WILDCARD GARDEN
By the end of Autumn John usually has the glass house planted and producing but this year there have been interruptions to some of the familial rhythms. So I decided to take the bull by the horns and plant a wild card garden. 
There are no cards involved but a good deal of chance. I take all the leftover packets of seeds from the summer – every packet that has just a few seeds left – everything with an edible leaf and empty the seeds into a bowl. There is something very freeing about dumping seeds into a bowl and hiffing the packets away. No note taking or care. No labels. Just a rush for food. Any leaf will do in the dark winters.
I stir the seeds up and sprinkle them with a random flourish into one of the deep raised beds in the little glass house. Usually I do this in the late summer garden so it will be interesting to see what happens when the seeds are sown in mid winter, in the glass house. Though we can keep it above freezing it is not alway6s very warm in there.
It is a full moon tonight too – a good time for sowing seeds they say.
The wild card will the strongest fastest growing seed. This plant is always a surprise and a delicious addition to my morning omelette as I keep the snip the bigger leaves to prevent them from overtaking the slower ones.
When I think about it – sowing the seeds now, in December, might be better than earlier in the fall. Very soon the days will begin to lengthen and there will be more light of course. So maybe getting this close to the winter solstice (Dec 21) is a good time to sow seeds. I will be on the other side of the world when the grim frozen dance of winter really commences so will miss the winter solstice but the slow movement of sprouting seeds, nestled into a bed of sifted compost soil will be my contrary contribution. It is fascinating to imagine the shoots emerging from the seeds and travelling up towards the light. When outside it is frozen solid.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Love celi
WEATHER: Full Moon. Last night was so clear and bright I did my night walk without a torch. It was cold and light and beautiful. So still. So cold. If it had been warmer I could have moon-bathed. Anais Nin used to moon-bathe when the moon was full you know. When she was a wild girl. She wrote ‘We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.’ Every one of us in the Fellowship understands that.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Love celi
Sunday 12/03 10% / 0 in
A mainly sunny sky. High 57F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
Sunday Night 12/03 20% / 0 in
Partly cloudy skies early will become overcast later during the night. Low near 45F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph.
Sun
7:00 am 4:25 pm
Moon
Full, 100% visible 4:56 pm 6:38 am
c
37 Comments on “WILDCARD GARDEN”
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thekitchensgarden 
That dish of random seeds is what my Ma used to call “beggar’s luck”. On the basis that beggars can’t be choosers, and you take what comes, or miss out.
Sounds familiar
How exciting and planting for the full moon is quite biodynamic!
even if i only realised it after the fact.. c
Sounds kind of magical, planting by the full moon.
Hopefully – I am looking forward to the greens
Just love the quote by Anais Nin, ‘We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.’ And even if not writing, if the moment is tasted well in the present moment, it can be relived at any time.
yes! what a lovely way of looking at it
Love it! Miss C’s tossed salad grows already tossed.
Twice Tossed! I never even thought of that – you are the clever one
“Hiffing”. I had to look that one up! 😊
is it actually a word? something we have always said i suppose
Umm no, not recognised by Oxford, Collins or Google word. Nonetheless its meaning is immediately obvious 🙂 🙂 Laura
Love that quote. And I too did my last check last night without a torch. Lovely moon light.
wasn’t it a fantastic night
There is a lot of magic here. Thanks for the lesson in pot luck seed growing. It sounds delicious. What fun. I hope we have enough clear in our skies finally to even see the moon.
I hope you do too – it is a very bright moon..
Hiffing – word of the day. Love the sense of gay abandon today 🙂 Laura
I am moving animals across to the other side today so fingers crossed they all just gaily leap into the trailer (fat chance)
Life is feeling a bit like a wild card garden right now so I shall greet it with gay abandon and find nourishment in whatever comes!
Perfect
I like this idea 🙂
I do too! Easy
Your ‘wild card’ garden’ sounds a bit like ‘toss the leftovers in the soup pot’ soup. Delicious things come of that! We planted a sapling by full moon at midnight. This was 30-some-odd years ago and now it is huge and healthy! Have fun moving Crazy Horse ad her gang across the way! Snorfle!
Planting a tree at midnight on a full moon sounds positively delicious!
“We write to taste life twice…” I like that.
Yes – it is something we all do one way or the other
We’re in the planning stages of building a potting shed-green-hot-shade-house and I’m adding those deep raised beds to my wish-list. Edible leaves are ny favourite part of the garden… mmm… wildcard pesto 😍
Yes – the glasshouse room comes alive in the winter and the stones catch the sun and help warm it too
A full moon is indeed the perfect time to plant things which need to put down roots and will grow close to or into the soil. New moon for climbers and things that need to grow tall! Good luck 😀
fingers crossed – fresh leaves are the best
Aunt Sophie always used to warn against planting on full moon. She said the plants would heave out of the garden and come to naught. Aunt Sophie was full of ‘wives tales’ and superstition, and in retrospect I now know she was a hoarder! I thought she just had a lot of stuff! I hope your wild card garden is full of good things for you 💕
Wow! plants heaving themselves up out of the ground sounds terrifying
I like that idea of mixung up all the seeds and seeing who wins the race and also snipping off bits for an omlette! Cheers!
the little glass house is the perfect place to begin breakfast – I just love those greens
I’m a first time reader and I love the idea of gardening. I’m hoping to start soon and your blog seems like a great place to start.
Gardening is great!