Gardens require that we pay attention to what is there – not what we think or wish would be there.
Last fall – mid-September – I planted the fall crops of kale and collard greens, and several lettuces. The deer wiped out the kale and lettuces, even though I sprayed them with Liquid Fence, a wonderful and natural deer and bunny repellent. They didn’t care about the collards – never do, as a matter of fact.
Several winters in a row, I’ve had collard greens continue to grow through the dark months, and have had fresh greens in January and February. Not this year. That early cold snap around Thanksgiving seemed to have stopped their growth, and then killed them. The the snow piled up and stuck around. The ground was frozen, so I just left them out there, looking droopy and gray.
This long and cool spring, though, has made them very happy, and they snapped back, perked up, started standing tall. This week, way out of season and time, they went to seed. So just a few minutes ago I harvested all the good leaves from the 8 or 10 plants that were out there. The stems, roots and all the rest will go on the compost heap later on.
The leaves I harvested are in an Evert-Fresh green plastic bag, which has a kind of clay inside that keeps veggies looking like they just came in from the garden a few minutes ago – for weeks!
And as soon as the asparagus is finished – which will be within 2 weeks – I’ll get the garden turned over, and then start again. Sure makes me happy! : >