We finished putting soil and seeds into the magnetic planters and set them on a sunny window ledge to start germinating. We figured the planters would stand a better chance at surviving (and staying in place longer than just overnight) if there were some wildflowers starting to grow.

We also went to the downtown space and started brainstorming, but I’ll make another post on that later.

The wildflower seeds we were working with come in a large container that looks something like a container of seasoning. The seeds are mixed with vermiculite, which is supposed to promote better growth, and were donated by one of my students in the Green Corridor class (thanks Kelly) for another project.

Darren, Talitha, and Josh started lining up the planters for our assembly-line like production.

Danielle questions the possibility of wildflower seeds coming in such large containers.

Nicole begins to pack some of the planters with soil.

Josh, Talitha, Darren and Nicole fill the planters with soil and then seeds.

Josh’s precision measuring techniques.

Darren and Steven filled the planters with water.

Danielle adding a pinch of wildflower seeds to the planters.

Nicole tops off the planters with soil.

Owen manning his camera and getting his hands dirty.

Steven dug up this perfect-sized container to hold the planters upright.

Steven with his freshly watered planter.

Most of the planters needed to be watered in stages as the seeds kept floating to the surface if they were filled too quickly.

The containers of wildflower seeds (25 varieties) and soil.

All the planters in the container on the window ledge of Steven (and my) studio (I haven’t moved in yet, but soon!)

Hopefully we start seeing some of the seeds germinating soon and get these up later on this week.

Friday afternoon turned out to be more productive than I thought it would. We finished embedding all the magnets we have, which means we have 25 planters either done or drying and ended up with 3 installed on various surfaces to see if they survive the rain this weekend.

If they turn out, I’ll order some more magnets, but in the meantime we’re still working on stencils (the BCL stencil above was just a test), and we should be able to get the rest up in the next week!

Owen over at Windsor Visuals also already made a great post on Friday’s Office Hours, and some of his photos are included in this post as well.

Darren, Owen, and I started working on making some more new planters.

We decided there needed to be more layers on the planters to increase their strength and help to maintain their shape.

The wheat paste mix—1 part flour, 2 parts water, some salt.

The first couple of planters drying in the sun.

I started working with Athena and Rosina on reinforcing planters made last week and adding magnets.

Me, Athena, and Rosina working on reinforcing old planters and embedding magnets.

The planters from last week varied in thickness, but it was a delicate balance to add the magnets while not making the planters themselves too heavy.

Owen discovered what happens when wet planters with magnets are placed too closely together.

While there were some planters drying, Darren started on a stencil. While we’re still trying to figure out what should be on these planters, we started with BCL.

Rosina started cutting another BCL stencil in mylar.

Drawing on the tracing paper underneath and then cutting the mylar on top.

My Xacto knife was pretty dull.

Found some spray paint I had hanging out in my studio (auto-body quality).

The work table (we need a dedicated space).

Outside Darren held down the mylar stencil with sicks.

The mylar may end up being difficult to work with on the planters surfaces, which aren’t completely flat.

The stencil.

The planter with BCL stencil.

Darren and I started filling the sprayed planters with soil.

Meanwhile, a couple preliminary spots for the planters were tested.

The test planters lined up.

Darren and Rosina go over the amount of seeds needed for a planter.

Darren adds soil to the planters.

The wildflower seeds.

Rosina adds seeds to three of the test planters.

Darren adds a bit more soil.

Athena has the water ready.

Athena soaked the planters pretty well, as it wasn’t supposed to rain until Saturday or Sunday.

Athena adds water while Owen reviews his last shot.

One of the test planters installed on the pole near the side entrance to Lebel.

We tried against a fence.

Then on the pay and park machine, but there wasn’t a lot of magnetic surface on it.

We settled on putting one planter on the no parking sign at the edge of the Lebel parking lot.

We tried a couple spots at the back of the school too.

We settled on some of the old iron fence beside the entrance at the back of Lebel.