I have planted various greens about a month ago. Most of them successfully grew into beautiful seedlings. Then disaster struck as something started eating on them and I needed to leave for two weeks. Someone was able to water them in my absence as the spring slash summer up north in the country is very bad in terms of harsh heat. But through all of this, most things have grown into amazingly healthy-looking greens! In almost exactly a month since sowing the seeds, I have been able to make harvests.
Whilst taking the photographs for this post, I stumbled upon a surprise. I brought with me rocket, from the wild variety and the salad kind, garlic chives, amaranth, and Swiss chard seeds. All of them have sprouted and are growing healthy. But between all of this luscious growth, I saw a mustard green growing! Somehow, I managed to fly a mustard seed 1200 km from where I harvested it, unbeknownst to me, and it grew into this lovely plant! It is incredible to think about how this act has been the way seeds have been distributed throughout history, intentionally and unintentionally.
Now, all of the different recipes are running through my mind. I am already thinking about the rocket pesto with fresh lemon on either a piece of sourdough bread or in a pasta dish. The amaranth is screaming to be put into a zesty olive oil salad, but when they grow a little bigger they will be perfect wild African spinach pasta dishes with either cream, white sauce, or merely parmesan cheese.
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The garlic chives, still very delicate and at the moment overshadowed by the amaranth, are growing slightly slower than I would have hoped for. Normally, they grow like weeds where I plant them. Maybe I am too hasty with them, they might need time to grow. My growing history with them goes back a very long way, sometimes mixed with some bumpy rides with it. But when they are established, almost nothing can kill them. I once neglected to water a bucket filled with them for a month or two in the drought and they did not die.
The Swiss chard is also growing a bit slow, but this was due to the critters eating the seedlings. Luckily, it looks like that most of them survived as well, even though they are much smaller compared to the rocket and amaranth.
Another one, growing so slowly, is the wild rocket. I am not sure why they are growing so slowly here. The ones I grow in the Cape normally grow so fast that I cannot keep up with harvesting and de-weeding them. They have become a weed in my garden! But here, they were the last ones to sprout and now they are growing so slowly. But I will give them time! As their flavour is off the charts compared to the normal salad rocket. Plus, they are perennial and will give me much more than the salary rocket.
All in all, I feel so blessed and lucky that these plants not only survived but that they managed to grow so healthy. I did not even add any compost to the soil, I merely sowed them.
I cannot wait to make the first salad or pasta dish with these greens. It is amazing that with some time, some ground/soil/space, and water, you can grow such bounties. As if by magic.
What would you have done with these beautiful greens?
For now, happy gardening and stay safe!
The writings in this post are my own. The photographs were taken with my Nikon D300 by myself!