First, let me say this - we grow a garden every year. Our back yard looks like a little urban farm. When we bought this house 7 years ago, the back lawn was a blank canvas. We started with one raised bed, then two, then four, then six. And now we have a greenhouse as well. None of it is necessarily pretty or worthy of Home & Gardens magazine. But... it works.And now... we seem to be ahead of a growing trend. I went to Country Grocer on Sunday to get a few odds and ends, as well as some tomato and cucumber seeds. They usually have a great selection of West Coast Seeds but... it looked like the locusts had been through the seed rack.
Now... it is seed planting time here on the West Coast (sorry Rest of Canada). And a lot of people do garden here but this... this seems to be more than the normal run on seeds.
We are still waiting for the first arrivals of veggie seedlings (tomatoes and cukes in particular) but... so far nothing. There are cruciferous seedlings (kale, cabbages, brussel sprouts, etc) and herb babies but... none of the other stuff.
Sooo... we have dug out our seedling starter kits and are going to start some tomatoes and cukes. Oh yes, I did find some seeds on Sunday, but not your typical ones. Cukes were limited to lemon cukes, which are seriously yummy but look like little prickly lemons and I imagine your average novice gardener has no idea what they are like. We also got some little orange cherry tomatoes, again, not your typical tomato variant and left behind by the locusts.
I had actually stocked up on seeds over the last two weeks so we are well set for the spring growing season. Let's take a look at what we grow/have grown/will grow/won't grow!
Veggies
Here's what's already growing in our garden:
- Kale - your best leafy green ever - we have some old kale from last year which is just starting to leaf out nicely again. We also put in some new kale seeds.
- Swiss Chard - also a nice leafy green and we have about a dozen plants that over-wintered and starting to bush out again. Haven't planted any new ones yet.
- Garlic - planted last Oct/Nov and ready for harvest in July. Pretty easy to grow as long as you don't over-water in June. We grow hard-necked garlic and it makes pretty big bulbs with massive cloves - only 4 cloves/bulb.
- Leek - I've been nursing my leek population from one year to the next and we now have some two dozen leek teenagers. I had bought leek seedlings about four years ago and they overwinter well and divide underground. It takes some patience to wait for the babies/teens to mature but this year might be the year.
- Onion - we have four stray onion plants that avoided previous pickings. Will see what they develop into. We haven't had great luck with onions though.
- Asparagus - we have about 4 asparagus plants and I have yet to eat one spear of asparagus. This year might be the year though...
- Radish - have a couple of rows of radishes planted last fall. They are starting to fluff up and hoping they will produce some good radishes for eating. Also started a few rows in the greenhouse this spring.
- Broad Beans - planted some last fall and a few to fill in this spring. We've had moderate luck with broad beans (aka fava beans) and have some in the freezer.
- Corn Salad - has nothing to do with corn. It's known as Rapunzel in Europe and we have it everywhere. We bought a packet a few years ago and then some of the plants went to seed and... well... we don't need to seed again. It is a tiny plant though and takes a lot of effort to pick and wash and...
- Mesclun - baby greens mixes - you can get different variations. We planted some in the greenhouse several weeks ago and have started a short row outside. The trick is to plant in stages otherwise you'll be swamped in a sea of green. Easy to grow, quick to harvest. Just use scissors to cut the baby greens and they'll leaf out again at least another two times.
- Peas - we have some trellises along some of the raised beds where we have planted climbing peas in years past but... this year I found bush peas! Game changer!! Cause they can be planted in any of the raised beds and really help with crop rotation. So we have about 100 bush pea plants seeded.
- Parsnip - going into the ground soon. Haven't ever tried them but going to give it a go this year. We roast them in the oven and they are yummy...
- Kohlrabi - going into the ground soon. One of the cruciferous veggies - it looks super weird but we tried it a few years ago. The raw flesh is kind of juicy like an apple but tastes a bit like broccoli stalk - very mild cabbagey flavour. I was surprised at how yummy it was having been fed cooked kohlrabi as a kid and hating it with a passion. Makes a good slaw too. Easy to grow too.
- Scallions/Green Onions - going into ground soon - we have better luck with these than with regular onions sooo... going to try them again this year.
- Beets - going into the ground in mid April - we've planted them every year and they always do well.
- Bush beans - not planted until July but they don't take up a tonne of room and they produce a lot!
- Tomatoes - as noted, starting them in the seed trays - will then move to greenhouse and maybe some outside pots
- Cukes - also going to start in seed trays inside and then move to greenhouse
- Squash - got some butternut squash seeds this year. Likely need to start indoors and transplant in May. We've had mixed results with squash but haven't really been on top of feeding them well. They are heavy feeders so going to give it a better try this year.
- Potatoes - if we can find the space! We've grown them the last few years and they generally do well although are not huge producers in raised beds.
- Nasturtiums - technically a flower but the leaves and flowers are edible in salads! And very yummy with a bit of a peppery nip to it.
- Carrots - we've not done well with carrots. They will look fat and juicy at ground surface, a good inch in diameter but when you pick them... they are all of an inch long as well. It's a watering thing. We'd need to really perfect our slow and low watering with an irrigation system or a little sprinkler or something. But... our summers always have watering restrictions on sprinklers sooo... we are passing on carrots this year.
- Cabbages - we've grown some from Country Grocer seedlings - green, red and savoy. They did OK but we aren't big cabbage eaters.
