I’ve become slightly obsessed with my little patch of greenery. I water it diligently every day, sometimes multiple times a day. Always with a watering can (the process is soothing). I note the bugs that dance in erratic wisps when the water hits the flowers. I see the ants congregate on the buckwheat flowers. I make mental notes on what is growing, thriving. I look forward to the next plant to bloom.
Eventually, I want the greenery to expand and take over the dirt. I want it to be a self-sufficient, multiplying thing. I want the generations following to exist, and thrive, and grow roots into the soil where the monochromatic dullness of the lawn used to be.
These are some things I’ve learnt about buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum):
It prefers its soil to have minimal nutrients, or at least minimal nitrogen.
If happy, it will grow from seed and flower within less than a month.
My buckwheat flowered in just under three weeks. I hope to harvest some seeds when the time is right and multiply the problem.
It is a high in protein, a pseudocereal, and grows like a weed.
It is, sometimes, an actual weed.
Weed being a relative term.
You can use it to make tea, flour, pasta…
It is better than the grass that struggled in our yard, the bugs seem to like it, and that is enough for me.