Vegetable Gardening Read online

  Many vegetables such as kale, Swiss chard, eggplant, and okra are beautiful plants in their own right. They deserve places in both the flower garden as well as the vegetable garden. Start looking at your vegetables from a different viewpoint, and you'll see the beauty of their flowers, leaves, and shapes. But why stop with veggies in an edible landscape? You may want to grow other foods as well. For example, in this chapter, I describe some favorite fruits, herbs, and edible flowers that you can grow in place of ornamentals in your yard; see Chapter 3 for a sample edible landscape design.

  When substituting an edible for an ornamental, the rules of selection remain the same as with any plant: Pick an edible plant that suits the growing conditions in the yard with respect to sun, soil, and climate (see Chapter 3 for details). Also, select an edible plant that grows to the proper size for the spot. For example, instead of a burning bush grow a blueberry bush. The size and shape of the shrub are similar, and it has great fall foliage color like a burning bush. However, the blueberry yields mouthwatering fruits, too.

  Sweetening Your Landscape with Berries and Fruits

  Many gardeners avoid planting fruits in the yard because they think that growing them is complicated. Actually, it isn't difficult at all. If you select the right fruits and varieties for your location and climate, these plants can be low maintenance and very rewarding to grow. In the following sections, I describe several popular berry types and other unusual fruits that work well in edible landscapes.

  Strawberries

  Strawberry plants have a nice compact habit that fits perfectly into a raised bed like you use for vegetables. You can grow these perennials in a bed along the house, in the front of a flower garden, or in a container. They're also a fast crop that provides a delicious harvest within a year of planting. And because you should replant the plantings every few years (they develop diseases or become unproductive if you don't), you can move strawberry plants around if you want.

  Space the plants 12 to 18 inches apart in full sun and keep them well watered. Strawberries spread by sending out little runners that end with new baby plants. After these young plants have formed obvious roots, usually in a few weeks, cut the runners and move these young plants around to start new beds. It's important to thin the plants so the young plants don't fill in around the older plants and crowd them (refer to Chapter 13 for details on thinning). Make sure to plant varieties adapted to your area, and mulch heavily in cold-winter areas.

  While most strawberry varieties are called June-bearing because they bear fruit in early summer, some newer varieties are day-neutral or everbearing (they produce fruit throughout the summer). One of my favorite everbearing varieties is the alpine strawberry. These berries don't produce runners; they stay compact and bushy and produce small, sweet berries from summer until frost. They're great for eating out of hand or tossing on cereal in the morning. These small plants make excellent container plants and often are planted in a strawberry barrel (a container with holes on the side for growing strawberry plants).

  Blueberries

  I don't know why more people don't grow blueberries. What's not to like? They thrive in full sun and grow on handsome, perennial shrubs that range in height from 2 to 6 feet, depending on the type that you grow. You can choose from low-bush (1 to 2 feet tall), half-high (2 to 4 feet tall), and high-bush varieties (5 to 6 feet tall) that can fit into many locations in your yard. They have pretty white flowers followed by large clusters of tasty, blue fruit. Berries appear the second year after planting. The attractive green leaves turn bright shades of red, orange, and yellow before dropping in the fall. Blueberries make an excellent foundation plant grown up against the house or grouped to form a hedge between properties.

  Blueberries must be grown in acidic soil (with a pH level between 4.5 and 5.5), so if you don't have that kind of soil, you need to make some adjustments. Amending your soil with a lot of peat moss and some sulfur is one easy way to lower the soil pH; see Chapter 14 for more on soil pH and amending your soil.

  Plant at least two different blueberry varieties to ensure good pollination and fruit set. Variety selection is the key to success. Blueberries grow best in areas with cold winters and mild summers. In hot-summer areas of the South, grow blueberry types that are adapted to the heat, such as Southern blueberries or rabbit-eye blueberries. In cooler climates, all other blueberry types are fine to plant.

