I hope everyone is having a great week– we are getting hammered with rain and wind, all remnants from Hurricane Patricia. Good thing we put everything away for the winter the other night — our persnickety little fishing boat is tucked away in the garage, along with the hose box and other odds and ends that needed to be ready for hibernation!

One thing about Western New York this time of year is that you know snow is not too far off when you hear snowblowers being fired up in people’s driveways– all in preparation for the first snow! We did just that over the weekend– everything is good to go!

Small Spaces, Big Results!

I am thinking ahead to next season, and my husband is on board with me trying to plant a small veggie patch out behind our garage next to our raspberry bush! This is my first foray into veggie gardening. This was never on my radar for my own small space, but we are going to make it happen! My husband is going to help me build some raised beds next spring so we can plant our own tomatoes for sure, and we’ll have to pick out a few other veggies for me to try. I can see us even planting pumpkins, which would be really neat!

After researching the subject of edible gardens, I couldn’t help but share a wonderful graphic from my friends over at fix.com who explain easy-to-grow Indoor Edible Plants. What a great idea to be able to have fresh veggies and herbs all year-long!

Last week, I took some time off and I spent my days taking my daughter to preschool and accompanying her on her little class field trip to a local farm–I wish I could do this more often, trust me! Well, last Friday, her class made applesauce and each of the kids received an apple seed from their teacher.

It’s amazing to think this tiny thing will be a big tree someday.

My daughter was so excited that she wanted to plant it right away, but I stopped her. I wanted to research planting apple seeds and what you had to do.

I want to take my best shot at getting a seedling from this little guy, so this is what I have done so far to make the chances a little better.

1. Make sure the apple seed is completely dry. If it’s not completely dried out, it will rot and not germinate.
2. Your apple seed needs to germinate; place it in a cool place for at least 6 weeks. Wrap your seed in a damp paper towel and put it in a bag that goes into the refrigerator.

So, I will wait and take the seed out of the refrigerator in six weeks and then plant it in a little pot and see how it does over the winter in the house. I would really love this to grow into a seedling so I can plant it in our tiny back yard, and say that was my daughter’s little tree!

Stay tuned for the rest of the story…..