My kitchen scraps are growing!

For the past 2 weeks or so here it has been unbelievably beautiful outside. Seriously feeling more like July than March and we were sure taking advantage of it knowing it wasn't going to last long. Sure enough it's -12 with the windchill this morning and I'm hoping the garden isn't going to suffer too much. Meanwhile I still have my indoor plants to visit. Hubby thinks I've gone insane because I've been saving bits of food and trying to re-grow them...but hey if it's "free" I'm there! Unfortunately the beans and garlic have bit the dust but everything else I've tried is doing well. Actually got to use some of the green onions for cooking already and threw them back in the water to grow again :)

Green Onions

Celery

Green Pepper

Sweet Potato

Update: Sweet Potato Houseplant

Our sweet potato has grown quite a lot since putting it in some potting soil and giving it a home in front of a west facing patio door. I took this picture of it a few days ago...

It is turning out to be quite a nice looking plant, I think anyway. Abby and Syd love checking on it and are super excited if it's opened a new leaf or started a new vine nub.

When we put it in the pot it had no roots started at all and now we can see a few white roots around the edge of the potato where it meets the dirt so we know it's got a good system growing in there :) It was a bit of a slow start when we switched it's environment but now there's noticeable new growth every day.

I love rabbits but......

They are eating my weigela, euonymus, barberry, and my poor rose of sharons that I started from seed!!! I'm used to them snacking a little bit but this year they are just going nuts out there. Sigh. My shade garden is really going to look awful next year while it recovers. Looks like next winter I'll be going this route....

Picture is from: www.gardeningblog.net

Winter Plant Experiments

I love plants. I love playing in the dirt. I love watching seeds and bulbs growing. Come Springtime I seriously check every plant in my gardens daily to see how they're doing. I feel cooped up in the wintertime...which has led to us having quite a few houseplants that I can visit with daily while all the outdoor plants are having a good sleep. Abby and Syd also love all things outdoorsy and enjoy helping in the gardens especially our small veggie patch. Abby loves to see plants rooting in water (which is how I propagate my plethora of pothos and Chinese Evergreens) so we decided to experiment with a few beans plucked from a bag of dry soup mix. Started them in clear plastic cups with napkins holding them in place. In no time at all some of them had roots. Once they started to get leaves we took out the napkins and gave them some potting soil. The kidney beans are doing the best...they are currently flowering and have little pods forming from the spent flowers so cool!

Here it is taking over our kitchen window:

Also giving some apple seeds a go:

I've also been wanting a sweet potato vine for awhile. I wasn't having good results with rooting it in water so I threw one in a plastic bowl and put it near the furnace in the basement....and sure enough it started growing!
Decided to pot it this weekend and move it to the livingroom. Fingers crossed that it will survive.