Scrappy Garden (Feb 10 Update)

As some of you may know, about four years ago I began to develop an allergy to sunlight. If I go in the sun I get hives (photo proof), even SPF 50 sunscreen doesn't help much and it's an allergy that gets worse with exposure. Needless to say it's been life altering to me and even affects what I can do inside my house sometimes. One of the worst parts about it is I can't keep a vegetable garden or even have some simple flowers grow. Granted I've never been all that great at it, but it makes me so happy to see plants grow, change, and just be so full of life. If I live to be 95, I don't want to spend the next 60 years being denied something that much of the world takes for granted.

 

Earlier last week I began finding tutorials on Pinterest about taking grocery store produce and growing plants from parts that would normally be thrown away. I figured all I had to loose was something that would be tossed anyway and decided to give it a go. Eight days later and this is what I have!

 

 

Tamayuki: "It's almost big enough to fit in my mouth! Mommy can I eat the first one?"

 

 

The brown parts are kind ugly but this thing is growing fast! About 5 hours before this photo was taken the leaves were about 1/3 shorter than in the photo!

 

This is the base of an organic head of Romaine lettuce, sitting in a 1/2 inch of water that I changed daily, left in the warmest room of our house (about 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit.) I've never grown lettuce before so this has been really cool to watch! In a few more days I'll need to transplant it into some potting soil, but for now it's fine sitting in the water.

 

 

Tamayuki: "Grow little leaves so you can be a really big salad!"

 

I've done some casual research for a while about if it's possible to have an indoor vegetable garden. I never expected that there would be such a huge amount of info about it because of people who live in apartments and have no yard. So cool!

 

Growing outside in the proper lighting is really the ideal way to go about it, but it does work indoors by extending the amount of time that the plants get light exposure. This is one thing I have to be careful of because ideally full-spectrum grow lights are used to mimic sunlight, but would also set off my sun allergy. So using regular light bulbs is less than ideal but it can still work.

 

I also started some green onions yesterday too, but so far they just look like green onions. There are a lot of other things I'm going to try over time just to see what happens, but I'm hoping to use this as an experiment in having a garden inside. People have been having windowsill herb gardens for a long time, so this isn't a strange idea at all. Eventually I'd love to grow tomatoes, basil, chives, dill weed, maybe more lettuce and other leafy greens at the very least. Supermarket tomatoes are so dang gross...

 

Ok, I admit I find it totally hilarious that I'm starting to garden in November.

 

~Sister Kyoya

Edited February 11, 2014 by Guest

I actually have never heard of someone being allergic to sunlight. Then again I got surprised by my own "new found" allergy as well... In the past few months I have actually developed an acute allergy to... water. Not whenever I drink it, but basically I cannot take a shower for more than about 10-15 minutes, or have water on my skin for more than that or I will break out into hives. It's really hard whenever I wash my hair, because the wet hair (or wet towel) that is on the nape of my neck causes my neck to break out into hives. One thing that helps me is taking an antihistamine before taking a shower. It makes me able to take a longer shower, and sometimes no hives show up at all. Have you ever tried that before you go outside, or are exposed, to sunlight?

 

I think that's really interesting that plant is actually growing!! And it looks like it grew quite a bit. I'm curious to see what happens to it over time. I think I will show my mom this when she wakes up, because I'm sure she'd be interested to see the progress that has been made. It's crazy how you can grow something like that out of a piece of lettuce that normally would have just been thrown away. Really incredible! I hope you continue to update with the progress and photos. ^__^

I hadn't thought of using scraps of grocery produce to grow from! Now maybe I'll finally get around to growing green onions/scallions like I've been wanting to, since now I know I won't have to go to a Home Depot or nursery to get them going. I might also try this with butter lettuce, since you can buy those with the roots still attached.

 

As for the photos, they're very nice! My fave is the third one though, with Tamayuki looking so pensive. All he needs is a lab coat to look like a mad botanist.

