Gardening Successes and Failures

One of the million things I do these days is keep a garden plot in the community garden at our YMCA.  In theory, it is a fantastic idea - you get a 16 foot by 16 foot plot of land with free watering provided by the Y and you can plant pretty much anything your little heart desires (within the bounds of the law, people; i.e. no pot growing operation).  We have been planting ours for almost a year now and have seen success and failure in equal measure.  The days here in Texas are slowly growing warmer (then colder, then warmer, then colder) and as we get further into Spring, I know that it is past time for me to rip out all my cold weather vegetables (most of which were decimated by a bunny attack earlier this year) and plant spring and summer selections.  Honestly, I am not sure if I have the energy for it at this point.  We have had a REALLY long softball season with our oldest daughter and that, coupled with, like I said, the other million things that I do, I haven't even started thinking about what I want to put into the ground.  You would think that, feeling the gardening fatigue and seeing almost $80 worth of produce go into a small varmint's (I apparently don't have Yosemite Sam Spell Check on here, so I am not sure if that is spelled right) digestive tract, that I would just give up the gardening plot.  I would, but for.....

This.  This is one of the main reasons that I am resisting giving up the garden plot.  It is a freaking artichoke, y'all.  And I freaking grew it!  As a matter of fact, we freaking ate the one you are looking at last night!  And it was pretty freaking good!  As you can see in the picture, I have a few more coming in and I am pretty excited!  I cleaned this artichoke (sadly almost a week after we took it off of the plant - I know, what's the point of growing your own food if you are not going to eat it right away?  I'm lazy, that's what.) by taking off the bottom couple of rows of leaves, and clipping the spiny tips off of the leaves that I left.  I cut the stem end off (usually also edible, as part of the heart structure, but this was way past its expiration date) to create a flat bottom and put it in a little pan, with a little bit of water, slapped a lid on it and set it on medium heat to steam.  Of course, as per usual, when cooking artichokes, I let it go a bit too long and the water dried out, so the bottom burned, but I almost like them better that way.  Yeah, that's it.

Anyway, I don't know if you have ever seen an artichoke plant in person.  I actually had not until my husband (boyfriend at the time) and I took a road trip up to DC (geez....16 years ago.  *sigh*), by way of Jefferson's Monticello in Virginia.  Apparently, Thomas Jefferson, like myself, had a fondness for this particularly tasty thistle and had rows upon rows of giant artichoke plants on his plantation.  (If you have never been to this area and to Virginia in particular - it is spectacular.  One of the best places we have ever been.)  The point is that artichoke plants are HUGE and I am unlikely to plant one in our backyard garden.  It seems a shame to give up a planting space that is actually producing my very favorite vegetable, so...I probably won't.  I will probably keep going with it because, truly, the successes in the garden are so much fun and tend to cancel out the more appalling failures (bunny attacks).  I remember how excited I was last year when I grew my one and only zucchini (before the squash bugs descended and decimated those plants).  I never expected to see artichokes on my plant (they are not actually supposed to be very suited for Texas weather), but I was beyond thrilled to see them there.  I was also beyond thrilled to eat my success last night and will be pleased to do so again very soon.  I guess I also need to get busy deciding what is going in our plot soon.  The artichoke needs some company and I'm gonna need some more home grown veggies to enjoy.