zombies in the garden

trend and fad followers are everywhere, even in the garden.  haven't you noticed that each year, the garden centers all seem to have the same new plant varieties?  even in the demo garden, we are likely to indulge in a little of this and to prove it, here is our little band wagon foray.  yup, you read that right, we are following the trends and doing something that has been done before; zombie gardening.

the name is a bit misleading, we aren't growing zombies, or are we?  can you just imagine it; the living undead gardeners...sort of like the night of the living dead but it takes place in the demo garden...honestly, it is nothing as scary as that(and not nearly as campy).  what we are growing is a bunch of stumps that may have ended up in the trash.  some of them work, some of them do not.  this bed is an experiment to see what will grow and produce food from "trash" and what will not.  here is a look at some of the stumps you will find in the zombie garden.

pineapple tops will grow if handled properly.  it will take a couple years to produce a fruit but for those that are patient, give it a try.  twist the top off of the pineapple rather than cutting it.  peel some of the leaves from the bottom to expose something that resembles roots.  place it in a shallow bowl of water for about a week or two and then plant it in a pot of soil or in a garden bed that gets lots of sun and is well drained.

 as you can see, it will grow but around here, it will need to come inside for the winter.

 celery stumps are rather short lived in the garden.  take the bottom of the bunch of celery and slice a thin disk from it to expose the vessels.  place it in a shallow dish of water and after a couple of days, leaves will emerge.  you can plant it in the garden but be sure to leave the stump exposed since burying it causes it to decay quickly.

 we have yet to get one to root, most do this in a few weeks.

 raw peanuts aren't technically stumps but they are easy to grow.  just plant them in the bed and cover with soil, they will sprout before you know it.  i learned this from the squirrels in my yard!

 leeks as well as green onions take to this very well.  when you buy either one, they always have the roots attached.  simply cut that part off, leaving about 2 inches of the white part intact, and simply bury them in the bed.  they will send out new growth and you will never have to buy them again-just harvest all but the bottom 2 inches and the plant will grow back.

 potatoes always seem to send out shoots when you least need them too.  next time, pop one into the bed and watch it grow.  after a while, you will have home grown taters to dig out.  just be sure to plant them in loose soil to make them easy to harvest.

got garlic?  plant a few cloves in the garden and they will sprout.  after a couple of seasons, you will have a well defined head (or a rose in this case) will form.  plant enough of them and you can make yourself one of those fancy braids to hang on the wall for a fraction of what one costs to buy.

go on, get out there and start planting some stumps!  we have more growing in the bed and check back here to see how they are doing.