It's been frustrating trying to work within my disabilities and the negativity around me. Every morning at dawn, my usual time to get moving, there is enough smoke pollution to give me asthma attacks. So I have to wait for a breeze to come up, leaving me with only a couple of hours of gardening time. I'm too sensitive to UV to work after ten at this time of year.
But I'm persistent if nothing else. I've been mixing soil for the planting bed a few batches at a time, while I try to keep up with other things around here. This morning I finally made it, all the soil I took out of the bed has been amended and returned to it.
I planted the whole bed, something like seven meters of it, with Vigna unguiculata, which is known variously as the cowpea, the blackeyed pea, the crowder pea, etc....depending on where you live I suppose. They're not the same thing as the peas in those "microwaveable" meals they sell in supermarkets. Those are Pisum sativum. The variety I'm trying this year is Ologwe, which is said to be very popular in Nigeria. Most of the cowpeas grown in the world are produced in China and Africa. I've grown several varieties of peas, both Pisum sativum and Vigna unguiculata. Vigna grows best here between April and November.
I also have some long beans planted in a 57 cm pot, those are Vigna sesquipedalis. Those are great in stir fries.
Other things that are doing well...Basella alba in a large pot, three varieties of okra in pots, a couple of molokhia plants in pots, Allium fistulosum, lots of Ipomoea batatas, hot peppers of various kinds, basil, oregano, etc. I don't always remember what's growing out there at any given time, it changes with the seasons. I also eat a lot of purslane at this time of year, which is tasty and very nutritious. That's Portulaca oleracea. It's a popular vegetable around the world and it was a mainstay of colonial gardens in the US. But now people in the US are generally too ignorant to know what it is.
That's really too bad, because it's so incredibly easy to grow. Modern humans have become so dependent on the corporate food machine that they're helpless without it....at least most of those in the major industrialized countries are. A five-year-old could grow purslane, parsley, and basil in a backyard if he or she knew how, it's that easy...and they're a nutritional powerhouse in the kitchen.
Allium fistulosum is also easy to grow, it's called the bunching onion, the Welsh onion, or the scallion. The plants sold in supermarkets these days as scallions are Allium cepa, the common or bulbing onion. Ipomoea batatas has many names, including yam, sweet potato, and kumara. Both Ipomoea batatas and Allium fistulosum grow extremely well at latitude 26 degrees throughout the year.
I promise pictures, but as I said my outdoor time is limited by all this air pollution and my sensitivity to the sun. I do the best I can.
