My gardening hobby has been a significant factor in my stroke recovery. I spend a lot of time puttering in my garden, fighting the evil Vole Empire and trying to grow good looking, tasty produce. Gardening has helped me get outside of myself and synchronizes my internal clock with nature.
I’m not an adventurous gardener. I plant the basics (several varieties of tomatoes and potatoes, plus peppers, herbs, cruciferous vegetables and onions) every year. But sometime I do step outside my comfort zone.
For example; for the last two years I’ve grown Utah Tall Celery from seed. My experience with growing this seemingly simple vegetable reinforced my beliefs that home grown produce is much better tasting than store-bought produce and that If I don’t actively eliminate burrowing rodents, they will eat everything in my garden.
The latter is the reason I have a target grade pellet rifle and a hyper accurate .22 with a Nikon scope.
But I credit my celery experiences with forcing me to relearn soil science and to become more willing to try new crops.
Sometimes, when I go outside my comfort zone, I fail. Raspberries are a good case in point. I planted nine canes next to a cement block retaining wall five years ago and every damn one of them failed. But I’m undeterred and put in three canes last year that rooted and produced a staggering three cups of fruit. Thinking I might be on to something I made a leap of faith last year and started growing passion fruit—another vine based crop.
I wanted to grow passion fruit because I like its juice. By reputation, it’s a tropical plant, but I discovered a cultivar that was developed in Vista, CA—about ten miles away. I set my vine at the base of the elevated lot my home sits on but within the boundaries of my lower vegetable garden’s irrigation system. The plots ph levels are in the range of 5.5 to 5.9 and it’s a full sun location.
When a local gardener told me passion fruit can grow to have spans of 12-15 feet, I said “Sure.”
Well he understated its potential. My vine is seven-feet tall and about 21 feet long. It completely engulfed a bell shaped metal trellis before its vines took off laterally. My plant began flower production in Early February of 2011 and began setting fruit in March. I had fresh passion fruit for much of 2011.
Passion fruit is juicy, very sweet and loaded with seeds. And the local cotton tails and squirrels plumped the hell up last year, scarfing dropped and low hanging fruit.
I spoon out and strain the fruit pulp. I use the pulp to make yummy fresh fruit drinks (aqua frescas), jelly and marinades.
My porky little squirrels and bunnies hang out under the vine, where birds of prey can’t see them as they stuff their cheeks.
Sometimes, when you till the soil and try growing something new you end up laughing at tubby ground squirrels and rotund cottontails while you sip an aqua fresca shirtless under the Southern California sun—Jim Forbes on 2/5/2012.
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