Taco Tuesday Creative Moments; Starting Spring Early!

My trusty troff!

I am so ready for Spring! I have pulled out the Easter décor, I have started eating Jelly beans and I even bought a pair of flip flops over the weekend.  What I am most anxious for is this nasty frost to go away so I can start to plant my garden.  I do it every year! I hall my bottom over to Bushnell’s the minute they get their Heirloom tomatoes in stock and I pick out the Black Sarah, Zebra Striped green ones, and a juicy red perfect for making salsa on the grill (recipe to follow in another post)! Then I hover over my little bumper crop for weeks and months until I get a taste of fruit. Well at least I hope to before my tomato loving dog gets to them first!  Although, in our new digs I would need a few sticks of dynamite to plant anything in the ground so I use my two very large and trust horse troffs! 

Gardening has always been a passion of mine. Since I have had children, I have only grown to love it more. I love to have them help me pick out and plant our crop. They get to learn about growth, responsibility, nurturing, and healthy eating. They love to cook and eat the fruits and veggies that they grow. I know, this comes a shock to me too, being that my children love only one kind of vegetable and it comes in the form of a French fry!  Oh, because it is a French fry! But, honestly, something about the fruits and veggies taste so much better to them when they grow them and every year my eyes pop out of my head when someone actually eat a string bean right off the vine!  

The gardening process also tends to do something for my soul. Maybe the dirt under my nails provides my body with some missing mineral or vitamin I have been lacking the other 8 months of the year.  I’m not sure what it is, but I am no happier than when I am outside digging and tending to my little sproutlings.  It is like therapy that I am too broke to afford otherwise.  I used to dream of starting a community garden where the whole neighborhood could tend to a plot of their own. Okay, enough of my dreams of a Utopia. 

Anyway, I figured since I can’t plant outdoors yet I will get the ball rolling indoors. This came with a little help from my sweet Mouse whom, while munching on an apple, decided she wanted to plant an Apple Tree in the yard this year. So being the obliging mom I am, I said,” okay then, save your seeds”!  

After her Organic (the following won’t work out the same otherwise) apple was down to nothing but a core, she picked out a few seeds.  We then rested them on a piece of moist paper towel (you need to keep it moist), stuck them inside of a zip lock bag and taped the bag to the window with the seed pointing out to the sun. In a few days, we noticed the seed had begun to root. It is really that easy folks! Once the little seed had rooted, started to grown a green top, and been removed from its shell, we took it out of the bag and planted it into a little pot on our window seal. “Easy peazy lemon squeezy”, as my Mouse would say. 

Easy as 1,2,3!

We have a little plant!

I just recently transferred our growing apple to a larger pot that I put outdoors only in the warmth of the day and bring in at night. You won’t want to leave them outside over night or plant them in the yard until early spring after the last frost. Oh, and you will need two trees. I don’t think I have to give you all a lesson in the birds and the bees to understand this one. But, basically, in order to get an apple you need 2 trees and a little privacy for your loving couple and you will get blossoms some day!  Make sure you plant them about 20ft apart and in a spot where they will get full sun for 8 hours a day and be well drained.  Also, thin your blossoms and tree a bit so you get better fruit when it is time.

Our 2 month old sproutling is getting so big!

Happy planting y'all and Happy Taco Tuesday! Your kiddos will love this little test of nature and you will love to supervise while sipping on your margarita.  

Oh, I just had the though of a recipe for an apple margarita someday! Yummy!

 Love,