Green Thumb Not Required

I love having a little garden!

For some reason I can’t seem to get flowers to grow, they either never make it out of the dirt if I plant them as seeds, or they die within a few weeks if I get them full grown.

So I’ve turned to vegetables and edible plants – I do MUCH better with those! Mostly I think because I want to eat them, so I pay more attention to them. Haha.

When I went in for my surgery, I said goodbye to all my little potted plants because I was SURE that none of them were going to make it in my 8 weeks of recovery.

8 weeks without regular water, depending on the occasional splash of rain that the wind drives inside my screened porch? Doomed.

To prepare me for the sad sight of my desiccated little garden, my Mom sent me home with some plants and seeds from her garden, to help me kick start replanting.

And I was right, to an extent.

My three varieties of basil died.

My cilantro died.

My parsley died.

BUT…

My garlic chives and my scallions lived!!!

What hardy little plants and what happiness I had when I saw they were still hanging on!

They waited for me!

I love scallions.

They are super forgiving, and so easy to plant and grow! Here is a quick way to get some scallions of your own in about 4 or 5 days!

Buy some scallions at the grocery store (don’t laugh! I’m going somewhere with this!).

Use them in your dinner or lunch, chopping them down ALMOST to the white.

Save the stem.

Wrap it in a damp paper towel and leave it on the counter (or the fridge if you aren’t going to be able to plant for several days).

Make sure the paper towel stays damp until you are ready to plant!

This actually “grows” the roots and makes them ready for replanting. Wait till they are sticking out about ¼ of an inch or so. Then they are ready for the dirt.

Plant them in damp soil, and then water them.

yes, I am watering my plants with a slurpee cup

Ta-da.

You will have cute little scallion plants in about 5 days!

I realized this is a different pot after I uploaded the pictures - I did the same process with these plants, I promise!

You can either pull them and repeat the process when you are ready to eat them, or if you just want a little to sprinkle on a salad or a potato, just snip one of the ends. Yum!

Fresh scallions all the time! No green thumb required! They are very forgiving. And if by some chance you DO manage to kick ‘em under the dirt – you can always buy more and try again.

-Mrs. A