This year my garden is a disaster. I blame some problems on Mother Nature. I take responsibility for others.
I’ll begin with radishes. They pushed through the earth easily, and I planned on hearty salads that included zesty radish slices along with the lettuce I was growing. I should mention that my lettuce crop this year is fantastic. Huge, beautiful green leaves. No complaints there.
But back to the radishes. Exactly three out of a long row were edible. The others were stringy, small and so hot to the taste, I spit them out.
I don’t know what I did wrong, but they were a failure.
Envisioning a hearty coleslaw on a brisk October night, I planted half a dozen red cabbages. How hard can it be to grow cabbage? The jury is still out, but as of the first of August, they haven’t formed heads but have developed long stems that I’ve never seen before. According to Internet wisdom, red cabbages take longer to mature, and I should be patient and see what happens with the stems.
OK. So much for that. Carrots are doing okay, although only 15 or so seeds germinated. Same with kale. A few hearty plants are growing minus the one I accidentally chopped in half with a hoe.
Moving on…last year, I fancied a “butterfly/bee garden” so I planted several milkweeds and bee balms, both plants touted to be excellent for the little winged creatures. Only a small bee balm survived and finally poked through the ground in late June, a tiny thing that does not look hearty.
One milkweed survived the harsh winter and grew tall with plentiful flowers. Ah ha, I told myself, finally a success. One day, as I surveyed my prize milkweed, I noticed a sinister-looking green and black worm munching one of its nice, green leaves.
My instinct was to knock it to the ground and stomp it. Only a flashback to my childhood and my butterfly catching era, saved the poor caterpillar. I suddenly realized it was a monarch butterfly caterpillar. Since then, I’ve watched several caterpillars munching milkweed leaves and felt happy.
My final garden “duh” is one I have to admit was not smart. I bought flowering cabbages, thinking they were edible. OK. I should have asked, researched, anything, before I planted all six of them. Then, when they started turning out beautiful leaves I wouldn’t have salivated. However, I wasted half the summer before googling them and couldn’t believe the words—non-edible.
The only consolation is that they are beautiful.
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