Microleaves, Scooby Doo and tummy bugs

It’s been quite a week.

Not so much in terms of “oh, the people I’ve met, the places I’ve been, the champagne I’ve quaffed” but more a case of “oh the child-based effluent I’ve cleaned up, the nights I’ve worked, the sleep I haven’t had”.

Yes, we have been hit by ‘tummy bugs’ – which is a deceptively cuddly term for something that involves quite so much vomit.  Still, it’ll teach me not to get so excited about having time to work now Archie is at pre-school. It might also teach me not to arrange client presentations without first factoring in ‘potential child illnesses and sleep deprivation’.

Consequently I have been very neglectful of my blog reading and writing and have barely tweeted because it proved tricky to document my growing insanity in 140 characters or less.

Somehow I did manage to do a little gardening – micro gardening even. My eldest son was stuck at home for two days and boredom reached such intense levels that even What’s New Scooby Doo? wasn’t enough to distract. And when zombie gladiators, Mystery Machines and meddling kids aren’t working their magic, it’s time to roll out the seeds.

This isn’t complex gardening but I’ve been meaning to experiment with microleaves for some time – well pretty much since I read Mark Diacono’s post on the subject back in March.

For anyone not au fait with the term, microleaves are just closely sown crops whose leaves are harvested at seedling stage.  The flavours are intense, they can be harvested with a small pair of craft scissors and you need only a sunny windowsill.

Oscar helped me set up our Micro Farm –which involved some old margarine tubs with holes pocked in the bottom, gravel at the base and seed compost to finish. We then sowed two lines of ‘crops’ in each container.

We had a mixture of herbs and vegetables – basically, anything I found in the seed drawers, which included:

Radishes

Sorrel

Green purslane

Beetroot

Spinach

Purple broccoli

But you could also try basil, coriander, dill, fennel to name but a few.

At this time of year, germination will be slower as days are so much shorter and light levels are reduced, but you should still be able to start cropping in a couple of weeks – and even less time for fast growers like the radishes (I am also giving mine an extra boost by putting them in a heated propagator but only because I’m using some as part of a book-based project next week).

It’s a chance for children to try a range of different flavours without the need to wait months.  They can snip a few leaves at a time to add to meals, salads or just put in sandwiches.

Plus, by the time these have grown, my children might even be able to keep food down. Which would make a pleasant change.

Comments

[MarkD]

Yr in for a treat...lovely selection. Do give coriander a go too...unbelieveable. And no parsnip - apparently the seedlings are poisonous.

Made me realise I have none on the go myself..

[Helen at Toronto Gardens]

Hmmm. Might try some microgreens myself. I harvested a whole whack of coriander seeds. Though I really dropped by to ponder whether vomit would make good compost material.

[Damo]

We've had tummy bugs too and lots of vomit all through Wednesday night which was great fun! Micro leaves sound really interesting and a great Autumn and Winter crop to get the kids involved. I'll check out Mark's post and give it a go.

[Dawn]

Mark - yes, I was going to try coriander - only didn't this time because I was trying for some quick results for a Thursday photo session. Will make amends

Helen - I believe vomit is compostable, but I'm afraid I went for the 'flush' option...

Damo - do try it - we've already got three of the crops to seedling stage and that's in only 2 days.

[Lucy Corrander]

Send your children to school - trade germs.

In our area head lice are standard too.

Hope you all feel better now.

Lucy

[JamesA-S]

Aaahh...
If you haven't scraped regurgitated carrot off the ceiling at 3.00Am.
If you never changed sheets four times in one night.
Then you really have never really experienced the full misery of life.
Congratulations.
You have arrived.

[Joanne Roach]

You are amazing to manage to do anything. I have had about 40 minutes sleep in 8 days due to kids coughing. I may be exaggerating, but probably not. Since I now live in a universe composed entirely of phlegm, I have lost the ability to grasp the concept of gardening, or a margarine tub, or indeed what my name is and where I live.

[Dawn]

Lucy - I tried that yesterday - and he just came back again (rather like a boomerang)

James - Yes, arrival was signalled by child leaning over top bunk rails and vomiting profusely. Felt rather like a CSI dealing with 'medium velocity spatter'.

Joanne - I am sure you are not exaggerating at all. I hope that the tide of phlegm is slowly ebbing away.

[Lia Leendertz]

There is nothing worse or more all-comsuming than children and puke. You just have to wave goodbye to normal hours and expectations and dig in for the long haul. Impressive you managed to fit something horticultural and educationally improving into the madness.

[Plantaliscious]

Excellent, a post - and comments - that managed to simultaneously make my mouth water and yet feel slightly nauseous myself... But thank you for the reminder that I had promised myself to give this a try. Though I have flies in my compost which drives the other house inhabitants mad when I bring stuff in grow on the windowsill...

[elizabethm]

Really hope all is calm and bright at your house by now. I am v impressed that you managed to sew microleaves in the middle of all this. I am still at the "intending to since I read about it in March" stage.

[Dawn]

Lia - horticultural and educational improvement might be overstating it. Desperation would be more accurate.

Plantalicious and Elizabeth - Am now wondering if we have any other common items on our to do lists. Mending broken toilet? Running the London Marathon?