I really love February. It's a month of so much potential. What am I going to plant? What kind of season do I want to have? For the first time since I started gardening, I'm putting just as much energy into the Autumn garden. It's been really inspiring so far. September feels like February.
Harvest
Well, this remains (sadly) the least exciting part of garden life. The already slow jalapeños have slowed down further with the cooling days. I took out a basil plant to make room for other things, tried a recommendation of blanching it before freezing it, and subsequently ruined the majority of the harvest. (Blanching basil before freezing it is a stupid, stupid, flavor-sucking, stupid idea.)
Still, I'm enjoying radishes and the occasional bit of greens, so I won't complain. I will say, though, that I am super pumped for the ton of mizuna and arugula that will be ready to harvest by next week.
Wildlife
It's been mostly the same on this front except for the appearance of one of my favorite butterflies: the kuroageha. It's a type of swallowtail that I've only ever run into when backpacking and/or hiking. It started visiting the pentas, echinacea, and zinnias. Sadly, I only ever see it when it has finished its meal and is leaving, so I haven't gotten a picture yet. My feelings about its appearance can be summed up by the high pitched "Oh, wowwww" that I let out when I first saw what I thought was a songbird flit across the veranda windows.
Looking Forward
Last night, I mapped out how I would plant out lasagna-style planters full of bulbs. It took me an hour or so to plan out how I wanted to arrange a 20-gallon-ish homemade planter attached to the sink on the veranda and another 15-gallon grow bag. I put the plan into action this morning in two one-hour sessions before and after the gym.
If you're not familiar, lasagna planting is planting bulbs in layers. The latest flowering bulbs go on the deepest level, about 10 centimeters down. The earliest to flower go on the top, just about three centimeters below the soil surface. The goal here is that the bulbs will flower in waves over a number of weeks, so you'll have a continually changing flood of color and pollinator bliss. It's basically super protracted succession planting. In total, there are three types of tulips, hyacinths, grape hyacinths, anemones, and saffron.
Saffron flowers are gorgeous. Also, the spice made from the stigmas is delicious and just happens to be the most expensive spice in the world. So, when I saw the bulbs were 30% off.... If there is one thing that is a little off-putting, it's that I planted them today (September 27) and they won't bloom until October or November of 2024. Such is gardening, I suppose.
While I am super excited (as is my tulip-loving wife) about how the lasagna planting will turn out, it wasn't something I did without a little trepidation. Bulbs take time and if I can't use the planters in the meantime, I thought, I might just give up. However, there's no trouble with using the planters until the bulbs' season comes around. So, I've got dinosaur kale, curly green mystery kale, violas, purple sprouting broccoli, and radishes growing in the same containers. As I said, I feel like it's February again with only new life on the horizon.
There's a lot of other things I did at the school garden that I'm tempted to lump in here, but for the sake of brevity, I'll leave it. Of course, there is nothing brief about any of this.
Garlic Watch 2023-2024
Let's talk about the garlic. A few weeks back I planted out two kinds of garlic. The cloves I bought from the boxstore have still yet to sprout and I'm suspicious they're all duds. On the other hand, the mystery purple-skinned hardneck variety I bought from a sort of local farmer stand has mostly sprouted, with many of the sprouts reaching 15 centimeters or so. I suspect this might be because I kept the purple variety in the fridge for a bit after buying, thus simulating a short winter. We will have to see how it turns out, but for now, things are progressing nicely.
I just don't want to have to replant the boxstore garlic. I'll give it another week, and if it still hasn't woken up, I'll take a look to see if it's rotten. In that event, I'll probably try to track down more of the purple variety and just go with that for the year.
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Are you into bulbing flowers? Are giant butterflies your jam? Is your garlic being a slowpoke? Let me know about it, either here or over @naturalfukui on Instagram and/or Twitter.
Despite having been gardening for a few years now, I have never really got into autumn planting. Mainly because the heavy snow often covers everything from early Dec to late March, but also because we are lucky enough to have all our winter root veg needs covered by my in-laws! However, I do plant kinusaya in late autumn and enjoy an early harvest once the snows have receded. Plus I often manage to overwinter rocket and chicory. This year I've started 'balcony salad' with quite a lot of success. I'm hoping the seedlings I have coming along won't all be eaten by bugs (like the previous lot!) Regarding basil, it's too late now, but what I do with it is…
I've thought about planting some garlic but I'm not sure if it would be a waste of a grow bag since that's the only planter open right now. I do like flowers with marigolds and roses being my favorite to stare at.... I did look into growing vanilla but I haven't got the room for it yet. When it comes to butterflies I like the monarch because that's what I grew up with but really they're all pretty nice to look at.