There is no denying that eating microgreens grown in your own garden is an enjoyable pastime. The first time you see the tiny green shoots in the vegetable garden and wonder if you could grow them, you will be pleased at how easy it is and how good it feels to know that someone is looking after the plants for you. However, like all food, growing microgreens can have its own set of challenges. Fortunately, these challenges are ones that are easily overcome by being a careful and deliberate gardener.
The first challenge when it comes to eating microgreens is figuring out what varieties you should be growing. As with any new hobby there are always trial and error stories. While planting peas is one way to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t work, it is also a good idea to try other options. For example, did you know that eating a different variety of greens has the same effect as eating microgreens?
According to both botanist David Grisaffi and vanity chef Helen Lewis, eating a variety of greens can have very similar effects on our health as eating microgreens. In fact, eating healthy microgreens has the added benefit of providing you with some additional vitamin C, which is good for your health. In addition, eating microgreens can also have the added benefit of improving your immune system.
As well as eating microgreens, of course you will need to take care of them, or they won’t produce their full flavour. This means that you need to learn how to plant and grow microgreens properly in order to get the most from your vegetables. For example, when planting microgreens, ensure that you space them carefully, but don’t go too close to each other. This is because if you do so then you may end up with too many microgreens growing on your plants, which can make them more challenging to eat!
To help you get started, try and pick a location where you can grow a number of the micro green vegetables without attracting other animals or insects to it. Then dig a hole of at least two feet in depth and place your microgreen plant in. Make sure that the depth is not too large, because if it is then the roots could take hold and start to grow upwards, taking over your entire garden. Once the microgreen has been placed in the hole, leave it alone for about a week. Whilst it is growing, you should take regular feeding, about twice a day, but not more than that. Feeding is a vital part of ensuring that your microgreen develops properly, so it is important to be aware of what to do when it is time to fertilize your vegetables.
When the time comes for feeding, you can either hand-select the vegetables to be fed or use a feeding system on the top of your garden bed. Whichever method you choose, be sure to remove all of the microgreen from your vegetable batch before it is time to harvest. Do not wait too long, as the microgreen can rot if left to develop. Once the microgreen reaches maturity, it will start to wilt and die, which means that you have to replant the seeds to another area. This process can take up to three weeks, so be patient!
Once the micro green vegetables have grown to a suitable size for harvesting, use your garden hoe to cut the tops of the leaves off. The leaves will then be small enough to slip off the branches of the plant. Although this is a good way to ensure that microgreen doesn’t overpopulate, it can also mean that there is very little of the vegetable left. In fact, if you use a garden hoe to cut off the tops of the leaves then you will find that you eat much less of your microgreen crops, because the leaves are so small.
You should now have a delicious variety of micro green vegetables growing on your garden soil, but if you still think that eating them is not the right thing to do, then just dig a hole in the earth next to your crop and put the plants into it. Don’t worry about them rotting – the oxygen levels in the earth will ensure that they are thoroughly dead. Microgreen loves a dark, damp environment, so it is perfectly appropriate to plant your vegetables in a hole that gets a lot of sunlight. This is also a great way to avoid microgreen eating all of your other vegetables! Just remember that if you do not get the sunlight your vegetables need, then just cover the holes with soil, cover it with some more dirt, and you will soon have a delicious and nutritional vegetable crop that you can be proud of!