  Blackberries and raspberries

  If you're looking for an edible plant to double as a barrier for animals and people, grow some blackberry or raspberry brambles. Both are fast-growing, thorny plants. They grow to 6 feet tall and spread wildly from suckers (new shoots) off their roots. If you don't watch out, the plants can easily get out of control. However, if you train them to a sturdy trellis and are diligent about pruning them, blackberries and raspberries can be very productive, hedgelike plantings.

  In the first year, most blackberry and raspberry canes (shoots) produce only leaves; they bear fruit in the second year (see Figure 12-1). Plant brambles in spring, spacing the plants 1 foot apart in rows in well-drained soil in a partly-to-mostly-sunny location. Amend the soil with compost and mulch yearly with hay or straw. Bramble roots love it cool and moist, but not too wet.

  Figure 12-1: For most varieties, first-year blackberry and raspberry canes produce just leaves, while second-year canes produce fruit.

  Even though most blackberry and raspberry varieties produce only one crop a year like strawberries, everbearing varieties produce a summer and fall crop of delicious fruits. Choose varieties that are adapted to your area and that produce the colored berries you want. Raspberries come in varieties that produce red-, yellow-, black-, and purple-colored fruits. Blackberries come in black-colored fruit only, but you also can find varieties without thorns.

  Unusual fruits

  The berries in the previous sections are the most popular fruits grown in edible landscapes, but you also can get a little wild and try other unusual fruits, too. You can experiment with a wealth of exotic fruits from around the world that may grow well in your edible landscape. Expand your taste horizons and try some exotic-flavored fruits. At the very least, they'll be a conversation piece! Here are a few examples:

  Gooseberries: These woody shrubs grow 2- to 4-feet tall and wide. They're widely adapted and produce green or red, round juicy fruits that are great eaten fresh or made into pies and preserves.

  Currants: These bushes, which are a size similar to gooseberry bushes, produce small red, white, or black berries depending on the variety. The fruits are juicy and tart, so they're primarily used for preserves, pies, and juices. In fact, currant juice is touted as an elixir that's high in health-promoting antioxidants. (Chapter 2 has more on the health benefits of fruits and vegetables.) Like blueberries, these shrubs bear fruit the second year after planting.

  Dwarf fruit trees: While berry crops are the easiest to grow, don't shy away from trying a dwarf apple or cherry tree, too. Tree fruits definitely require more study, but many new varieties are disease resistant and dwarf, making them perfect additions to an edible landscape. Fruit trees generally produce fruit a few years after planting, depending on the type you're growing.

  Some other unusual fruits to try depending on your sense of adventure and climate are figs, citrus, cranberry, elderberry, lingonberry, kiwi, and banana. For more information on where to find some unusual fruits for your landscape, flip to the appendix.

  Spicing Up Your Landscape with Herbs

  How could you plant a vegetable garden without herbs? My mamma's pasta sauce wouldn't taste half as good without fresh basil, oregano, and thyme from the garden; my burritos wouldn't pop with flavor without fresh cilantro. Herbs are easy to grow and take up little space, and many have attractive foliage and flowers — the perfect edible landscape plant. Even if you don't use all the herbs fresh, you can add them to vinegar and oils, or dry them for future use (see the nearby sidebar for details).

  I like to plant herbs close to the house for e
asy access when I'm cooking. The best place for herbs that you often need for cooking is in a container on a deck or patio. Most herbs are compact enough to grow well in containers, yet still give you the yields for fresh eating.

  Many herbs produce attractive flowers that bees and other pollinating insects love. A healthy garden should be a-buzz with bee activity, and herbs help keep our insect friends happy. I mix herbs in the vegetable garden, around flowers, and in containers. Creeping herbs, like thyme and oregano, grow great in windowboxes and containers. Taller herbs, like rosemary and basil, make beautiful additions to a flower garden.

