Sunday 23 February 2014

Indoor Gardening

I finally sat down and went through the seed packets we still have from previous years. Naturally most are out of date. However, I remembered seeing in the Tightwad Gazette that one could place 10 seeds from a packet in a paper towel and keep it moist for a while (must look up the time limit again). If as many as seven of the 10 seeds germinate she says they are as good as new and can be used.  I've set a bunch of vegetable seeds to germinate.  There is a reason why our clothes dry so quickly in the kitchen; it's taken some attention to keep the seeds moist.





In the mean time I've set up a seedling tray. We've apparently thrown away all our little yogurt pots. I didn't foresee that I would give up that treat anytime soon.  So the tray has the smallest of the squillion plant pots we've collected, plus some cut down toilet paper rolls I had cleared out of the crafting cupboard and put into the recycling. Fortunately the recycling hadn't gone out yet.  



I could have used egg cartons, but I'd recycled all but the ones I need for when I buy trays of 30 eggs.  I don't like carrying open trays, so I move them to the cartons I've saved for this purpose.

Having run across this article, I thought I'd try some of the ideas.  I stuck the end of an onion into one of the pots. No idea what it will do. The article says 'green onion's; will believe it when I see it. The carrot ends really do grow green stuff, but I'm not really big on garnish. I'd rather have actual food.  



Will keep this up until it is too much hassle.  I suspect that it won't produce more than a mouthful or two. Still, it keeps us entertained.

I sprinkled some cress and some tarragon into a couple of the pots, figuring they'd either come up or not.  The cress has, so far the tarragon has not.



Have you started your seedlings yet?







3 comments:

Revanche said...

We're trying the green onions and are really disappointed in our results so far. The green parts are thin and prone to dying off and they grow really slowly to begin with. We'll keep trying but I'd had higher hopes :)

sanda said...

I haven't started seeds yet, but need to get started. It's true with the onions; the scallions at least because I've tried it. More of a novelty than anything for me, though. Basil seeds are very easy to germinate but I think tarragon is difficult (as is rosemary). I grow some early lettuce on the patio and it does really well there. Can't wait to get outside and get dirt on my hands!

Shelley said...

Revanche - I've never tried growing green onions. Regular onions are so inexpensive and while I love cooked onions, I'm not a fan of raw ones. That is one of the few foods I'll pick out and put aside. I don't think the end of my onion is doing well at all - just looks wrinkled, so perhaps just as well I wasn't counting on a crop! Still, given that you've said they grow slowly, I'll not chuck it out for a while.

Sanda - I see you have started since writing this. I'll consider that perhaps I might have inspired you. I've never tried growing rosemary from seed. Bill's mom had some and he transplanted it when she sold her house. He likes bushes better than flowers and so he keeps sprouting new rosemary plantings around the garden, front and back. Pity I don't remember to harvest it more often to cook with. Still, that let's it remain his speciality.