From Seed to Salad: Your Guide to Growing Vegetables All Year Round
Think you need a gigantic outdoor garden to enjoy fresh produce? Think again! Don’t let the frosty temperatures and snow fool you – there are plenty of ways to enjoy vivid greens year-round.
Follow this quick guide to year-round vegetables for fresh salads in just a few weeks.
Below is an excerpt Year-round salad gardening indoors by Peter Burke. It has been adapted for apply on the Internet.
Indoor gardening and salad sprouts
I teach gardening, and there comes a moment in every class when I see smiles, nods, and I get asked, “Why haven’t I heard of this before?”
Once people understand this – the idea and its simplicity – they will realize they can do it: They can garden indoors. Growing salad greens indoors is really uncomplicated. These moments when I see the lithe turn on for people have special meaning for me. I remember when I first realized the same thing.
Thanks to my methods, seeds that in the past could only be planted in an outdoor garden can now be used to grow fresh vegetables indoors. They have found a useful place in the pantry as winter food. An indoor salad garden can even function as a full-time garden for those living in apartments or apartment buildings who have no other place to grow their own food.
Prepare a guide
Five 3-by-6-inch trays (aluminum foil, half-loaf bread pans) or similar
1 gallon of soil mix (standard germination mix), usually peat moss, vermiculite, perlite and lime
5 tablespoons of compost, one per tray (commercial or home compost)
3 teaspoons of liquid seaweed mixed with water or 3 teaspoons of dried seaweed meal. Operate 1/2 teaspoon per tray
1 tablespoon each of sunflower seeds, peas, radish and buckwheat
1 teaspoon of broccoli seeds. You can substitute Chinese cabbage, kohlrabi or any other cabbage.
Stack of newspapers – one full sheet per tray. You can substitute paper towels, newsprint for wrapping, or paper napkins.
Quick guide
Soak the seeds in petite cups filled with plenty of water.
Add 4 cups of water to the soil mixture and set aside.
Wait at least 6 hours for the seeds to soak.
Fold the newspaper to serve as a cover, each slightly larger than the tray.
When the seeds are ready to plant, soak the folded newspaper covers in water.
Mix ½ teaspoon of seaweed and 1 tablespoon of compost in the bottom of each tray.
Fill the trays with about 1¼ cups of moistened soil mixture.
Level the soil, leaving about ¼ inch to the top of the seed tray and paper covering.
Strain the water from the seeds using a petite strainer.
Spread the moistened seeds on the soil so that they touch but do not overlap.
Press the soaked newspaper cover into the tray so that it comes into contact with the seeds.
Place the planted tray in a balmy, murky place for 4 days.
On the fifth day, remove the lid and tray and place it on a well-lit windowsill.
. Water once a day, approximately 2-4 tablespoons per tray.
After 3-4 days of growth and greening in the lithe, the shoots should be harvested with scissors.
Wash the harvested vegetables and remove the remaining husks.
Cut the vegetables into ¼ to ½ inch pieces and toss into the salad.
Add dressing and enjoy the taste