Friday, November 20, 2009

A winter garden after all

So, remember when I said that I wasn't doing a winter garden this year?

Yeah, I vaguely remember that, too. Which means that I'm declaring myself an official liar right here, right now.

Honesty! I'm all about it!

Sort of.

Anyway, this time it's not 100% my fault because I did not have the intention of growing a winter garden, so didn't go down the Adopt a Crop road to having you guys vote for crops because I wasn't going to do it.

I was just going to throw some fava beans in the ground with the intention of turning them under come spring time and then TEE DAH winter would be over and we'd be back to losing our shit over tomatoes, which is how I prefer to live anyway.

But no, my dear, dear friend Elke, who was 100% more motivated to winter garden than I was, went to a fabulous class, planted some fabulous seeds and then sent me a fabulous email to see if I would be interested in adopting some of her fabulous seedlings.

There was absolutely no way I could NOT adopt them - that would have been rude. I know you agree.

Then there was the case of Shopping Without a Short-Term Memory that occurred sometime late in the summer which resulted in my receiving delivery of some garlic. And then some beans. And then some nasturtium which I won't be able to plant until springtime so who knows what the hot rush to order them was all about. And then the grass plugs and 800 wildflower bulbs. OH! And that Siskiyou gaura I ordered on a whim when a Burpee email arrived in my inbox as though it was created for me personally since the only image it contained was one of the only plant I was coveting yet not finding at my local nursery.

The fact that I managed to order all those things and then forget so magnificently about their forthcoming is frankly a little disturbing. Imagine what nonsense we have to look forward to closer to the holidays! I may have already done my Christmas shopping for all I know!

If only.

Anyway, I'm all about coming clean today, so I will show you the little green tinies currently living on strongly in my garden.

I will say, though, that these are photos from the day of planting and don't accurately represent how closely I planted the broccolini over the garlic because now I have green garlic stems weaving their way up through the broccolini leaves.

Will this be bad? No idea. But it will be, regardless.

Clockwise from left: Purple kohlrabi, broccolini, leeks, shelling peas, garlic

I also realize that these are not good photos, but they're what I've got for now and I don't really like posting about new plants without photos and I couldn't go one more second without posting about this garden I wasn't going to grow, so there you go.

I will, however, be documenting via photograph, the ridiculously crappy job I did of spacing the plants in this bed because you'll laugh. Hopefully with me rather than at me, but I'll take it either way.

It has been foretold that the broccolini will taste of garlic, but we shall see.

6 comments:

  1. LEEKS! Yay! We have gotten a LOT of use out of our leeks already. A handy crop to have.

    Also, I think it's some kind of law that broccolini has to be cooked with garlic anyway, so maybe you're just ahead of the game.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm just jaw-dropped that you can even grow anything in the winter. Ah, California!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. When I was living in Santa Cruz, Ca last winter I learned to fall in love with my winter garden. There are so many things that we can grow in Ca in the winter. My favorites last year were broccoli and leaf lettuce. You also must try peas!
    I will be moving to San Jose next month. I cant wait to start a new garden in our new house!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I second Kristin, broccolini tastes best with garlic, so infusing it from the start will mean all you have to do is throw it in a pan with olive oil and pepper flakes!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just to give you a big zetz before Thanksgiving, one of our neighbors just put up Christmas decorations. My granddaughter and I were taking a nice leisurely walk around the block and there they were: TWO HUGE candy canes, ONE candy-striped mailbox, and some other related junk. I wanted you to be the first to know.
    Jenny

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kris - Well, we'll see about the leeks. I only have 6 planted and I think I need to thin them since they're planted so close together, so I might end up growing something retarded, like 2 leeks. It'll be funny anyway.

    Anna - Yes, this is the California Magic. The oranges are just starting to ripen!

    Melissa - I'm growing shelling peas for the first time this year - I can't wait to see if they do anything!

    CLP - Do you think it will take on a garlic flavor? That'd be sweet.

    Jenny - I cried a little bit with this comment. HORRORS.

    ReplyDelete

[2013 update: You can't comment as an anonymous person anymore. Too many douchebags were leaving bullshit SPAM comments and my inbox was getting flooded, but if you're here to comment in a real way like a real person, go to it.]

Look at you commenting, that's fun.

So, here's the thing with commenting, unless you have an email address associated with your own profile, your comment will still post, but I won't have an email address with which to reply to you personally.

Sucks, right?

Anyway, to remedy this, I usually come back to my posts and post replies in the comment field with you.

But, if you ever want to email me directly to talk about pumpkins or shoes or what it's like to spend a good part of your day Swiffering - shoot me an email to finnyknitsATgmailDOTcom.

Cheers.