Chlorophyll Therapy

I hosted a little baby shower here recently and decided wheat grass was just the thing to bring the sensation of life to the spread.  I know I re-use my wheat grass idea every winter, but I just love having green in the kitchen during the throes of winter!

The best part is giving the grass a haircut. This is the second time we have had to butch it (we've had it for 2 weeks now) and it is still growing strong! The kids love to get out their scissors and plow into it.

 Even my little guy enjoyed playing in the grass.  

 

All neatly trimmed. 

My next indoor display will be the bulbs I just brought in from cold storage in the garage. Remember when I planted them in the fall so they would have a long enough cold period? Well now they are ready so start forcing indoors! I will keep you apprised on their progress.

DAY 1

Daffodils and Sunshine

You don't believe me? Well, it is only February so these treasures are in my kitchen. They are helping to assuage the winter blues and making me so excited for spring!






Oh they make me smile. I don't mind doing my dishes when the sun is coming in on these beauties. I love the little details... isn't that orange ruffle amazing?

Forcing Bulbs

I did something a little crazy this week. I had a horrible itch to get outside, so even though the ground was still covered in white, I broke out some gardening tools!


I really wanted to force bulbs this winter and have beautiful blooms indoors to cheer me up. When I worked at the Noni gardens we forced hyacinths and amaryllis for the lobby area during the winter, and everyone oooh and aaaaahed over them. Unfortunately, you have to start the process in the fall and I was not thinking about gardening last fall (I was still sick as a dog with this pregnancy thing). It takes anywhere between 6 and 12 weeks of chilling for bulbs to be ready to bloom. But then a thought came to me the other day... I planted a bunch of bulbs last spring... and they have been chilling in the ground all winter... so why couldn't I just dig some up and bring them inside? It was worth a try!

After clearing the ground with a snow shovel, I chipped the frozen bark with a hand trowel and then dug down where I thought I remembered planting some narcissus.

Lo and behold... LIFE! I can't even describe how exciting it is to see green shoots in January. It reminded me why I love this gardening thing.

I potted them up and brought them into my kitchen to see if they would grow. They make me smile every time I see them!

So far the shoots are turning green now that they are exposed to sunlight (photosynthesis at work) and I swear they have grown a little taller. Sadly, I may have to put them in a darker, cooler room to slow their development for a week because we are headed to Hawaii in 3 days. Oops, bad timing! It will be fun to see how they have developed while I'm gone though!

Maybe next fall I will remember to do a real tutorial on how anyone can have beautiful blooming bulbs during the cold of winter!

I love Coleus!

This post was inspired by my sweet neighbor, Doris, and 80 year old widow and avid gardener! She is the epitome of "green thumb." She works outside every nice day of the year, and knows her horticulture from the best teacher--experience.

I was over visiting her the other day and noticed a huge coleus growing in her kitchen! I have never seen coleus grown indoors, so I was very impressed. Later I learned that it can be overwintered indoors and used for cuttings in the spring. In fact, one of the canes on Doris' plant had fallen over and she cut if off and put it in water. She offered me her cutting and I was honored to accept. I am excited to plant it in my yard when warmer weather arrives!

Coleus are one of the easiest plants to propagate. Roots form on the stem if you just keep it in water.
Once the roots are a couple of inches long, it can be transplanted into soil. Normally cuttings would be shorter than this, and you should only keep 2 to 3 leaves on top, but I didn't have the heart to strip Doris' pretty plant. It already had lots of roots developing, so I think it should re-locate easily!


When I worked at the Noni gardens we used tons of coleus in the summer display. In fact, in my 2005 Annual Culture Guide I detailed 14 different varieties that we tried. I love how they are all so rich and colorful, and so different! Coleus is really one of my favorite annual plants because it is so versatile.

Scientific name: Solestemon scutellarioides
A few varieties as follows...

'Dappled Apple'

'Rustic Orange'

'Dipt in Wine'

'Velvet Lime'

'Religious Radish'

'Juliet Quartermain'

'Amora'

'Splash'

'Gay's Delight'

'Wizzard'

'Old Lace'

I hope I have succeeded in displaying the charms of coleus!

Think Green!

When you open your blinds to a winter wasteland and start feeling a little blue...

It's time for some green therapy!

Our latest project has been growing wheatgrass and it was so much fun! Anyone can do it! Some people do this to celebrate the advent of spring (equinox March 20th), but I think it's a great winter activity too. It has been ideal for Maddie because the whole growth cycle happens in 7-10 days and every day there is visible change. She loved checking on the grass!

1. Gather your materials. FIRST: Go to your food storage (or grocery store grain bins) and scoop about a cup of wheat. Place in a tupperware or other waterproof container and cover with water. Soak for 8-10 hours, changing water about halfway through. NEXT: Choose containers. We used mason jars because we wanted to be able to see the whole process, from sprout to root to shoot (note, use wide mouth jars if you have them). Really any container will work... bowl, vase, pot, mug, anything! We put a little bit of sand in the bottom for drainage, but it's not that important. You just want to make sure there is never standing water.

2. Add your soil. We used a bagged potting mix. Fill container within about an inch of the rim. You can see we didn't use enough--next time we will know better!

3. Add your soaked wheat berries. We used about 1-2 tablespoons per mason jar. Spread them out in a thin layer on the surface of the soil. Spray them down with a squirt bottle until all are moist. Cover the jar with saran wrap and place in a dim place (just a dim corner of my kitchen was fine).

4. Water (mist with spray bottle) night and morning to keep everything moist. Think greenhouse effect.

Day 3: Sprouts!

5. Day 5: Shoots and roots! Once the shoots are coming up, remove the saran wrap and place in a sunny area--the grass needs to photosynthesize! Change your watering technique: fill container with fresh water and then dump it all out. This flushes and wets the soil while preventing mold from growing. (Note: this container is a big shallow square vase, which used about a cup of wheat in itself. I soaked a double batch.)

Day 7: GRASS!

Ah, it's like a breath of fresh air. So cheerful all lined up together!

Use your grass to decorate! This would be such a fun centerpiece for parties or even weddings. Add anything you want to make it interesting!

We had fun thinking of different things to use.

Citrus (plastic--ha!)

Various flowers

Perfect for Easter, yes?

Our favorite: butterflies.

Day 10: Haircut! The grass was getting pretty tall and the wheat berries a little mushy, so I called it quits and let Maddie mow it down! She loved it. I guess if you wanted to eat the wheat grass you could juice it or put it in a smoothie. (Yuck :)

Did I mention this was so much fun? Who's going to try it???