Indoor gardening projects

Onions are easy to start inside and will give you lots of fresh nutritious greens to be added to eggs or salads. Start with a big yellow, white, or red onion from the supermarkets. If you cut it from tip to root you will notice usually a small green growth in the middle. Next onion cut it from the tip to 1 inch away from the root. Make 3 more cuts the same way - from the tip to 1 inch from the root. You will end up with a pyramid shape with roots intact at the bottom. Press the roots into potting dirt in a 4 inch square pot or four roots in a 6 inch pot. Water well and cover with clear wrap. In about a week you will see a new green shoot coming out the top of the pyramid. Remove the wrap, add more dirt, and watch the green shoot grow. Then more will come. When they reach 6 - 8 inches, cut from the base and chop fine for adding flavor and nutrition to your food. Water as necessary.

Onions inside

Onions will grow just about anywhere. They can be started from seed (which must be done now for transplanting outside in May) or by purchasing small starts in May for transplanting into the garden. These are usually small and dried up looking. But don't worry, most (95%) will grow into full-size onions. But inside, onion tops can be grown for seasoning and looks by purchasing any store onion and slicing off only 1/2 of it. Lay the lower half (the one with roots) on top of a growing medium, place in a sunny spot, and water well. Keep moist. It will produce more roots, the extra onion parts will dry up and the little green center will grow into long spires. After they are up a couple of inches, bury the old onion cut piece with more soil. When harvesting, cut a spire off at the base. If cut haircut style across all the spires, the onion will dry down from the cut and will take a long time to re-sprout. If cut off at the base, it encourages more sprouts to form quickly. If you don't cut the spires at all, one will grow thick and heavy and produce blossoms. Great for kids as onions grown rather rapidly.

Terrariums

Saw a beautiful terrarium on the Today show with little ferns and baby tears. Looked pretty. I suggest using rosemary and creeping thyme and onion for a spike for interest and variety of levels. Rosemary can be shaped and clipped for use in various recipes (If you have one, send it in). Creeping thyme has beautiful blossoms and is great in stuffings. Onion is great clipped and chopped in scrambled eggs, etc. It is a great starter, looks pretty in a class container, is useful and edible, keeps the air smelling great, and does not need any bugs or bees for fertilizing.