If you want to begin a new family activity, start your own small garden. Growing your own produce can be a fun and sustainable family tradition, and it also helps on those days when you don’t have time to run to the store for a fresh pepper. Whether produce comes from your local Publix or from your own garden, fresh fruits and veggies lead to delicious meals for the whole family. Here are a few ways to grow your own produce and to get your family involved.
Growing Your Own Produce
Your garden doesn’t have to be large and complex. It can be as simple as a small herb garden grown with fresh herb plants you’ve purchased from our produce department. You can also plant small vegetables like peppers and green onions indoors in items you might have otherwise recycled or thrown away, like egg cartons or yogurt containers.
Getting your kids involved is simple. Try leaving your children in charge of watering the plants as one of their weekly chores or having them crush eggshells after making breakfast in the morning. Since eggshells contain nutrients that help soil and plants, they can be used in your garden as fertilizer. You can also ask your children to help pick seeds out of the produce you intend to grow or start a compost together.
Grow Your Own Pineapple
You can also try growing larger produce like pineapples. Follow the steps below:
- Twist off the top of the pineapple and peel the leaves from the base of the crown until about 2 inches of the crown are exposed.
- Leave the crown in direct sunlight for about two days.
- Put the crown, without its leaves, into a jar of clean, warm water. Change the water every other day. Leave for four to six weeks until it begins to root and grow to about 3 inches long.
- Plant in potting soil. Choose a pot with room for the pineapple to grow.
- For two months, keep the soil moist —but not too wet — and keep the plant out of direct sunlight. You should start seeing new leaf growth in the middle of the plant.
- After two months, move the plant into the sunlight and allow it to grow! Your pineapple will need to be planted into larger pots as it grows.
Thank you for the tips on growing the pineapple. My children just gave a pineapple to my husband for a Father’s Day gift and looked forward to planting the pineapple top. We watched a tutorial video on planting pineapples but it led us to planting the pineapple top only two days after pulling off the top and we placed the pineapple top in full sun because it’s a tropical fruit…we didn’t know! With these new Publix directions on how to plant a pineapple we look forward to getting a new pineapple and trying it again and feeling like we’re going to be very successful. Thank you Publix!
I’m glad we could help, Rachel!
Just had my frist home grown pineapple.took almost 3 years .but the journey was worth it .love the bloom .all the way from bloom to the table .frist one for me to grow .now I have 4 in the wife’s flower beds
I’m so glad you enjoyed your pineapple, Jimmy!