing with huge windows. On a sunny day - which is most days in Southern California - it gets pretty toasty in there. I've always wondered if it would be a good place to grow something, so a couple of weeks ago I decided to put it to the test.

The first step was to figure out a way pot the seeds. I decided to go low tech and use some things I could find around the office. It's cheaper and ultimately more fun I think. So as with most things I started with a sketch...

...and then moved on to the real thing. Since the area is in a stairwell I needed a way hang the plants, so drinking cups, twine and coffee sleeves seemed to make sense. And since my employers would frown on water being all over the floor, I went with the cup-in-a-cup approach.

So, what to plant? I decided to start with Kentucky Wonder Pole Bean and Grandpa Ott's Morning Glory. I chose these two for a couple of reasons: they're both climbers which makes sense given the stairwell's vertical setting, and since it should be nice and warm I thought I'd go with a couple of summer season choices. I also thought it would be interesting to have one that's ornamental and one that's edible. Not to mention the Morning Glory might encourage me to get to work earlier so I could see them in full bloom. We'll see.

And now, we wait.