Before and After.

Things are "growing" along in our little corner of the world.

My sweet husband brought home some pansies for me a few days ago. He just does that sort of thing, is thoughtful in ways that I'm afraid I lack.

So here is the "Before and After" of our growing adventure.

Pea Shoots - BEFORE

Pea Shoots - Midterm :)

Pea Shoots - AFTER

The great thing about pea shoots is they're very easy to grow, and these have already been given a "haircut" (harvested) three times. They just re-grow! Easy food.

And this is how we used our pea shoots, in a yummy salmon sandwich with cheddar cheese. Pea shoots could also be referred to as microgreens. They're harvested before the actual vegetable, in this case a pea pod, develops. Super good for you and full of phytonutrients and chlorophyll.

AND........I splurged and bought a metal shelving unit from Lowe's. It's in my bedroom and makes everything so cozy. These shelves are great for making use of vertical space, and my sweet girls bought a grow light to add to the setup. It's been great fun to increase my little urban garden.

Lettuce - BEFORE

Lettuce - AFTER

We have plans to use this in taco salad tonight. While I was taking "lettuce" pictures, my son thought I was photo-bombing his lunch session, so this was his funny reaction. This is just one of the many faces that fill my life with joy. 

                            

The Habanero and Jalapeno peppers have sprouted. Yesiree! Looking forward to some hot-n-spicy salsa. Well I guess that's it for now. I've just planted radish microgreens. Will document more of that sometime. Start small and grow. It's great to be able to provide at least a little good, clean food for my family. Looking forward to more growing to share with my sweet man and the "Half Dozen" that fill my days.....with so much!

Dawn

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My Gardening Journey

I've been dabbling in gardening off and on over the years but would like to get a little more serious about it. It would be great to be able to provide my family with homegrown foods as well as branch out and share the bounty someday.

I've started planting indoor seedlings this January, 2016, probably far too early, but I love getting my hands in the dirt and seeing life sprout from just a seed. The pictures above are Habanero, as well as Jalapeno peppers. We love to make homemade salsa so it'll be nice to have our very own peppers to add to it. Next I'll have to try growing cilantro. Cilantro is super yummy in salsa.

Next, I planted peas, not for full-grown peas, but for microgreens. Microgreens are harvested before pea pods form. They are packed with nutrition! Microgreens are new for me. I'm not doing it quite right yet. It's more in the experimental stage for now. We'll see how they turn out.

And below, the tray on the right is filled with Beefsteak and Roma tomato seedlings, 76 of them! It would be great to sell some of them if they turn out well.

The tray on the left is filled with lettuce. I was kind of hoping we could harvest lettuce right from the tray whenever we need it.

So this is the start of my gardening journal/journey, maybe sprinkled with a little family adventure every now and then. It's been a nice weekend, with a family hike, visiting, laughing, hassling, teasing and hanging out together. Okay, so I could have done without figuring taxes, but other than that we're good.