Two weeks ago I started my first-of-the-season seeds in a flat under lights. This afternoon I started a second flat. While working on indoor gardening, I noticed the first flat's seedlings needed thinning. About half of the flat was seeded in cabbage family plants -- two types of kale, cabbage, and Brussel sprouts. Some of the seeds I used were several years old, so I was generous with the seeds when planting. This meant there were bunches of seedlings crowding each planting cell. Some thinning looked to be needed.
You know what's in this salad spinner? The cabbage family seedlings that I thinned. (I left one stout seedling per cell in the flat.) Since the entire plant is edible with cabbage family plants, I added these thinnings to our dinner salad tonight, mixing in the end of the lettuce and red pepper bought last Friday and some lentil sprouts. The salad was delicious, looked bright and interesting, and made use of the baby plants that I pulled out of the flat to allow each cell to produce a single healthy plant.
A nice bonus from my gardening efforts.
The perfect way to use old seeds. The salad sounds delicious.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteI wasn't sure how viable some of these old seeds were, so planting several to each cell seem to add a measure of insurance that something would grow. The salad greens from thinning were a bonus!
Fresh greens sound so good!
ReplyDeleteWe really enjoyed the fresh salad greens, Kris. I imagine your husband will have the cold frame churning out your own salad greens very soon!
DeleteThat's smart to eat the thinned out seedlings, instead of composting it immediately, something we're guilty of doing. This happens quite often in our totally volunteer garden where Chinese parsley and Een choi (amaranth) grows unwanted. I'll tell my husband to thin the seedlings on a day he may be picking other volunteer veggies so it will be convenient to rescue the seedlings. A one year break from gardening has turned to several years.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice evening,
Laura
Hi Laura,
DeleteYour plan to rescue the seedlings sounds like a good one! With your volunteers, you practically don't need to plant new seeds for a garden.
I hope you had a lovely weekend.