Saturday, February 10, 2007

Plant the seed and wait...


I've begun planting all sorts of seeds from our food that we eat! This had never occurred to me before but my friend has a lovely date palm in her home that she planted from seed, so I've planted some dates, a mango (oh how I wish I could plant the tree outside and wait for a harvest!) that hasn't sprouted yet, and today I started a grapefruit and a lemon seed. I don't know what will happen, if anything, but I'm not growing any of this for the food, just for the lovely houseplants! I read in my Mother Earth News magazine to take cuttings from tomato plants right before first frost and keep them going indoors over winter and then use cuttings off those plants to start tomatoes! Why didn't I think of that. It says you can even keep harvesting cherry tomatoes all winter long. I'm already out of tomatoes and having to buy canned, so must grow LOTS more next year. And can more peaches, they didn't last long, my kids would choose to eat them every single day.
Any other seed ideas for me to try? And those of you downunder, have you tried planting your own lemon and mango trees? Fun and free!

4 comments:

Dragonflydownunder said...

Your own fruit trees sound very idylic! Yes, they grow and produce fruit, but unless they are sprayed with chemicals and pruned and cared for properly...the fruit gets full of bugs, rots and drops - producing even more bugs, mold, stench and the work of picking them up and disposing of them. I'll leave that to the professionals. As for house plants...I'm over them. I'm gone for 3-4 months of the year. Too much work, but I do have 2 peace lilies and Paul's bonsai that I am trying to keep alive until he comes back to live here :0 My yard is surrounded by oxygen giving trees and we have our doors and windows open most of the year. I must admit when I was younger, I did enjoy the thrill and challenge of getting seeds to germinate. Petes cousins have been planting their pineapple tops and they grow a new pineapple on top. They have about 12 at different stages in their garden. How about an avocado seed?

ASK ME HOW I CAN HELP YOU!! said...

Hi again,
congratulations again on your great work. there is some terrible projects out there to stop plants from reseeding due to greed and control issues...keep on planting and collecting!!!!
there are a few uses for goji berries that i know of.
1. you can make tea..just pour on hot water and allow it to steep.
2. reconstitute by soaking over night and use in cooking (like dried apricots)
3. eat them as they are.
i think they can be eaten generally in any way you want..just another fruit so create your own recipes.
do a bit of research on the net-there is a lot of info and they are truly fantastic for you...go for it!!
kids do really well on the juice too and it tastes delicious.
thanks for reading my blog and i hope to hear from you again.
Lisa

Andrea said...

how about pomegranates? We are working on germinating some of those... no sprouts yet but I have lots of seeds! Want some?

Mary-Sue said...

Yes, I'm sure it's a lot of work to grow fruit trees, especially organically. But it can be done, and if someone were keen to try, it would be fun to do it for free by seed. Especially if they weren't in a hurry. I have tried avacadoes with no luck yet. Mum used to grow them and I had about 5 growing (lovely plant) when I lived in Florida. Maybe I need to put a plastic bag over it to get more humidity.
Has anyone else heard or tasted goji berries? We bought some through the RV order this year and haven't tried them yet. Lisa's blog is really interesting and I'm enjoying it very much. Check her out through her comment here.
Pomegranate bushes are very pretty. Yes! I'd love to try some seeds, thanks Andrea.