Grow Your Vegetables in Winter

I learned it by accident: One day I discovered that potato peels I had thrown into the compost started to grow and weeks later I had a nice harvest of new potatoes. They tasted even better than the store-bought - no wonder to the fine compost soil they grew in.
Buy once and keep growing - sounds almost too good to be true. Instead of just composting or throwing away the leftovers, you can grow new plants from them. This not only benefits your wallet but is also an important step against food waste.  Here are just a few examples, there is more produce you can re-grow:

• Green onion
• celery
• ginger
• garlic
• potatoes

Green Onions
An onion does not just grow a new plant.  Instead of replanting them, you can also grow and use the green of the onion. The roots of the onion must be placed in a container filled with water and placed in a sunny place. Then you should change the water every few days.  With this care, the green of the onion begins to grow again.  You can also just use the remaining part of a green onion (with the roots on) and place it in moist soil.

Celery
Place the leftover celery stalk in a shallow bowl of water and then place on a sunny windowsill.  Make sure that the core is just covered with water and it is changed every few days.  After a good week, fresh leaves begin to sprout from the stalk.  Now you can put the whole thing in a pot with earth.  A few weeks later you will already be able to harvest new celery.

GInger 
Ginger is not only healthy and delicious, but it's also easy to grow by yourself.  All you need is patience.  Leaving the tubers for some time, it forms small, green shoots by itself. These can be broken off and planted in a pot with soil.  A few months later, when the leaves have died, the ginger root can be harvested.

Garlic
Garlic cloves, which are a little longer, form small shoots.  The growth can be accelerated if the toes are placed in a bowl with a bit of water.  After a few days, the garlic sprouts are a couple inches long and can be harvested.  They taste milder than the originals and are perfect for refining dishes.  If you want to grow a new garlic bulb, plant a toe in a pot with soil.  The pot should then stand in a sunny place and be watered regularly.

Potatoes
You can easily cut a raw potato into pieces, making sure that each piece has two "eyes" and is at least one inch thick.  The potato pieces should then stand in an airy place and dry. After two days, they can be planted in moist soil.  Since the tubers need very nutrient-rich soil, the soil should be best mixed with some compost.  Now a new potato plant can grow!

Get more ideas and images here:
https://www.icreativeideas.com/13-vegetables-that-you-can-regrow-again-and-again/

Best thing is: you can grow these veggies also during the winter on a windowsill.  Enjoy your own FREE produce!

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Avenue of the Giants

If there is only one magic place or travel destination in the United States I had to choose, it would be the Redwood National and State Parks. Majestic trees, no not trees, but century-old giants, growing right and left of US Hwy 101, just South of Eureka, from Southern Oregon into Northern California. Their enormous stems rise like gothic columns almost 300 feet into the sky.  

Once you get off the roads, its almost eerily quiet - and much darker than in other forests, as the crowns of these giants are blocking sunlight and sky views. These are the last remaining old-growth redwood groves in North America, if not the world.  Even if you are not a tree-hugger you are stunned, maybe even you tear up when wandering through these “tree cathedrals”.

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I Didn’t Do It!
While cutting a car-size hole through ancient redwoods is thankfully no longer permitted, but you can still drive through the Chandelier Tree at Leggett, California, south of the intersection of Highway 101 and Coastal Highway 1, where this enormous redwood continues to stand and grow in spite of its drive-thru traffic.  For me it’s a sacrilege - these trees are holy! … and I never would drive through.

Take at least several days to indulge in nature’s wonders and beauty.  

Inhale the pristine air of the forests, which is neighboured by the Pacific 

Ocean - a terrific mixture!

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Oregon Redwoods Trail
The best hike starts at Loeb State Park and follows the Chetco River for 0.7 miles before crossing the road and beginning the Redwood Nature Loop.  Loeb State Park is a highlight in itself and features rental cabins, campsites and fishing opportunities.  It makes a good place to stay overnight when visiting the Oregon redwoods.

Directions: From the bridge across the Chetco River in Brookings, turn onto North Bank Chetco River Road (following signs for Loeb State Park) for seven miles to a large sign and parking area on the right. Trailhead GPS coordinates: N42 06.766 W124 11.225

Giant (or coastal) redwoods thrive in the moist, humid climate of the Northern California coast, where marine fog delivers precise conditions necessary for its growth. The fog adds moisture to the soil and helps trap it thereby lowering the rate of evaporation.  Redwoods, particularly coast redwoods, or Sequoia sempervirens are the tallest trees on the planet.

The tallest trees in the world have been given names—because such enormous trees deserve equally grandiose names—and are, in order: Hyperion (~398 feet tall), Helios (~374 feet tall), Icarus (~371 feet tall), and Daedalus (~363 feet tall).  Their thick bark resists fires, insects, and fungi, while their shallow roots absorb dew drops that drip from their needles.

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Giant Sequoias of Northern California
Giant sequoias thrive in higher elevation habitats than those giant redwoods and grow naturally only along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, primarily between 5,000 and 7,000 feet in elevation.  Giant sequoias require the periodic dry heat of the mountains in order for their cones to open and release seeds.
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More About Redwoods and Sequoias

Giant Redwoods

• Live up to 2,000 years
• Have branches up to 5 feet in diameter
• Bark grows up to 12 inches thick
• Can reproduce either by seed or by sprout

Giant Sequoias

• Live up to 3,000 years
• Have branches up to 8 feet in diameter
• Bark grows up to 3 feet thick
• Reproduce by seed only

See a Zoomable Map
http://avenueofthegiants.net/Zoom/map.htm

Culture Not Far From Nature
http://a-happy-traveler.blogspot.com/2015/03/bookstores-in-oregon-and-northern.html

Tallest Trees in the World
http://crosstalk.cell.com/blog/why-redwoods-are-one-of-the-great-wonders-of-the-world

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