Dressed for Success

This is, admittedly, a terrible photo, but my defense is that I took it with my husband's camera at 6:55 p.m. on manual setting without a flash--I couldn't figure out how to make the flash pop up. Given that, I'd say it wasn't a bad photo, just not what I would like to publish.

This is one of seven broccoli seedlings that I planted Feb. 6. I thought I had planted broccoli and spinach, but after seeing the spinach sprout in the garden, I think that I somehow planted only broccoli.

Broccoli in the spring may be an exercise in futility, at least in Dixie. I remember hearing that the only good time to grow it in the South is in the fall. But, this year's garden is really one big experiment. I've grown broccoli from plants purchased at Lowe's, but I've never tried growing it from a teeny, tiny seed. This is experiment No. 1.

As for the title of this posting--do you see the tiny cardboard ring around the base of the plant? The Healthy Garden Handbook by Mother Earth News suggests putting tarpaper collars around the base of broccoli seedlings to prevent cabbage maggots from gnawing the tender stem. I didn't have tarpaper, so I cut strips from a toilet paper roll and "dressed" each seedling before planting it.

If this garden experiment works--even modestly--we probably won't have saved any money this year (Anthony calls it the $1,000 garden), but we'll have better broccoli than you can buy at the store because it will be fresher than anything you can get at the store--and more nutritious. And, we'll be happier knowing that fossil fuels weren't used in the cultivation or transportation of our veggies.