Heirlooms and Garden Wanderings

It is mid-August and my sluggish garden is finally coming to life. Back in July, it seemed that everyone was picking loads of full-grown cucumbers while I was still patiently waiting for the small yellow blossoms to materialize into something.  Come on busy bees I pleaded.  I did get a late start this year with seed starting so no one is to blame but myself.  But now the garden is in full force, as if to say, it is now or never.  It’s not the first time that I get a late start.  I’m always worried about putting things into the garden before Memorial Day.  That’s what my father did, and that’s what I had always heard because there is always the chance of a rogue late frost.  Memorial Day -the sacred day of planting tender annuals.  But now with climate change, who really knows anymore. 

I don’t have the best luck planting things from seed.  The volunteer white squash springing up in the corner of the garden is the same size as the one I carefully planted from seed.  The cucurbita family is like that.  They languish in the cool spring weather for weeks and then grow twice their size on a warm summer’s day. Still, there is something to be said about a winter’s afternoon spent leafing through seed catalogs.  There is so much hope presented on those glossy colorful pages especially when the sky is grey and the snowflakes swirl outside the window.  Next year will be the year we think.  If kept properly, that seed will keep for years. It seems like a good insurance policy as one can never be sure what the local greenhouses will carry from year to year, and the big box store varieties seem to grow ever less diverse.  I am experimenting with that white squash. I got it last year at a seed swap while visiting California. I imagined they were heirloom seeds because why would anyone save hybrid seeds?  Last year, the white squash was round and beautiful.  Don’t ask me how they tasted.  I didn’t have the heart to eat them because they looked so pretty.  I did save the seed, and this year the squash is crookneck and bumpy though still a beautiful creamy white. I’ll save some seed to experiment again next year, but my guess is it is a hybrid type. 

I want to grow more heirloom varieties so I can save the seed for the future.  I traded some perennials for heirloom tomatoes from a fellow gardener this spring.  They were all carefully labeled when they went into the garden, but now the markers lie buried amid the twisted and tangled vines. Except for the Brandywine, I’m not sure which is which.  Note to self, use something bigger than a popsicle stick next year. Sadly, after so many years of gardening, I am still a novice at this.  There is so much to learn about gardening.  I don’t think anyone can claim perfection in this field.  All we can do is take note and try to be better next year.