Growing vegies from scraps

I've recently tried a few little experiments after I was inspired by this post from the lovely 17 apart. The idea is to regrow plants using kitchen scraps and I've had some mixed success. Leek and celery have been the easiest to grow and as you can see above I now have a couple of plants that have moved outside in pots. Given how time consuming these plants can be to grow, having a quick growing version that costs nothing is great!

Celery
Celery was surprisingly easy to grow using the base that would normally get thrown into the bin with the scraps. All I needed to do was sit it in a small dish of water, changing the water every few days.

 Just one day later there was already signs of growth. The yellow inner leaves began to turn green, the segments had separated and the centre was pushing up.

After a week the leaves were getting greener and bigger, and the outer stems were starting to dry up a little.

In two weeks the outer stalks were browning a bit but out of the centre, a new celery plant had grown.

Finally, after a month there was quite a substantial plant growing in the bowl. I broke of a few of the browner outer stalks before potting it in some seed raising mix (see the photo at the top of this post). It probably wont grow to be as big as it used to be, but will put out thin stalks that are great for adding flavour to a dish or for when you just need a little celery and don't want to buy a whole bunch.

 

Leek
Next up, the leek was also started by leaving the white end and roots in a small bowl of water. As you can see from the photo below, after a day the centre has already started pushing up.

A week later and the outer edges were starting to die off. I thought this was the end of the plant, that it was getting some kind of disease, but I left it and the plant is still going strong. The water should be changed every few days, and as the plat grows it is helpful to add some toothpicks for stability.

After three week, the leek had grown substantially and was ready to be taken out into a pot in the garden.

Spring Onions 
Spring onions are also a really easy 'scrap' to regrow. For years I have kept bunches of herbs and spring onions in jars to prolong their life, but had never thought of using the roots and white end to regrow. As I was paying more attention this time, I noticed over the week or so the spring onion below lived in this jar, the roots grew quite substantially.

As I used up spring onions in cooking, I simply kept the ends in a bowl of water. You might have noticed some in the photos of the celery growing experiment above. They grew really quickly as you can see in the photo below after only a few days. Unfortunately I dont have any photos of later on, when they were getting big, as at around the two or three week mark I forgot about them over a few hot days, letting the water evaporate and the onions dry out and die. I'm just waiting to buy another bunch of spring onions to start this experiment again.

Avocado
The next experiment is a work in progress and is expected to take quite a bit of time! So far the seed has been sitting in water for almost a month with no sign of life, but I've read this is to be expected. I just need to be patient! It's had a few friends join it since this photo was taken, so I will have to update on how they are going later on.

Again it is the same idea... add a few toothpicks to hold it in place and leave in a water, adding fresh water every now and then. I don't expect to be eating homegrown avocado's any time soon, they take years to grow to a fruiting stage, but they do make an interesting tree.

Sweet potato
Finally, the sweet potato failure. Over the years I've had a number of sweet potato's sprout from the eyes and grow long slips in my cupboard. I was also inspired by 17 apart's amazing sweet potato tutorial. So, I thought this project would be easy. However - two months after starting this project, diligently changing the water and checking on them, I have admitted defeat. There is no sign of growth from these little guys - so they are off to the bin. I'll try this one again another time, probably the next time one tries to grow in the cupboard!

Wet weather

I've not spent much time in the garden this week - actually I've barely been out the back door. It has been wet and miserable most of the week and have only been home when its dark outside. I'm really looking forward to the days getting longer so I can sit outside after work. 

There is still a lot of progress in the garden however. The sweetpeas are in flower, and are starting to form pods. I am, however, starting to suspect they might actually be snowpeas. Either way, I'm getting excited about being able to pick them straight off the vine in a few weeks time. 

 The kale is getting bigger and bigger - It's almost time to start making green smoothies with some of it!

The garlic is really taking off and has almost doubles in size over the last two weeks. I've got it growing in 3 pots, two over in a sunny part of the garden and one in a more shaded area. Interestingly the one with less sunlight has barely grown at all so I've moved it across to the other side of the garden.

The succulents are also growing well. These two were transplanted from another local garden, and the ones below are going crazy!

I've also got lots of silverbeet, both in green and purple - again almost ready to join the kale in a green smoothie.

Finally, the spring onions, red russian kale and purple silverbeet are growing happily in their new homes.

