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Hints & Tips

Hints & Tips > September

Hints and Tips

Kitchen Fresh Sprouts

Producing a tasty crop of nutritious bean sprouts right in your kitchen is quick and easy. Buy seeds for sprouting at a health food store or from seed that is marked organic. Seeds packaged for planting are often treated with fungicides – don’t use them for sprouting.

To grow sprouts, you need a jar, some cheesecloth and seeds. Cover the bottom of the jar with a single layer of seeds and add several inches of warm water. Cover the jar opening with a piece of cheesecloth secured with a rubber band. Let seeds soak overnight. The next day, turn the jar over and drain out the water. Place the upside-down jar on a plate; prop the jar up slightly so the remaining water drains freely. Rinse and drain seeds 2-3 times a day and keep in a warm place. In 3-5 days, your sprouts will be ready to eat or store in the refrigerator. Mung beans are one of the best known sprouts, but you can use just about any untreated grain or vegetable seed.

Cool Season Plantings

Did you know that there are lots of plants that thrive in the cooler weather of March? Pansies LOVE cool weather! When you purchase them, be sure to ask if they’ve been hardened off and are acclimated to the lower temperatures.

New Proven Winners Coming!

You’re going to hear lots about Snow Princess – a Lobularia hybrid. If there’s one new plant that should be on everyone’s list, it’s this one. A unique breakthrough for heat tolerance and extended season performance, it’s extremely vigorous, and blooms continuously. What does it look like? Think alyssum on steroids! Here’s betting this is another plant that will become a favorite like Diamond Frost Euphorbia!

Looking for Container Ideas?

It’s almost as much fun as browsing through catalogs! We recommend two websites for recipes for container designs: www.provenwiners.com and www.pvg.com (that’s Pleasant View Gardens, one of our plant suppliers) Happy hunting!