Posts tagged ‘growing’
New beginnings
The comforting signs of spring – warm weather, the return of colour, longer days – are everywhere right now. Finally! I love spring for the sense of possibility and renewal it brings, the joy of new growth, the way we all sink into our more relaxed and real selves.
Normally by March I have a scraggly group of seedlings growing in various pots and trays in the sunny south room in our house, but not this year. This year instead of filling up pots with dirt and flowers we’re emptying them out and packing them up for our new adventures in beautiful Vancouver. This year I’m the one doing the growing. New city, new house, new garden, new job and the excitement of sharing it all with family and friends old and new. It’s refreshing and energizing in the same way spring is.
I feel exactly like these two beautiful sunflower seedlings – newly awakened and basking in the warm sun drawing in strength and energy for the season of growth and beauty that lies ahead. I can’t wait to see what else is growing when we get there.
Garden bouquet
Isn’t it lovely? All picked from my very own garden! I know I will spend the rest of the fall and winter dreaming of this moment of having a vase of fresh cut flowers resting on the patio table on a perfect late summer day.
Violets
The violets in our garden are blooming like crazy right now. We had a few hardy violets growing in the open dirt that was our yard when we first bought our house two years ago. Transplanting them was my first act of gardening at our new home. Since then, I’ve been collecting the seeds each fall and scattering them. Violets have seeds that are very easy to harvest and grow. At the end of last summer I laid seeds on the soil, covered them very lightly with dirt and after a long winter we now have healthy patches of violets growing in several places throughout our front and backyard.
Violets are by far one of my favorite flowers. I have nostalgic memories of them growing in our yard when I was a child, and I remember being allowed to pick them and put them in little vases or glasses. Violets are one of the better known edible flowers. There’s not really any taste to them, but they are lovely to look at and add a nice element to the presentation of a dish. I’ve had them on salad and have also seen them pressed into goat cheese (Salt Spring Island Cheese Company’s pretty flower chevre is a favorite of mine). Another fun idea is candied violets as a garnish for cakes or other desserts.
Hardy, easy to grow, edible, beautiful and full of fond memories. What’s not to like?
Growing salad greens
Lettuce, spinach and other salad greens are probably the most satisfying vegetables to grow in the garden. I planted seeds for butter lettuce, an heirloom red leaf variety, spinach and beet greens, and after about a month of growing time they’re ready to eat. And they all taste so good! I’m especially fond of the earthy, tangy flavour of tiny beet greens mixed into a salad with the lettuce and spinach. All the blogs / magazine articles recommend seeding salad greens every few weeks to ensure a continuous supply of fresh, young leaves to harvest all summer long. I plan to seed some shady areas near our house with these varieties as the deck is far too hot for greens during the summertime.
After being spoiled from the pleasure of eating fresh lettuce from our garden last spring and summer, I avoided lettuce all winter long. As a vegetarian I don’t usually have the problem of fresh veggies going to waste, but lettuce bought from the store is an exception and quickly makes its way to compost-bin heaven after becoming a forgotten mushy mess in the fridge. But now we have lettuce growing in the planter boxes on our deck again! I love being able to wander out to the yard at dinner time and gather a few leaves of everything into a bowl for salad and know that it tastes 100 times better than store-bought lettuce, with none wasted by my carelessness and strange aversion to making salad from lettuce that comes out of a fridge.
I’ve been eating fresh greens almost every night – as salad, in wraps, on (portabello) burgers and sandwiches. This weekend I’ll buy some arugula seeds so we can add that to the mix – I’ve been dreaming of the way it tastes heaped on top of a thin crust pizza, especially one made with gorgonzola cheese. Yum!
