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Vegetable garden
Sep. 3rd, 2020 05:56 pmBecause we are home all the time now and have been for a good six months, I have a vegetable garden in two big metal tubs. I can and do water it and fuss over it every single day. I had two months of lettuce in the late spring, followed by (so far) two months of tomatoes, with at least another six weeks and maybe as much as two months of tomatoes to go. I had a few weeks of cilantro, though my second and third sowings didn't take. I've had more than two months of basil, first thinning the plants and then picking leaves onesie-twosie and finally making one batch of the best pesto ever, employing my basil and one bunch of farmers' market basil. I've had a month of scarlet runner beans, with maybe two more weeks to go. I have planted my fall lettuce; the first lot of it is up already. I'm about to plant some snow peas for the fall. Maybe I'll harvest actual snow peas; maybe all I'll be able to harvest will be pea vines.
It is very satisfying to eat food I've grown myself. I know perfectly well that I could not grow enough to feed my household. I am not a farmer. I think the only plant I grow that a farmer might grow is the sungold tomato. The scarlet runner beans are the most extreme example of not a farm crop. The vines grow a good ten feet into the sky; possibly farther, if I'd only give them taller bamboo poles. One has to pick the green beans every single day once they start ripening; otherwise, they'll stop putting out flowers and just ripen the existing beans into great huge seeds, suitable for drying and cooking in the winter, but no longer useable as tender summer green beans, which is the form in which I want to eat them.
Scarlet runner beans would be worth growing even if I weren't going to eat the beans, because the hummingbirds love the bright red flowers. I grow a lot of red flowers because I share the hummingbirds' enthusiasm for the color and because I'm enthusiastic about the hummingbirds.
I've acquired a third metal tub. I'll put in a vegetable garden again next year. I hope I don't have quite so much time and attention available to lavish on it next year, but that's not the way to bet, right now.
It is very satisfying to eat food I've grown myself. I know perfectly well that I could not grow enough to feed my household. I am not a farmer. I think the only plant I grow that a farmer might grow is the sungold tomato. The scarlet runner beans are the most extreme example of not a farm crop. The vines grow a good ten feet into the sky; possibly farther, if I'd only give them taller bamboo poles. One has to pick the green beans every single day once they start ripening; otherwise, they'll stop putting out flowers and just ripen the existing beans into great huge seeds, suitable for drying and cooking in the winter, but no longer useable as tender summer green beans, which is the form in which I want to eat them.
Scarlet runner beans would be worth growing even if I weren't going to eat the beans, because the hummingbirds love the bright red flowers. I grow a lot of red flowers because I share the hummingbirds' enthusiasm for the color and because I'm enthusiastic about the hummingbirds.
I've acquired a third metal tub. I'll put in a vegetable garden again next year. I hope I don't have quite so much time and attention available to lavish on it next year, but that's not the way to bet, right now.
