4 minute read
Garden Chat
from Mankato Magazine
By Jean Lundquist
In LOVE with Brussels sprouts
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With one exception, I didn’t have an overabundance of anything in my garden. That exception is Brussels sprouts.
I planted two seeds and both germinated. Both went crazy creating the “tiny cabbages” that are Brussels sprouts. Larry calls them “sulfur bombs” and refuses to eat them. More for me!
I canned enough tomatoes. I froze enough beans. I dried enough peppers and enjoyed fresh everything all summer long. We’ll have plenty for the winter, but I am especially going to enjoy the Brussels sprouts.
I wanted to pick some as early as August, and in retrospect, I should have. But I wanted to wait for a frost to bring out the best in them. A few sprouted on the stalk, but that’s OK. I have two of the best stalks of Brussels sprouts I have ever grown, and I’m going to enjoy them.
As usual, I managed to learn something new this year. One thing I did not learn was how to grow great Brussels sprouts — I have no idea what I did that was different from past years and no idea if next year they will be as good.
I learned that the friendly little garter snakes so often found in the yard and garden have very good hearing. We put in a new blacktop driveway this past summer, and one of the little darlings stopped to sun itself on the surface one day. Needless to say, it startled me. It used to be that when I became startled, I’d shriek. Apparently, I still do. That poor little snake squiggled away rapidly.
Toads also have good hearing. We live in a farmhouse that is nearly 70 years old. For the past few years, I have found toads in the basement. While that’s better than finding them upstairs, I still believe they don’t belong in the house. I gave what Larry called a “glass-shattering” shriek, and the little toad moved as fast as I’ve ever seen a toad move.
My trusty service dog Kohl came running down the stairs to see what was the matter. Larry sat at the kitchen table drinking his coffee and casually hollered, “What?” He never did come downstairs to defend me from the
unwelcome intruder. No matter, the intruder was out of sight and never seen again.
Now the garden is put away. All my grow bags are stacked beneath the veranda on the shed. No more fresh produce for the picking, and for just this one month, it doesn’t make me sad. It fills me with relief.
But as the pandemic drones on, and we prepare to hunker down again, thoughts will be turning to the garden we plan to plant next summer earlier than usual.
I’ll take October off, but come next month, I’ll be scanning seed companies’ websites for new items to plant. I suggest you do, too.
As you may recall, last spring some of the biggest seed companies suspended sales as they were overwhelmed by requests and couldn’t keep up with the volume of traffic, or they just plain ran out of seeds. With a second year of the virus, I expect even more people will be turning to gardening to ensure a stable food supply and a healthy and enjoyable way to fill the hours.
Like you, I never thought I’d see so many empty shelves in grocery stores as we saw this summer. While we can’t manufacture our own toilet paper, we can preserve our own food. Even if canning lids are not available, freezing is a good way to preserve many vegetables. Drying is another method, though it is not my preferred method.
As you look to planting next year, I suggest you search for “open pollinated” varieties. That means we can save seeds and have a trueto-form plant next year, rather than a hybrid we’ve never seen before. While some of these vegetables may be quite tasty, you can’t count on that. And you can’t count on seeds from these hybrids to grow the same next year from seeds you save.
I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to “normal,” or even if our new “normal” will resemble what we remember.
As we head into another winter, I’ll also ask you not to feed the birds in your backyard. I’ll tell you more about that next month.
Meanwhile, if you find a sunning snake or a wayward toad, one good shriek should have them out of sight in no time at all.
Jean Lundquist is a Master Gardener who lives near Good Thunder. gardenchatkato@gmail.com
507.345.4040
510 Long Street, Ste. 104, Mankato, MN
www.MankatoRealEstate.com Karla Van Eman, Owner/Broker ABR, CRS, GRI
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