The garden waits for no one. If you sow the seeds, and if the ground is fertile, and if there is enough water, and if the sun shines, then the plants will grow and wait for no one. This was evident when I watered the plants one morning, seeing just how much the basil in my little flower pot had grown. I tried to routinely break some stems off, but with the last week or two, I could barely breathe. I did not have the opportunity to check in with my little plants.
It is funny how quickly things can get busy. I did not plan for everything to unfold how it is currently unfolding, but that is just how life is, I guess? I read through my entire PhD in less than 4 days. The PhD is about a 100,000 words long at this stage, way too long, but I will get to the "shaving" parts. What does this have to do with my garden? The PhD is the reason why I cannot get into my garden...
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But even though I am busy writing so much, teaching classes on the sideline, and writing so many other articles/seminars, I take the chances that I get to briefly look at the garden. I am struck by just how big things are getting. Firstly, the amount of basil that is growing is amazing. (Left photograph above.) I need to trim the plants again, but the more you cut basil, the more bushy they grow. I need to make some more basil pesto and give the rest away!
And then there is the amaranth or marog. (Right photograph above.) I have been harvesting almost daily, eating leaves in many different dishes. I cannot get enough of the amaranth leaves. I think you can even see in the photograph how many leaf stems there are, due to my continual harvesting!
In the middle photograph above, the massive leaves of this intruder plant shows itself... The cape gooseberry is making a return! By now a weed in my garden, I let it grow and eat the berries they provide me, that is if the birds and squirrels do not get to them first! I hope that this plant will grow nice berries soon...
To see the amazing growth for yourself, here you can see how small the gooseberry plant was 30 days ago!
A week or so ago, I planted some new plants. Every other day, I have been going out to the garden, to water the new plants, and to see how they have been doing. In a week or so, these plants have started to root themselves, and from the photographs you can see the young green shoots growing new leaves! These prolific growers provide me with some juicy and tangy leaves for my salads! When there is enough new growth and the plants have established themselves even more, I will make some spekboom chutney, a favorite in my family!
Since I took back the garden from my family, I routinely watered the garlic chives. Since then, the flowers have returned in their abundance. Some of them have opened completely, enticing the pollinators (left photograph with little bug friend). In the middle photograph, you can see the unopened flowers that sill need to open up. There are so many, and I am excited for them to open. If enough opened up, I will make something special...
And then there is the seedlings (photograph on the right). Some of them are growing from where the wind blew the seed from the previous flowers, some of them I planted a couple of weeks ago as well.
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And lastly, some of the seeds of the Swiss chard or Silver beet also emerged from the ground! But not too many of them popped up yet. I am a bit worried, but I might sow some more. Some days the wind and the sun "burns" the small plants and for some reason my Swiss chard doe snot look all that happy! Between some of the bad looking leaves, there are some really delicious ones. But I think that they are not the happiest where they are now.
For now, I am happy with the abundance in my garden. (The photograph below shows the amount of Purslane that I have growing as well.) Even though I cannot spend as much time in the garden, with my time spread across various different ventures at the moment, I hope to soon return. I miss the smell of basil and rosemary on my fingers.
Happy gardening, and keep well.
All of the photographs are my own, taken with my Nikon D300. The musings and writings are also my own.
