Day 78
The Daily DuBrule
I'm having fun in my vegetable garden this year. Last fall I decided to test out lots of purple tulips. I brought home a small bag of each variety- early, mid season, late, singles, doubles, anything I could get my hands on at work. I really just wanted to get a good feel for the exact shade of purple of each variety and in what order they bloomed. I decided to put a bunch of them in one of my raised beds, alternating rows with different kinds of garlic. I labeled them all with zinc markers. How organized of me!
Garlic is a funny crop. You plant garlic cloves in the fall. They emerge in the spring as green linear leaves. Each clove becomes a head. You don't harvest it until July. It is just so neat to see this organized patch of greens alternating with purple flowers. It makes the raised bed garden look so pretty. As the tulips flower and then eventually fade and go dormant, the garlic will get bigger and bigger, hiding the gap. I think it will work out just fine.
By the way, did you know tulips are edible flowers? I have yet to eat them, but it's true. If you browse through the book Edible Flowers by Cathy Wilkinson Barash you will see recipes for tulip petals! Just like daylily flowers, it will be fun to taste the different varieties to see how they differ in flavor. Are you brave enough? Why not give it a whirl...
Mix it up in the garden. Add flowers to your vegetable garden. Add vegetables and herbs to your flower borders. It makes everything a lot more interesting. Mix it up!
No comments:
Post a Comment