Emotional Gardening

There is something about gardening that is horribly addicting. When I started my first garden 3 years ago, I had visions of grandeur, this amazing flourishing garden producing pounds of vegetables and fruits at my will. I've since learned, you gotta keep your expectations low when you're starting out because even if you read all the books written, you have no idea how it works out until you put into practice. The variables are endless. Season one was mostly a bust, except for the gobs and gobs of eggplant. Yet I persisted to try again. Season 2 was quite a bit more fruitful and I gained a lot of confidence. I've now successfully gotten to grow three plantings each year. Right now I'm on the final planting of the year, the fall garden. My favorite things to eat are grown in the summer, but the fall/winter garden is the easiest to manage with the highest yield. If it's green and leafy or grows underground, it's a fall vegetable.

Mustards, Turnips, Radishes, and Peas

This year I'm growing:

• Collard Greens
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Kale
• Turnips
• Radishes
• Mustard Greens
• Peas
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower

There is a bit of an emotional cycle when you plant a garden. After the ground is prepared and you plant the seeds, you worry. Did I plant them deep enough? Are they too deep? Did I put enough seeds in each spot? What if they don't sprout? How do I know it's the plant I want and not a weed?

Peas

With luck a few days later you'll see tiny little plant emerging in evenly spaced clusters. Then you feel total exhilaration  There's just something about those new little lives beating what seems impossible odds to make it through the dirt and into the warm sun striving to be a big healthy plant. Now you feel exceptionally protective.

The tiny little plants are very fragile at this point, I'm sure this is when the kids dislike me most because I'm completely psyco about them getting too close to the garden and destroying the seedlings. After the first true leaves appear, you relax a little, but continue to check them every day and nurse them ensuring the soil is just moist enough and that they are being properly fed.

Ian tests my patience by poking at the garden with a stick.

After 6 or so true leaves appear, now it's just a waiting game. The plants, if cared for regularly, will survive and over time will produce the fruits they are intended to bear. This is the most boring phase because you don't notice the rate of growth so easily and the plants are strong enough to handle an accidental trample from a child or obnoxious dog. This is also the point where said children and dog lose interest in attacking the garden because you stop paying such close attention to it.

Radishes

For flowering plants, the next exciting phase is when you see all the blooms, they're beautiful and each one invokes a hope that it'll pollinate and become a fruit. All the potential is amazing! You'll scour the garden every day for pollinating bugs and carefully examine each blossom for signs of swelling indicating pollination. Once fruits are set and growing, you enter another boring phase of waiting for maturity. It usually seems like forever, but the wait is worth it. For non flowering plants, you don't get the gratification of seeing the flowers, but you can be more instantly gratified that once a leaf is big enough to use you can eat it right away. Non flowering plants typically mature faster, the leafy types, though the root types take a lot longer and it's really frustrating not knowing if they're ready until you pull them up, so if you plant roots, make sure you plant lots so you actually get to eat some at full maturity.

Turnips

It's essential that all first ripened fruits and mature harvests are eaten on the spot right from the plant early in the morning. The taste will totally blow your mind and all you can think is: I'm awesome, I GREW this and it's SO GOOD!! Take that mega mart! It's totally euphoric and empowering. It makes all that waiting and nurturing worth it.You'll continue to feel totally awesome as you harvest over the next several weeks, storing some, giving some away to friends and family, and eating the rest. You'll find your culinary creativity exceeds your expectations. 

Forest of Rosemary

The last emotional feeling is dread. It's a lot of work ripping out the spent plants and preparing the ground to start again on a new crop. But once you muster up the energy to get it done, the cycle can begin again. I guess that's why it's all so much fun.

Kale

Collard Greens

Look for future posts featuring my fall harvests and delicious recipes.