| Dandelion seedhead |

Spring day is something of an anomaly for those living in the Cape in South Africa. You always get the picturesque days before and after spring day, but spring day is always bad weather. But isn't this somewhat telling of the transitional phase between seasons? I always philosophize or muse about the mundane, and here I go again philosophizing about the transition between seasons.

In this post, I will show my messy way of gardening, leaving everything to grow everywhere, and what this entails philosophically. I also showcase a simple dish I made to celebrate this strange day, one in which it is cold and windy, and rainy. Yesterday, the 31st, was a beautiful day, but today not so much. I also showcase my vegetables on their last legs, symbolizing again the transitional phase we are in. Time to pull out the old veggies and plant some new ones!

I am not good with all of the entries into challenges, but this time I am trying! This kind of serves as an entry to the GardenHive spring challenge but my writings are always drenched with philosophy. But let us not waste any time and write about the garden!

A Philosophical Mess

| Sow thistle and various other weeds |

It is all a matter of perspective. Weeds can be a problem or they can be a benefit. I choose to see weeds in my garden as (i) food for me, (ii) food for the compost, or (ii) soil amendments. That is, I let the "weeds" grow wild so that I can either use them in my cooking (see my cooking bit below!) or add them to my compost or leave them in the soil due to the many benefits they can have to replenish for example nitrogen. Philosophically, there is a problem with creation ex nihilo, i.e., creation from nothing, but isn't that really what gardening is all about? We create soil/compost from kitchen scraps and weeds, we create food from small seeds, and we create seeds from plants. All we do, as gardeners, is create from something that was not there before.

| Garlic chives and various other weeds |

But this, in my opinion, entails a messy garden. Or for me at least. I do not take out the weeds in my garden, I let everything grow. Betwixt my veggies grow a myriad of weeds. My swiss chard is alongside nitrogen-fixing plants, my garlic chives hide next to some chickweed and other so-called weeds. When I pick leafy veggies, I always snatch some chickweed as a refreshing snack. And after they have gone to seed, ensuring the next crop, I pick most of these weeds to feed my always hungry compost heap. It is spring now, the end of the winter growing weeds. I picked most of them to throw onto my compost. This is last season's summer weeds, fully composted, and ready to be used for this season's summer weeds and veggie gardens:

| Compost |

Creation ex nihilo, from weeds which is "nothing" and always a problem, I created something, from nothing to something. A messy procedure, a messy garden, but essentially a worthwhile experience.

A Change of Seasons: Sowing Anew

A last couple of peppers still cling to the small bush. They came from nowhere, I did not plant them. Now I have hundreds of seeds to sow for a new growing season. Betwixt all of the weeds and all of the veggies, I let the plants sow their seeds as they want. I might look like a lazy gardener, but I am in fact a philosopher! Jokes aside, mother nature always wins. I have written about this various times, but the more I try to plant the more they die, the more I leave them to self-seed/sow the more they live. But this leads to an interesting garden: I always find veggies growing in my indigenous fynbos (fine bush) garden.

| Rocket plants (left) and Spekboom (right) |

Next to a spekboom (Portulacaria afra) various salad rocket plants popped up. I did not plant them there, somehow their seeds ended up in that spot. The spot where I planted the salad rocket was not good enough: they died. But here in my main garden, I find the most luscious and tasty leaves to eat.

| Dandelion leaf betwixt fynbos plants |

Here also, between the thicket and dead vines of various indigenous plants, like the African daisy and wild malva, I found the most beautiful dandelion that has been growing there for three or four seasons now. Every week this plant provides the biggest and most delicious leaves. I mix them with my swiss chard to make the best dishes.

A hypothesis is growing in my head: do veggies grow better between indigenous plants?

| Chickweed flowers |

Alas, the garden is changing: all of the winter crops are now seeding, and all of the summer crops have been sowed. I am now waiting for the old to die out and the new to shine.

| Salad rocket seedhead |

Picking the Last: Cooking with New Growth

Various crops and veggies are now pushing their last new growth before they completely die or go to seed. A lot of my salad rocket has gone to seed, so they are not nice to eat anymore. But in my garden, I have some plants that still have viable leaves to pick. The swiss chard, dandelion, and rocket leaves that I can find make for an awesome spring dish.

| Salad rocket and Swiss chard |

I could not wait to help myself by picking various veggies and leaves. Something about the striking green makes me feel alive.

| Salad rocket leaf |

Cooking Up a Spring Storm

Cooking is an art form, it is a blank canvas on which you can experiment. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. But if you grow your own veggies and food you can never go wrong. Even Picasso is considered to be art.

In any case, I picked as much as I could. Most of it was green, so let us call this artwork the green monster. With a dash of yellow lemon and some white onion, I made a masterpiece that only I could taste.

| Harvested: Swiss chard, pickled onions, lemon, dandelion leaves, salad rocket, garlic chives, Nasturtium leaves |

The lemon tree carries lemons throughout the year. If you have ever cooked with lemons you know how awesome they are. I added the lemon rind and lemon juice to the dish and it brightened everything. I also used lemon juice for a quick pickle.

I cut all the veggies into small pieces and stir-fried them with some nuts and stale bread which I cut into small cubes. I topped it with some olives and pickled onions. What a random combination, but isn't this symbolic of my messy garden?

It is also the growing season for rosemary. All my rosemary bushes are covered in new growth. Does this not scream for olive and rosemary breads? The summer always tastes of rosemary and olive bread.

| Rosemary new growth |

What do you do with rosemary? I have tried making rosemary teas but they do not work with me, my body rejects it. Please do share any of your recipes, please!

| Rosemary and olive focaccia |

Postscriptum, or Towards A Sunny Summer

With radical change radical opportunity also comes. As long as we are not killing ourselves (yet!) hotter summers can mean better growth. Even though climate change and all that is really bad and making life impossible for some, I as an individual can do only so much. I do not subscribe to consumer culture and I grow most of my own food. But the hotter weather helps some of my crops. Is this selfish? No, I am only using what is given to me. Adapt or die some might say. Alas, let us hope for better days.

| Nasturtium leaves |

All of the musings and photographs are my own. The old Nikon D300 and iPhone are still doing their work. I hope you enjoyed my messy philosophical musings and garden habits. Happy gardening and stay healthy!