Growing a Green Thumb

Hello! This past week has been all about growing for the plants and myself in technology. I am seeing lots of green coming in both my radish garden and lettuce garden. Lots of sun and some rain water has made a great difference.

Update on radishes: This week, the radishes have really grown. I think with the mixture of sunlight, rain water, and bringing the garden box in at night to keep warm has made a big impact on how fast they are growing. If the dirt can be kept warm, the seeds will sprout and grow quicker so I have ensured on nights where the temperature will be below 5 degrees, I bring the garden box inside. Referring back to the plant stages chart from last week’s blog post, I believe that the radishes are at the vegetative stage now. They are looking like plants and have visible stems.

Radishes

Update on lettuce: This week, the lettuce has also been growing and spreading out. Last week, I did add more seeds to the dirt because it seemed that the lettuce was not sprouting as much as it should of. I am thinking I planted the seeds too deep into the dirt, so this time, I put the seeds closer to the surface and they have sprouted like crazy! The mixture of sunlight, rain water, and bringing the garden boxes in during the cold nights has helped the lettuce grow. Referring back to the plant staged chart from last week’s blog post, I believe the lettuce is between the seedling and vegetative stage. There are visible roots, which is suggesting vegetative stage but the top of the seedling (green bush) is still not far from the dirt and small patches, which is suggesting seedling stage.

Lettuce

Part of our assignment for class this week was to find a new app or website that can be used in an educational setting. I decided to use iMovie as a way to share one’s learning experiences and knowledge. iMovie is an app through Apple devices that allows you to make videos, photo slides, add voice over, music, or sounds to create videos. From my experience with iMovie, it was very accessible and easy to use. I also found it simple to save the video and transfer/send to other devices. You can find my iMovie blog post on my blog post page. As part of using iMovie, I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn how to grow sprouts in an indoor environment with a sprouter. For many years, my mother has grown her own sprouts and uses them in salads and on sandwiches. So now I thought it was my turn to try growing a vegetable (sort of) in a not so conventional way of gardening. Below is a “how to” video made with iMovie of growing alfalfa sprouts in an indoor sprouter.

How to grow alfalfa sprouts indoors!

I did a bit of research about the benefits of eating sprouts and I found a great article that outlines the health benefits of sprouts. I learned that sprouts help lower blood sugar and are a great source of fibre. I suggest reading the article for more health benefits!

I also found a list of recipes that sprouts can be used with! I suggest alfalfa sprouts for eating as they are not too strong tasting but add some freshness to your meal. Enjoy!

My goals for next week:

>Water alfalfa sprouts daily and hopefully start eating them!

>Check night temperatures daily for radish and lettuce gardens and bring inside at night if temp is below 5 degrees

>Water lettuce and radish plants daily


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