Ah, spring!
Ahhh, garden!!!!!
Yes, I once again have a garden; it's ridiculously small, but despite its size I've planted three tomatoes, two hot Thai peppers, a few zucchini, and two kinds of bush beans --- yellow wax and some pintos, the latter because the yellow wax are already coming up and a few of these didn't look so good, so, having some dried pintos in the cupboard, I decided to add these to the mix, just in case.
All of the above covers only about half of my garden space; the other half has been taken over by what appears to be a perennial version of Swiss Chard. I don't recall the original seed packet from years ago mentioning anything about "perennial", but that's what it is now. It started when I discovered early on that I could keep the plants going by picking off leaves as I needed them, which kept the plants growing all summer.
I was even more delighted when, after leaving them in the ground over the winter, they reemerged early next spring and kept going, unfazed by winter, snow and frost. I live in overlapping hardiness zones, 7b to 8a, and we do get frost, and sometimes it is severe.
Well, those chard plants kept growing all the way into summer, once again providing me with endless fresh greenery whenever I wanted it. At the height of that summer most of them developed flowering spikes which then turned into seeds. No, I had no idea how many seeds each chard plant can produce. By my estimates there were millions of them out there, and they all fell, and they all made more Swiss Chard plants... see picture, which is a shot of about half of the current chard plantation.
And they didn't even wait for next year's growing season to get going. They all sprouted rather quickly, turning what had become my chard bed into a lovely green edible carpet. Within a month or so they too were ready for picking, and by December they too went into overwintering mode.
That's how it all started; there is now a never-ending cycle of older, newer and brand-new plants going on at all times. Some of the old ones die off over the winter, but at this point that might be a good thing as there's only so much room to hold all this abundance, and I'm running out of ideas on how to use it in the kitchen without too much repetition.
As to the rest, I've had a few failures this year. Quite a bit of lettuce came up but it just sits there. It doesn't grow and it doesn't die either. I think I'll just turn it over and plant something else there.
My tomato seeds, started in drinks cups, came up but they too didn't really thrive, so I went out and bought three plants. However, I didn't want to give up on the little slowpoke starters, so I planted them in the ground. This might be what they needed as they are now looking rather promising; very small, but it's only end of April, they could actually turn into something!
The tiny hot pepper plants too are purchased; none of the pepper seeds came up.
So, as I said, beans are coming up as did the first zucchini plant and several borage seeds. I water every other day, with watering spikes for the tomatoes and peppers, and a gentle hand watering spray for the rest. This might sound a lot to some, but it is bone dry here. About a week ago we had the first measurable precipitation in nearly four months. And whatever moisture does hit disappears so fast, what with the heat and the wind. It's a high dry desert climate at 5000 feet, emphasis on "desert".
My little patch of garden might be the greenest spot in the neighborhood, and it appears to be an oasis not just for me, but also for the wildlife. Roadrunners, mourning doves and other birds visit the water dish, and an army of lizards is busy catching bugs and flies in the garden.
All in all, I call it a modest success so far; only summer will tell exactly how successful. I've got a way to go before I can count tomatoes ... and peppers ... and zucchini ...