Recently Boston radio host The Garden Lady C. L. Fornari asked me about winter greens. She was in line with Isaiah, speaking of adorning with evergreen boughs—
The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the juniper, the fir and the cypress together, to adorn my sanctuary
Isaiah 60:13 NIV
yet I was thinking salad! What?!
Spoken like a mild-winter gardener, I know. The Mustard family greens, including cabbage, kale, and kohlrabi, along with beets and Swiss chard from the Amaranth family, thrive in cooler winter weather where night temperatures stay above mid-twenties. Yielding hearty, leafy greens, these edible beauties enhance salads, steamed or braised leaf side dishes, and delicious vegetable stock. But that’s not all!
Planting Pots of Winter Greens
I paired purple kale and bright-stalked chard with merry pomegranates for a front porch pot to sing welcome and adorn our entry. We can always count on mustards for a garden surprise, whispering to us the impossibilities that God makes possible.
Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.
Matthew 17:20 NIV
Do you need this powerful reminder as much as I do? I hope to decorate and fill my family’s lives with the magnificence of Jesus’ birth this month—which means a long list of to-do’s amid time’s constraint. Haven’t we talked before about days too busy to peel pomegranates? Ha! This year, put them in pots!
How-to Plant Pots of Winter Greens
To make this Christmas container, “thrill” with lemon cypress (non-edible), “fill” with purple kale and “spill” with red and gold chard. Add a few pomegranates, plentiful and sale-priced this time of year, for a finishing pop!
Enjoy more about the classic container pattern, “Thrillers, Fillers, and Spillers” in God’s Word for Gardeners Bible, page 1370 and the week’s devotions on Planting Pots, pages a-24 7 a-25
From this day on I will bless you.
Haggai 2:19 NIV
Photo Credits: ©2015 Shelley S. Cramm
