A winter's harvest in the city garden



It was mid-summer when my sister and I decided to join the local community garden. We live near the desert, in Zone 9 and friends, coworkers and fellow gardeners warned us: "Seeds won't grow now, it's too hot for them to germinate."

We weren't sure either but we forged ahead. Planting was the easy part; the hard part was filling the raised beds with soil in the August heat.

We sifted the soil that was provided through a homemade contraption made from gopher and boards. It must've come from a construction site; we tossed aside pieces of concrete and asphalt as we filled a wheelbarrow dozens of times, filling two raised beds. We amended the soil before planting the seeds.

We watered the plots by hand, and seedlings began to grow: kale, swiss chard, basil, parsley and tomatoes. 

It seemed like it would take forever for the veggies to be ready -- plants definitely follow their own schedule -- but we had so much fun we accepted the invitation to increase our gardening space.

We enjoyed homegrown veggies that summer but when late fall and winter arrived only swiss chard, kale and arugula were abundantly available in the garden.


Pesto is one of my favorite foods--I stir it into pasta or soup and spread it on pizza or grilled cheese or whisk it into olive oil for salad dressing. Before gardening I always had homemade pesto in the fridge or basil on the shopping list.

It's now early January and the time to plant basil is weeks away. Craving pesto, I searched online and discovered recipes for pesto made with arugula, which loves growing in the winter in Zone 9.

Ingredients in the arugula pesto recipes I found contained familiar ingredients: walnuts, olive oil, parmesan cheese, fresh garlic. I combined a few recipes and the resulting arugula pesto was delicious. If you decide to try it I'd suggest following a recipe a few times and then making it without a recipe: adjusting the ingredients to taste.



A quick note:
At the garden I often will see Linda at working on raised garden bed examining flowers or plants, a plant whisperer. "What's she doing," I wonder. I hope to unravel the mystery as I read her posts.

Thank you for following along as we share our experiences gardening.  

Happy gardening!

Comments

  1. Learning, Living, Laughing.January 13, 2022 at 6:40 AM

    Great recipe, thank you for sharing, and thank you for inviting me to the community garden, we have had many hours of fun

    ReplyDelete

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