- Broccoli - it actually did amazingly well the one year we got Country Grocer seedlings... but we kind of got overwhelmed by broccoli that year.
- Peppers - we've tried them in the greenhouse in previous years... meh. The hot chili peppers did OK but the bell peppers were a wash.
- Eggplant - we tried that once in the greenhouse and got one eggplant from one plant. Not worth the effort or the square footage!
- Spinach - ours always bolts... although we may try it again... there is some disagreement about whether to waste square footage on this again...
Herbs we have in our garden
- Chives - lots and lots of chives... chives everywhere...
- Oregano - taking over the world
- Thyme - regular and variegated
- Rosemary - after several false starts with baby rosemary's dying due to... something... we finally have a good, strong plant!
- Sage - also several false starts but now have a good, strong plant.
- Tarragon - a bit concerned since it seemed to die over the winter but... is sprouting from the bottom again - yay!
- Parsley - we have it everywhere... and it keeps coming back so that's good!
- Dill - unlike the other herbs, dill isn't a perennial but seeds itself very robustly. We planted dill seeds one year and... like the corn salad, don't need to seed again! It will just start coming up everywhere...
- Cilantro - we haven't perfected cilantro yet... not sure what the secret is... but we do have some seeds from last year's plants so will try again.
- Mint - would take over the world if it could - several different types
- Lavender - not an herb for eating per se... although I guess some people do use it that way.
- Summery Savory - tried it a few years ago and it worked in a pot - doing that again this year... it goes nicely with all the bush beans! It's an annual though... but doesn't self-seed as well as the dill.
- Basil - maybe. We still have reams of basil pesto from previous crops. It usually does well for us except last year when it was a failure on all fronts.
And... we have some fruit too!
- Pear - tree was here when we bought the house. They are stewing pears and not really eating pears but... they make a darn good pear sauce!
- Plum - the nice black ones... but the tree is on its last legs and didn't produce anything last year. The black plum tree is grafted onto a wild plum root stock which means we have little wild plum trees trying to pop up all through the year. One that has been allowed to grow produced some tart little oval yellow plums one year. Hasn't done it again though...
- Prune Plum - is technically the neighbour's tree but hangs over the fence... super yummy but the tree needs to be watered consistently... so need to stay on top of that this year.
- Raspberries - hands down the best value for square footage. Given how expensive raspberries are... this is a winning crop. We aren't always on top of the picking though because the crop is a bit much sometimes but... we start our winter with bags and bags of flash frozen raspberries.
- Blueberries - not really a big grower at the moment. We got a bush off of Kijiji a few years ago and split off two rooted babies. So we technically have 3 plants but only the mother plant produces berries. Need to keep the birds away... We only got a small handful of berries last year but have high hopes for this year.
- Strawberries - started with 10 plants purchased for $0.10/plant... now have a LOT of strawberry plants. But we need to weed out the old plants and let the satellite plants have free rein. Old plants don't produce as well... And we just got some ever-bearing strawberries last year...
- Grapes -came with the garden and the neighbour's garden. But then we scavenged a few from an old vacant lot and... we have green grapes in the fall.
- Fig - little baby fig given to us by a colleague a few years ago. Still waiting for the first fig...
- Rhubarb - almost forgot... It's a very forgiving plant. It's been dug up and moved several times and... it's still a happy plant.
- Blackberries - of course... doesn't everyone on the West Coast have some invasive Himalayan Blackberry in their yard? We give the blackberry free rein in our Back 40 corner of the yard. We also go foraging out in the world and usually start our winters with bags and bags of flash frozen blackberries. As well as blackberry liqueur... mmm....
- Apple - we don't have an apple tree but friends of ours do and they always have too many.... so we make apple sauce in the fall and then can/freeze it for the winter. Just core, peel and simmer with a tiny bit of water and cinnamon. No added sugar required. Same with the pear sauce.
- Quince - we don't have a quince tree but the apple tree friends do and one year we made quince jelly... it was a darn tricky process though and didn't turn out great - more like quince rubber... might try again and hope we estimate the "set point" better.
I think that's it. I've probably forgotten something... and lest you think our yard is "huge". It's not. Our whole lot is maybe 8200 square feet and that includes the house footprint and front yard and driveway.
For our veggies we have the following beds:
- raised bed - 8' x 3' - 24 sq ft
- raised bed - 2' x 3' - 6 sq ft
- raised bed - 8' x 3' - 24 sq ft
- raised bed - 2' x 3' - 6 sq ft
- raised bed - 8' x 1.5' - 12 sq ft
- raised bed - 12' x 2' - 24 sq ft
- raised bed - 12' x 2' - 24 sq ft
- Greenhouse - 9' x 2' - 18 sq ft
- Greenhouse - 9' x 2' - 18 sq ft
Now... could we live off of what we grow? Definitely not... but it is a nice supplement to what we buy in the stores. It's also a fair bit of work... and we have to watch out for the pests: slugs (grrrr), birds (hmmmm), rats (ick) and your usual aphids, etc. Still... the veggies always taste better than store bought... and it does a body good to work in the soil and then eat the fruits of their labours.
Oh... and aside from the blackberries out in the world... there are other edibles out there. After much hunting, I found a nice patch of stinging nettles which, when harvested as young plants in the spring, and then blanched, make a great spinach substitute. More on that in another blog post...
Whether your garden is big or small... whether all you have is pots on a balcony or a whole yard... growing your own food is a hugely satisfying process. As someone once said, Gardening is a Revolutionary Act.
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