HACKS The need for seed: good for your pocket and the planet
World Planting Day is coming up on 21 March, and what better way to get involved in the global movement than by planting your own herbs and vegetables To help you out, here are three herbs and vegetables you can easily plant at home and will happily grow all year round for your thrifty meals
GROW YOUR OWN this world planting day GARLIC GREENS
MICRO GREENS
GINGER
Garlic greens can be used in any dish you would use regular garlic cloves in - just expect a more subtle flavour. The process of planting your own is simple. Using a four-inch pot with multiple holes at the bottom, plant 10-12 unpeeled cloves individually in the pot, making sure they’re all close enough together and about one inch down in the compost. That’s it! All that’s left to do is care for your potted pal by placing it in a sunny spot and watering it well. After a week, you should see the beams begin to rise. Once the shoots are around 8-10 inches long, you can snip them off and use them as you please. Just be mindful to compost the contents and begin the process from scratch. A good tip is to save up your leftover cloves throughout the week and make this a habit.
Microgreens are simply the seedlings of vegetables and herbs all grown as one and can be used to garnish any meal that tickles your fancy from salads to pasta dishes. Just like the garlic greens, the process of growing your own is quick and easy. Just pick up some vegetable and herb seeds from your local farmers market or garden centre. You can choose anything from kale and radishes to beets and basil. Fill a shallow tray (no more than two inches deep with air holes at the base) with compost. Sprinkle the seeds on the surface before lightly covering them once again with more compost. Continue to keep the soil moist, preferably using a spray bottle and make sure your seedlings get 12-14 hours of light per day. The batch should take between three to four weeks to grow around two inches. Once they do, hold the greens at the stem and snip them towards the base just above the soil. There you go, you’re good to garnish! You should use your greens the same day, but if not, store them in a bag in the fridge where they will last up to five days.
You can never have too much ginger lying around. If you’re anything like us, you like to save leftover ginger, especially for hot ginger and lemon water when you’re feeling weak. It also helps to clam nausea and inflammation. To grow your own, all you need is a chunk of ginger, some soil and a container. It takes two minutes to begin the growing process. Just pop the ginger in the container and cover it with soil. Place in an area where it receives indirect sunlight and patiently wait for new growth. Make sure you keep the soil moist but ensure it’s never waterlogged. To harvest the ginger that constantly grows within the soil, simply remove it from the soil and cut off as much as you need. Once you’ve harvested the amount you need, chuck it back in the soil and allow it to continue growing. It’s really that simple!
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TIP: che ck our yo ur local bar gain shop for cheap seeds!
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