At then end of 2023, I posted a HiveGarden update in which I literally cleared the garden at my girlfriend's place. Her father gave me some space to grow my food on, and it was a huge success. But due to time constraints, I failed to properly clear the garden before I flew. There was some summer rain, and I could not save the rocket seeds. These seeds then decided to spread themselves... But more on that later.
I returned to my parents' home after having stayed with my girlfriend for a couple of months. I live a nomadic lifestyle now that I have a long distance relationship. This gives me a unique opportunity to have two gardens!
After clearing the garden more than 3 months ago, I returned to find abundance....
The amaranth stands almost 1.8 meters tall, or 180 cms. Some of them are as tall as I am. The seed heads are massive. I have never seen them grow so big. At least, not the variety that I grow. I have grown amaranth for about 5 years now, and this is the biggest I have seen them grow. Sadly, I need to fly back home again, so I will again miss this incredible harvest.
The girlfriend and I have an obsession with rosemary. We write poetry about it, we buy rosemary art, and we cook with it. The amount of focaccia and ciabatta with rosemary that we baked is itself a love story. But after so many months, the plant decided to grow relatively big! I am so glad that it rooted itself in the fertile soil like that. I am also surprised that that rosemary cuttings made it. I will show my girlfriend how and where to plant these cuttings, as they will also turn into a beautiful bush!
For some reason, I thought that the swiss chard would grow the best between all the plants, but they struggled. After many months, these are the first growth that shows any promise.
In the meantime, I have harvested from these plants a bit too much, but the food that I made from the leaves were so nice. It really is a blessing to have so much at the tips of your fingers.
But interestingly, as I mentioned at the start of this post, the rocket and even the wild rocket, decided to spread itself all over the lawn... Luckily, my girlfriend's dad does not mind that much in this area. But if this happened on his other lawns... That would have been a disaster.
Since harvesting the seeds three months ago, they somehow spread all over the lawn, even between the bricks! I am not complaining, as I have made so much salad with the rocket leaves sticking their heads through the paving.
I was also greeted with these beautiful yellow flowers from the wild rocket, also in the middle of the lawn!
I also failed to make compost. Due to the low humidity this far north in the country, the compost never really started. But the rocket seemed to also love this. The photograph below (left) illustrates my point: the compost that never was now nurtures rocket leaves! And the photograph below (right) shows the very ambitious rocket growing in between the bricks...
At the end of the day, you cannot dictate nature. It will grow. In the right conditions, it will grow in abundance. I have so much rocket and amaranth, and rosemary, that I have eaten from these plants every single day and it does not look like I have harvested from it.
But that is a good problem to have, right?
In any case, I hope that your garden is also providing you much joy and plentiful!
Keep well, and enjoy the garden.
All of the writing in this post is my own. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.