OR IN MY CASE, CABBAGESI've made the commitment to myself to be honest in this blog about the things I have success with in the garden... and the stuff that just fails. My garden has a few of those.
I planted Napa Cabbage this spring because it's delicious and I love making gluten free dumplings and stuffing them with lots of this tasty crunchy green. Why not try it? So, two months ago we planted one. Just one. An experiment. So many things that are the first time plantings for me often involve initial research, getting them started, but then so much of the rest of the growing time is spent just watching, observing what happens and finding out, sometimes the hard way, if it worked.. My little cabbage just had a laugh at me. Do you recall when I posted my photos and how much progress the cabbage was making? Well that was actually "over maturing" due to excessive nutrients and watering, most likely. Here's the quote from West Coast Seeds website about Napa Cabbage that made me laugh and face palm. "Heads will split when they’re allowed to overly mature. Rapid growth due to excess watering and fertility will also cause splitting of the head...." Just like mine did. Whoops. West Coast Seeds also has this ranked as a "Moderately Difficult" plant to grow. Well, if you never challenge yourself you never know right? Truthfully, I plan to try again in the Fall. I love a challenge. I don't quite feel ready to give up on the little guy yet. I took off the outer leaves (and cautiously nibbled one... oh, nope...) The weekend was very warm, like a small taste of summer, but we have returned to the soft but steady storms of spring (which really love to knock my broccoli plants over, thankfully harming none so far). Working with nature, particularly wind, at ten stories up is a lesson in progress. Chopsticks tucked deeply into the soil and good ole' garden twine is keeping those growing greenies upright and steadfast. But I check on them, like little infants, nonetheless. There were successes this week too. I was able to harvest and devour the tahtsoi and bok choy before it bolted, or in other terms, flowered and went to seed. We had a burst of sun and warmth here on the BC coast, so those cold weather crops got maybe a little too much heat. In any case, they were delicious. The bok choy was "ultra baby" bok choy, meaning it didn't really fully mature. The same with the mustard greens (tatsoi). Very small and underdeveloped. All of it still tasted phenomenal. There really is no other pleasure, though simple and understated, like harvesting, preparing and eating food you've grown. I will be able to plant more of these types of veggies in August and then let them mature into the cool season. And oh I am so excited for that cool season. I ordered the seeds I will plant for the fall this week. More experiments with things I've never grown: kale, fennel and turnips are all first time crops for me. There's also a very cold hardy broccoli I'll be trying called "red spear"- it looks more like broccolini and it is indeed a purplish red. After this week I found myself wishing (more like longing) for at least a half acre of land for just spread this tuff out in long stretching rows so I could just fill my kitchen and the kitchens of others with produce. The more I grow food in my garden, the more fulfilled I feel. The purposefulness of it is a physical feeling in my core when I reflect on it. A kind of goodness that is nearly fully tangible. These things, mysterious as they are, to me are true glimpses of Heaven. The fullness of the Garden of Eden before the fall, but scaled down to a tender human level, just a little out of full reach. Even so, these moments of transcendence make this feel like a calling. What this may become, who is to say. I have my dreams. Perhaps I will share them here as time goes on. The future remains fuzzy even as Covid-19 reopening measures roll out slowly. We still look into an unfamiliar and uncertain kind of summer. But at last, it feels like there is enough time and sense of peace, at least in the evenings when it's once again silent in our home, to dream and look out at the horizon without fear.
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NinaNoot- Christina (Nina) Wonglong time illustrator of whimsical things and a woman with a green thumb. Compassion and a desire to do something helpful compels me to write and share about gardening in hopes it may bring healing and delight to the souls of others as it has to mine. Check in every week on Tuesday for the unfolding story of my own garden alongside small growing project ideas, my successes and failures, and a sincere dose of hope in this moment of covid-19. Archives
August 2020
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