I do realize this is a recipe blog, and this post is not a recipe per se, but I do hope that my gardening efforts will yield some produce that I can subsequently turn into recipes. So it's not an entirely irrelevant post.
After many years of shunning gardening, due to unpleasant childhood memories of weeding in the sweltering heat whilst being eaten alive by mosquitoes (it may well have only happened once or twice, but I recall it with horror), I decided to give it another go. After all, it wasn't all bad. I had taken for granted that we had garden fresh salads nearly every night during the summer, which I quite enjoyed. I probably didn't realize at the time how much better it tasted than had we bought it at the store. And at the time, I probably didn't care that it was much more nutrient rich.
Thus far, I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. Since planting on Mother's day, my bedding plants have grown significantly larger, my corn and carrot seeds have begun to sprout, and I found a tiny tasty poblano pepper yesterday! I don't know why this amazes me. I grew a human being in my body, yet I'm more in awe of the fact that a seed would actually germinate in my garden. Perhaps this stems (pun intended) from the fact that I've never been successful at keeping a houseplant alive, and I've killed at least two basil plants in recent history.
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| May 12, 2013 |
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| May 30, 2013 |
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| Tiny Tasty Poblano Pepper |
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| 1st Herb Harvest |
Today I did my first harvest of the season, which included leaf lettuce and herbs. Now in fairness, the herbs were more or less ready when I transplanted them, but there was a point when I thought the lettuce would not make it. It was looking quite sad after being trounced by a beagle, and who knows what else. But in the last couple weeks we got some nice warm weather and a significant amount of rain, and the lettuce rallied! We enjoyed it in a salad tonight! (Well at least Caden and I did. Larry merely ate his salad).
I would like to insert a disclaimer that I in no way claim to be an expert on square foot gardening, or any variety of garden, for that matter. Most of what I gleaned about this craft was done via Google a couple of nights before venturing to the nursery. But I must say, that so far I'm very impressed with this method. It's highly space-efficient, so you don't need much room. And it's contained, which makes that whole maintenance (i.e. weeding) thing much easier--haven't had to pluck one yet! So here are those sites that have inspired and guided me thus far:
Ask me again in a month if I feel the same way.You know, after the bugs and the hail, and the potential fruitless efforts. But for now, I'm sold on SFG!
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