Will My Garden Grow?

DURING a visit to the local library, I noticed a display for

 free seeds sponsored by a collaborative group of gardeners.

There was even a handout to accompany the seeds.

You can't see them all

because they were in a cubby, but there were at least twelve to choose from.

Knowing the limited amount of space I have, AND, knowing I must do container plants, I chose; 

According to the handout, mixed greens will do better in cooler weather. Green Arrow peas can be planted now and so can dill. 

I have yet to plant these because...

👀

I went to the community Farmer's Market held every Friday (April 27, 2019) in my area and saw a booth with started plants. I bought an eggplant with  blossoms, rosemary and a tomato plant. Don't ask me what kind of tomato? People who garden always have tomatoes. I once had a potted rosemary which lived close to four years but I guess one of the winters was just too rough and so finally it bit the dust. I enjoy the smell of rosemary and its flavorful taste in foods. So many herbs are being used in medicinal and beauty products. Whether it works or not is questionable. Sometimes the mind can be tricked into thinking that it does and so it will be.

Once again I'm deviating from the subject. 

Here's a vertical and horizontal look after I put them in pots. The green pot 

is empty but I plan to repot the rosemary in it. The crate on the end has Swiss

chard which overwintered and has come back.

As of  6-1-2019  I have 2 eggplant(s)??

As for the seeds...  ????😶

Here are the gardens of friends. This first belongs to E.P. She goes small scale like I do.

She put down a layer of paper for weed control as I did in my front flower bed. She has flowers and vegetables. Peppers, tomatoes which grew from seeds of a store bought tomato. Cucumber and okra.The worms have had a feast on the collards so she's letting those die out.

My friend R.M. goes big. She is an avid gardener with a large back yard to plant and experiment with different varieties.  Captions below are in her words.

Daisies that have gone from white to yellow, due to soil content this year 

 

Both plants are Amaryllis. You gave me a box 5 or 6 Christmas's ago. I tend to propagate bulbs and plants to make other colors.

 

Blooming this week. Mandarin Honeysuckle.. Took 2 years to bloom. 

It is not invasive,  but I note wild Honeysuckle in the woods for the first time. It has crept closer, whereas I've never seen it before. Must be some pollination going on.

Can you really grow vegetables from that left over scrap?

You've seen the videos that tell you that you can grow bok choy, carrots, spring onions, celery etc. from the bottoms of your grocery store vegetables?

I've tried it with bok choy because that's a tasty, pricey little veggie.

IT DOESN'T WORK!!

I've tried it twice and all I got was a few leaves that never grew into a plant. I tasted a few of the small leaves and they were bitter and inedible. I EVEN put it in soil to grow. It mainly became weedy, flowered and still didn't grow into a plant. 

My bok choy transplant

To be fair, I've read that some of this transplanting will take place successfully if you buy organic vegetables and use them. Next time I want to try bok choy I'll start with seeds.

Thank you to E.P. and R. M. for your contributions.

next week It's a Senior Af FAIR

That's it ***

Green Living…

as in turnips, mustard, kale, collards, spinach and the like.  While kale seems to be the la-di-da favorite of the decade, it once was about as popular as poke salad.  A popular way of serving kale seems to be raw. The coarseness of the raw vegetable is not palatable to me so I’m not a member of the

kingdom .

I'm not opposed to trying new greens but easier greens to find from a roadside stand or farmer’s market  are  turnips, collards, mustard.    

I purchased two bunches of pretty, fresh, turnip, greens  and a large bunch of collards from a roadside truck.  The turnip green  bunches were small but enough for me.

The collard greens were actually three  bunches in one. 

I gave one bunch away and kept the other two. Using my kitchen scissors, I cut the leaves off in a v-shape and placed the stems to the side.

I usually discard the stems but this time I saved them.

photo taken from  www.blog.tamykang.com

  I cut off the ends nearest the stalk and began cutting them into one inch pieces.  

Placing them in a steamer and seasoning with Maggi chicken bouillion powder, garlic powder and pepper, I steamed them until they were tender. This didn’t take as long as I thought it would.

 

The results were tender, melt-in-your-mouth delicious. The texture was that of  asparagus and the taste was  a lighter one of collard greens,  yet flavorful.

I told a few people I know about what I thought was an original recipe. They listened but I could tell they were skeptical.  Most of them hadn't tried the collard stems. It turns out also, that I hadn't hit upon anything original. Others have been eating the stems, making soups and one person claimed to have made a gravy.

As someone once said, there’s nothing new under the sun.

Before discovering that what I'd done was nothing new, my imagination told me that maybe I shouldn’t have revealed the secret of  this two-fer vegetable .News could get back to the produce people and they might start selling only the collard leaves and charging extra for the stems. Very similarly to the way turnip bottoms are often sold separately from the green leaves.

 BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE

I cut off a portion of the stalk and placed it in a cup, in water. My little collard plant is coming along quite nicely. I'll soon place it in dirt just to see how far it will go.

This is very similar to what I did to bok choy I had.

If you’ve read any of my other posts, you know that I’m not afraid to experiment and  recycle what most people throw away. 

THAT'S ALL***

BOK CHOY RELOADED

www.skinnymoose.com 

I tried bok choy also known as Chinese cabbage for the first time a few months ago. I really liked it. There are numerous recipes on how to prepare it. I chose to saute the leaves and stems with a little olive oil and garlic, salt and pepper. As much as I'd like to have more, it's a little pricey for me. $2.49 for a bunch at Publix. Once it's cooked, there's enough for maybe 2 servings.

While visiting YouTube which is something I do frequently, I came across videos of people regrowing  vegetables from a part that was left over. I've tried this with celery, green onions, basil and some others. These were all curiosity experiments and no expectations of a full-fledged plant.






After cutting across the base of the plant,

copied from http://blog.spacegirlorganics.com/regrowing-bok-choy/ 

 I placed the base in water.

Top view after two weeks

Side view after two weeks

I read that the plants enjoy cool weather, sun and that the roots do better in the dark. That's when I took it outside and planted in potting soil. Also, the outer stems were disintegrating in the water.

We've had freezing weather and warm sunny weather here in Birmingham, Alabama. You never know what to expect. I never took the plant inside. I let it fend for itself.

You can see the roots attached to the soil

Today I wanted to see if the plant was making any progress after over a month.













After shaking off the dirt this is what was left.

 

The plant really hasn't grown that much.

After further reading I found that for a complete adult plant, it is necessary to grow them from seed.
I'll eat the leaves off of this and keep sprouting it in water until its completely spent.