Because I am a floral artist, designer and gardener (and work in a garden nursery part time) I am definitely keeping my eye on the current greening of my environment.  Zone 8 (where I live) is bursting with springtime that I know some of you in other, colder parts of the world,  may not yet be seeing.  I want to encourage you, as I did in my first post, to observe what might be going on around you, even amidst the housebound-ness we are experiencing.

I am lucky enough to be able to go round my garden and pick early spring blooms as you see in this small bouquet.  Most of the time I’m a gleaner/forager and when we have a big storm or spring blow, you’ll see me hauling branches home to grace an indoor display.  We are having such a blow today although so far, I haven’t seen anything on the streets I can safely gather.

So what if that’s not possible for you? Maybe you are stuck in an apartment or your climate is yet too cold for anything to bloom.

Or what if you want to show your kids something really neat?

Before I started this blog I did a small FB post about growing vegies (I will have a longer post on this soon)….  and then hunted around the internet (of course) for fun vegetable ‘facts’. I found this crazy idea of growing lettuce and celery from discarded hearts of lettuce and celery and I’m here to tell you it works.  I haven’t harvested any yet, but I suspect there is a harvest in my future.

Lettuce, probably 5 days old

Small sprouts are beginning to form in the middle of the celery

Directions:

Take the bottom of a lettuce ‘head’ (leaf seems to work well, probably romaine too) or celery

Plunk it in a small dish in a small amount of water you will change daily.

Be patient.

You can also sprout a myriad of other things — Mung beans, alfalfa, adzuki, cabbage, k, garbanzo, lentil, mustard, peas, radish, and black sunflower.

In a glass jar, put a handful of beans/peas.  Rinse the beans in water and drain (I have a handy mesh screen top that fits on the jar but really you don’t need this). Do this every day after maybe 3-5 you will have sprouts. Apparently, you can sprout nuts but I haven’t tried this.

Whether you are sprouting lettuce or pea seeds, this really is a magical regenerative process of nature. Letting a bit of this lifeforce can be an antidote to being stuck in your house or apartment.

And, bonus, if you are homeschooling or trying to keep kids occupied, this can be the basis of science!  Sprout a few things at the same time, chart their growth. Guess which one (make a hypothesis) will sprout first, and then practice observation to verify.

Whether you’re able to pick a full bouquet or have a small celery growing, look to the green.

L