 

The sunlight allergy is a real bummer though. I take it you probably have to take vitamin D supplements? Sounds incredibly restrictive to have that allergy.

 

Arienette, I had heard of the sunlight allergy before, but I had no idea a water allergy was even possible! That also sounds restrictive and kind of miserable. Is it really the water itself that causes it, or dissolved solids in the water?

I hadn't thought of using scraps of grocery produce to grow from! Now maybe I'll finally get around to growing green onions/scallions like I've been wanting to, since now I know I won't have to go to a Home Depot or nursery to get them going. I might also try this with butter lettuce, since you can buy those with the roots still attached.

 

As for the photos, they're very nice! My fave is the third one though, with Tamayuki looking so pensive. All he needs is a lab coat to look like a mad botanist.

 

The sunlight allergy is a real bummer though. I take it you probably have to take vitamin D supplements? Sounds incredibly restrictive to have that allergy.

 

Arienette, I had heard of the sunlight allergy before, but I had no idea a water allergy was even possible! That also sounds restrictive and kind of miserable. Is it really the water itself that causes it, or dissolved solids in the water?

 

Hahaha mad botanist. I looked at the picture again and I totally agree.

 

I am not sure if it is water in general or just something in the water. I haven't been out in the rain yet to see if rain water does it as well, or if it's just the water from the shower. I think it's kind of odd that it appeared out of nowhere. My doctor first thought that I got the hives from stress, things are REALLY rough around here right now, but when I continued to take showers and I kept getting hives the doctor concluded it was the water. I think I might try to look into it more about whether its water in general or something in the water. Thanks for bringing this up! I think I might do some research about if they changed anything about the water here lately or something like that.

An allergy to water is not common but I have heard of it. My grandfather and I have a lot of strange allergies, he's the only other person I know of who is allergic to honey, he was even allergic to my grandmother's hair! When you said that it popped up recently I began to wonder if the utility company started adding something to the water that is bothering you. It could very well be that you have developed an allergy to water itself. Being allergic to basic elements is surely a strange place to be, especially when you are trying to convince your family if it. My brother told me that someone can't be allergic to sunlight (Ha!), but he also told me when we were kids that you can't bust your kneecap and Ravendruid did just that a few years ago.

 

When I was a kid I didn't have any allergies and I was proud of the fact. Now I have my allergies to sun, honey, pineapple (all of them give me hives), and dust of all things... but the worst that does is just make me fall asleep. Talk about silly allergies... Do I need to wear a shirt that says 'Warning: Highly Susceptible to Sandman Dust'? When we found out about it I was really worrying my mom because I almost literally slept a month away one summer. It felt near impossible for me to wake up like I was severely drugged.

 

All of my allergies popped up after puberty, so I for one know that age has nothing to do with the appearance of unexpected allergies. Have you tried using boiled or distilled water to see if you get the same reaction? I got some bubble bath once that I didn't realize had pineapple in it and kept soaking in it to make my skin feel better. After the third time I realized what was going on but by that point I was scratching so much my skin was burning and raw. So when I say I feel your pain on whatever is causing the allergic reaction, I truly mean it!

 

One thing that helps me is taking an antihistamine before taking a shower. It makes me able to take a longer shower, and sometimes no hives show up at all. Have you ever tried that before you go outside, or are exposed, to sunlight?

 

I only take antihistamines if I absolutely have to even though they do work. It takes me about a day and a half to recover from even a small dose it knocks me out so badly. They are a lot more effective to me than the sleeping pills I have to take sometime.

 

I think that's really interesting that plant is actually growing!!

 

I'm still pretty shocked myself. After it just sitting there a week I started to figure it was just going to rot. It really amazes me how tenacious nature is, thriving almost on just hope. And it's such an easy project to do without needing a ton of space, or some expensive set up.

 

I hadn't thought of using scraps of grocery produce to grow from!

