Weekly Photo Challenge • January

Growing Microgreens • Step 1/5
January is the month to start growing a kitchen garden! With the frozen conditions outside, it’s the perfect time to grow indoors. Here is my drip tray and growing tray after I filled it with Wonder Soil organic seedling mix. Wonder Soil is a waterless soil made with coco coir, worm castings, mycorrhizae and zeolite. It’s fascinating to watch it expand once you add 2 -3 cups of water! It becomes super light and fluffy. After the water is added to the soil, you stir it a bit to make sure it’s properly aerated. Next step is choosing what baby greens or microgreens you want to grow!

Growing Microgreens • Step 2/5
The next step is picking out what kind of microgreens or baby greens I wanted to plant in my kitchen garden. The options are endless! I chose this packet of Botanical Interests Greens Smoothie Mix seeds. Inside is a mix of spinach, beets, Swiss chard and Romaine lettuce. They will grow into healthy and nutritious red and green leaves with a mild flavor. It’s nice having year round fresh greens to add to my smoothies. My go to greens for smoothies is spinach! What kind of greens do you like to add to your smoothies?

Growing Microgreens • Step 3/5
What makes it a baby green or a microgreen is how you harvest your sprouts. You harvest when they are 2”-4” tall instead of letting them mature. Here are some of the Baby Greens Smoothie Mix seeds I’m planting. They will start to emerge within 5-10 days. Until then, you want to make sure you keep your soil evenly moist by misting it. You don’t want your soil drying up. I’ve learned through experience not to let them drown by overwatering either. The amazing thing about these baby greens is that they can supply almost four times as much vitamins and minerals than fully grown greens.

Growing Microgreens • Step 4/5
When sowing, you want to cover your microgreens or baby greens with 1/8”-1/4” of soil. I like to spread them out as I go, then lightly cover them. When growing a kitchen garden indoors, you can keep your seeds on a sunny windowsill or under grow lights. You also want to make sure your seedlings have good air circulation to prevent any fungal disease. You can continue sowing more seeds every two weeks for a continuous supply. There are enough seeds in this pack for 7 different harvests!

Growing Microgreens • Step 5/5
I wanted to wait a few days so you could see the baby greens beginning to sprout. Here they are growing strong in my Botanical Interests kitchen garden kit. After your seeds are planted, make sure to place the clear plastic dome over the growing tray. This helps to maintain humidity, temperature and moisture. After your seedlings emerge, you can remove the dome and continue watering as needed. The optimal air temperature for your baby seedlings is 65°-75°F. As long as they stay warm and receive some sun, they will be happy!

My Botanical Interests Smoothie Mix baby greens have grown the first set of leaves. These are called cotyledons. They will be ready to harvest when they grow true leaves and are about 2"-4", then it's smoothie time!

Phoebe enjoying a little late night snack. She loves her hay. The other birds will eat it, but they don't go crazy for it like she does! If the goats are eating some, she will wiggle her tiny feathered body right in between them to get in on the action.

“I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.” -Claude Monet
I love capturing nature through my lens. Seeing beautiful blooms motivates me to pick up my camera and start snapping. Up close, you notice all the minute details the naked eye tends to miss.