Even though many of us in the North State can and do work in our vegetable gardens year-round, March, April and May are such traditional vegetable seed and seedling start times that I have been focusing a lot of my energy on my raised vegetable beds these past few weeks. Finishing up the winter-grown veggies like bok choy, winter lettuce and the last of the bulbing fennel (which was delicious braised in a light chicken stock), gave me room for carrot, beets, spring lettuce, snap pea seeds as well as potatoes. I have just enough room left to put out my tomato plants and basil seeds when the night temperatures stay reliably above 50 degrees. Photo: Bulbing fennel.
Vegetable gardening, growing fruit and nut trees, berry vines, etc. – any gardening that results in an edible item is often termed Edible Landscaping in the current garden lingo. I think the use of this “fancy” term was introduced in order to 1. Make it clear you’re talking about gardening for food production, and 2. Suggest that vegetable and fruit gardening is every bit as attractive in the landscape as “ornamental” flower and tree-type gardening.
In the past two years, many gardening organizations – such as the Nursery Associations and the Garden Writers Association – have seen a steady, steep rise in the general gardening public’s interest in growing some portion of their own food. While many of us have always grown edibles as part of our gardening life, many more are now interested in doing so for a variety of reasons: concerns about the environment, food safety and, increasingly, about the economy. Just this past month, First Lady Michelle Obama announced there would be an organic vegetable garden on part of what is now the South White House Lawn – the first vegetable garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s time. While this “perfect storm” for edible landscaping is occurring all around us, we North State gardeners are lucky enough to have some of the very best conditions to grow a wide variety of edible plants as well as to have some of the very best experts to get us started and direct us along the way.
Two regional experts joined me Tuesday, March 31, for a special one-hour call-in edition of In a North State Garden to chat about starting growing edible plants: Rebecca Yarrow, home-gardener in Durham, and one of the many excellent plantswomen at the Plant Barn in Chico, and Carl Rosato, grower of outstanding peaches and many other fruits and vegetables, from WoodLeaf Farm in Oroville. His produce is available at various regional farmers markets. Photo: Edible greens growing along a sidewalk garden in Chico.
From the start of the program, Carl, Rebecca and I acknowledged that Edible Landscaping is an enormous topic on which mountains of books and articles have been written. We certainly were not going to cover the entire topic in one hour of radio discussion, nor will I in this week’s feature essay. What I do hope to do is outline some basic considerations and point you in the right direction for good, nearby resources to keep you going forward.
The first consideration for growing edibles is location. Most edible crops, from veggies to herbs, fruits to nuts, berries to vines, need sun – 4 to 8 hours a day if possible. Now, you can grow edibles in a tiny flowerpot on your apartment windowsill, or in an acre field, or in a 2-ft.-x-2-ft. raised bed, or even interspersed throughout your existing flower beds. But that windowsill, field, raised bed or flower garden with lettuce, cabbages and a plum tree is going to need bright light and sun for a good portion of the growing day to thrive and produce well.
That said, too much hot afternoon sun will be hard on some vegetable crops, including peas, beans and lettuces. “A southern or eastern exposure with protection in the form of trees or structures from late-day western sunshine, is what I like for my vegetable garden,” Rebecca said. “But you can always use a shade cloth or other protection to prolong the life of your cooler-season crops.”
Once you’ve determined the location (and perhaps the size) of your edible garden, the second consideration we discussed was soil. While we three agreed that soil is the basis for abundant, healthy and tasty crops, and that it is important to have a soil with a good balance of sand, clay, organic matter, trace minerals and other micronutrients, and be alive with beneficial organisms, it was Carl who could actually roll the proportions of each element and the names of various organisms off of his tongue like poetry. For a solid, technical and loving discussion on healthy soil, see the various articles on his website, Woodleaffarm.net. Photo: Backyard raised vegetable beds of Chico resident Hal Mackey. He grows all kinds of Italian vegetables and herbs for his Italian cooking. He likes to think of the resurgence in backyard fruit and vegetable growing not as Victory Gardens but as Recovery Gardens.
One of Carl’s recommendations was to begin by getting your soil tested to determine its balance of nutrients. A balanced soil will have a good texture – loose enough to drain, sticky enough with clay or organic matter to hold water and nutrients. Good soil fertility means that plants can actually make use of the nutrients that are there to produce the crops you love. Soil fertility and plenty of sunshine marks the difference between bland grocery store carrots and the sweet crisp carrots from your backyard or the farmers market. Soil fertility and sunshine produces those perfectly plump, but smooth and summer-evoking tomatoes, the likes of which are impossible to duplicate in a store. Carl sends soil to be tested at A&L Ag Labs in Modesto, Calif. Besides testing your soil to see precisely which nutrients you might need to adjust, Carl recommended that anyone interested in soil read The Soul of Soil: A Soil-Building Guide for Master Gardeners and Farmers ($25) by Grace Gershuny. Photo: A selection of spring vegetable and herb starts from Shambani Organics, which sells at many regional farmers markets.