 

I hadn't really either, and from a lot of the blog posts I've read there are a ton of people that are shocked that they never knew it was possible. The only two down sides I can think of is if the produce isn't organic (who needs more chemicals??) but even that's not that bad, and you're stuck with the varieties that are propagated for 'commercial' use & transport so maybe not the tastiest possible. Even so this still has been a huge confidence booster for me to know I can grow some sort of food in the house. I've been thinking for a while that I'd love to grow salad mixes from seeds, but I didn't have a clue if our conditions were right.

 

As for the photos, they're very nice! My fave is the third one though, with Tamayuki looking so pensive. All he needs is a lab coat to look like a mad botanist.

 

Thank you! I've finally started to get the lighting issue figured out for the photos, and when I'm done I've just been putting the lettuce under the lights the rest of the time.

 

The sunlight allergy is a real bummer though. I take it you probably have to take vitamin D supplements? Sounds incredibly restrictive to have that allergy.

 

I'm one of the few people I know who gets really depressed on bright sunny days and I love gray rainy ones. It never rains here enough, even though we live in Washington State, we are on the 'non Seattle' side of the mountains and we technically live in a desert. I take my vitamin D everyday and eat lots of crimini (baby portabello) mushrooms. Not a bad trade-off if you ask me!

 

~Sister Kyoya

 

Tamayuki: *attempts to sound like a mad scientist* "Mad?"

 

 

Tamayuki: "Mad?!?"

 

 

Tamayuki: "I'm not mad, just slightly deranged!"

 

Mommy: *snickering*

 

Tamayuki: "Mommy, what does deranged mean?"

 

Mommy: "It means you're crazy."

 

Tamayuki: "But I'm not crazy..."

 

 

Tamayuki: "Look how big it's grown Mommy!"

 

 

Tamayuki: "The lettuce is so happy that it's getting darker. That's kinda like the leaves blushing because they are so cute!"

 

Mommy: "Tama-chan you are silly. Do you want to keep playing mad botanist and show off the green onion monsters?"

 

Tamayuki: "Oops, I almost forgot about those."

 

 

Tamayuki: *uses his mad scientist voice* "Look how much it has grown in one day. One day!!"

 

There was 30-36 hours in between the two photos of the lettuce, I never expected it to grow so fast! And the dark green end on the onion grew since I trimmed it off last night! This is gardening for someone with a short attention span.

 

~Sister Kyoya

Here are the photos from yesterday-

 

 

Tamayuki: "Its alive!"

 

Yuriko: "Tama, that's just a stupid vegetable. Why waste your time with those when you could grow something super yummy, like strawberries!"

 

 

Tamayuki: "But Yuriko, the green onions want to be friends with you!"

 

Yuriko: "Ewww ick! Get that yucky thing away from me. It stinks!"

 

The lettuce has been growing about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch a day, but the green onions have grown about 2 1/2 inches in three days. They are going like crazy! The dark green parts are currently more than twice as long as in the last photo. I started some celery yesterday to see if it would work, and I've hear that bok choy does to so Raven grabbed me some of that this morning.

 

~Sister Kyoya

 

Tamayuki: "But Yuriko, the green onions want to be friends with you!"

 

Yuriko: "Ewww ick! Get that yucky thing away from me. It stinks!"

 

 

This is awesome! Agatha also approves. I love the googly eyes on the green onions. XD

Tama-chan has been having way too much fun in this outfit. It cracks me up seeing his hair so messy too. I never realized that he could pull off an Einstein cosplay if he just had a mustache.

 

~Sister Kyoya

An allergy to water is not common but I have heard of it. My grandfather and I have a lot of strange allergies, he's the only other person I know of who is allergic to honey, he was even allergic to my grandmother's hair! When you said that it popped up recently I began to wonder if the utility company started adding something to the water that is bothering you. It could very well be that you have developed an allergy to water itself. Being allergic to basic elements is surely a strange place to be, especially when you are trying to convince your family if it. My brother told me that someone can't be allergic to sunlight (Ha!), but he also told me when we were kids that you can't bust your kneecap and Ravendruid did just that a few years ago.

