Containers

The grass is slowing down in its growth now, and the cool season is here.  This morning it was 16 Celsius out by the South Garden.  So that signals it's time to get moving on my greens.  Most of them are very sensitive to nighttime temps, particularly lettuce and cole crops. Cole crops aka cruciferous veggies include turnip, broccoli, collards, mustard, and pac choy.

The cole crops are nutritional powerhouses, in addition to tasting really good in salads, soups, and stir fries.  Look up turnip greens somewhere and check out the nutritional analysis...it's really impressive.

I felt a little better this morning, so I got outside around eight and got to work mixing potting soil and setting up pots.  I set up three 34 cm pots with radishes and pepper plants.  It's a hassle sometimes, fussing with containers and mixing soil...especially when I'm feeling ill.  But this morning I felt enthusiastic for a change.  It's hard to stay enthusiastic when you're in a lot of pain every day...but that's another story for another blog somewhere.

I've had a running debate in my head for years...containers or planting beds in the ground?  Containers are winning lately.  My potting soil is much richer and better able to grow a variety of veggies.  But the planting beds can at times produce really impressive yields of things that tolerate the calcareous soil...like tomatoes, cole crops, and beans.  So I've been trying a little of both. After a spectacular failure with some sweet potato plants in the South Garden, I'm currently focusing on the containers. 

I might just plant the whole garden in emmer wheat to see what happens.  The grass family has an impressive ability to grow in almost any soil...in fact there's a species of African grass that is absolutely determined to make that garden its own...Dactyloctenium aegyptium.  No matter how much hoeing I do, it always comes back somehow.  Grain sorghum has always done well in that garden, so I might try the wheat this cool season...I have a nice fat envelope of seed I recently bought.

As for the containers, I have plans for lots of peppers and greens. Lately I've been planting Jwala peppers and Poblano peppers.  My favorites include Serranos, Caribbean reds, and Tabascos.  I like bell peppers too, but they are very disease-prone, so I've given up on them for a while.  In the past I have grown some very nice bell peppers in the containers...maybe I'll get back to them again.

I'm also going to plant lots of Golden Ball turnips.  I like them the best of all the varieties I've tried, and apparently European foodies agree with me...the Golden Ball is supposed to be the most popular turnip throughout Europe.  Those white turnips with the purple tops give me too much indigestion, so I just won't eat them anymore.  I do love eating rutabagas or turnips mashed half and half with potato, like my grandmother used to fix them. Unfortunately the weather is only suitable for turnips for just a few months if that.  The rest of the time they struggle in the heat and the roots get very strong-tasting and pungent.   I'll put their pots at the northern side of the racks so the soil stays cooler, or maybe plant a row of them in a planting bed.

I rarely grow great quantities of anything.  Instead I plant a little of this and a little of that.  This gives me great variety in my meals.  If you have a choice, why not live well?  I pity those who have to get by on supermarket food...how sad their lives are.  Having lots of toys doesn't bring you happiness...good food, good music, pleasant surroundings, good company, good sex, being close to trees, plants and wildlife...now that's living.