Tania's Garden - Part 1

Post date: Nov 7, 2014 10:12:21 AM

After the seed germination project, Tania got interested in gardening. Kazoo ate the tiny little mustard plants that she had grown in the moist paper towels. After that Tania wanted to grow mustard so she could eat some mustard greens herself. For the mustard greens to grow to full size they needed to be planted in soil. So mama got a cardboard box and filled it up with mud. Tania used her watering can to pour water and moisten the mud.

Then Tania sprinkled some mustard seeds on the moist mud. As before in the germination project the mustard started sprouting leaves in a couple of days and in about a week the leaves were big and round with smooth edge like this:

After a few more days the plants started sprouting a new kind of leaf. Eventually the plants shed the roundish leaves shown in the above picture and only the new kind of leaves remained. Now after about a month the mustard plant looks like this:

These leaves, unlike the previous ones, have crinkly edges. Tania is waiting for the leaves to grow some more. Then mama will use them to prepare the famous Punjabi dish called "Sarson ka Saag" for Tania to eat. Right now Tania keeps a sharp eye out for Kazoo while watering the plants to make sure Kazoo does not eat these mustard greens as well.

Tania is also growing some lemon trees in a pot. Mama and Tania took out the seeds from a lemon and washed them. Then they peeled out the outermost layer of the seed. This makes the germination process faster. Then they put the seeds between two sheets of damp paper towels and put the whole thing inside a ziploc bag and sealed it. After a week the seeds sprouted a half centimetre white shoot. Tania and mama took a big pot and made 4 holes at the bottom for good drainage. They filled the pot with mud and wet the mud. Then they made four, 1 centimetre deep holes and put the 4 sprouted lemon seeds, 1 in each hole. A couple of weeks after that the lemon plants look like this:

Tania is really enjoying gardening. She waters the plants everyday and squints carefully at her plants to see how much they have grown. She loves to pet the leaves.

Next, Tania is planning to grow some cucumbers and tomatoes. Mama will post the results of that project in a future blog post after they get some nice pictures.