Where are the days going? Did I miss spring? It didn't seem to last very long. My spring bulbs are long gone, and I was very surprised to see my sunflowers blooming!
I'm excited to say there's lots of good things happening in the garden. But also some not so good. I'm learning that gardening is a constant source of growing - for the plants & my knowledge (& the weeds)!
In my naivety, I was imagining my summer salads when I sowed seeds. We don't usually eat radish, but I thought baby radish might be a nice addition to our salad. I also did a mesculun mix & carrots. Of course, little was I thinking how long things take to grow. So, I now have large split radishes going to seed along with the mesculun. And obviously no tomatoes or carrots 🙄 .
My family eat a lot of gherkins & I've heard that if you want a harvest to pickle, you need a lot of plants. Well, I've tried. They either don't germinate, or get eaten when they do. I currently have only 4 plants struggling along. In anticipation of my whopper harvest I planted a dill plant (1st time for dill). QUESTION: It is changing colour & there are flowers coming out. Is that it? Did I miss the harvest period? Is it a fast growing, short lived herb???
Aghh, so much to learn!
So, as for beginning again ... I'm rethinking things. What do we eat a lot of? What will we actually use. What can save us money?
Due to the 'dirty dozen' list, we only eat organic onions (carrots, celery, potatoes & apples). Last year the onions grew pretty well, but I only did one sowing, so one harvest & they were gone in a couple of months & we were back to expensive organic shopping.
I've decided I'm going to harvest my celery (first year of actually getting it to grow) & slice & freeze it for year-round use. I'm going to keep a steady sowing of onions & carrots going. I'm going to plan the majority of my garden around our regular diet, with space for succession growing & just little pockets for new things.
I'm also going to up my knowledge on preserving the harvest!
Last year my husband sowed a big lot of carrots, which we then tried storing in soil in the garage, but they sprouted & went soft, so storage is not really an option - unless we build a root cellar! One day...
I'm going to try to pay more attention to timing ingredients, though I do think that is VERY tricky with so many variables in the growing conditions!
What do you think? What's something you have learnt so far this season?
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