So last year, I was living in New Orleans. Oh, the South, with its wonderful year-round growing season! November is a great time to plant broccoli and salad greens. This was My Fall Garden from Zone 9.
(Curious what the zones mean? Check my explanation here: What are Hardiness Zones and How Do I Use Them?).
But Maine? A whole different story.
When we moved last summer, we brought some plants with us. There's the sugarcane, the lime tree, this bulb planter I can't identify (it was a curbside rescue!), and my aloe plant. This monstera was a gift when I left New Orleans. I also have green onions that have been growing in the same pot since the COVID-19 pandemic.
These plants have all found homes inside in nice, sunny spots.
Our Indoor Microgreen Garden
Instead of the big planting we did last year, this year looked much different.
First, while we still had warm, sunny days outside, we planted lettuce, kale, and spinach seeds in pots. We left them outside and brought them in when it got too cold.
I was uncertain if they would germinate, but S and I were very excited when we first found the little green shoots emerging from the dirt! We'll harvest them while they're still small. It's our microgreen garden.
Growing Romaine Lettuce from Scraps
The next plant experiment I tried was to regrow lettuce from a used-up head of romaine. I set the base in water and placed it on a windowsill. When it grew roots, I planted it in soil.
Unfortunately, the first one died, but I'm on my second attempt. This time, I cut off more of the leaves and buried more of the base in the soil.
I'll give updates!
Planting Garlic for Spring
A few weeks later, I decided to do some outdoor planting—bulbs and seeds buried deep in the earth, like a whispered promise to the spring.
The first was garlic. I broke apart the cloves, planting them upright with the flat ends down in the dirt. S helped me cover them with soil, using both the loose dirt we had removed to dig the holes and a scoop of compost.
BTW, I'm super excited about our compost pile this year! It's sitting in a former pig pen, and we've been adding our food scraps to it since we moved here in July. It's covered in leaves, and underneath is rich-looking, black, beautiful dirt.
Experimenting with Ground Cherries
Our second outdoor planting project was ground cherries. My in-laws had them growing in their garden, and S devoured them!
So, I filled a five-gallon bucket with dirt, tossed a handful of ground cherries in, and covered them with more dirt. The bucket will stay outside all winter, and we'll see if any of the seeds survive the cold and germinate in the spring.
Will it work? Only time will tell!
Finding New Ways to Garden
Though I might not have the same bountiful garden I had in New Orleans, I am grateful that I can still have plants growing around me.
Sometimes it's just a matter of finding a new way of doing something.
Thanks for reading!
💜
Laura
