Our gardening strategy could be summed up with: Plant first. Google questions later. We’ve made some missteps along the way, for sure. Plants we planted in February (toss one back for the long Texas growing season!) would have been better suited for planting in September. Like broccoli.

What we planted
4 plants that were ~5-inches tall when we bought them.

What we got
Besides an incredible feeling of satisfaction from walking out into your backyard with scissors to get broccoli for a stir fry? Or for tacos (don’t ask, they needed to be picked and my options were limited at lunch time). So far, we’ve harvested several medium heads of broccoli from each plant. And one large flowering stalk (oops).

What we’ve learned
That’s broccoli. With my garden-digger-upper standing next to it (why can’t she pull up weeds instead of bell pepper plants?). Jeopardy fact of the day: The head of broccoli is actually just clusters of immature, closed flowers. Who knew? (We sure didn’t.) Given enough time, not enough water, or exposure to temperatures over ~80F, those heads of broccoli will rapidly shoot into stalks of delicate yellow flowers… not so perfect for a stir fry. But they are pretty!

What’s next
With temperatures consistently in the mid-to-high 80s/low 90’s, I’m not sure we’ll get much more than “snacking broccoli” until the fall. We will probably add additional plants for a winter crop.