  While herbs vary in their flavors, smells, and growth habits, most require the same growing conditions: a minimum of 6 hours of sunlight per day, excellent soil drainage, and moderately rich, loose soil. If you don't have fertile soil, a simple addition of compost in spring is probably enough in most cases. Too much fertilizer makes for a bushy plant that doesn't produce the proper amount of essential oils and flavor. And that's what you want from your herbs — great flavor.

  Harvesting and drying herbs

  Most plants benefit from being cut back, so I suggest that you harvest herbs throughout the growing season. The best time to harvest herb leaves is just as the plants begin to set flower buds — the time when they have their maximum flavor and fragrance.

  Cut herbs in the morning when the dew has dried but before the sun is very bright, because many herb oils in the leaves volatilize (evaporate) into the air in the heat of the day. After cutting them, wash the herbs, pat them dry, and hang or lay them in a warm, well-ventilated place that's

  out of direct sunlight until they're dried (about 1 week). Label and store the herbs in sealed glass or plastic containers out of direct sunlight.

  To freeze herbs, wash and pat them dry, and then chop them by hand or in a food processor. Place the chopped herbs in labeled plastic containers and then freeze them. A quick and easy way to freeze herbs is to add a bit of water (enough to make the mixture soupy) to the herbs in the food processor and then pour the mixture into ice cube trays and freeze. When you need herbs for stew, soups, or sauces, just pop in an herb cube.

  The following sections take an alphabetical look at my favorite herbs.

  Basil

  My mother would kick me out of the family if I didn't talk about one of the classic Italian herbs: basil (Ocimum basilicum and other species). She's 85 years old and doesn't vegetable garden any longer, except for the pot of basil on the back deck. She and I can't live without it!

  While the ‘Genovese' or Italian basil is essential for tomato sauces and pesto, you also can choose from varieties with different tastes for Greek, Thai, Indian, and Chinese cooking (among other cuisines). You can grow basil with flavors such as licorice, lemon, lime, and cinnamon. Plus, these annual plants grow 6 to 18 inches tall depending on the variety, making them perfect container plants. Some varieties have gorgeous all-purple leaves or purple and green leaves with ruffles, making this an attractive plant in the garden.

  Even though you can't plant basil until after the last frost date (check the appendix for the last date in your area), it produces abundantly in the heat of the summer. Start basil seeds indoors about 6 weeks before the last frost date or sow the seeds directly in your garden (1/4-inch deep) after the last frost date when the soil is at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit. In addition to seeds, most nurseries also carry basil transplants. Set transplants or thin seedlings to stand at least 10 to 12 inches apart; more room (16 to 24 inches) is even better because it encourages low, bushy plants to develop. Plant in full sun.

  After the plants have grown for 6 weeks, pinch the center stalks of the basil to force side growth and prevent early flowering — flowers take energy away from the leaves that you eat. If flower stalks do develop, cut or pinch them off early. Mulch the soil and maintain consistent moisture levels. Basil is generally pest-free.

  Basil makes an excellent container plant. Some tall varieties, such as ‘Siam Queen' Thai basil, have attractive purple coloring on the leaves and stems. ‘Spicy Globe' basil forms a small, compact, 8- to 12-inch-tall and round plant that fits easily in a small container.

  The best time to harvest basil is just before the formed flower buds open. In the morning, snip the leaves and branches and pinch off the flower buds to keep the plant productive. You also can cut the entire plant about 6 to 8 inches above the ground, leaving at least one node (where a leaf was) with two young shoots attached. The plant should produce a second, smaller harvest a few weeks later. As the plants mature, early cold weather can ruin your crop, so be sure to harvest if temperatures dip into the 30s.

  After you harvest your basil, you can

  Store it fresh: The best way to store fresh basil is to place the stem ends in water like a small bouquet. You can put the leaves in the refrigerator, but they won't last long.

  Freeze it: Because the leaves lose some of their flavor when dried, freezing is the best method for winter storage. To quick-freeze basil, clean and dry whole sprigs (stem pieces with 3 to 4 leaves) and pack them in plastic bags with the air pressed out.

