Monday, March 30, 2009

Growing Groceries Community Mentor











This February I started a 10 month long seminar, the fourth Saturday of each month. It is 4 hours long from 10 to 2 pm. I feel like I am in school again and gaining so much knowedge. We pay a fee for the first seminar and if we go out in the community and teach it the rest of the seminars are free. We just have to document that we actually taught each month. I talked to my Relief Society president and she wanted a gardening group to meet once a month. I volunteered to share the handouts and what I learned each month.
The program is through WSU Extension and the teacher is a retired Master Gardener. She knows so much about vegetable gardens. Saturday a participant came bringing free flower and vegetable seeds. I took those and put them in a bin at church with a tag that said "free seeds." They all got taken so the purpose of handing out free seeds is getting out to the community!
We learned a really neat way to germinate seeds on a moistened paper towel in a ziploc baggie. It acts like a small greenhouse. The seeds sprout in 3-5 days. The picture above is geraniums, so flower seeds can be grown from seed instead of buying in the store. It' s fun to watch the seed sprout and the kids love it too.
I jury-rigged my transplants to within 2 inches of the grow light under my kitchen cabinets. Base is 9 by 13 cake pan, square china platter, 2 one gallon pots and add the plant container equals success! The picture "Indoor planting with grow light" is what I just described.
The flowers are from last summer but they are so beautiful I wanted to share the colors.

1 comment:

Chelle said...

Very cool gardening stuff. Some day I'll have one.

Yesterday, with the blustery winds clearing out the rain, I was finally able to plant my bulbs from a RS Enrichment in that little patch of dirt beside our back patio.

I planted freesia, agapanthus, and dahlias. You just have to tell me how I keep the slugs from eating the tantalizing new buds as they sprout out of the ground. I really don't want to use the nasty slug pesticides... and there has to be a better way.