Garden Journal

Seeds and sprouts, harvests and feasts~
A record of what's growing on in our Bird House Garden.

Thursday, December 5, 2013
Partly cloudy, 57/43F. Rain forecast for Saturday.
Sowed:
Bed 1: cilantro seeds, carrot seeds

Growing:
Bed 1: Spinach, carrots... coming along slowly. Strawberries did not transplant well, but still looking like they could rally. Basil still producing.
Bed 2: Carrots growing
Bed 3: Pole beans twining, slowly... may be getting too cold for them to progress and mature
Bed 4: Garlic, and potatoes going strong, and lots of nasturtium. Very few coriander seeds sprouted.

Harvested: All of the tomatoes, and guavas are done. Lettuce will be ready, soon. We have plenty of radishes, but no fans of radishes besides the rabbits. Beets look good, too.

Our lettuce looks beautiful, and I am tempted to pick it now. It's early, but I feel like I am tempting fate by waiting. I don't want to lose our small crop to bugs or birds! In the corner you see our radishes, which I've been sharing with the rabbits. I feel a quite sheepish admitting this, but I have never been a fan of radishes, or arugula, or any of those veg that are described as "peppery." Probably because they are "peppery."

We still have basil, and I really should make and freeze pesto. It's hard to imagine the basil will be this abundant in February.

Should I try tea sandwiches... radish slices on buttered bread? I do like buttered bread!

Another confession: I do not know where these darling flowers came from. Someone must have brought them for us, and I discovered them wilted and forlorn in their little pot, so I hoped to save them by putting them in the flower bed. Lo! They are coming back! Thank you, mystery flower gifter!

Last admission, today... sometimes I am so enamored of a plant in the garden that I am loath to harvest it, or I wait too long and it goes to seed! Am I the only one? Seriously, I should just start eating some of this beautiful lettuce now, and appreciate it's beauty in my salad bowl.

Happiest plants in the garden? The weeds. Definitely, the weeds. Especially those awful clover-like oxalis plants that spread like mad... err.. hold on a sec... seems it's called "sorrel" and "... wood sorrel is an edible wild plant that has been consumed by humans around the world for millennia.[2] In Dr. James Duke's "Handbook of Edible Weeds," he notes that the Kiowa Indian tribe chewed wood sorrel to alleviate thirst on long trips, that the Potawatomi Indians cooked it with sugar to make a dessert, the Algonquin Indians considered it an aphrodisiac, the Cherokee ate wood sorrel to alleviate mouth sores and a sore throat, and the Iroquois ate wood sorrel to help with cramps, fever and nausea." Well. Maybe not actually "awful." I'll have to reconsider my relationship with this abundant weed. (Thank you, again, Wikipedia.)