Our time has come
Gardeners and other people, spring sprang, so let’s see what we need to do.
Yikes! … a lot of things, and you’ll need algebra to count them and coffee to get started, so fire up the pot (so to speak).
Let’s focus not on fast-growing grass refreshed by spring rain or the unswept floor with historical dust or even breakfast… all of that can happen later. Folks who count things claim there are 3000 – 5000 types of vegetables in the world plus thousands of other edible plants. Gardeners should be planting them now.
Of the thousands of choices available, this discussion will focus on brassicas. You know what’s tough? Pansies. Pansies survived the winter in my garden, and so did some kale plants. Kale is tough as a pansy. Kale is one of more than 300 cultivars of Brassica oleracea including cabbage, kohlrabi, dozens of Asian mustard varieties, and radishes.
Radishes are tough too. Shawo is a winter radish variety from northern China that is bigger than a golf ball, green, crunchy with a taste similar to a pear and it prefers colder weather. Black Spanish is a winter radish that might get bigger than a baseball.
Excuse this brief interruption, but the Council for Knowledge about Rosemary wants to remind you to regularly harvest a small batch of the fragrant leaves, spread them on that dish in the corner to dehydrate a while, then add to tea, rice or scrambled eggs. Our motto: Don’t forget your rosemary. Over and out.
Summer radishes, which ripen fast, might be round, ovoid or carrot-shaped in a boxful of colors, and the nutrition they offer is your friend. Cabbages are also colorful. There are cabbage varieties that, if mature enough at the onset of winter, will sit dutifully, patiently waiting to be harvested through the cold weather. A gardener on St. Patrick’s Day could be eating the last fresh winter cabbage. Cabbage is packed with vitamins K and C plus a dose of manganese, fiber and stuff, and it keeps a person regular which is helpful.
Excuse this brief message from the Yarrow Explanation Forum: “Yes indeed, early spring is a boost to our enthusiasm, but yarrow is born to spread. Move us around if you need to and remember that fresh leaves are vulnerary for skin wounds. Dehydrated leaves make a healing tea for you and scented mulch for other plants. Yes, we pop up unexpectedly, but we mean well. Use all you need. Over and out.”
Have you ever grown kohlrabi? Have you ever seen kohlrabi? Gardeners over centuries have created all the brassica cultivars we grow today by selecting plants with certain traits and perpetuating them. Broccoli, for example, is like it is for a reason. For kohlrabi, gardeners bred wild brassica plants to produce a short stem topped by a swollen ball with leaves sprouting out. The swollen crunchy part will be at least as big as a golf ball and taste like mild broccoli. They might be green, purplish or whitish, and they prefer cool weather in a sunny location. Nothing else like them.
Matthiola is an annual brassica grown as an ornamental. Known as evening-scented stock, its dainty flowers release their fragrance as the sun goes down. Don’t eat it, just harvest flowers to encourage more flowers.
Excuse this brief interruption from the International PDN Authority: “Purple Dead Nettle wants to grace your garden, not invade it. We might smell musky and wild, but we’re cute and edible. We’ve got vitamin C, iron and flavonoids. You can make pesto out of fresh leaves or dehydrate the leaves and smoke them. Our leaves are anti-inflammatory too, if you’re into that sort of thing. We’re here to help. Over and out.
Bok choi, yod fah and red mustard are brassicas from Asia, arugula from the Mediterranean perimeter, and Brussels sprouts come from Belgium. So much to say about brassicas if only there were more space.