I will keep growing lots of greens as I eat a lot of them, they basically grow themselves, they are shade tolerant (which I'm realizing I have more of than I thought) and they are just so much more delicious fresh!
I also love tomatoes so will figure out how to make them not all die on me in early spring frosts, as well as how to get them more sun in their sprouting stages.
But, what I'm realizing is there is some stuff that is just so inexpensive to buy giant and fresh from a farmers market that it's almost not worth all the work I do to try and grow them myself (read: onions... But bunching onions are great!) I think I'm realizing that I'm interested in growing a more wild garden–one with harder to find ingredients that maybe don't look like food (so then people won't steal it and squirrels won't eat it!) I suppose this is a permaculture thing. Lowest maintenance! Perennials! I'm understanding I have a passion for gardening but it's not my life's work. So it needs to be a part of my life but perhaps in a different looking way. And frankly, if I grow the expensive stuff (read wild) that takes care of itself and has few diseases (it's wild, it's got it's stuff pretty well sorted out) I can just purchase bushels of tomatoes for $12 and drown in the bounty that others can offer! And frankly, supplementing with a lot of mineral rich cultivated perennials and foraging for others that I can't buy in the store just sounds like good logic, no? Kassandra from 6 months ago, do you agree? Probably not...
In any case, this is my new list to start building on for next year:
Along the Fence
Milkweed–for pickling! also butterflies!
Echinacea–for tea!
Wild rose–for tea! and prettiness!
Under Tree
Wild Ginger–just, yum?!
Gooseberry–for the easiest custards and jam!
Currant–ditto above!
Elderberry–to make cordial, tea, and liquer!
Man, who would have thought I'd come to thinking like this in just a few months! I until now just wanted the usual–beans, cucs, lettuces, herbs. Phew! Fascinating!
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