 

When I was a kid I didn't have any allergies and I was proud of the fact. Now I have my allergies to sun, honey, pineapple (all of them give me hives), and dust of all things... but the worst that does is just make me fall asleep. Talk about silly allergies... Do I need to wear a shirt that says 'Warning: Highly Susceptible to Sandman Dust'? When we found out about it I was really worrying my mom because I almost literally slept a month away one summer. It felt near impossible for me to wake up like I was severely drugged.

 

All of my allergies popped up after puberty, so I for one know that age has nothing to do with the appearance of unexpected allergies. Have you tried using boiled or distilled water to see if you get the same reaction? I got some bubble bath once that I didn't realize had pineapple in it and kept soaking in it to make my skin feel better. After the third time I realized what was going on but by that point I was scratching so much my skin was burning and raw. So when I say I feel your pain on whatever is causing the allergic reaction, I truly mean it!

 

One thing that helps me is taking an antihistamine before taking a shower. It makes me able to take a longer shower, and sometimes no hives show up at all. Have you ever tried that before you go outside, or are exposed, to sunlight?

 

I only take antihistamines if I absolutely have to even though they do work. It takes me about a day and a half to recover from even a small dose it knocks me out so badly. They are a lot more effective to me than the sleeping pills I have to take sometime.

 

I think that's really interesting that plant is actually growing!!

 

I'm still pretty shocked myself. After it just sitting there a week I started to figure it was just going to rot. It really amazes me how tenacious nature is, thriving almost on just hope. And it's such an easy project to do without needing a ton of space, or some expensive set up.

 

I hadn't thought of using scraps of grocery produce to grow from!

 

I hadn't really either, and from a lot of the blog posts I've read there are a ton of people that are shocked that they never knew it was possible. The only two down sides I can think of is if the produce isn't organic (who needs more chemicals??) but even that's not that bad, and you're stuck with the varieties that are propagated for 'commercial' use & transport so maybe not the tastiest possible. Even so this still has been a huge confidence booster for me to know I can grow some sort of food in the house. I've been thinking for a while that I'd love to grow salad mixes from seeds, but I didn't have a clue if our conditions were right.

 

As for the photos, they're very nice! My fave is the third one though, with Tamayuki looking so pensive. All he needs is a lab coat to look like a mad botanist.

 

Thank you! I've finally started to get the lighting issue figured out for the photos, and when I'm done I've just been putting the lettuce under the lights the rest of the time.

 

The sunlight allergy is a real bummer though. I take it you probably have to take vitamin D supplements? Sounds incredibly restrictive to have that allergy.

 

I'm one of the few people I know who gets really depressed on bright sunny days and I love gray rainy ones. It never rains here enough, even though we live in Washington State, we are on the 'non Seattle' side of the mountains and we technically live in a desert. I take my vitamin D everyday and eat lots of crimini (baby portabello) mushrooms. Not a bad trade-off if you ask me!

 

~Sister Kyoya

 

Wow, he was allergic to your grandmother's hair??? That's really unusual, I have never heard of that before in my life! Lol, I'm learning about so many new allergies. xD

 

Whenever I researched it a bit more and I told my parents, they kind of made fun of me. >__< So then I had to show them what I found on the internet, and then they believed me and felt bad for not listening.

 

I also did not really have any allergies before this... The only things I am allergic to [that I know of, and as of right now] are Penicillin and Witch Hazel. They are two things that I never really needed or cared about... But now I have this weird "water" allergy which is hard to deal with since I feel like showers are kind of important!

 

I think I will try your idea about using boiled or distilled water... I didn't even think of that idea, but I think it would help me figure out if I am allergic to water in general or something that maybe the city changed with the water. Thanks for the tip!!! ^__^ The first time it happened to me, I was actually crying. It hurt so much and it was all over my entire body. >__< It took at least an hour to go away.

