all about the garden

The first of our turnips that the kids planted as a surprise for me. I roasted some tonight with olive oil and salt. Next time I want to try some rosemary. I am glad I like turnips because there are quite a few. I think every single seed grew up! Turnip greens are, in my opinion, even better than the turnips themselves. They are great with potatoes! Can't wait to see what turnip flowers look like!


Below are some pictures of things you don't normally see in gardens. I have recently discovered that a few of the vegetables we enjoy with regularity are actually slightly more difficult than most to grow *successfully*. Both celery and cauliflower, as it turns out, REALLY like things a certain way. Mine apparently did not have either the soil or water requirements they prefer (or both or something else entirely). The celery I tasted was bitter and stringy and even tough- much to my surprise! And the cauliflower, well it never quite made it inside, as you can see from the picture. Both plants, though not up to my culinary standards were still ever optimistic and continued to grow and even to bloom flowers! And what I have learned (what I knew but have enjoyed seeing) was that all of these plants will bloom! if allowed. I want to add too that while I did not enjoy the cauliflower, the slugs (also ever optimistic) still managed to get a few nibbles in! And the radish flowers were so abundant and beautiful that I cut several bunches and brought them in and put them in a vase. Lovely. Who knew? Radish flowers! They taste like radishes too!


Pink radish flowers and trailing radish vine.


Little yellow-white celery flowers, swiss chard flowers (with red stems),



These onions are flowering and the tiny onion bulbs they made are flowering too, on top of the larger onion!


And here is the crazy cauliflower!

I love that the plants in the garden space continue to grow and thrive and bloom and make more plants and spread and volunteer and send out shoots and seeds no matter what I choose to do with them, whether I eat them or pick them or watch them. It is a good reminder that these plants are not here for me alone and that they have their own life cycle, their own destiny, their own way. Their flowers remind me of that and help me to keep in mind things like- if I don't eat the chard before it blooms and then the stalks are too tough to eat- it is not wasting the chard. Because to think this assumes that the chard has only one purpose in life and that is for me or someone near me to eat it. Not so!

I love the garden and growing plants for many reasons. One of the main reasons is that I find it deeply relaxing to be out with the plants. For this reason alone I find myself wandering out to pick around them and move them and plant them and water them. I have other ideas, though, that mix into my relaxation. Things like, wouldn't it be nice to grow ALL of my own vegetables like the woman in This Organic Life. Or, wouldn't it be nice to have a huge herb garden and then use the herbs in my soap that I like to make. Or, what about setting up a whole wandering gathering spot for the kids so they can just walk outside and gather foods as they like (Eva loves this and seems to do this regardless of how much I *set up*). The thing about some of these ideas is that while they are inspiring, they can also be stifling if I let myself take them too seriously (no matter how fun that may be!).

So the flowering plants have given me much food for thought over the last couple of weeks (if not food to be eaten). And I love how I feel even more open about the garden, about what can happen there, about what it means. So on that note, I am letting the chard fully blossom and then I am going to take them down, put them in the compost and put in some LOOFAH seeds (even though I found out I may not have enough time for their growing season!) and I am waiting for some ground cherry seeds to arrive. They have a little shorter growing season and I think they will be a lot of fun if they work out. More tasty fruit to pick besides the strawberries and the blackberries. I told Samuel too that if we have a lot of the zucchini and eggplant and cucumbers he can set up a vegetable stand and sell them in our front yard. He is very excited!

And of course the really great thing about all of this, flowering plants and letting things be and letting even more things go is that it naturally flows to my kids. Letting them be who they are, watching them do what they will do regardless of what I set out to do, these are things that I am ever optimistic about.

The trees in our yard are so prolific. There are dozens of small maple seedlings growing in the grass. At first I tried to dig up the seedlings to grow them in pots and then transplant them elsewhere later. Now there are just too many. They are beautiful though. When I showed Eva today that they were the little babies of our giant maple tree she was amazed. "That is the momma maple tree!?"


Little baby maple trees