Simply Home by Beth

CASH, CHECK or CHARGE? …

are the first three ways that come to mind, when it comes to getting the plants, veggies or flowers that you want to grow at home.

My grandmother had a “different ” way of increasing her garden’s yield!

Lined up across her kitchen windowsill, were empty soup cans, with or without their labels, all containing “cuttings” that she wanted to save. Always frugal, she told me this was the BEST way to grow a garden, because “a healthy plant has strong roots”, that you can easily transplant.

The above photo shows a few cuttings I took from a licorice plant, which was “pinched” on my way home from the garden nursery. I thought I had carefully packed the plants in the back of my SUV, cushioned with groceries, and shopping bags.

I began to plant as soon as I got home, but the licorice plant seemed “flat” on one side, one stem had been bent and pinched, not yet broken or dead. I snipped the damaged vine above and below the pinch, then divided the one long vine into several shorter shoots.

There were NO soup cans to be found…. not a single one!

For the sake of an incredibly nostalgic farmhouse kitchen visit, with all of the “feels”, I thought about buying a Campbell’s Tomato Soup can, or 2, or 3, maybe even a Chicken Noodle for variety… knowing you would appreciate the sweet reminder of times past.

Decided against it.

Instead, I chose a small vintage juice glass, with floral etchings faded now, barely hanging on. I wanted to “see” the roots grow, or I wanted to see if they would grow, and they are! Ten days later, the stems each have a 1/2″ root growing from its base, and I am thrilled!

It was actually hard to find that licorice plant, which is why I was at a Nursery instead of a grocery store or Lowe’s garden center, which is where I bought everything else, and they are all very healthy.

When I look at these tiny roots, determined to grow, I think of my grandmother. I wish I could show her my tiny plant shoots with newly rooting stems, she’d be amazed that I remembered the soup cans, and happy that I tried it for myself.

“A healthy plant has strong roots” is what she told me.

Are you planted firmly?

Are your roots strong and healthy?

When you are bruised, pinched or broken, how do you go on?

How do you grow on?.

I’ll transplant my NEW licorice plant when the roots start growing around the glass’s base.

But today, while they continue to grow a bit longer, I’m reflecting on lessons learned, values taught, and seeds planted in a child’s heart and mind.

I am blessed to know, and to say, that because of my father, and his mother, my grandmother, my roots grow deep. I only know that from being “damaged” while traveling down bumpy roads, bruised and pinched along the way. With my whole being, I believe this to be true:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

Funny, but every time I look at this tiny glass with tiny roots sprouting from damaged cuttings, I think of this verse.

I’m grateful that the verse is deeply planted in my mind and soul.

I’m thankful for parents, and grandparents, who taught me well.

Well! I do go off-track sometimes, but when I transplant my sprouts and they start to grow, I’ll keep you posted!

Thanks for bearing with me friends, I do so want to share, myself, with you. Hoping that you’ll be inspired to try something new, or grow to cherish something old, as we spend time together here on this little blog,

Have a blessed day!

xx,