Sunday Garden Makeover

After a trip to the gym and then onto the farmers market, it was time to get out into the garden. Although the sun had been shining and the sky blue all morning, as soon as I opened the back door the wind picked up and the clouds rushed across the sky. It was still warm though, and the rain that kept threatening me stayed away until I came inside.

I had a fairly large garden clean-up due after months of neglect over winter. Everything was overgrown and my pots were filled with all sorts of unidentified plants. There were self seeded parsley and unidentifiable weeds growing everywhere, and so much clover!

First step was to attack the morning glory and ivy that has grown over, under and through the fence. This is one job I kept up over winter, as unless it is tackled on an almost weekly basis it gets completely out of control. I do like the look of morning glory, and it adds a bit of privacy by extending the fence hight, but it grow several meters in a week choking everything in its path. The ivy likes to squeeze between the fence posts and is quite successfully pulling the fence apart. As there wasn't too much growth this week, I cut it back a little and attached all the dead vines underneath this months new growth.

Before:

 After (slightly less messy):

And finally - the massive bag of vines that came off:

Next I moved onto the garden beds.

Before:
These silvery grey plants were looking really tatty and had not only taken over the whole garden bed, but had self seeded in every pot and every bit of space in the garden. They were even appearing between the pavers:

After:
I pulled up most of them, but left a few baby ones, and added a few from pots in a small patch. I was tempted to get rid of them entirely but they do have a lovely purple/pink flower in summer. I also planted a lavender and some other flowers that had grown too big for their pots, then added the broccolini and spring onions from last weeks farmers market trip.

Before:
This patch of marjoram and mint has seen better days.

After:
Although the photos don't look all that different, in a few weeks this area should pick up. I cut back all the dead growth and pruned it right back. There was actually a lot of new growth under all those sticks, and if anything like last year, this will take off now it has been cleaned up. I've taken the mint out of the plastic pot, and added in some pieces that were growing between the pavers. I was a little hesitant to do this as I'm concerned it will take over the garden so I'll need to keep an eye on it.

I then moved onto some of the pots...

Before:
These pots were filled with just about everything you could imagine. Strawberries, sage, mint, clover, parsley and all sorts of unidentifiable greens. I have a tendency to leave unknown plants alone to see if they become anything recognisable as they grow, and this has lead to some interesting discoveries (ugly plants that suddenly bloom amazing flowers) and also a spread of weeds. So while the plant in the bottom right corner looked healthy and potentially could be something beautiful - I decided to pull it up anyway.

After:

The end result here looks a bit bare, but I'm going to work on these pots. I removed everything but the strawberries from the top pot, and plan to add a few more runners when I get to that garden bed. The bottom pot has just the sage remaining. If this doesn't pick up soon I might need to add some more, or change it to something new. The other two pots are now empty waiting on some spring seedling. 

Before:
These pots were a mess of everything!

After:
I removed almost everything, just keeping the self-seeded parsley and transferring it all into one pot. I've planted the purple silverbeet and red russian kale, and moved a pot of the garlic over here. The lettuce has been dug up and I'll use the last few leaves for a salad with dinner tonight.

Before:

After:
I've not done too much here, just removed some weeds from the thyme and succulent pots, and pulled out the dead basil.

Before:

After:
I discovered under all that mess there were a few strong silverbeet plants that had either self seeded or were hanging on from last spring. The lettuce and parsley have gone to tonights dinner and all the weeds have been removed.

I'll leave the wider garden shot for another post as this one is getting rather long!

PS - If it isn't yet obvious I'm new to blogging and trying to get my head around these templates. Does anyone know how to arrange photos better so they aren't all in a big long list? Is it possible (using blogger) to put them next to each other or create a box of images?

Farmers market finds

This morning I stumbled across a farmers market not far from where I live. I had heard about it before, but had never managed to remember to go down on a Sunday morning (I am usually curled up on the couch with a cup of coffee).

As well as picking up my usual fruit and vegetables, I came home with some lovely flowers, a bunch of adorable heirloom carrots and four seedlings wrapped in newspaper. There was a huge selection on offer but I eventually went with red spring onions, purple silverbeet, red russian kale and some broccolini. I also picked up a bulb or planing garlic which will make an interesting experiment as growing garlic is completely new to me.

While not from my garden, a neighbour recently gave me a large bag of lemons and baby mandarins that were growing on their tree. The mandarins were polished off quickly, but the lemons have been waiting for the right dish. I've finally decided to go with a lemon butter so I use them before they go mouldy or dry out. I'll post the results of that later.