Ann's Air Gardens

Growing Plants in Water

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Calabash Soup

 

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Here is something I have never seen in a supermarket. The squash in this soup,  a gourd really, is cucuzza.  I didn't know that the seeds I bought on Etsy called Serpente di Sicilia needed to be scarified and soaked in warm water to sprout.   So when they had not sprouted in my vial after a month, I threw the seeds into a box of potting mix.  Just one plant came up as a volunteer alongside okra in August, but I wasn't sure what it was until it flowered in September.

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I picked it when it was just starting to lose its fuzz and as 18" long with a diameter of 3" at the fat end, tapering off toward the stem.

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I put a handful of garden greens in my soup in addition to the cucuzza, including its own leaves, scallion tops, and edible chrysanthemum leaves and buds.

 

 

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The mums are hiding behind my melon.

 

 

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Purple Petunia Flanked by Jute Cuttings

Until now I had been planting full sized petunias in my AeroGardens in the winter, but this spring my new planter came with petunia pods that feature a miniature variety.

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The leaves in the foreground are Jute (aka Egyptian Spinach) which may be better known for making rope than for cooking.  It is, however, a delicious, nutritious and attractive plant that is easy to grow, especially in hot dry areas. 

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These leaves, removed from the stem cuttings now ready to root, will go in the soup.

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These are the parent plants, about one foot tall .

 

 

 

 

These are stem cuttings. 

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These are healthy roots growing in a vial of water.

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Jute is Just Amazing

Jute may be a nutrient-packed superfood, but it is also a fun plant to grow, especially in the desert in summer.  As microgreens, the leaves are good-tasting and  tender, but unlike most other microgreens, once the seedling are established it is possible to clone new plants by rooting cuttings in water in less than 5 days. 

The jute I am growing now is Corchorus olitorius.  I bought the seed from an Etsy seller called PanAsiaHeirloom.  It was one of the smartest purchases I have ever made. 

One thing that makes jute a little different is that if you plant just one seed and let it grow without interference it will grow straight up. In my photo below, one very root-bound jute plant is about a foot tall.  I cut off about 4" from the top and stripped the unnecessary leaves off (and ate them!) to prepare the stem for rooting.  This caused the lower part of the plant to bush out.   

 

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I root a lot of different kinds of plants indoors in water and have developed a system for helping them make a transition from water indoors to outdoor planters with potting mix. I root the cuttings in narrow glass vials under grow lights.  When the roots are healthy and big enough to plant I put them in contraptions that I call my quads.  I have water quads and dirt quads.  They are 4-part nested plastic cups. The inner cup has holes drilled in the bottom to ensure good drainage.  The next cup holds the liquid. The third cup has a label with each plant's history, and the outer cup is a mason jar which serves as a base to keep the plant from tipping over. 

For the dirt quads I put a coffee filter inside the pre-drilled cup before adding potting mix.  This helps it drain cleaner and also makes it easier to remove the plant when it is ready to go into a bigger pot outside. 

Some plant stay in the quads forever.  My first quad contained a spaghetti squash plant that bloomed and bore fruit indoors right in the 12 oz quad.  Of course, I did have to hand-pollenate it. 

 

 

 

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Window Sill Soup

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The best possible Christmas Eve treat this year was learning how to ake this soup.

 

I love egg drop soup, but even at nice Chinese restaurants I have found it iffy, whether or not the soup is up to my standards, and even if it is excellent there is usually not enough of it.  The few times I have tried to make it at home in the past, although it has been edible, were fails.

When I took a deep breath and try it again today, I scored a big win.  it was so good in fact that I ate the whole pot.

What was different?  For one thing my main ingredient was pea shoots from my indoor microgarden.   So easy!  I just threw a handful of sprouting peas in the E-Z Sprouter and rinsed them for a few days until they outgrew the Sprouter, then pushed the roots into a mound of potting soil in a cut open milk jug.

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These are cut and come again, so here you see them after their "haircut."

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As you can see there are plenty left and will be more tomorrow.

My nice sister-in-law told me about an Android app called RecetteTek, so I put my recipe for this stellar soup on there, but not sure yet how to share it.

I want to spread the word about pea shoots because they are one of the most prolific microgreens as well as being delicious, nutritious, and versatile.  I also love that they are portable! 

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Fall Garden, Small Garden

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The lucky bamboo top left has been greatly neglected, but is still alive in an egg shell filled with sawdust.

 

 

The rest of the plants shown here are edible and prolific enough that I have been able to pick and eat a salad every day for the past 2 months, which is remarkable to me, given that except for the roses they are all experimental microgreens growing in tin cans, milk cartins, and other repurposed food containers. 

I have learned a lot from them and plan to "plant earlier" and do better next fall. We will see whether anything is alive when I come home from my winter trip.

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Bee on a Choke

201806blogBeeWhen I first saw this flower at a distance in Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge California, I thought it was a sunflower, but it turned out to be a Jerusalem artichoke.

The tubers of this plant were prized by Edgar Casey for their health benefits. Something they have in common with leeks is that they are rich in the Prebiotic Inulin, which is vital for good digestion.  

Another name for this beautiful and nutritious plant is sunchoke, and yes they are related to sunflowers.  

 

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Visit to the Ruth Bancroft Gardens

These bees might have been the most interesting attraction at the Bancroft Gardens on Tuesday. Screen05 Jul. 02 17.08

Here is what we saw from the entrance to the gardens:BlogRuthBancroftEntrance

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Fast Rooting Cosmos

This is a stem cutting of Cosmos Sulfaris which was taking root in my AeroGarden 3 until I pulled it out for this photo: BubbleCosmosRoots

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I Can't Look

OK, I went away for a whole week (gosh!) and my friend called to say we had a nasty frost and all the plants are dead and brown.   Poor waist_high fig cutting now 3 years old may be a goner, as it almost died of thirst when the automatic watering system went off last summer. Then it started leafing out and was hurt by a December frost. Then it started leafing out again and now this. I haven't even gone over to look.

 

Here, 6 miles away, the Camelias are opening up and looking gorgeous again and we have hundreds if ripe lemons.

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A "Green" Basket Made from Recycled Yard Waste

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This hanging planter is made from morning glory vines.  It hasn't shrunk yet, nor do I have any idea what it will look like after it dries out.  The back yard yielded about 40 lbs of vine stems which we rolled up like a carpet and lifted out on a bedsheet.  Before going to the trouble of cleaning and harvesting the stems I wanted to see if I could make a basket at all and if it would be an enjoyable activity.  It was fun and presumably my next basket will be better.

So tomorrow I will start stripping the leaves off my big pile of stems and coiling them to dry for later use.  

Here is what the bottom of the basket looked like at the beginning.

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Here are the live vines taking over my yard before we pulled them out.

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