I love my garden so much. It is my very favorite thing every year. I am so blessed to even have one.
Today’s topic. ROGUE BROCCOLI!!!!!
My garden got bigger this year.
It went from the above picture, to this.
It doesn’t seem a lot bigger, but it is.
Last year, I grew broccoli (and lots of other veggies, but I digress).
The broccoli plants were huge and showed promise. But the only broccoli I got were tiny little lunchbox heads. Don’t get me wrong, those were fine. But I wanted store heads. Who knew that they don’t naturally just grow like that (in my garden).
I was so irritated with that Broccoli. I even had extra Broccoli. The two cheater Brussel Sprout starts I bought at Ace Hardware turned out to be Broccoli as well. But those I was thankful for, because they were a different variety of Broccoli, and didn’t look the least bit like the ones I planted. They also gave me tiny heads. Apparently, Broccoli doesn’t grow so well in Washington. Thanks for the heads up…….. those tiny little heads up.
Anyway, soon enough I stopped harvesting my lunch veggies everyday, and the baby broccoli heads shot up and turned into flowers, which in turn became seeds on the end of the very long stems. In October of last year, I unearthed those broccoli skeletons and threw them on the ground, angry at the baby lunchbox situation. I also threw them on the ground to stifle weeds, much like I do with the corn stalks and the pumpkin vines. I paid no attention to the broccoli seed pods, or any potential seed pods.
This year, as you may have read, the garden got bigger.
And I didn’t plant any Broccoli this year, in case you were wondering, I had/have more productive ideas for that space. I have thoroughly learned that lesson.
I disposed of the broccoli skeletons over the fence in February, along with all of the other plant skeletons. I cleared all the remaining unearthed plants and all of the weeds. I was planning for a bright new garden future!
Some of the Broccoli seeds must have remained, because all over my garden, there are rogue broccoli plants. I’m sure the rototiller played a part in spreading them joyously around all over the place. Those seeds got thrown throughout the garden dirt. They have played with my emotions. They have challenged my garden skills. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!
Oh sure, I figured it out when suddenly there were all of the same looking seedlings interspersed with the weeds, looking like something intentional. I even left a few in the Peas, because I was convinced they must be peas. (My peas didn’t grow during the first seeding because of the 95 degree April days and our cats, f-ing Peep.) But when the same seedlings were in the corn, and in with the potatoes, and next to the stepping stones, I grew suspicious, and I eradicated them, for the most part.
I bet I still have some in the Brussel Sprout section, because, c’mon, they can’t all be brussel sprouts, and also, they must look alike, since Ace Hardware screwed the pooch on that one last year.
*Sigh*
It wouldn’t be my blog if there wasn’t a moral. Be Rogue Broccoli. Turn up everywhere. Or, don’t be Rogue Broccoli, grow correctly the first time, and don’t pop up everywhere that you don’t belong. Whichever (loose moral this time, see prior post “Go Lightly”).
If you are interested in fresh, organic, lunchbox broccoli, I’m going to have it randomly available in about a month.
The End.