Learning how to garden in Paradise

Bumbye, a never-tested windbreak will get built, but for now, the wind wins.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Broccoli beats the cool weather blues

Oh, fooey, I put in the wrong shot - oh, well, now y'all know I have a huge clump of rosemary. Actually, there are two big clumps, with the droopy trailing stuff competing alongside the stiff spiky kind, which makes for some ono seasoning when I'm grilling. It blooms all the time, and I love to stomp by it to get that great aroma going. Some stuff is just "fall off the log" easy to grow. I have one of these bushes in Maui, too, so I'll be able to grill with it there, too. Yum!
OK, so here's what I meant to put in... The cool days have made it easy to beat the bugs that would have chewed up the broccoli, which is great for me. These past weeks have been too hectic for any conscientious gardening. I'm so grateful for all the neat posts from all those more diligent bloggers, whetting my appetite for much more gardening later this year. I put in my broc's in November , and mulched them very heavily with my homegrown compost. That's it. No feeding, no watering, just hoped for rain (and got it!). The broccoli plants were doused regularly with our wet winter, allowing me to harvest the central heads, then collect the secondaries, and even some tertiary shoots before I totally neglected the patch and the rest ran to seed. Yes, I forgot to take some pictures of those first heads, but they were really big and tight, looking like something off the pages of those snazzy seed catalogs. We'll see if I manage to glean some seeds later, but I've had some terrific broccoli soup and steamed broccoli along with some raw broccoli for snacking. Geez, I feel so virtuous with this totally organic goodness!

In a few weeks, I'm going to go "home" to Maui again, and maybe there's some peanuts, onion, garlic, and da kine in my little patch of heaven - I'm still not free to move permanently to the Upcountry, but "real soon now" I'll be home for good. I can't wait!




4 comments:

  1. Wow it's great to your post! Rosemary is so pretty when it flowers. Your broccli looks great - the white stems/veins and dark green leaves/head are so striking. I was surprised I could grow broccoli in Kihei - you should do very well with broccoli in Pukalani.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aloha, Jane, I'm hoping for a sunny day or two in mid-March, so I can plant some more stuff. I have to plan which square gets what, but the Chef always needs more tomatoes and lettuce. My serious cage-making gets started this time, since bamboo poles are no match for those tradewinds. I can't wait to get back to Maui!

    ReplyDelete