Growing microgreens indoors with plastic recyclables

I have been eating on the microgreens. And I have more to chew on growing under the indoor lights.

It's nice to have some greenery indoors when its 0 degrees outside. The pipes have froze but lets hope they don't bust.

Microgreens under grow lights & tropical plants on shelf

Microgreens to eat from indoor growing, plus produce I buy as a
supplement until I have food growing in the gardens 

Here, I have garnished the ramen with microgreens. And I have used the microgreens in other soups, salads, and sandwiches. They're quicky, easy, and nutritious, so I encourage you to grow what you can, too.

Hoemeade Vegan ramen with kimchi and microgreens.

And not surprisingly, the tulips, crocuses, irises, ferns, and daffodils are emerging up from the soil. I cleaned up around the spring flowers, grubbing the weeds out, and I spread peat moss over them. Tomorrow, I'm going to cover them with sheets of plastic and cloth until March.

I transplanted some of the crocuses to ceramic pots, because I thought that looked better than growing around my yard for two weeks. Crocuses don't bloom long, and I would rather dedicate yard space to something else that blooms longer. I have many more crocuses to transplant though.

There's so much to do, so little time. But with these warm days in the forecast, I'm taking advantage of it, and mulching/composting and cleaning up the vegetable and flower gardens and the fruit trees.

Starting microgreens in January

Daikon radish sprouting, bok choy, and other seed germinating

 Last Saturday, one week ago, I sowed 7 top turnip, white icicle radish, and daikon radish seed. I sowed the seeds in a seed starting mix with coconut coir. And I am using recycled plastic to use as containers to grow the microgreens.

After a couple of days, the seeds germinated, and I have kept the grow lights on them for 8 to 12 hours.

Turnip sprouting

I'm going to use these microgreens to garnish in salads, soups, and sandwiches. In a couple of weeks, I'll be starting broccoli, cabbage, and other brassicas to transplant outdoors in the garden in late March--early April.

Radish sprouting 

There's no point starting a bunch of plants this early in the year. The temperature outside will be single digits at night this week. And it will be at least another 6 weeks till I can plant cold hardy veggies outdoors. And I still need to compost and mulch my gardens and fruit trees, and till my other gardens.
I am ordering more cucumber, tomato, and pepper seed to start indoors in March to transplant outdoors in May. There's not much I can plant now, but I'm get antsy to see some greens to pick. I encourage you to grow something green today! 

Cold front in late Spring: Row covers & recycled bottle Cloches to protect garden

As you can tell, I have used many different materials cover small, young plants. Although I imagine the Brussels sprouts and Broccoli to be quite hardy to these weather conditions, there are tender greens sprouting like lettuce, spinach, kale, which I want to ensure protection from snow and frost that may accumulate. And using the plastic and row covers will trap some heat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

recycled item to protect broccoli

recycled item to protect broccoli

 

 

 

I made sure to cover the flowers too, except the Daffodils and Scilla flowers--there are too many clusters around the house to cover. I did cover the Hyacinths and Tulips, one with an old plastic fish tank and the others with recycled refrigerator shelves.

 

tulips covered

 

Hyacinths covered

 

Today's cold weather was a contrast to the sunny, warm weather we had for the last two weeks. We had freezing winds bringing in snow, which came as quite of a surprise. Quickly I cut bottles to put over the starter plants, then James and I covered the four Hugelkultur mounds with transparent plastic and row covers to retain heat through the cold night. The forecast predicts temperatures to drop to 24 degrees F tonight and tomorrow night.

 

row covers on Hugelkultur mounds to protect young plants