Friday, February 19, 2016

Another gloomy day and I am threatened with the February Blahs!!

Binh Phan Photography

The weather man said 'possible sun' and ever the optimist
I thought 'wonderful'
anticipating a soul-satisfying hour or two in the garden

Well, there is always Sirius Radio and the Garden Books and Catalogues.....

I have some Forty's music reminding me of by-gone days

and glorious pictures of the crimson and green Swiss Chard  I had
planned to seed in the big blue ceramic pot on the patio,
with maybe a marigold, a nasturtium or a bit of alyssum.




Swiss Chard is the plant of my choice when it comes to green and leafy vegetables.
It is full of nutrients (vitamins K,A,C, and E plus several B's, magnesium, manganese, potassium, iron and fiber) and spectacular in the variety of colours in which it grows.



I am inspired by the NINE DOLLAR heads of California cabbage to be found in
the local grocery store to replace begonias and various trailing pot plants
with good nutritious vegetables, although I know I will
be tempted to add a few small bright flowers, tucked in here and there.

I am off to the farm store to buy some Swiss Chard seed, as all
the seed I have left from last year is that of exotic vines and plants
which I never did get around to planting!

And also some golden orange brandy, -  a small sip will satisfy
 in lieu of that hour in the garden!

Is it too early to plant Swiss Chard?  I don't think so, - it does well in cool
weather and I will keep the pot on the sun porch until ole sol
deigns to shine upon us...

I remember with nostalgia the lovely large gardens we had
in days of yore ("yore" meaning when the family was bigger..)


And I am going to advocate a return to the family garden and healthy eating

so perhaps the disastrous lowering of the Canadian Dollar in comparison

with that of the U.S. will have some good results after all...

$9.00 for a head of cabbage - ridiculous!



4 comments:

The Weaver of Grass said...

Yes, I love chard too Hildred. We grow it in our veggie garden, with limited success.

Penny said...

I too grow chard, although we always called it spinach as proper spinach doesn't much like our warm weather. I didn't know about proper spinach until relatively recently

Barb said...

I hate to admit this to you, Hildred, but I've never eaten Swiss Chard. Good luck with your seeds. Surely the sun will shine for you soon.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Cabbage @ Nine dollars? That is worse tha ridiculous, that is insane. I had been saying only half facetiously that if either of our horrible Republican leading candidates win our election, I would investigate moving to Canada ... But I guess we couldn't afford it (as if we could anyway).

..hated gray skies.. But thinking ahead is the best way to cheer up during those days. The last time we spent February in Oregon I threatened to take a picture of the cardboard back of my writing tablet and post it to the skywatch meme that I sometimes join. It would've looked just the same.