3/25/2024 0 Comments Repetition of the Cabbage This year I grew some of the prettiest cabbage right in the above ground bed that I used for my potatoes. I began to harvest them and those who know me, know my mind spins 100 miles an hour all the time. This time though, I had a thought about what would happen if I left the stalks where they were for a while, since I didn't really have anything to plant in that bed at the moment. I decided to pick one of the cabbage heads and do a little experimenting. I love experimenting. My grandparents always pulled up the whole plant and gave what was left after harvesting the head to the hogs. I got that; I do the same for the chickens with other trimmings from the garden. Those chicks get plenty of collards and kale. Anyhow, I cut the cabbage off as usual with my butcher knife and pulled away a couple of leaves. I left the rest of the dying leaves on because they would keep the grass or weeds from coming up. I then went on about my daily chores and put the cut stalk in the back of my mind for another day. Couple of days later, I went to check on the stalk. As the saying goes, "curiosity killed the cat." There they were new little cabbage sprouts. I pondered about taking all but one off, but changed my mind because if they were small heads, that would more than suit me. I didn't need big portions anyway. I harvested another cabbage and did the same thing to that stalk and couple days later had the same result from it, except it had four new babies, and I decided to take one of them off. Three new heads were enough strain on that old mother cabbage stalk.
These are up to date pictures of the cabbage heads growing. As they get bigger, I will post how their journey is progressing in a week or so. Let's just hope the old mother stalk will hang in there with these babies.
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6/13/2023 1 Comment End Results of the Spuds Remember the journey I started in February; well, I thought it befitting to end that journey with you. I have been waiting patiently for the time to see if my experiment had positive results. Gardening is my therapy! Always has been. I don't try to grow a large garden at all. I plant whatever strikes me at the time and it could be one plant or fifty. I eat and share whatever is available in my little garden. It is supposed to be fun and stress free. That is to me what a therapy garden is about. On that note, I can tell you that starting new beds in a garden, is Hard Therapy. It is hard work period. It's building, shoveling, hauling, digging and mixing. But let me say, it is so worth the effort when you begin to harvest the results. Back to the spuds, here are a few pics to refresh your memory on the project, and you also can go back in archives to February and refresh your memory with the articles. These potatoes are in a 4x8 ft above ground bed that is twelve inches in depth. Not a large bed at all, remember, it is therapy, not "kill your body the next day". Well, let's get on with the test harvest, that's lingo for I need a few for dinner tonight. I got my little shovel with the broken handle and went to the corner of the bed determined to just dig one hill. Suspense has been killing me for a week. So, i grabbed the little vine and broke the top off to get it out of the way. Gently, I dug around the hill of potatoes to loosen the soil, then I used my hands. Gold, pure gold in that mound. I was a happy camper. That little hill was loaded with paydirt. I couldn't have been happier at the number of Potatoes I was staring at. So much for a "Test Harvest". They were ready to come out of the ground. I gathered my spuds for dinner and even a few to share with a friend. Tomorrow, I will harvest them all.
Fast forward to the next morning, Tater Digging Day. I am always in my garden early every morning, I love mornings and I have to feed the chickens and gather the eggs, so gardening is also part of my routine. I got all the other chores done and went back to the little shovel, putting it to work. Took me about an hour to do all the hills carefully not to cut the potatoes. Then, I washed them gently to remove the dirt and placed them out to dry good before storing them for later use. Here is the Harvest! I will be redoing the old bed to match this bed next year. I received two times what the older bed produced. Oh, and that was the morning pickup on the eggs, had to share! I thank each and every one of you for following and reading about my journeys. As for now, I made a mess on the patio, so it's time for me to say farewell until the next time. Please, feel free to comment or ask a question. |
Welcome to My Garden Some people may wonder why it is called a Secret Garden. My home is in the middle of eighty acres, and the house is shaped like a capital H with the front legs half cut off. The back side consist of patios, decks, and a pool area that are basically hidden from site. This makes the patio garden very secluded. I decided to fill the swimming pool in and expand the little garden patio to the enclosed area that was the pool. This gave the garden a pretty fenced in area. The picket fence would also protect my vegetable garden from those four-legged friends that enjoy coming to visit. The garden is filled with all varieties of flowers and vegetables. It has a few palms, because of my love for the ocean, and they remind me of that little breath of fresh air when I can't be there too. I guess you could say, I am blessed to be able to have the best of both worlds, country living and Gulf air.
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