This is the inside of a Spaghetti Squash I recently cut open to prepare dinner. I had noticed it was getting a little soft but there was no sign of mould. I think every single seed had germinated inside the squash. The white fuzz was a tangle of seedling roots and the hard seed coats were still attached to the seed leaves.

I did decide to abandon that plan for dinner although the flesh still looked pretty good, just wilted but I rescued a number of the seedlings and although it is way too early to plant squash, I will plant some in the green house and see what happens.

Plants can gift us in so many ways other than food but the produce section of the grocery store can often be a source of plants you didn’t know you needed. When my children were small we tried to germinate as many of the different seeds from our fruit as we could. We grew Avocado plants, Grapefruit , Orange and Lemon trees. The top and leaves off the top of carrots were placed in a saucer of water to see how long the leaves would grow. Celery was placed in a glass of water with food dye to watch the colour move up through the stems. Onion skins were boiled to make dye. There are so many fun little science lessons that are possible. In ‘Herb Plants for Pennies’ I wrote about number of herbs that can be grown from the herb bundles you buy in the grocery store.

If you have children, giving them an area in the vegetable garden to experiment with can be so much fun. When siblings are competitive seeing who can grow the tallest sunflower, most peas in a pod, biggest potato, heaviest carrot are projects that keep them motivated. To rid your garden of dandelions, after showing them how to dig them out carefully, see who can dig one with the longest intact root. Keep a chart with the measurements and keep the roots as a record. There is so much fun learning that can happen in the garden.

Left: The Grapefruit Tree planted by my children about forty-four years ago. The lemon tree which my daughter has, produces lemons, this grapefruit has not produced fruit. It goes out in summer and comes in for the winter.

Above: Rosemary plants grown from a grocery store herb bundle.

Plants are programmed to germinate and grow when the conditions are right and clearly the spaghetti squash seeds did not need light to germinate but the temperature must have been correct. Some plants wait on the the correct number of daylight hours and temperature. Some rely on cold or humidity. Replicating conditions for growth is the key to successful gardening. Luckily for us plants are amazing in their resilience and genetic programming for what to do and when!