Opportunity Gardens: Turns Out Plants Want To Grow

an update from Opportunity Gardener and AmeriCorps VISTA Erin King

Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient. ― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

It’s been a while since my last entry. I’ve been gardening: my summer bed is planted, some of my smaller pepper plants have been replaced after the rascally rabbits and/or flea beetles ate them, and there’s always something to note or attend to in my garden. But I’ve experienced some revelations I just thought needed to be shared.

As I’ve previously written, I’m fairly “green” to gardening, and I’m naturally a very anxious person. I get pretty worried about the possibility of messing up something in my garden, and occasionally at the farm. Thankfully, Trish reminds me again and again that plants want to grow.

Tomatoes Volunteer as Tribute

When the staff coordinators were in New York City a couple weeks back, Kelsey (the other VISTA) and I were left in charge of the daily tasks at the farm. I was terrified I was going to mess things up, but the tasks were pretty routine and the farm survived. One of these late afternoons, when I was checking up on the tomatoes, our neighbor came across the way and asked if it was possible for tomatoes to overwinter.

I couldn’t get a hold of Carrie to get a sure answer, but I had had enough experience to understand the concept of volunteer crops.  I hypothesized that either there was a tomato in the compost used in the garden, or a tomato had dropped there and re-seeded.  I found that so bizarre, considering so many people start tomatoes indoors, but thought it was plausible.

Turns out, I knew what I was talking about.  Fast-forward three weeks, and in my own garden, I discovered a volunteer tomato. Plants want to grow.

With Broccoli, There's A Second Chance

My cole-crops have also displayed particular signs of resilience and growth.

When I missed my window for harvesting my broccoli head, a part of me felt a little defeated. I left the plant in the garden anyway, and rains came a night or two later, and basically made my broccoli grow laying down. Again, I wasn’t sure what to do, but the yellow flowers were pretty, and I thought it might be good for some pollinators, so it stayed put.

This morning, I checked on my garden, and it seems smaller shoots are springing up with florets.  The broccoli plant is still laying down, but the leaves and shoots are growing upward.  I’m not sure why this surprised me so much, but there you have it: plants want to grow.

Sacrificial Cabbages

Back when I transplanted my brassicas, I knew I had a cabbage, and a mystery brassica.  At that stage, cauliflower, broccoli, collard greens, and cabbage all look similar.  As it was growing, the leaves resembled collard greens, but recently, it's started forming a head.  The head is small and more eaten up by cabbage worms, but because of this, the other cabbage is growing with only minor nibbles.  Now, I still had to evict multiple cabbage loopers from both cabbages, but it seemed the larger one was the house and the other was the food source. But both are still growing, because plants are resilient like that.

So if you're afraid you're messing up with growing your garden, or you don't even try to garden, know that nature is on your side.  Turns out plants want to grow - but this is not a substitute for regular watering and maintenance of your garden.