 

I like the mad scientist outfit you put on Tamayuki. LOL. The glasses really cracked me up. Very simple but they are super effective! xD I can't believe the plant had grown that much already. I am truly surprised, but I'm glad that it seems to be going well!

 

That's so awesome how fast the green onions are growing. They look really nice too in the picture. I'm interested to see how the bok choy goes, so I'll keep my eyes on this thread for more adorable pictures and details about the garden's process!

I think I will try your idea about using boiled or distilled water... I didn't even think of that idea, but I think it would help me figure out if I am allergic to water in general or something that maybe the city changed with the water. Thanks for the tip!!! ^__^ The first time it happened to me, I was actually crying. It hurt so much and it was all over my entire body. >__< It took at least an hour to go away.

 

Oh my. I've never heard of a water allergy before either but then again I've never heard of anyone being highly allergic to celery before either and my co-worker is extremely allergic to it so I can't say I'm surprised about a water allergy. I agree with Poofiemus, maybe its additives in the water? Or maybe they upped the chlorine content? I hope the distilled or boiled water helps, if not maybe one of those reverse osmosis type water filters or some kind of water filtration system that takes out the chemicals in water? Maybe that can be an option. I really hope the distilled, boiled or water filter works for you so you don't have to keep taking anti-histamines. I have seasonal allergies, not the same I know, but in a way I understand how restrictive allergies can be since with mine, I can't go out and work on my garden or do yardwork when the weather is changing and our crazy willow tree is coating the yard/air with its fuzzy flowers or else my simple allergy turns into a cold then to a cough and I end up being sick in bed and nearly coughing my lungs out. Not fun.

 

SK, I love those photos of Tama the Mad Scientist. He is so cute, hehehe. I'm surprised Dolly didn't show up at the mention of green onion monsters though. LOL. Him and Monsters, I thought he'd be right beside Tama for sure. Love the idea of using scraps to start a plant with. Might try that with some celery when we get some. Wonder if it'll work. Hubby might be interested in the lettuce. He loves his salads.

This is awesome! Agatha also approves. I love the googly eyes on the green onions. XD

 

I tried to find the tiny googly eyes that I glued on some skellitons for Dolly, but I can't seem to find where I put them. Either way I wasn't going to pass up a funny picture.

 

Whenever I researched it a bit more and I told my parents, they kind of made fun of me. >__< So then I had to show them what I found on the internet, and then they believed me and felt bad for not listening.

 

I'm sorry to hear about your parent's initial reaction but I'm glad that they are understanding. When I first started to tell my family about my sunlight allergy they thought I was just making it up so I didn't have to go out of the house. Granted I'm pretty reclusive because dealing with people face-to-face is not my strong point, but even I wouldn't go to that extent if I had a choice. Even something as simple as grocery shopping is something I cherish anymore because during the hotter months it's pretty much off limits. This is an allergy I won't even wish on my worst enemy. It can often feel like solitary confinement on bad days, but I do everything I can to keep a positive attitude. I guess having major depression for so long has taught me a few things.

 

I think I will try your idea about using boiled or distilled water... I didn't even think of that idea, but I think it would help me figure out if I am allergic to water in general or something that maybe the city changed with the water. Thanks for the tip!!! ^__^ The first time it happened to me, I was actually crying. It hurt so much and it was all over my entire body. >__< It took at least an hour to go away.

 

With both my sun and honey allergies popping up unexpectedly I've learned to rapidly go into a severe environmental analysis mode to pinpoint the cause. I thought I was nuts when the back of my hands were mildly itching for a week like it does right before I get hives. By chance at the end of the week I ate honey on something (first time in about 6 months) and suddenly my arms were getting covered in hives. Turned out that the whole wheat bread we were buying had honey in it. Through the whole time I was madly trying to identify what had changed in what I was eating or anything new in the house. I keep hoping that its something in the water you're allergic to and not the water itself, although they are kinda two sides to the same coin. If it isn't the water then you would have at least another option or two (if the distilled water and whatnot help). Even if you live alone showers are important.

