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I love growing productive plants, but I have to admit a fondness for bulbs also. I’ve never really grown them before, though I’ve always wanted to. The often simple plants have some glorious flowers!
This year, I found a whole lot of bulbs on sale at K-Mart, of all places, and so I grabbed a stack to plant. Now, not really knowing how long it would be before they flowered, and how much longer I’m going to be living here, I didn’t plant them in the ground.
Instead, most of them went into the soil around current ornamentals in pots. So, at the moment I have random green shoots popping up amongst my other plants - and as I’ve forgotten some of what I put where, I’m really looking forward to the flowers - and the surprise!
I did dedicate a few pots just to bulbs, and here’s one of them just yesterday - hopefully soon to be blooming with iris’s:
As I also mentioned in a previous post, I succumbed to buying some tulip bulbs the other day. Now, tulips are my all-time favorite flower (perhaps it’s the Dutch in me coming out). I’ve never tried growing them before, as I live in a sub-tropical climate that doesn’t really suit them.
But, I’m going to give it a go, even though I know they probably won’t be able to regenerate after they flower.
Has anyone else successfully grown tulips or other temperate bulbs in the subtropics? If so, what’s your secret!
I have just polished off a midnight snack of Cruskits, topped with avocado, Dijon mustard, cheese, and sprouts. Lovely, yummy, lentil sprouts, to be exact.
And it got me to thinking - there is surely not a simpler, space-and-time saving method of growing fresh nutrients than sprouts. I have them in salads, sandwiches, as a snack… they are tasty and versatile. And anyone can grow them. As long as you have a window, and a jar, all you need are seeds and water and you’re on your way.
Here are my some of my lentils, in their dormant state:
Do they look a bit boring? What?? Who said that - the essence of all life, boring? I don’t think so…
And, after a few days of soaking, rinsing, draining, and a little kitchen-bench sunlight, we have the ‘finished’ product:
This is my sprouting jar that I bought from Mrs. Flannery’s (an organic grocery chain in Queensland). But, while it is cool, it’s unnecessary to the process - all you really need is any old jar with a bit of Chux held over the top with a rubber band.
These were soaked overnight, then rinsed twice a day for about three or four days (can’t quite remember…) and you can see the roots quite clearly, as well as the little leaves starting to appear:
Just look a them… yummy.. I usually sprout Mung beans, but I wanted to try lentils, and I have to hazard to say I may just possibly like them more.
Now, lentils and mung beans are really cheap to buy in bulk. For lentils, you can get them in a big bag from any supermarket for a few dollars, and mung beans can be bought from a good organic grocer, or often a health food store.
Nick and I tried an experiment a few months ago - we actually planted some of our mung beans to see how productive a plant would be. We got about a good full hand full of seeds from about 6 planted, so not bad - it might be something we do on a bigger scale one day. But in the meantime, I’ll just buy the seeds in bulk.
Oh, also, you can buy them through companies like Eden Seeds - and if you haven’t checked them out already - go, go now! (If you’re an Aussie, that is). They are my favourite heirloom seed providers, and I love looking dreamily over their catalogue and planning my future garden.
So, in short, if you’re not sprouting - why not?!
