Thursday, February 10, 2011

Micro-Gardening

I like to practice what I call micro-gardening. Instead of having a traditional vegetable garden where I overwhelm my neighbors with cucumbers and cabbages, I try to grow just enough for my household to eat while it's in season.

Right now, for instance, I have two heads of cabbage, two bok chois, four broccolis, two tiny Brussels sprouts, a few lettuces, one parsley plant, two cilantro plants, and a few green onions. (Stay tuned for a future post on green onions!) The bok choi and lettuce have provided much seasonal delight, and the cabbage heads are developing nicely. We've eaten the main heads on the broccolis and now we've got a few side shoots sprouting, awaiting our eager appetites. I planted two more broccoli plants, but I forgot to cover one of them during a recent night in the low 20s. Oops!!

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In the spring, I'll plant a few tomato plants, a couple of cucumber seeds, three or four varietiers of peppers, a few okra seeds, some beans of various varieties, maybe an eggplant or two. This is enough to feed us fresh veggies every day while they are in season, with maybe enough extra to freeze some okra for a good winter gumbo.

Amazingly, however, there's always enough to share. My little neighbor likes grape tomatoes, and no matter how many he munches, there's always enough for our own dinner. One cucumber plant gives us more than one cuke per day .. and really, how many more than one per day can a person eat?! So the excess go to my office or my mom or neighbors who are on my walking route. And eggplant: one bush gives us three to four eggplants per week! Roasted, grilled, dips & spreads ... it's all yummy, but geezum, that is just way too much eggplant for me!

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So ... I practice micro-gardening in theory, but somehow it turns into plenty enough to share. Amazing.

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