Living in coastal South Carolina allows me the luxury of having a garden year round (if I were so inclined). Our falls and winters are mild and we have maybe one cold month a year (last year we didn't even have that).
I have two friends who are wild gardener's and the funny thing is that they both do it for different reasons. Kit does it for enjoyment and relaxation (I totally do no get that) and Dena does it to make her home look good and the fresh veggies and herbs she gets. They both spend a ton of time in the garden digging, planting, mulching, putting in compost (you get the idea). My idea of a garden is you dig a hole, put a plant in, cover it up, water it and that's about it (which may be why my garden is never as fruitful as either one of theirs).
One of first years together Michael put a raised garden bed in the backyard for me. The first year it was okay and I got a few tomatoes, after that it was down hill for that spot. The herbs grew fine (at least until the sudden and unplanned death of my rosemary bush earlier this year) but that was it. I thought it was because of the tidal flooding in that corner of the yard but, my gardening friends assured me it was the almost total lack of sunshine that did my plants in.
Michael is quite the gardener too and I believe he is a mix of my two friends. He seems to enjoy being outside digging in the yard and I know he is proud of how our home looks from the street with all his flowering bushes. A number of these will be gone soon as fall is here and I wanted to plant some decorative veggies in the front yard so out I went yesterday with my little trowel, two very big bags of soil and the plants I am hoping I am not sacrificing to the plant gods!
Hopefully we will have a winter garden! I sort of put in 2 colorful Kale plants, 6 cauliflower plants and next to go in when I figure out where the heck they are going are collards (which I will have to share with one of the gardening friends since I think 9 collard plants might be a tad too much).
If you pick the collards from the outside when they are small, you can keep harvesting more-or-less tender "baby" greens forever. Well, until they bolt or flower, or it gets hot out again, anyway.
ReplyDeleteAlso, kale is gross.