Cassie's Stuff

We finally got the sunroom cleaned out (it was still storing my 16-year-old son’s junk) so I could start my winter garden. I’m experimenting with microgreens. I’ve been fascinated with them since I first learned about it about a year ago. Microgreens are somewhere between sprouts and baby greens. You harvest at about 6 to 8 inches, depending on the seed. It has all the nutrients of a sprout, from the energy in the seed, plus nutrients pulled out of the soil, so they are actually at the most nutritious stage of the plant. Microgreens can be tossed into a salad, eaten alone or lightly sauteed. I bought the book, Microgreens: A Guide To Growing Nutrient Packed Greens and was fascinated with it. Seems pretty easy. I’m looking forward to trying them soon!

I also planted cucumbers because cucumbers are self pollinating. I have a memory of my mother growing cucumbers in the winter, but when I asked her about it, she said that one year she tried to start bedding plants, but started them too soon and they got out of hand. The plants, however, did set fruit inside. So I’m thinking this could be good. After all, commercial growers grow cucumbers in greenhouses, so why not in my sunroom? I’ll be posting photos soon.

The other things I plan on trying are beets, radishes, Chinese greens, herbs, lettuces, and whatever else tickles my fancy when I start going through my seed stock.

Instead of using my regular Square Foot Gardening (what’s this?) boxes, which are all too big for the space that I have, I bought aluminum baking pans from Gordon Food Service (GFS) for $1.50 ea. I also bought the lids to serve as liners under the pans to catch any dripping water.

Ooh! I also transplanted a couple of basil plants that my mother gave me at the beginning of the summer and I never got repotted. So I put both plants in one big pot and cut off the tops and stuck them in the ground, too. I don’t know if they’ll root, but it is worth the experiment. Mom kept these in over last winter and the plants got huge! It was about 4 or 5 feet high. But this variety has teeny-tiny leaves and very aromatic. Nice taste, too.

I used the Square Foot Gardening soil mix ’cause Mel says this makes a fine container mix, too. Plus I already had some left over from the summer!

I’ll keep you posted!