Cat Grass = Success!

 

Aching for some greenery? Sown only five days ago, I have my first garden harvest of the year... just not for me.

 

I wish I could say that this was a picture of my front yard, however this is cat grass. 

 

When my boyfriend told me that it was so easy kindergartners could grow it, he wasn't kidding! It began sprouting on the second or third day. On day four I thought about taking a picture to show, what looked like little spikes, as it poked out of the soil mix. I wish I had taken a picture, because by the time I came home that night after work- the grass had easily doubled in size! I was so amazed at the progress that I proudly presented my tray of sprouting grass to my boyfriend, who just shook his head at me as though I was a deprived an experience as a kindergartner. Maybe I was, because I could see how something fast growing like this would capture any kids' interest!

 

Simon and Changa enjoying their first fresh grass of the year.

 

When I got up today and began my routine check-up of all the seed trays I couldn't believe it- again, the grass had easily doubled in size! And as you can see, I couldn't resist showing it off to the ones that really care- my cats!

 

 

Simon has some grass sticking out of his mouth!

 

It was an immediate success. Since they always seem to be hovering over my activities around the seed shelf, I didn't have to look far to have them sample these greens... ones that they are actually allowed to eat. Napping Cody missed out unfortunately. Upon getting them to sniff it for a few seconds, they seemed to know exactly what was up.

Uh oh.

 

It will be interesting if this grass continues to grow so quickly. I also hope that my boyfriend won't be right about... um, that the cats would also just end up digging in the dirt... as um... hinted in the pictured above. I guess I'll find out.

 

Other sprouting goodness that was planted on the same day as the cat grass... tomatoes! Not just any tomatoes... these Italian Roma tomato seedlings are second generation- all me! I'm very proud of this. I saved these seeds for two years now. I originally bought these heirloom seeds and then saved seeds from the best tomatoes from the best plant. The process of separating the seeds from the tomato is so much fun- I'll have to be sure to write about it with demonstrative photographs this fall. The following year (last year) I repeated the process. There is nothing like watching a plant grow from seed to a full mature plant with fruit... but there is an extra something special in there if those seeds were harvested by you! Does this make me off the grid with my tomatoes?

 

These tomato seeds of mine also seem to germinate really fast... last year I remembered being surprised by how quickly they sprouted. This year they sprouted nearly as fast as the grass! Maybe I'm selecting for fast germinating plants?

 

Red Russian and Lacinto/Dinosaur/Tuscan Kale seedlings.

 

I have a harder time with saving my own Cole crop seeds such as kale, collards or kohlrabi. The seedlings above are from store-bought seeds. It's not that it is difficult to collect or grow the seeds... it's just that they are actually all the same species of plant and will cross pollinate easily... and this just leads to inconsistencies... you never know what you're going to get.

The seed shelf.