 

I like the mad scientist outfit you put on Tamayuki. LOL. The glasses really cracked me up. Very simple but they are super effective! xD I can't believe the plant had grown that much already. I am truly surprised, but I'm glad that it seems to be going well!

 

That's so awesome how fast the green onions are growing. They look really nice too in the picture. I'm interested to see how the bok choy goes, so I'll keep my eyes on this thread for more adorable pictures and details about the garden's process!

 

When Poofiemus mentioned the lab coat I thought, 'Man, I wish I had one of those for Tama!'... then I remembered I had made the doctor coat for Tama last Halloween. I have so many projects going on all the time that I sometimes wonder where I left my brain. The glasses are similar to the ones he used in his costume last year, but I made a new pair with the really big frames.

 

Here is today's growth update:

 

 

The really long green onions are the ones I've been growing, the rest is a couple of bunches I added two days ago. Try as I may, Tama's hair did not want to get messed up today. I am very, very happy at how green the lettuce is from an indoor light! My mom stopped by earlier and even she was surprised that it was all from kitchen scraps. I can't say how excited I am about this project. It's giving me hope that I can have a garden again! It's going to be fun to see how much strange stuff I can grow inside. I'm really looking forward to the basil and tomatoes the most, but yesterday I found somewhere to buy luffa seeds. I can't wait to plant a bunch of miniature plants too so they will be in more scale to the DD. Tama would love the miniature sunflowers I found that grow to a max of about 20" tall!

 

~Sister Kyoya

SK, I love those photos of Tama the Mad Scientist. He is so cute, hehehe. I'm surprised Dolly didn't show up at the mention of green onion monsters though. LOL. Him and Monsters, I thought he'd be right beside Tama for sure. Love the idea of using scraps to start a plant with. Might try that with some celery when we get some. Wonder if it'll work. Hubby might be interested in the lettuce. He loves his salads.

 

Woops, I missed your post again! I guess that's what I get for taking so long to reply, wandering off and doing other things before coming back to finish what I was saying, and not paying attention if there were new replies.

 

As for Dolly, I made the mistake (?) of buying him a pack of skeletons for Halloween and glued googlie eyes on them. He has been spending all his time trying to make them into a pirate crew. Once I have more plants I'm sure he's going to have fun playing in the 'jungle'. I should ask him what happened to the small googlie eyes. Knowing him I'd just have to wait a little longer and they would start popping up on random things.

 

There are some other kitchen scrap gardening ideas on my Midnight Gardener Pinterest board if you are interested. I'd love to know if anyone else tries these out.

 

~Sister Kyoya

 

Ellie is tending to the garlic. I figured that it decided to sprout in our kitchen that it wanted to live in our house so it got planted. This was like 3 or 4 days after it was first planted. When I shoved them in the dirt, barely even a green spot was showing on the cloves, then it just went WOOSH!

 

 

And here is celery attempt #2. With all of the chaos of the holidays I never got the first batch of celery, lettuce, green onions, & bok choy planted and they all kicked the bucket. Raven started more green onions and another chunk of lettuce yesterday so later in the week or next week it will get planted in the small pop bottles like this celery did. In case you were wondering, there are drainage holes poked in the bottom of the bottle and coffee container.

 

 

Although the Amaryllis isn't from kitchen scraps, Ellie still wanted to pose with it because it has gotten huge in about a week. There are photos of it blooming that I took today in my Midnight Gardener set on Flickr, but since there isn't DD in them I didn't feel comfortable posting them here. The bulb was actually a Christmas present from Raven's grandmother. I've never grown bulbs indoors, but this has been awesome!

 

~Sister Kyoya

Although the Amaryllis isn't from kitchen scraps, Ellie still wanted to pose with it because it has gotten huge in about a week. There are photos of it blooming that I took today

 

Amaryllis flowers are sooooo beautiful. You really should take some pictures of your girls with the flower! I'd love to see them!