A Little Experiment in Gardening and Usefulness

So, I'm doing a little experiment. Some of you may remember, back in kindergarten, doing an experiment to sprout a potato in a cup of water. Alas, I never enjoyed that experiment so far as I can remember, as my class went with the bean-planted-in-a-cup-of-dirt route. But now I find myself with five potatoes and an onion, happily suspended over cups of water atop my old piano. Whether or not this experiment will succeed, I haven't the foggiest, but I'm hoping.

Of course, this wasn't just a whim. I've been jones'ing to do some gardening lately, but, what with it still being in February, I have a feeling that the deceptive warmth we've been having lately may soon relapse into a final cold spurt before spring finally sinks its roots in.

This all started when I found an onion in a little bucket we use for produce atop my refrigerator. Well...truthfully, it was more like an onion *plant.* It had sprouted amazingly well, and while half of me was regretting that I hadn't cleaned off the top of the fridge sooner, the other half of me hated to throw out something that had such a strong will to grow. Hence, we started our little experiment, and since I was already going to the trouble (if it, in its simplicity, can be called that), I went ahead and sorted through the potatoes to see if there were any likely-looking candidates as well.

So here we are, and only time will tell if it will actually work and I will indeed be able to start off this year's container garden with my produce-gone-bad. In the meantime, I've named them. ^.^





And not only am I being thrifty by trying to sprout something that most people would have thrown out, I'm also using empty yogurt containers to do it in. Bonus points for me! And for the record, most non-meat, non-dairy food waste that happens in our home gets added to our compost pile, which happily resides in a large trashcan in our backyard. So one way or another, we put our food waste to work for us. I just thought that sprouting these items would not only allow them more potential than just composting them, but would also save us a buck, since we won't have to buy as many onion or potato plants when we get ready to plant the garden.