Monday, March 24, 2014

Regrowing Celery

Happy Monday everyone! I have a confession to make-- I haven't been sewing much lately. There are a lot of reasons, but the main one is that we are planning on overhauling our landscaping over the next few months.  I've been wondering weather or not to blog about it. My hesitations are as follows 1) our yard is a disaster. 2) I'm not a gardening expert 3) our yard is a disaster. 
That being said, I love before and afters of all kinds and I love documenting the things that I 'make' so I"m going to give our little home improvement endeavors a little bit of room on the blog. Be on the look out for more gardening posts on the blog over the next few months. All these posts will be filed under the 'Grow' label so you can easily find them when spring hits your area. 
Grow your groceries! Use the leftover portion of your celery to create fragrant houseplant! A great gardening project for the kids. http://www.makeithandmade.com/2014/03/regrowing-celery.html


Now... back to the celery! Of all the planting's I've done this year (and I've done a lot!) my favorite is this potted celery. This little pair has grown gangbusters, and always seems to have gotten bigger each time I check on it. (Unlike my other lazy plants-- I'm talking to you, Hostas!). 

To get started... take the root ends of your celery, and soak them in water for a few days. I admit, I was a bit generous and left a bit of the stalk on the end since I knew I was going to try and grow them.
Grow your groceries! Use the leftover portion of your celery to create fragrant houseplant! A great gardening project for the kids. http://www.makeithandmade.com/2014/03/regrowing-celery.html
  I left mine in the water for about 5 days and changed the water each day. After a few days you should start to see a little bit of growth coming from the middle of the stalk. I cannot tell you how exciting this was. so much growth in just a week!
Grow your groceries! Use the leftover portion of your celery to create fragrant houseplant! A great gardening project for the kids. http://www.makeithandmade.com/2014/03/regrowing-celery.html
 Then it's time to pot up! I used this window planter that is destined to live outdoors.
Grow your groceries! Use the leftover portion of your celery to create fragrant houseplant! A great gardening project for the kids. http://www.makeithandmade.com/2014/03/regrowing-celery.html
 Make sure to bury the entire celery piece except for the new foliage.
Grow your groceries! Use the leftover portion of your celery to create fragrant houseplant! A great gardening project for the kids. http://www.makeithandmade.com/2014/03/regrowing-celery.html

All the pictures above were taken about a month ago, but right before I sat down to write this post, I snapped a quick shot of the same plant today. 

Grow your groceries! Use the leftover portion of your celery to create fragrant houseplant! A great gardening project for the kids. http://www.makeithandmade.com/2014/03/regrowing-celery.html

It's so nice and bushy! Success! The new leaves smell so strongly of celery, that even my daughter can identify the plant right away.  The planter is a herb planter and also houses rosemary and cilantro seedlings so in a few weeks we will be able to start 'harvesting' and eating those greens. This is such great project to do with kids since they actually can see the connection between the food they eat, and the actual plant growing in the ground. I'll be honest, it seems magical even to me! 

Any of you all planning on gardening with the kids this spring? Or do you have any other ideas for fun gardening projects?