During my fall internship at Washington Gardener Magazine, we picked our own plants to grow throughout the duration of the internship in the Fenton Community Garden in Silver Spring, MD. I chose to grow Kale, Organic Gourmet Lettuce mix, and Arugula.
I was a little nervous about growing something, because I don’t really have the green thumb in my family. My dad was the lucky one to get that. I chose to do the greens because I was curious how fast they would grow and how they would grow from late summer into the early winter.
My arugula was the star of the show. It started showing up within three weeks. By the end of October, I was able to cut off enough to make an Arugula salad for a weekly blog recipe for my "Savory Sunday" series. I also used it a lot for lunch sandwiches, because it adds a peppery flavor.
One thing I did learn is that some plants will wait till the cooler weather before growing. My Kale was the last to show up and I only was able to start cutting samples to cook with about the beginning of December. Kathy Jentz told me that kale likes the cool weather and it makes sense that it only started showing up now, when we had a relatively warm fall season.
Even with the recent frost my Arugula is still growing. My Lettuce has slowed down, but it’s still crisp and colorful. I would recommend trying to grow something, even if you don’t have a green thumb. If it be flowers, greens, or tomatoes trying to growing something is fun and exciting when you see the first leaves poking out of the grown.
Here is a photo-video compilation of my experiences this past semester: https://animoto.com/play/E41Ks7yQ1gzt89rGPyPyhQ.
About the Author:
Shelby Smith is a senior double major in multi-platform journalism and film studies at the University of Maryland College Park. She was a sports copy-editor for a campus publication called Unwind Magazine and a writer at The Campus Currentnewspaper at Anne Arundel Community College.
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