Community Garden: Miniature cabbages!

I have been so sick the last two weeks that I have not been to the garden at all. I know that there is a new load of wood mulch down there and Mike was suppose to drop off some bags of mulched leaves on the west end but I have not been out of the house.

So I asked a friend of mine to go down and look at the garden and then write me a short narrative of what he saw and what he thought. I explained the concept to him and this is what he gave me in return.

“I walked through the garden getting a feel for what was suppose to be happening and where things were growing. Along the way butterflies of all varieties next to the little area called the butterfly garden swarmed me. Amazing! They were everywhere.

Next came the birds that were attacking the seed heads on the plants in the aviary garden. I thought that was it until I saw the hummingbird feeders and watched as they hovered and waited their turn and then darted away only to return a short time later for another round of good food. A little birdhouse caught my eye and I noticed that it was for bluebirds. It looked like the couple was starting a new nest inside.

That is just part of the stuff around the garden and now I get to the raised beds. Row upon rows of onion bulbs are growing and becoming strong. There must be three thousand onions in those three rows.

Then I got the surprise of my life.

Miniature cabbages! I had seen pictures in the books but never had I actually seen them in the garden before. It makes more sense to get smaller heads and take up less space. I have heard they taste just as good and if they are picked just after a cold snap they are extremely sweet. There were four long beds of these with four to five rows in each bed.

The next four beds were full of beets. The tops were getting strong and dark green and the tops of the beets were starting to push through the top of the soil. They looked like they were going to be the size of baseballs. There were still some volunteer plants coming up in different places and they were doing real well. They would taste just as good this year as they did last year.

The entire wall was covered with tomato cages that were filling up with the strong green tomato plants and the first blooms ere starting to show where the first of the tomatoes were going to be. It looked like they would be plentiful.”

Joe wrote this as he walked through the Guthrie Community Garden for the first time. He could picture all of these things in his mind. It is not far from reality and with spring just around the corner it is closer than you think.