Gardening – Plan For A First Quick Harvest
When I’m crafting my garden plans, I always include radishes as part of the first/Spring plan.
Radish is one of the easiest, quickest, cold-friendly vegetables to grow. Both the root and the leaves can be eaten.
Eating from the garden early and sharing that bounty is a huge reward. It keeps me excited and motivated.
And it keeps everyone around me on board with the gardening. They (and I!) see results right away. They benefit from these results.
And it’s fun to pull up radishes, uncovering how big (or small – remember the leaves are edible so small is okay too) they are!
Other fast growing crops are leafy greens like spinach and lettuce, snow peas (all of the snow pea plant is edible also – the greens are delicious), and bok choy.
Consider planting a fast-to-harvest, cool-temperature-tolerant crop first.
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A Challenging Year Of Gardening
This year was a challenging one for gardening in my corner of the universe.
There was drought. And extreme winds. And a lot of insect and squirrel pressure.
The harvest was…okay. Because we grew a variety of vegetables. Some did poorly (like the tomatoes). But some did very well (like the zucchini i.e. courgettes and the raspberries).
It wasn’t anything to get super excited about.
But gardening still ‘paid’ back, not only in savings on vegetables (which are super expensive in the grocery stores) but also in serenity.
Wandering around the garden, listening to the birds and the bees, touching the soil and the plants calms me.
A recent research study claims that listening to bird song decreases the possibility of emotional depression. There are many studies around the benefits of connecting with the soil, how it grounds us (pun intended – grins).
My garden is a sanctuary in a trying world.
And that is priceless.
(smiles)
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Gardening – Saving Seeds
It is moving into Fall/Autumn in my part of the universe and it is time for some intense seed saving.
I like to save seeds as early as possible in the season because then I’m assured I’ll have seeds for next year and can relax a bit. But some plants like butternut squash can take all season for their seeds to ripen.
And we wish to ripen those seeds on the plant for as long as possible. That increases the probability those seeds will be viable as the plant has put maximum energy into creating them.
I save my seeds in cleaned-out plastic condiment containers, the type we get with take-out orders. I then put those condiments in old metal cookie/biscuit tins and store them in the cooler basement.
I usually have a gazillion seeds. So I usually plant extra in the Spring because…I can and because that ensures at least some of them will be viable.
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A Gardener’s Learning Curve
Gardening is a skill. And as with any skill (including writing), there’s a learning curve.
The first vegetables I grew as an adult were tomatoes. And that was ALL I grew in that first year.
I needed the time to learn how to tend to the soil, how to water the tomato plants properly, how to stake them, how to attract pollinators, when to harvest their fruit and then their seeds, how to prepare the bed for the next year and so on.
I made mistakes. Some plants died. All plants grew…not terrifically. (sheepish grin) The harvest was…underwhelming.
I learned from those mistakes and the following year, the tomato growing went MUCH better.
So much better that I decided to grow green beans also.
And I made mistakes with those plants also.
I learned. I became a better gardener.
I added another type of vegetable to the garden. And the process repeated.
If this was your first year gardening and your harvest was underwhelming or completely nonexistent, know that is normal.
That is expected.
Your mistakes this year will make you a better gardener next year.
(smiles)
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Seed Saving And Sharing
(The radish seeds, contained within these pods, are almost ready to harvest. They merely need to dry a bit.)
I reserve a part of the harvest for the wildlife.
The Mafia Squirrels will steal some cherry tomatoes. The birds will eat some raspberries. The slugs will devour some green beans.
That is the reality of gardening and is a part of the honor of sharing this wonderful planet with other lifeforms.
I also, however, reserve a part of the harvest for seeds.
I allow some plants, like radishes and spinach and others, to flower and then go to seed. This is a long process and I can’t use that garden space for anything else while it is happening.
But it is necessary to ensure there will be a harvest next year.
We saw during the early days of COVID that buying seeds is not always a reliable option. It was almost impossible to find lettuce seeds in my part of the world in 2020, for example.
If times get tough, seeds will be difficult to obtain again.
Plus saved seeds are usually more suited to our particular growing conditions. The plants that survived to give us those seeds thrived in our gardens.
Often, when we save seeds, we end up with WAY more seeds than we could ever possibly use.
I could convert the entire neighborhood to 100% spinach lawns with the seeds I’ve saved.
(grins)
I share my excess seeds with other gardeners in the area. It is an easy and free way to make their lives a little bit happier.
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Fast To Harvest
(This is a stock photo. Our radishes don’t look this pretty. But they taste delicious!)
The quickest harvest we have in the Sax household is always the radish. The type we grow doesn’t care about the cold. (grins) As long as the soil is semi-thawed, they are good to go.
And we allow some to self-seed, which means they are usually the first vegetable plants to emerge. They even beat the dandelions!
So the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I are munching on radishes now.
(smiles)
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Watching The Garden Grow
All of the seedlings have been planted in the backyard vegetable bed. Yay! They are still very small but it does look like a legitimate garden now. (smiles)
I joke about sitting back and watching the garden grow.
There are still tasks to complete in the garden. I’m composting. I’m weeding. I’m replanting whatever the mafia squirrels dig up. I’m training the peas along the string trestle. And interesting tasks like that.
But the hard work IS over…until harvest begins.
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Raw Desires
His human female is attempting to kill him.
This cyborg finds that adorable.
Raw, a K model cyborg, is one of the lucky warriors who has located his genetic match. He hears his human female’s voice over the communication lines and immediately processes she is his.
Winning her affections will be a greater challenge. Battle has always been Raw’s focus. The rough-and-tough warrior has no idea how to engage anyone’s tender emotions.
Fortunately, he isn’t alone in the universe. His unmatched male friends help him craft a plan.
All Raw has to do is relay a few unsettlingly sweet words to his female and give her the thoroughly unfunctional wall decoration he has obtained. He projects she will then jump into his big, strong arms and beg him to claim her.
Taytu isn’t jumping anywhere. She has one mission—kill every cyborg in existence.
The huge, handsome male traveling to meet with her is her first target. His rough hands, firm lips, and sparkling, energy-infused eyes won’t save him from her vengeance. She has trained vigorously for this moment, and she won’t fail at her assigned task.
The cyborg will die.
Raw Desires is an enemies-to-lovers Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
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