Gardening in a bowl

After a relaxing day off work and spent doing absolutely nothing more than watching DVDs and sleeping, I decided to take on the challenge of playing with one of my Christmas gifts. My wonderful boyfriend sent me a tulip growing kit- complete with pot, soil, gravel, and 5 tulip bulbs. When I think back to this past summer and how I thought that things would be here, I can say with 100% certainty that the idea of gardening never crossed my mind. However, this evening, gardening was exactly what I was doing. Of course I had to improvise with a few things. The warm water needed for the soil/compost disk came from a bottle and was heated in my hot pot. After soaking the soil disk in the hot water, I had the fun joy of “fluffing” the mixture with a plastic fork borrowed from the dining hall. After spreading out the dirt on some old bubble wrap, I carefully placed the tulip bulbs in the pot. I used the fork to get the dirt back in the pot and around the bulbs. According to the directions from ‘Tulip World’, the supplier of the gift, the bulbs need 10 weeks somewhere cool and dark. The five very-far-from-home bulbs are now happy and planted in their pot, placed in a box, and sitting on the patio of my apartment room. Since random boxes tend to make people nervous around here, I used a sharpie marker to write on the top: “ I am flower bulbs that need to be kept cool and dark as I grow. If you have any questions, please contact LT H. in room 204C”. I now have to wait until March 1st and then I can bring them inside to continue to grow. I can’t wait to see if I can actually grow tulips in Iraq. Updates to come!