Microgreens - The tiny greens that pack a punch!

So it is starting to become winter on the range here in NM. We had our first frost week before last, which ironically turned into a 1/2 foot of snow! We are starting to get the green house bed all fixed up for the winter, but we were taking a little break from outdoor gardening for a bit due to our friendly and insufferable goat Hugo. More on him later.

With all that said, I still want us to have some fresh greens to add to stir-frys or other dishes, but need something that we could do inside that doesn't take a lot of space. Here is where our wonderful microgreens come in! I love them! Usually they are ready in about 2 weeks, more or less depending on type. You can purchase full microgreen kits which may be the way to go for first timers, but you can also make the kits yourself. I did this 2 ways. For the first one, I wanted something cute since it was going to be in my kitchen window. If you are like me, during the winter and spring, my windowsills are packed with plants and I can get tired of tray after tray of the good old recycled bonnie plants pots, so I somethings like to have something that is just cute! So I purchased a hanging sloth from the homegoods section of wal-mart. This one is originally designed for plastic plants, but will work well for my purposes because inside we are going to add the Jiffy peat moss pellets for seed starting. These work really well! They hold moisture great, which is important for our seed germination, and they come in the pellets with a mesh coating, this will allow the pellets to drain out into our plant holder to prevent too much moisture. You want to place them in to where they are snug, but not crammed in. Simply add the microgreen seeds on the top and you are on your way!

You can use a variety of seeds for microgreens. Surprisingly, one of the best packs I have found is off Amazon, 300 mix-pack seeds for $6.

The other option for microgreen growing containers is the plastic seed starting trays. I know that a lot of us have them left over from spring seed starting. Once again, the peat moss makes a really good base for starting the microgreens due to the moisture retention. Since you are going to be eating them as young plants, you want the sprouts to be as hardy as possible and provide them with elements to make it easy to germinate.