by Judy Wall, Lanark County Master Gardeners member
Here is an activity you can try while kids are home waiting for COVID-19 to subside.
Try growing some easy vegetables/fruits from scraps. This activity and may spark your child’s interest in gardening.
Some of the easier vegetables you try from scraps are Romaine lettuce, celery, green onions.
Romaine lettuce, onions, celery: take the stump cut about 1-2 inches from the end of the vegetable. Fill a container halfway with water, set the stump side down in water, place in a sunny window and watch for new growth, which will start within a few days. Change the water every couple of days. For those of you on town water, keep some water on hand that has sat for at least a day to reduce the chemicals that would have been added to water. After about 3 weeks you will see new roots start to appear on my lettuce. At this point when roots are a few inches long, you can place it in soil water and continue to watch it grow. Or cut off the small amount of lettuce which did regrow and enjoy.
Hopefully during this time your kids would have been excited with watching the regrowth occur.
Have fun and stay safe.