Showing off

Not bragging.  Well maybe I am a little, but the first brocolli is always very cool.  Last year I noticed that this broccoli variety, Major, stays low, usually not much over a foot high.  I realized that I could include it with the first set of brassicas that are transplanted into the greens bed while the plastic greenhouse is still on the bed.  It turned out that the strategy was moot since we had a very warm spring and the greenhouse came off soon after the plants were set out.  Bottom line the broccoli got into the bed about two weeks earlier than in the past, and today it’s ready about two weeks earlier. 

And it’s a beauty, isn’t it?  I’ll harvest it at the end of the day.  I’m guessing it’s at least 12 oz.  One thing I recently noticed about this variety is the leaves become blue as the plant makes a head.  Maybe a lot of varieties do this and I never noticed.  It may have something to do with the alkaline soil here.  After cutting this head I'll leave the plant and hopefully get some side shoots from it. 

A lot of things can be repurposed for the garden.  I’ve been building foundation beds around the house and bought a tray of Ajuga plugs to plant in the beds.  Ajuga is a very tough groundcover that works great along walkways and does well in part shade.  The tray it came in has 32 pockets and a 3.5 inch pot for each pocket.  I like the deep pots for starting brassicas, eggplant, okra – anything that develops a deeper root system.  This setup will keep the pots from tipping over.  Perfect.  I wonder how much of this stuff gets tossed out routinely by landscaping companies.