Vegetable Gardening Articles

Summer in a Bowl

Summer may seem kind of far away still, but trust me on this: soon, you'll be wanting fresh salsa. And if you're a veggie gardener, chances are you'll want to make your own salsa. This requires a little planning in the planting department, and right now is definitely the time to plot out what to buy and where to grow it. Even if you're just getting the tip of your shovel dirty for the first time this season, and especially if you have garden-curious kids, a salsa garden is a perfect way to go.

Though recipes and preferences vary, my preferred homemade salsa recipe includes a varying ratio of tomato, onion, cilantro, salt, pepper and a healthy squirt of lime juice (plus something spicy for a kick -- a fresh hot pepper or some ground red pepper will due). Technically, this falls more into the category of pico de gallo, but it's addictive on chips and darn good with everything else. Sadly, the lime will need to be "imported," but everything else can be grown in your back yard!

salsa
Photo: istockphoto.com/cathyclapper2

Tomatoes

For information on growing tomatoes, hop over to RVG's tomato-growing tips. San Marzano tomatoes are a "meatier" variety and make for great salsa (among lots of other things).

Cilantro

Cilantro is an easy plant in the garden. You'll want to get your first round in the ground this month, and you can keep seeding through the summer. (Plant seeds about a quarter-inch in the soil.) The benefit of successive seeding is that the plants will be ready for use successively, providing you with a fresh supply of cilantro all summer. This plant also reseeds itself (convenient, huh?). Cilantro is ready to use when its biggest leaves are the same size or slightly smaller than a dime.

Cilantro does not like hot weather, so it needs a place in your garden where it can get preferably morning (or late afternoon) sun and be shaded during the heat of the day. This is one reason potting it can be a benefit. If it gets too hot, it will "bolt" or flower and then provide you with coriander seeds. Pruning your cilantro plants frequently will not only give you a steady supply of those yummy leaves, it'll help your plants not bolt quickly. Eventually though, they'll do what nature tells them to, so having some staggered plantings will help keep the herb available through the season.

Keep your plants well watered but not soaked. Harvest in the early morning, just as the dew is drying, and use quickly. Cilantro doesn't preserve especially well.

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Making Friends with Brussels Sprouts

Few vegetables are as notorious as the Brussels sprout. I remember the first (and last) time my mom served them for dinner. I was ten, and no lightweight when it came to eating cruciferous veggies (broccoli has always been a favorite). Earlier in the day, word reached me that the infamous sprout was on the menu for dinner, and I thought to myself that there was no way they could live up to their torture-grade reputation. For all my reasoning and vegetable open-mindedness, I have never been more wrong in my life. The smell of sulfur hit my nose as soon as I came in the door from playing outside, and I knew at that moment that it would be a dinner to remember, in the worst possible way.

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Add Artichokes to Your Veggie Garden

Here’s a plant with great benefits that I had never thought of including in my garden—the artichoke! For whatever reason, the large, fancy-looking fruits led me to believe that it would just be too complicated, but it turns out this veggie treat-producer is an easy, hardy perennial that likes our Mediterranean Rogue Valley climate. Artichokes are tasty and fun to eat, adding pizazz to the table, whether simple summer fare or indoor gourmet food is being served. The plants make a bold statement in the garden with their size, texture, and color.

How to Grow

You can start seedlings indoors eight to 12 weeks before planting time (which comes after the first frost), buy starts or tubers from a local nursery or mail-order source, or even try planting seeds in the fall.

artichoke
An excellent addition to a garden and to a meal. Photo: istockphoto.com/milacroft

Plant seeds one-quarter inch apart and one-quarter inch deep, in slightly soil with pH of 6 to 7. Be aware that the plants are very tall, reaching a height of four feet, and are also very wide (up to 6 feet) so plan accordingly. Make sure not to overshadow spaces where you had planned to grow smaller sun-loving plants, and don’t sacrifice precious space if your gardening room is limited. Along a back fence where a large plant would fill a need in your landscape would work well.

Seeds will rot if the soil is not well drained, and they'll dry up if not consistently watered, so amend the soil well with sand and humus, and plan your irrigation carefully. They need water to produce tasty, tender fruit, but also should dry out between waterings, which should occur at least three times a week during the heat of summer. The ideal spot for an artichoke will provide warm morning sun and shade by 2 in the afternoon. Artichokes don’t really like temperatures much warmer than 80 degrees (or below 50 degrees).

If you decide on seedlings, be sure to give them transition time to “harden off,” whether you started them yourself or bought them from a commercial nursery. Step by step, move your young plants from their safe greenhouse or indoor habitat:

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