Monday, December 7, 2009

A Few Small Leeks


I have never had a green thumb. Sometimes I wonder if I have this weird subconscious urge to neglect my plants just to see if I can bring them back to life again. In general, I'm not good at any kind of detailed upkeep. So this year, when I planted my first garden in a while, I figured I'd just put the seeds in the ground, water them a bit, and see what happened. No $64 tomatoes for me. My hopes weren't too high since I live in a cool, foggy place, and sometimes tomatoes never even turn red here. It turns out I had both success and failure. Here are the results of my harvest:

  • Eight beautiful, delicious green beans
  • Bok choy that matured while we were out of town (the lizard ate the sad remainders)
  • Just a little bit of lettuce that provided for a couple of salads
  • No sweet peas (the plants all died from some kind of pest)
  • Four small, precious pumpkins

And tomatoes! I have three cherry tomato plants that were volunteers from last year's rotted fruit (from a small garden my husband had planted but that had not produced much). These volunteers have been quite productive and completely resistant to all pests and disease. In fact, I am still getting cherry tomatoes even though it's December. I've also gotten a fair number of full-sized tomatoes (they're called Mountain Time--or something like that). At first, they were getting weird spots and had problems, but as the weather cooled, I think the disease or pest was killed off even as the plant kept living and bearing fruit. Therefore, I'm still getting full-sized tomatoes. In December!

In addition, we have harvested from two of my son's experiments. Experiment #1: He took a sprouting red potato and buried it next to the calalilies in the front yard. A few months later: Voila! Two beautiful, delicious red potatoes. Best potatoes I've ever eaten.

Experiment #2: He planted leeks. (So did I, but mine failed.) First he put them in a little critter keeper until they sprouted, and then he put them next to the garden in a reservoir planter. He planted them in July. This weekend, he harvested his leeks. There were only three, and they were small, but they smelled wonderful, and I used them to make potato leek soup. True, he didn't like the soup. But he was proud of those leeks. And I was proud of him.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Food from your own garden tastes a million times better than grocery store produce because 1) it doesn't have the zillion metric tons of spray on it and 2) you put your heart and soul into every sprout.
The tomatoes from my porch are my favorite snacks!

LOL at your son not liking the soup:)
jc

TKW said...

My garden was overtaken by crabgrass this year, so I sympathize. Bravo on the tomatoes, potatoes, 8 green beans (giggle), pumpkins and leeks!

I love that your son wanted to experiment! And I *love* potato-leek soup.

Anonymous said...

Huzzah! Nothing like the flavor of veggies you grew yourself. Nicely done, GEW and Son. (That would be a cool name for a business...GEW & Son, Inc.)

This Ro(a)mantic Life said...

Yay for the harvest! Amazing that you're still getting tomatoes in December.

loveskidlit said...

Well done! And I like the mommy dearest attitude toward the gardening in general: overall neglect, with occasional gleaming moments of superb attention. Just to see what happens.