Growing microgreens.

When my favourite red gumboots fell to pieces recently, I remembered that I had seen some photos on the internet of plants growing in gumboots. So I did a few Google searches and unearthed a gem of a website called 'The Micro Gardener' which belongs to Anne Gibson from the Sunshine Coast. After I had checked out the fabulous photos of repurposed gumboots I moved onto the section about growing microgreens.

 

As I am always keen to share any good information I find on the internet with like-minded people, I emailed Anne to ask permission to use a couple of her photos on my blog and she graciously emailed me a couple that I wanted to feature and, as it turned out, she knows Rhonda! Small world!

Anne's website is jam-packed with information on gardening, growing food and healthy living and there are many helpful links to other websites. I have sprouted seeds in the past to use in salads but hadn't heard of microgreens which are the next stage when they have developed roots and start growing leaves. So I bought some untreated seeds from the health food shop to be on the safe side and soaked them overnight and then drained the water off.

 

Mixture of seeds ready to plant out.

 

I covered them with a light layer of soil and some have sprouted so hopefully I will have some healthy microgreens to eat soon.

 

Anne is passionate about sharing what she has learned over the years to inspire others to start small and think big as well as to encourage them to use their creativity to find ways of reusing everyday materials and to find the joy that these simple things bring.

 

 

There are so many different categories to check out on her website including 'Gardens for Kids' which features this colourful first garden for a child which is made out of a polystyrene box.  

 

 

Fortunately, Anne's last post was about reusing timber pallets as my husband had just brought home a few and I learned how to identify wood that had been heat treated and would be suitable for using with edible plants. This timber is marked with HT and the timber that has been chemically treated and is unsafe has DBMB marked on it. He was pleased to learn this as he intended to use the wood to make perches for his bird cages and I made sure he left one for me to grow plants in.

 

So do check out The Micro Gardener when you have a few hours to lose yourself in the pages of fun ideas you will find there. I think there must be something in the water at the Sunshine Coast where Anne lives as so many creative people live there or in the region like Rhonda and  Donna Halkett who I featured in my last post. Then there is Kim McCosker who wrote the 4 Ingredients books and Annette Sym who has encouraged endless numbers of people to get fit and to trim down to a healthy weight through her Symply Too Good To Be True books.  All that sun, surf and sand must be inspiring!