  Dry it: To dry basil, pinch off the leaves at the stem, and dry them in a shady, well-ventilated area. Check the leaves in 3 or 4 days, and if they aren't totally dry, finish drying them in an oven; otherwise, the leaves may turn brown and black. Use the lowest heat setting possible with the oven door slightly open; turn the leaves for even drying and check them frequently until they're dry and crumbly. They should dry in 10 minutes.

  Chives

  Chives are one of the easiest plants to grow. After you plant chives in your garden, you always have them because they're a hardy perennial — one of the first harvests each year. You can easily dig the plants up, divide them, and move them as your garden evolves. And you need only a few plants to harvest all the chives you'll ever need.

  Common chives (Allium schoenoprasum) grow to 1 foot tall and have narrow, hollow green leaves and spherical pink or purple flowers; the plants are quite pretty. You can use the leaves in all kinds of sauces and salads to lend a delicate onion flavor. And, of course, what would baked potatoes be without chives? The flowers, when added to white vinegar, impart a lovely pink or purple color. You also can add the flower buds to salads.

  Garlic chives (Allium tuberosum) are close relatives of common chives, but they differ slightly in appearance and flavor. Garlic chives have flat leaves, and their white flowers, which are highly attractive to bees, appear in the summer. The seed heads are excellent for decorating wreaths, but be careful not to let the seeds fall; garlic chives can become a weedy nuisance. Sometimes called Oriental chives, you can use garlic chives in soups, salads, sauces, and meat dishes to impart their garlicky flavor.

  You can start chive plants from seed, purchase a plant or two, or dig up part of a clump from a neighbor's garden (with her permission, of course). If you're seeding, plant in mid to late spring in a sunny or slightly shady area. Chives prefer rich soil, and after they're established, they'll tolerate either moist or dry conditions. Sow the seeds in clusters that are 1 to 1 1/2 feet apart. Remove the flower stalks after they bloom in early summer. Divide the plants (dig up and separate the small plants) every 3 to 4 years.

  Small clumps of chives planted in pots will grow in a sunny spot outdoors. These pots can be brought indoors in fall, and the chives will continue to grow as a windowsill plant into the winter.

  You can begin harvesting chives 6 weeks after planting or as soon as the established plants resume growth in the spring. As you need leaves, cut the outer ones near the base. New leaves will keep forming all summer. Use the leaves fresh or frozen in soups, on baked potatoes, or in salads. Chives also retain their flavor well when dried using the technique for drying basil.

  Cilantro

  Now considered one of the top culinary herbs in the United States, cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) has gained in popularity due to the influx of Mexican and Asian cooking. This annual herb is actually two herbs in one. When the green,
ferny foliage is eaten fresh it's called cilantro. If allowed to go to seed, the seeds are called coriander. Both are essential for ethnic cooking.

  Cilantro is a cool-season herb that can quickly bolt (go to flower and seed) when the weather becomes hot. After the plant has bolted, the foliage becomes tough and the flavor less pronounced. Select varieties that are slow to bolt, such as ‘Slo Bolt,' and grow cilantro in spring and fall while the weather is cool.

  Direct sow seeds after the last frost and thin plants to 2 to 4 inches apart. Most varieties grow 12 to 18 inches tall. Sow successive crops every 3 weeks to have a continuous supply of cilantro throughout the season. To harvest, pinch the leaves about 2 months after seeding or as needed. Snip off the flower stalk as it forms to prolong the leaf growth. If interested in harvesting coriander seeds, allow the plant to bolt and form seeds (after you let the plants go to seed, you'll have cilantro seedlings for years to come). Cilantro is best used fresh; the leaves aren't as tasty dried or frozen. You can harvest fresh cilantro and keep stems in water for a few days using it as needed.

  Dill

  Common dill (Anethum graveolens) grows to a height of about 3 to 5 feet. It grows best toward the back of your garden where it has plenty of room. It also looks beautiful mixed with annual flowers such as salvia. ‘Dukat' is an improved new variety with high oil content and, therefore, more flavor.