Last year I planted some wheat grass which turned out really nicely and gave a dash of green to the home, setting our mood into the lovely spring season.

This year I was looking for even simpler idea for in-house plants. It caught my eyes immediately when I saw mustard and water cress seeds in the pack the other day in the shop. On the pack, it doesn’t seem that they would need any soil or a lot of care. I decided to give them a go, now you can see the result from the photos, except no progression photos at different growth stage.

I used a long shallow ceramic tray for water cress, with a piece of kitchen paper towel which I wet it and folded several times to make it a few layers to fit into the shape of the bottom of the tray. There is no need to SOAK seeds, and please DO NOT SOAK THEM if you want them to survive. Just spread seeds into single layer on the top of paper towel. No worries about seeds being too crowded.

All I did other than the above was to wait. Just a little bit sprinkle of water once a day which is ample enough. I think it took a little bit longer time for them to germinate, than wheat grass, but very similar time frame I would say. Initially the seeds developed some gelatine liked water shell around each seed. Here is what I learned from my failure. Gelatinous seeds do not drain well and may decay from too much moisture. That’s why you do not need to soak them, otherwise you will kill them from the beginning. This happened to my mustard seed, sadly:-(

I guess it took about a week to see the little shoots coming up, then another week to have them grow into about 3-4 cm length. The brown seed shell eventually fell off from the leaves, and fresh green colour came out. They are very pretty with interesting curled leaves, and I left them on the bedroom window sill for a bit of lively decoration.

I think the beauty of water cress is they can grow in any small and shallow containers, even in a broken egg shell. Because they don’t need soil, it is really a no-mess and stress-free gardening project.

The only question left here is “how long they are going to last?” I am curious to find out. Hold my breath……