He is an excellent teacher in all things, including planting turnip greens. But he didn't want me to take his picture and post it here.

After much begging from me, his youngest daughter, he said finally said okay.

So, here it is: My Daddy and the Planting of Turnip Greens

In my newly created garden

STEP ONE: PREPARE THE SOIL.

This is a very important step, espcially here in a garden where I want the turnips to develop. The soil needs to be rich and loose. Very, very loose. This usually requires tilling. But since my dirt came out of bags, it was loose already.

Here's what it looked like when we started.

(I don't know if you can tell, but this spot is on a slope. I had to find something to keep the dirt in place. On this side I used rocks. On the steep side, I used some things I found under a bush in the yard. Little brick scallop things, turned sideways. Use what you have, right? Now, back to the lesson.)

My Daddy used the back of a hard rake to level the dirt. He was very meticulous and precise, so the spot was nice and level when he finished.

"If you're going to do something, you might as well do it right."

STEP TWO: MIX TURNIP SEEDS WITH SAND BEFORE BROADCASTING.

(Those seeds are from a company I adore: Botantical Interests. And that's the cover of my new garden notebook you see there with the moon and stars...)

Turnips are a seed that you don't grow in rows: you broadcast them throughout the garden.

And turnip seeds are small. So when you scatter them in the garden, they have a tendecy to glop (my word) together. Once they grow, you've got bald spaces in your garden and then spaces where there are too many turnips competing for the space.

So here's what Daddy does.

Get a bucket and put some sand in it. Then mix in the seeds.

Pure genius.

See the itty-bitty black specks in the sand? Those are the turnip seeds.

With Daddy's method, when we spread the seeds, they were evenly distributed throughout the whole garden. Not all bunched up in one spot.

We used three seed packets to the area which is about 10 feet by 5 feet.

Daddy tries to get his turnip seeds in the ground by September 10th every year if he wants turnips by Thanksgiving. To get just the green tops, you can plant later.

STEP THREE: RAKE ACROSS SOIL.

This is very tricky. Sounds easy, but it is harder than it sounds.

And I didn't have the tool Daddy prefers.

He uses a leaf rake for this step.

But my leaf rakes are still up at our old house in the pile of things that have yet to be moved. So, instead he used the hard rake again, but with a very soft touch.

The idea is to cover the seeds with soil, but just barely.

I was a little heavy handed when I tried to do it. Just be careful and go easy.

And, if you have a regular leaf rake, use that instead. 

It was easy to see where you are in the covering-up process because of the sand.

And there you go.

All done.

Except for the watering.

STEP FOUR: LIGHTLY WATER

Make sure to just lightly water. Too much water will wash away the seeds.

Four or five days later, my seeds look like this:

Thanks, Daddy!!

I was lucky to find some turnip greens this weekend at the farmer's market. The cutest little old lady grew them. She said to me, "Well there you go. That's enough for a couple of messes." Then she looked at me and laughed and said, "Bet you have no idea what a 'mess' is, do you?"

I am a mess, does that count?

No really, I absolutely do know what a "mess" is. I'm from the south! Anybody else know? 

Turnip greens are easy to cook and delicious. I boil them for 20-30 minutes in enough water to cover them. Add a little olive oil and a little salt for flavor while they cook. Yum.

Okay, your turn! How do you love your September? Leave a comment!

Until next time (I'm going to post every other Tuesday for awhile), Friends, savor the flavor of life!

Lots of love, The City Farmgirl, Rebekah