Indoor Gardening: Simple Process for Growing Micro Greens

Now that fall has arrived, it's time to clean up the garden and let it rest until spring. Depending on where you live, you might be able to extend the harvest season through October or even November by growing some cool weather crops. I think most of us call it quits, though.

I know I'm feeling done with gardening season but I want to try growing something fun and easy indoors: micro greens. Micro greens are a variety of lettuces, greens, vegetables, and herbs that you grow and harvest just after the plants grow their first true set of leaves and are about 3 inches tall. Micro greens add a fresh and spicy taste to a variety of dishes and are a quick add-in to salads, appetizers/hors d'ouevres, and even smoothies. They make a great garnish too!

I bought a spicy mix at my local garden center.

seeds from Botanical Interests

To grow micro greens:
Use a wide and shallow pot and fill it with potting soil and water.

Scatter the seeds evenly over the top.

Cover the seeds with more soil, about 1/8" depth.

Water again and place on your kitchen counter. You can place the pot of micro greens anywhere you wish. Since I'll be using them for cooking, I figure the kitchen countertop is best.

Within a few days, the seeds will sprout!

Wait until they grow into plants that are about 3 inches tall. Cut and enjoy.

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I'd love to show you a picture of the happy micro greens I grew but, unfortunately, they didn't make it. The reason for the micro greens fail was because of the conditions for growing the seeds; it was too moist, too warm, and mainly, it was too sunny. Seeds thrive in moist, warm and sunny places but when they get too much of that, they can grow too fast for their own good. My plants were reaching for the light because I left them in the sun all day long and they got too tall (leggy). Their chances for success dwindled because they weren't strong enough to grow healthy.

It's a good thing I can try this easy process all over again! This time around, I'm limiting the watering and the time the seedlings spend in the sun. Making the seeds struggle a bit is good for them. These seeds grow fast and I should have edible micro greens in a couple of weeks! I hope to report back with good news.

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Time to catch up!

So much goodness has happened over the past couple of months! I'll be writing all about it over the next few days (or so). Here's my list of what I'm going to catch-up-and-write about:

-My summary for Me-Made-May 2013.

-The clothes I've been sewing for myself and the changes in my sewing room.

-The sprouts, blooms, and fruits of my gardens.



-My adventures in New York City.

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Starting Seeds Indoors 2013

Over the years I've started my gardening indoors in February or early March. I usually start a variety of veggies indoors but this year I'll only be growing heirloom tomatoes indoors. The rest of my seeds will be sown directly into the ground.

I'm growing three varieties of tomatoes from seeds I saved from last year's harvest: Black Cherry Tomatoes, Cherokee Purple Tomatoes (my favorite!), and Hillbilly Tomatoes.

I like to make origami pots for growing seedlings because then you can place the whole plant/pot right into the ground (or into a larger plastic pot) without disturbing the roots. You can learn how to make your own origami pots at this blog post written a while back: Origami Pot Tutorial.

Once the origami pots are made, fill them with soil, put a few seeds into each pot, place them in a tray, and water by filling the tray not the individual pots. (The tray I'm using this year is a recycled pastry box because it was the perfect size for just a few pots.)

Place the tray with the origami pots over a warm place like the refrigerator, the boiler, or a heat register. This gets the seeds warmed up and growing quickly. Beware not to leave them over this warm place for too long because the seedlings will shoot up too quickly and die. I place my tray over the boiler in the basement.

Once the seeds begin to sprout, I move the seedling tray to a work table (also in the boiler room) and hang a shop light over the seedlings. It's important to get the light close to the seedlings so that they don't have to "reach" up to the light. The close lighting helps them grow slow and strong.  There are growing lights specifically made for growing seedlings but I have always used a shop light plugged into a timer and it works just fine.

(my set-up from 2011)

It's been 5 days since I started the heirloom tomato seeds and nothing has sprouted. I'll give it a few more days and if still nothing, then either I'll buy some seed packets or just get some starter plants in May.

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New Life

While this time of year is tough for me and my family, I'm thankful for the new life that comes with Spring. It's a reminder that life is precious and beautiful!

Every spring I look forward to the growing process:
sprouts to green leaves to blooms to fruits.
 

I look forward to planting flowers and watching them bloom.


Most of all, I look forward to the peace that comes from gardening (even though you might hear me complaining a bit about the weeding).

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Cool Weather Crops 2012

Soon to be growing in my spring 2012 garden:

I'm very excited about the micro greens! I don't know why I've waited to grow these outdoors? They're great for growing indoors during the cold winter months! They are so flavorful.

I hope these radishes are a success; I've never tried growing this variety. My favorite is the French Breakfast radish. They are delicious and grow very well for me and will be growing in my garden too.

The past few years I have been growing a variety of lettuce but this year I thought I'd try just one variety: bibb lettuce. I'm envisioning using it for lettuce wraps. Yum!

The broccoli is new for me and I hope it goes well. I welcome your tips and advice.


















If I was a painter or good at drawing, I would make art for seed packets; specifically for Botanical Interests, Inc. Isn't it so pretty?

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Where have all the narcissus gone?

So few daffodils bloomed this spring that I need this picture as a reminder to plant lots more daffodil bulbs in the fall!

