Tuesday, June 26, 2012

sustainable scraps: vegetable gardening with *17 Apart* {how to re-grow bok choy}







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Hey there! We are Tim and Mary from 17 Apart — our little corner of the blog world where we love to share the things that make us tick, diy projects, recipes, the antics of our 2 year old weimaraner puppy, and a few surprises from time to time. We hope you’ll stop by and join our adventure.




tim & mary of 17 apart


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about the sustainable scraps series: In our constant quest to live and eat in a more sustainable fashion, we have become big fans of learning to grow many different types of foods organically. After moving from a home with a big yard and lots of ground space for our garden, we then moved into a house in the heart of the city (Hey there, fellow Richmonders!) with no yard. Since then, we’ve been forced to think creatively to find vertical solutions in order to grow the same vegetables we once grew in the ground — and now find ourselves with a thriving container garden.

Through this creative gardening challenge, we’ve come across several other ways to grow vegetables both indoors and out right from the scraps of their previous counterparts. We’ve learned how resilient plants can be and we’re really amazed at how all they want to do is thrive to grow. Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing examples of the vegetables we’ve been able to successfully re-grow into new food and beautiful houseplants.
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TODAY: {part 4} : regrowing  bok choy
 

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How to Regrow Bok Choy

Today we’re thrilled to share another windowsill growing project using nothing more than scraps from the vegetables already in your fridge. This time around, it’s Bok Choy’s time to shine.
Similar to way we showed you how celery can be regenerated straight from the base — so can Bok Choy!



Simply slice the base of the Bok Choy as normal and incorporate the leaves into any dish you might be preparing — just don’t throw away that base! 
 

Place your base bottom-side down in a shallow bowl of water and sit in the windowsill to let it do its thing.

In 1-2 days you will already begin to notice new baby Bok Choy leaves emerging from the center of your base.

Refresh the water in the bowl over about 1 week and then transfer to a soil filled container or plant directly into the ground. 

 



Make sure not to let the base sit in the water bowl for too long after it sprouts leaves or else it will get slimy and won’t be able to regrow in soil. We speak from experience:

 

That was a sad day — so we tried again.

Cover with enough soil to nestle the full base with the leaves still emerging.


Continue to water as needed and watch your new Bok Choy grow!

Just like the celery, we’ve found that re-generating Bok Choy can be a quick and fun growing project to take on with minimal effort (so long as you transfer to soil before it gets slimy, haha). We’d be thrilled to know if you plant to try it out and any other growing experiments you might be taking on at the moment!
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thanks ever-so-much, tim & mary! 
so delighted to have you nicies on the blog (we're all such fans of your fabulous DIY & handcrafted lives.) peek at tim & mary's  beautiful new home, their gorgeous doggie Basil, & an abundance of mouth-watering recipes as a wee little intro to these inspiring handmaking superstars.
& be sure to tune in soon for the next installment of the 17 apart series: 
sustainable scraps!

what are you growing these days, nicies? 
we'd love to hear!
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6 comments:

  1. Wow. That's so cool. I'll have to try it.
    What am I growing? Alas, no plants for food. I have my usual house plants (5 of them) and a new addition of marigolds that my daughter gave me from a seed-to-plant project she did in preschool.

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    1. wonderful, elisa! those home-grown marigolds from your sweetie must be the cutest! love it.

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  2. Love this series! We've planted a small 9 x 9 garden in our backyard this year. It's cool to see everything popping up!!!!

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  3. I had no idea you could regenerate plants like that! I'll add that one to my 'projects to attempt' list. (It's a long list!)
    I've been growing lots of succulents. They're about the only thing I can't kill -- and even so, I let my husband do most of the maintenance. Sadly, I have the blackest of black thumbs. But I have been enjoying looking at them. I even posted a photo on my blog: http://www.redlinevintage.com/blogs/the-token/6159738-windowsill-garden-with-vintage-zanesville-pottery

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    1. thanks for the gorgeous link, robin! i adore your succulents collection (they're my fave, too!) do let us know if you try one of *17 apart*'s fabulous regeneration projects!
      so fun, right?!

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  4. I love these scrap gardens! I can't start mine until next week and it's killing me! I can't wait!

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thanks so much for your comments, nicies!
it's a joy to read what everyone writes here.
thank you!