Fall Blossoms: Vegetable Edition
We still have pea blossoms (white and purple) in the vegetable garden, and the occasional (white) bean blossom that is still going strong. Two new items from out back in the veggie garden:
The Munstead lavender I planted late has blossomed. I had no expectations of it flowering this year, and was content to catch its scent by just brushing up against its leaves (which are quite fragrant on their own). I could see it budding out for a while, and was hoping it would get to flower before frost, and here it is! It's kind of spindly this year, but these flowers are all bonus, so who cares? I'm hoping it will fill in to a fragrant mini-hedge along the entrance to our patio next year.
The second flower is an accidental one: blossoms on bok choy that has bolted. I suppose this goes to show that planting 16 heads of bok choy in one round of planting (and in each of two more subsequent plantings) is more than we can eat. Next year I'll cut that in half, but what can I say? We were excited to plant anything after almost a whole summer of laying brick, and this was such an unexpected success for us.
Now that it has bolted (we still have several nice heads, and hopefully they'll stay in check now that the temperatures are back in a normal, autumnal range this week), I suppose I can let it go to seed and collect them to save for next spring. The only seed I've ever managed to save in the were dill, mustard, and cilantro. I think I'll tie a brown bag around the flower head once the blossoms drop off--this worked in the past to collect dill before the seeds fell. I have seen bees around these, so I am hopeful for some good seed!
The Munstead lavender I planted late has blossomed. I had no expectations of it flowering this year, and was content to catch its scent by just brushing up against its leaves (which are quite fragrant on their own). I could see it budding out for a while, and was hoping it would get to flower before frost, and here it is! It's kind of spindly this year, but these flowers are all bonus, so who cares? I'm hoping it will fill in to a fragrant mini-hedge along the entrance to our patio next year.
The second flower is an accidental one: blossoms on bok choy that has bolted. I suppose this goes to show that planting 16 heads of bok choy in one round of planting (and in each of two more subsequent plantings) is more than we can eat. Next year I'll cut that in half, but what can I say? We were excited to plant anything after almost a whole summer of laying brick, and this was such an unexpected success for us.
Now that it has bolted (we still have several nice heads, and hopefully they'll stay in check now that the temperatures are back in a normal, autumnal range this week), I suppose I can let it go to seed and collect them to save for next spring. The only seed I've ever managed to save in the were dill, mustard, and cilantro. I think I'll tie a brown bag around the flower head once the blossoms drop off--this worked in the past to collect dill before the seeds fell. I have seen bees around these, so I am hopeful for some good seed!
Comments
Post a Comment