I don't know what has happened to the daffodils but I suspect the squirrels dug up the bulbs. Now, I'm just waiting for the tulips to bloom. . .

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Too much zucchini?

Now there's no more complaining that we have too much zucchini. . .

I shredded zucchini to make zucchini bread and had way too much for the recipe. I had four more zucchini sitting on the counter so I decided to shred it all and freeze it in perfect portions for my bread recipe. We'll be having zucchini bread through fall and winter instead of finding creative ways to use it all now.

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Our Community Garden Plot

This year I decided to try growing some veggies at one of the community gardens in our neighborhood. It's a good-sized plot that will allow me to experiment some more with growing veggies. We have two awesome raised beds at home that Charlie made a couple of years ago but I've been struggling with growing veggies there. The community garden is a great place to experiment and learn more about veggies, plus it will allow us to harvest more fruit!

Here is the garden before we started working on it. Behind JP is rye grass which was seeded last fall for a beneficial reason that I don't remember--I think it adds nutrients to the soil in the spring once it is turned under.


Here it is at its "baby stage" after we turned under the rye grass (and removed some of it), added compost, leveled it off, and planted our starter plants: summer squash, eggplant, bell peppers, heirloom tomatoes, tomatillos, broccoli, chile peppers, cucumbers. A few days after we planted the starter plants, we sowed some bush beans, carrots, radishes, and beets.


Here it is today in its "adolescent stage" growing and developing, and a bit unruly with the weeds.


As of today, the tomatoes are growing. . .

. . . and we harvested some summer squash!

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radishes

I like radishes. . . but I LOVE French Breakfast radishes!!!

They are tasty AND so much easier to grow than regular radishes.
Well, at least that's true for me. My next step with these is to try successive sowing so that I can harvest them more than just once in a season. I'll get to try this at the end of summer!

NOTE: I found this website that looks like a great gardening resource for zone 5, Forth Collins Nursery.

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Not so "red hot"

I have yet to figure out why these Red Hot Poker plants have stopped showing off their beautiful red/orange/yellow colors? They've bloomed like this for the past few years and it's such a disappointment. There are some varieties that bloom green but when I purchased these I made sure to buy the warm-colored variety. The first couple of years these pokers did bloom with more colors. I don't know what's going on. Do you?

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A Strawberry Patch

We now have a strawberry patch in our yard but only after having to give up on the tomato "patch".

Last year our neighbor's house was sold and then remodeled after she moved into a nursing home. The remodel added a new section to Ms. Charlotte's house which now gives too much shade to the garden that faithfully grew wonderful tomatoes for our family for 8 years. We're sad about the change (all around) but I think we have found a perfect solution: STRAWBERRIES!

This will be a great spot for strawberries because it's contained and will allow them to spread but only to the borders. We had an alpine strawberry bush here before but with a big family it just wasn't enough. I'm sure this will satisfy four curious and hungry children very well. I'm hoping it will yield enough strawberries for some yummy freezer jam too!

(If you look closely, I haven't fully given up on tomatoes in this spot. I have planted a tomato plant in the pot to the left of the garden. It will be an experimental tomato plant for 2011.)

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This time it's Sow not Sew, again!

The raised beds with cold weather crop seeds, take 2.

Two weeks ago I sowed some seeds in our raised beds. Two days ago the sprinkler man was changing up our sprinkler system and turned the soil in my raised beds to remove an inefficient zone. He didn't know I had seeds in the ground because I forgot to tell him. Boo! Honestly, I don't think it mattered much that the seeds were disturbed because the soil was probably still too cold--no seedlings had poked their heads through yet. Now I'm actually happy that the soil was turned so well.

Today I re-sowed the same seeds and, who knows, maybe I'll get a double crop!

What I'm sowing right now:
French radishes
watermelon radishes
carrots
mixed lettuce
chioggia beets
3 varieties of peas

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100 tulips

The tulips for next spring's garden. Hopefully these will fill in the gaps I noticed this past spring.

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Gourds

These are gourds from my parents garden. I don't know exactly what I will do with them but these jellyfish gourds are good inspiration. Ah, mi lindo Mexico, always so artistic.

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gold

Our neighbor's cottonwood tree. I think she said it's over 50 years old and I can't even guess how tall it is, just super tall! It's always this beautiful and stunning in the fall; especially on a sunny day.

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Strange Fruit

Our vegetable garden was quite neglected this past summer and still, we managed to harvest some good fruit. Here are some photos of the most interesting fruit--some were meant to grow this way, others were not.

A tomato with a horn (Julia Child variety):


A conjoined tomato (Homer Fike's Yellow Oxheart variety. This tomato probably weighed about 3-5 lbs!):


A striped tomato (don't know the variety but it is a Roma tomato):


Round cucumbers (Double Yield variety--not supposed to grow round but short and chubby; these didn't grow much after they reached this size):


Purple carrots (this variety is called Dragon Carrot. The inside is bright orange and just a beautiful combination of colors!):


And just for fun, the carrot tops:

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Tulips

Our flower garden is blooming beautifully with daffodils and tulips. The orange ones are my favorite this year.

 Note: At the end of Summer 2010, I need to add lots more orange tulips and some white tulips to the garden in the area around the Hawthorn tree. Add more purple, orange, and white tulips in the curved area in front of the clematis.

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