Scraps planed

Grow a garden from scraps!  Check out Imagination Igniter #5 to learn about how fruits and vegetables can grow again.


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Transcript:

Imagination Igniter #5 - Gardening from scraps

The delicious and nutritious fruits and vegetables we grow at The Learning Garden 

start as seeds or seedlings.  

As long as the temperatures are warm and there is sun, water, air, and space, those seeds and seedlings 

will grow 

and grow 

and grow until it is time to harvest the food. In this case, zucchini.

But did you know that even after the fruits and vegetables are picked, they don’t have to stop growing?

For example, cut off the bottom of a used-up stalk of celery and place it in water, near a window and wait, 

the celery begins to grow again!

Basil is an herb. The leaves are usually what you’d use and throw away the stem.

But if you put a stalk of basil in water and wait about a week,

it will grow new roots and then

you can plant this in soil and grow a new basil plant!

I bought a ginger root at the grocery store and used some in a stirfry.  

Then I removed the bottom and used tooth pics to balance the cut end in a glass of water.

Two weeks later, I could see some new growth on the top of the root. I planted it in soil and covered it over.

Within two weeks a stalk was growing with a leaf.  This is the plant that makes the ginger root.

And next time I want stirfry, I can dig up the root and cut off a piece 

and then replant!

What about seeds you find in fruits?  I experimented with this lemon from the grocery store.  

I planted the lemon seeds in soil, set it by a bright window, and watered and waited.  

And one month later, a lemon tree has started growing! I’d have to wait years for even a possibility of a lemon from the tree, but it makes a beautiful plant!

You know, I think we’ve just seen examples of these fruits and vegetables demonstrating an E-Skill: 

Adaptability

When you are adaptable you can manage transitions and adjust to changing situations and responsibilities.  

The celery we replanted had already grown on a farm somewhere and been harvested and packaged and sent to the grocery store and purchased and used by my family - that’s a lot of transitions.  But then, when it had the chance, it adjusted to its new situation and started growing again!  

(I know the coronavirus we’ve been dealing with in 2020 certainly has given all of us chances to practice adaptability.)

Now it is your turn. You’ll need parts of vegetables and fruits you usually throw away, water, containers, soil, and time.

I wonder:  What other fruit and vegetable scraps can you get to grow?  Give it a try, but be sure to get help from an adult when using a knife

Share your results with us at TheImaginationLab@plainfield.k12.in.us

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