Planting Cotton

Here's a picture of the seeds I picked out from the couple wads of raw cotton I gleaned in Arkansas last month. The internet told me it is possible to grow cotton indoors (should you be unable to maintain a 60 degree outdoor environment for your plants, which is a situation I find my Midwestern self in). So I'm going to try! I'm not expecting to knit a sweater or anything from what I grow, but it'd feel mighty fine to see a few of these sprout!

I'd held off this project several weeks since I had no potting soil when the idea struck me. I run into so much luck and free stuff that I prefer to wait until things fall into my lap rather than purchasing goods right when I want them. (My frequent trips to Target/the thrift store might belie that statement, but I draw the line when it comes to paying money for dirt.)

Luckily, some soil did just fall into my lap! Last weekend, my church's Food Justice group held it's first skillshare workshop on the topic of Compost. Awesome! At the end, I was offered a small bucket of finished compost (a.k.a. extremely nutrient-rich potting soil) and I knew the time had come.

Sunday I filled little cups plastic cups with the soil and pressed the seeds in. As I fingered the dark, loamy "earth" still ridden with eggshell pieces, I felt like I was handling Life itself. How marvelous that our food, with the aid of microorganisms, turns back to soil that can give life to new plants!?! That's "The Wheel" in action. Truly miraculous.

Now these seeds sit in their soil on the windowsill, and I wait.