Any enthusiastic gardener will tell you that gardening is food for the soul. Gardening stirs your imagination to be creative. It provides some fun along with physical exercise, fresh air, and sunlight. In addition, there is the delight of seeing the seedlings sprout, flowers bloom, picking fresh fruit, harvesting vegetables and having fresh herbs at your disposal.
An added bonus is seeing a variety of butterflies, birds, and frogs you attract to your garden. These are just some of the joys of gardening and creating a well-balanced ecosystem around you. So today we will discuss the importance of keeping your garden pest free and how to attract butterflies as well as providing a well-balanced eco-system for them.
“Every garden is an individual expression of creativity. So! You think you‘re not creative. Well, plant a garden and you may find out that you are far more creative than you thought.”
REGROWING YOUR OWN HERBS AND VEGETABLES:
Did you know that there are many herbs and vegetables that you can easily regrow repeatedly from your kitchen scraps? So in future don’t be in too much of a hurry to discard those veggies and herbs you are cleaning.
This is Part 3 of a list of veggies you can regrow and how to do it.
Part 1 can be found here
Part 2 can be found here
1. POTATOES
Re-growing potatoes is a great way to avoid waste, as you can re-grow potatoes from any potato that has “eyes” growing on it. Pick a potato that has robust eyes, and cut it into pieces, ensuring each piece has at least one or two eyes.
Leave the cut pieces to air dry for a day or two, which allows the cut areas to callous over. This prevents it from rotting after you plant it, helping the new shoots get the maximum nutrition from each potato piece. Potato plants enjoy a high-nutrient environment, so it is best to mix compost with your soil before you plant them. Plant them about 10cm deep with the eye facing upward, and cover it with soil. As your plant begins to grow, add more soil. When your plant really takes off,
mound more soil around the base of the plant to help support its growth.
2. ROMAINE LETTUCE
If you have a stem from a head of romaine lettuce, place the stump in a bowl in about 2cm of water and put it on a windowsill. You’ll start to see new leaves in about 2 weeks, and it will be full grown in 3 to 4 weeks.
3. SCALLIONS
In as little as 5 days you can completely regrow a full scallion (green onion). Leave about an inch attached to the roots and place them in a small glass with a little water. In a few days, you’ll have all new scallions.
4. SWEET POTATOES
Slice your sweet potato in half, across the middle. Next, place each section of sweet potato into a container with a little water, so the cut edge of the potato is submerged. Set the container near a window. Over the next few weeks, the sweet potatoes will start sprouting little plants as well as roots.
Make sure you keep the water level constant. After four to six weeks, you should have a nice growth of small sweet Potato plants. You can now remove the sprouts by snapping them off at the point where they emerge from the sweet potato tuber and plant them, or you can plant the entire tuber with the new growth still attached.
Give this a try and let me know the results. If you have anything to add, suggestions or ideas I would love to hear from you in the comments section below!
