How did I start?

My house in South Florida has a medium-sized backyard with some landscaping, mostly of ornamental plants. I never imagined I was going to be growing any veggies or fruits plants. It all started with an attempt to do compost.

At the beginning of 2010 I bought a papaya and as we ate it, I was saving the peel and seeds in a container in the refrigerator to do a compost. Deep inside I think I was doing it in memory to my dad. He used to go thru the garbage at home to pull out anything that was organic waste to either give it as food to the turtles we had or open a hole in ground and bury them to enrich the soil. Once we finish eating the papaya, I grabbed my container from the fridge, opened a hole in the ground in a spot on the yard that needed some filling up and pour all the contents on it.

To my surprise in a few days (or perhaps weeks, I was not journaling the process) I saw lots of little sprouts in that same spot and I thought they had to be from the papaya seeds. I could not believe that plants could grow from those refrigerated seeds!

I got a digging tool and a pot and transplanted the sprouts. I smelled them. They smelled like papaya and confirmed my thoughts. I was amazed! I placed the pot on one of my kitchen windows in front of the sink so I could see them grow everyday in front of my eyes.

This was just the beginning to my little home farm.

Enjoy seeing your seeds grow!