It has been more than two weeks since my mustard seeds have sprouted and after an intense week of online conferences, I find myself in the garden again. The garden is taking on its summer dress, and the last of the winter flowers are turning pale, while the summer flowers are already beginning to dance in their juvenile and youthful joy.
In the renewed summer heat, I could not stop myself from sowing some basil seeds (below left). After a couple of devastating storms, destroying my basil crops, I am now again embarking on the journey of trying to grow basil. Luckily, I have ample stores of basil seeds from which I can re-grow. But I need to harvest some seeds this year to replenish the stocks. In the flower beds (where I have tried to grow many things from the start of the year) I am also again finding gooseberries, and lots of them! Am I going to get seduced into trying to grow them again? In the past year, I have lost two or three very beautiful growing opportunities due to wind storms. Am I going to try again? Maybe...
Funny enough, while constantly watering the pots, I saw some new chickweed growing (photograph above). This is usually only a winter plant here were I live, but looks like there might be some new growth now as well! This is a win for me, as I will be making salad with it.
After a while of restoring and some TLC, the Swiss chard plants are again looking very happy and growing at a furious pace. I have harvested some of the younger leaves for salads, but now I want to see if I can grow some nice and big leaves for other dishes. The Garlic Chives are also growing beautifully, and I harvest from them on a regular basis. I cannot wait for them to flower again!
The mustard seedlings (above right) will also be such a wonderful addition to my salads as soon as it begins to grow a bit faster. The funny thing is that they are really slow growers compared to the salad rocket and other plants.
And it is also almost time to harvest the salad rocket seed pods. They are almost dry (I wait until they are about 80% dried out), and I can see myself harvesting them in this week. They have grown some beautiful flowers, but sadly, I did not harvest from their leaves even once. But free seeds for me then to try again.
Or to grow some microgreens! I will see.
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Almost a month ago, I tried to make some cuttings from an overgrown pathway. I am still trying to do this, but above are some of the other success stories over the years, now readying themselves to flower! Above-left are cuttings that I made a couple of years ago, and above middle and right are fresh cuttings from the start of this year which are getting ready to flower.
I also planted the cuttings which I took out of the flower pots two weeks ago. In two or so weeks, they managed to grow some new roots, and I did not wait for them to grow their roots fully. I needed to plant them as soon as possible. And I am happy to say they are growing well!
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Just beside this new garden, I am trying to grow is evidence of my earlier work! Here (the photograph below) is the evidence of a growing project which I started back in June 2022 (read about it here). I cannot think that is already two-plus years old! It is scary to think of how fast time flies...
Gardening is surely a way of life. It is a lifestyle. We cannot help but garden!
For now, happy gardening, get your hands dirty, and stay well.
All of the musings and writings are my own. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.