This Girl’s House

You know it’s one thing to say, I’m going to do a garden to feed my family, and it’s another issue to get real live results from that commitment.  We have 6 garden beds, one large half wine barrel, several long green planters, and 16 tires that I’m using to grow stuff in.  You’d be amazed at how much space plants take, and at this time, I’m not getting enough out of the garden to feed me and Stevie let alone a family. 

No doubt, it’a learning experience and I’ll get better at the task the more years I put into it.  For example, let me tell you all about my broccoli. 

I planted the brocolli in March and it’s the end of May and I had nothing more than a couple of week sticks of broccoli.  Certainly not the volume that I was looking for.  First off, I only planted two rows.  That’s nothing enough to feed two people the amount of broccoli we like to eat.  I did read that we could use the leaves, but I’m looking for real broccoli heads.  Second, I waited too long to harvest what little broccoli I grew.  When the floret begin to sprout little yellow flowers, it was a bad sign.  I was like, well, what do I do now.  Do I just off the leaves and hope that it will regrow again, or do I start all over.  Well, I found my answer in this book called Rodale’s Vegetable Garden Problem Solver that I checked out of the library.  First, brocolli is harvested in one shot.  Whatever you’re going to get, you’ll get within 60 days of planting unless you expect a cool summer (less than 80 degrees).  Some people suggest that you pull the plant out when you’re ready to harvest, but I found a great video on YouTube that tells you how to extend your harvest to get the side shoots.  When you eventually pull the plant, it is ready for the compost pile.  And I’m definitely going to need more than 2 rows of brocolli.  I’m going to have to stagger the plantings.