and everything is speeding up;
but I am trying to slow down;
and garden to stay sane and calm
It seems like the world has gotten even more insane. My own life has been speeding up so much that it does not feel like I have any time to do things I used to enjoy. I yearn to work in the garden for hours on end, but in the couple of weeks that has passed, I did not have much opportunity to do these tasks my body yearn for.
Yet I made some time to try and grow something new! In the past, I wrote many times about my attempts at growing gooseberries, from the wind destroying my crops and then years past when the wild animals and birds have helped themselves before I could have harvested anything for myself.
Now, I have willingly destroyed my own crops. I had a good run, and the plants have become really ugly and stalk-y. Now, I want to plant something else in these pots.
In the past, basil had really flourished here, so in one of them I am planting a couple of basil seeds (below-right photograph). In the other, I will be experimenting with some Swiss Chard (below-left photograph). I hope to harvest some in the near future, as my body is again telling me it wants basil pesto!
In other parts of the garden, including some of these pots in which I grew basil, there are some pleasant surprises. Sometimes, the compost I make does not burn the seeds hard and warm enough, so they will sprout in my garden. Two of them, (below-left and below middle) are some tomatoes that decided to grow and some peppers! I am not sure which variety either of them are.
But some of my previous basil also just kept on growing (below-right)! I am hoping to harvest some of this to make some nice pasta dishes.
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After having planted these seeds, I turned my attention to some of the cuttings I made a while ago. These plants, called suur vygies or sour figs (Carpobrotus edulis) grow so easy from cuttings. Once they are established, they will quickly cover a big area (below left). This coverage comes from one cutting I made a while ago. So, I usually just stick a bunch of cuttings in some compost (below right). And they always grow, with an almost 100% success rate.
Now, I wanted to plant them on some open soil that did not grow anything due to the hot weather. The sour fig plants are great heat and drought tolerant plants the grow in this area natively. It is incredible how native plants will just flourish when planted in the right place! Below, you can see three of the many plants that I planted out.
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It is funny how stupid we humans are. We pull out native plants to plant invasive species that either destroy the native ecosystem, or which requires so much attention that they will die instantly without our help.
Why don't we just plant native species that have grown in our spaces for thousands upon hundreds of thousands of years?
As I gardened a bit, trying to escape from life and all of its hassles, I stumbled upon some ripe figs on the fig tree. Is this not the ultimate treat for the gardener?
I hope that your garden treats you well.
Happy gardening, and keep safe.
All of the writings and musings are my own. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.
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