Grow your own houseplants from kitchen scraps

An avocado pit is a wondrous thing to a four year old who is just discovering seeds.  "Can we plant it?" my son's eyes were as big as the huge round shiny seed.  His youthful enthusiasm often snaps me out of my habitual thinking patterns and gives me a peek into a world infinite potential.  "Maybe" I sincerely replied.  We dried the seed and placed it in the seed-sorting tray that he made that week: washed out condiment cups from our recent carry-out order, glued to a strip of construction paper.  This tray contained all the hope and vision of a child's backyard Eden: orange, grapefruit, date, tomato, squash, pumpkin, marigold, zinnia; every seed of every piece of produce that crossed our cutting board, and every seed of every spent flower we passed on our walks and every spinning helicopter seed from every ash and maple tree that his little hands could carry.  I felt a little apprehensive at the thought of being responsible for all of their fruition!  (A secret between you and me... I do not have a green thumb!)

I hoped that seed collecting was a fulfilling project in itself for my young son, until the next week when he asked "Mommy, when are we going to grow that avocado tree?"  I wasn't surprised that he remembered, after all "I'm an elephant." he proudly and routinely proclaims.  So, I put aside my afternoon chores, (like I always readily do!) and we set off to the book store to see what we could learn about growing seeds.

As serendipity would have it, the book I found in the "green features" section, seemed like it had been written just for us!  Don't Throw It, Grow It! 68 Windowsill Plants from Kitchen Scraps written by Deborah Peterson & Millicent Selsam.  My son was not surprised, because of course, you go to the bookstore and they have exactly what you need there but I was experiencing the magic of following my child's curiosity to it's fruition.

On the way home we purchased a small bag of sphagnum moss from the local craft supply store.  At home, we dampened a handful of the moss slightly and nestled the seed inside.  Then we placed this "baby bird egg inside it's nest!" in a small ziploc bag which we then sealed and (like a real bird's egg would've been)placed in a warm dark spot (a shoebox on top of the dryer.)

Not being an elephant myself, I soon forgot about our nestled avocado seed while it set about silently germinating in my laundry room.  About six weeks later, I happened to be cleaning off the top of the clothes dryer when I found the box.  Sure enough, the seed had split open and an inch long sprout was curling upward while three inch long roots searched tenderly for soil.  We put the sprouted seed in a pot one inch larger in diameter than the seed and buried it halfway in soil, as the book instructed.  Since then our little friend has been eagerly stretching skyward (toward our overhead kitchen sink light).  Avocado plants grow rapidly, this one has already outpaced the grapefruit seedling that my husband and son planted six months earlier.

Houseplants are great for keeping indoor air clean.  I sometimes buy them from the off-season clearance rack.  Our introduction to growing our own however, has been fun and fulfilling.  Give it a try!