The year is quickly coming to an end, and I am already packing my bags to fly back to my other home in the Western Cape, a 1200km trip down to the coast. We arrived back home this morning from a camping trip, and many of the rocket plants have now completely taken the garden over. The situation was bleak, but I took the secateurs or garden clippers and I eagerly began cutting through the thicket to get to the seeds. Many of the plants still have their flowers on, but I could not wait any longer.
And that is just what I did this afternoon. I climbed into the thicket, all hopeful, with a pair of 25-litre empty paint buckets, ready to harvest all of the seeds.
As I show in the above photograph, many of the seed pods are still green, but just as many of them have already dried out. If you have ever dealt with mustard or rocket seed pods, you know how easily they split open and release all of the seeds. At first, I was very diligent, trying to get most of the seed pods into the buckets. But my patience ran out, and I just started shoving as much as possible into the buckets.
Here is a little sneak peek of the rocket situation....
I should not have left the rocket to grow this wild. But I was working in uncharted territory as I had never seen rocket plants grow this well. And with the two weeks away, they grew even more, branching out in literally every direction, producing new flowers as they went on, pushing the older plants down and causing the seed pods to break open.
With my clippers and the pair of buckets, I was ready to harvest...
But very soon, with only a small portion of the garden done, one of the buckets was already full...
Between all of the cutting and taking out of plants, I saw some new life below. Some of the Swiss Chard or silver beet actually survived the attack of the rocket plants. I am not sure if they will survive in the extreme heat that we are facing, but maybe they will survive.
I also saw that the garlic chives survived as well. Maybe when I come back in two month's time, they will flourish!
In any case, my process was threefold. I cut the plants at the base, leaving the roots in the ground and also a small bit of the stem. I then cut the top seed part off, putting it in the bucket. And then I added the stems and the remaining leaves to the compost. If I did not fly back home, I would have used the stems in the fire, starting a fire or using them in the pizza oven. But now, unfortunately, I cannot do anything with them.
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At the end of the two-hour or so session, I was left with nothing but a compost full of green seed pods (this is a disaster waiting to happen), and two buckets full of seed pods. The disaster waiting to happen is if these seed pods break open and spread over the lawn. This will not be fun. But I did not have any other choice at this moment.
But as I harvested the rocket plants, and as I took the wild rocket out, and the remaining amaranth, I spread the seeds over the ground. I want to see if this "self-sowing" technique will produce anything. I will ask my girlfriend's father to water the garden for me.
Here is the "after" photograph:
In the coming months, I will see if anything grows from the seeds that I "dropped". If nothing grows, I will plant something in February 2024, when I return. For now, it is water and hope!
On the other side of the garden, a surprise seedling popped up! I think this is butternut, but I threw some seeds into the compost. And it just decided to grow and not die.
If I had more time here, I would try and grow it. But for now, I will just leave it and see what happens in the coming months (or when I return).
In any case, I hope you enjoyed this last garden update for the year. I cannot believe that in such a short period of time, I managed to grow so much! What a journey. The ground and soil have been generous.
For now, happy gardening, happy festive season, and stay well!
All of the writings are my own. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.