One of my new year's resolutions for 2010 (yes, a whole year and a bit ago, not a typo) was to try and grow some of my own produce in the backyard. As far as resolutions go, it went extremely well! Last March, around the time most people's resolutions are but a distant memory, mine was just taking off.
After a slow start--it took two rounds of planting to get anything to grow, I ended up with one cucumber (there were others, but the whole vine succumbed to the scorching Arizona summer before they could be harvested,) several cherry tomato plants and a bunch of the following:
Can you tell what it is?
Nope, not beans or peas, although the next photo is terribly misleading.
Below are the roots. Not edible as far as I know. I find it really interesting that such a stalk-y plant has such fine, furry looking roots.
And for the final clue, I will admit to planting it way too early. I watched the first leaves slowly emerge from the ground and suffer through the summer, only to have them barely start producing anything edible just as I was leaving for Japan last November.
They did incredibly well during my absence (or was it the cooler weather?) and when I returned in February of this year, the plants and stalks were practically my height (granted, the bed they grow in is about knee high)
Know the answer?
The bean-like things in the photo above are the seed pods that have emerged after the part we know as broccoli had sprouted and flowered. The plants hadn't produces any broccoli crowns for a few weeks, so today I started to rip them out to make room for this year's crops. I've planted tomatoes and cukes again, and added some "teeny zucchini" and "small" (10 lbs, not 20-25 lbs) watermelons. As I type this, the "garden" is completely indistinguishable from a swath of dirt, but I am really hoping that changes soon when tiny green leaves start peeking up from the soil.
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