I grow my vegetables in raised beds, which I originally filled with a planter’s mix from Valley Gold Compost in Orland. Every planting season (spring and fall), I top dress these beds with my homemade compost made from grass trimmings, kitchen waste and rotted leaves. My fruit trees – Moro Blood Orange, Brown Turkey Fig, Santa Rosa plum, Lady Apple, pomegranate and persimmon – as well as my berries – three varieties of blueberries and ‘Heritage’ Raspberries – are throughout my garden in existing mixed flower and shrub borders. I intermingle ornamental flowers and shrubs with edible shrubs and trees, which is yet another reason I am not a fan of chemical pesticides, herbicides or fungicides. If I sprayed them on my flowers, they not only would run into the groundwater, perhaps killing beneficial insects along the way, but also would likely stick to my dinner as well. I use naturally derived soil supplements and fertilizers, including products by Dr. Earth, John & Bob’s, and E. B. Stone Organics, among others. Most of our small, independent nurseries and garden centers carry a variety of soil supplement and plant food lines – ask them to point you to a product for your needs. Photo: Radish seedlings wait to be thinned. Young radish greens are tender, spicy additions to salads or to snack on as you work in the garden.
Once you’ve set your location, space and size, and have the soil looking well-aerated and fed, it’s time to decide what to plant and when to plant it. For the most part, what you want to plant will determine when to plant it – warm summer crops, such as corn, peppers and tomatoes, need warm soil and consistently warm night temperatures (above 55 degrees). For determining if your soil is ready to plant out summer-loving veggies, Rebecca cited a test she’d read about in the Sacramento Bee last week: If you sit on the soil and your bottom is not too cold, then the soil is ready to plant summer crops. We were not sure if you were supposed to sit on the soil with a bare bottom, underwear or jeans. We’ll leave that part up to you. Some people, Carl and other market-gardeners included, swear by a soil thermometer to determine readiness.
“Plants set out at the first of May will be outgrown by those set out in mid-May if the soil is ready for the one but was two cold for the first planting,” he says. “And so why waste your time and perhaps your seeds or seedlings?”
Most vegetable seed packets will say when to plant in the garden or when to start inside so that seedlings are ready to plant out by your area’s Average Last Frost Date. When a seed packet’s directions say to “direct sow,” that means you can plant the seeds directly into the garden soil. Carrots, beets, radishes and corn are included in the vegetables that are easily directly sown and would rather not be transplanted. Lettuces, beans and peas can be directly sown but do not mind being transplanted. Most people start tomatoes inside and set them out in the garden as seedlings for the earliest harvesting possible. Photo: A rhubarb plant with a flower stalk beginning to unfold.
With most annual vegetable crops, it is a good idea to plan for two or three plantings of seeds (directly sown outside or started as seeds inside) so that you have two or three sets of each crop a few weeks different in age. This “succession planting” helps ensure that not all your lettuces or carrots or beets are ready at one time but rather can be harvested and enjoyed a few at a time over several weeks or months. Almost all annual vegetable crops need regular water (deep watering 2-3 times a week depending on conditions – more water if the weather turns very hot). Photo: Pea plant seedlings.
“Companion planting” is a whole other topic when it comes to interplanting fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, etc., and is based on the idea that if you have a diversity of plants, none will be wiped out by one bad bug or disease, but rather the varieties will protect one another by attracting various pollinators, pests and predators. Variety really is the spice of life. Look for a segment on companion planting at Turtle Bay coming up toward the end of this month.
Fruit trees and shrubs, berry plants, grape vines and most perennial herbs can be planted from fall through late winter for good results. Many varieties of fruiting trees, shrubs and vines will not produce much of a crop the first season while they are getting established. These perennial crops need regular water (a deep water twice a week) their first two years in the ground. Thereafter you should follow instructions for the kind of crop. Some stone fruits such as peaches, olives and almonds need regular and consistent water during the flowering and fruit-setting periods but like to have little to no water closer to harvesting. Photo: Sweet almonds.
You can pay attention to many technical details to get your edible crops just right, especially the more advanced you become. In this kind of gardening, the important thing to me is that you just give it a go. It’s fun. It’s not hard. Remember the kindergarten project of the bean seed in the Dixie cup that fell over in the back of your parents’ car as you took it home but still managed to sprout? It really is that easy. And it is so very satisfying to wander around your garden snacking on this and that. Even if it’s not perfect. Photo: Strawberries. Hmm.
Many social, community-oriented and soul-sustaining permutations exist to get gardening and good, locally grown vegetables and fruit into your life: farmers market produce is almost as good as growing your own, and it’s such a fun social event to go to one. I grow some of my own and buy the rest from the farmers market. Also available are Community Supported Agriculture endeavors, wherein you buy a weekly share in a farm’s produce at the beginning of the season and that farm grows a variety of fruits, vegetables and herbs, and provides you a box of their resulting produce each week. Look up a CSA farm near you on Local Harvest. If all you have is a windowsill, but what you want are two large raised beds, you could look for a community gardening project, allotment or pea patch. In a reverse of the traditional pea-patch idea, GRUB (growing, resourcefully, uniting, bellies) in Chico is a group of gardeners that grows gardens on people’s unused yard space or will harvest unused or unwanted fruit from people’s yards to create weekly CSA boxes of produce for members to take to local soup kitchens and other low-income food providers. Photo: Squashes and pumpkins are some of the easiest and lowest-maintenance crops to start your edible garden.
All in all, little stands in the way of a North Stater experiencing a lot more home-grown or locally grown fruits and vegetables this entire year: spring, summer, winter and fall. For whatever reason you like – good food, safe food, sustainable food, your own food – give it a try.
Some resources to take you further:
The Sunset Western Garden Book – 2009
The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food, by Tanya L.K. Denckla; Storey Books – 2003
The New Kitchen Garden, by Anna Pavord; DK Books, London – 1996
The Kitchen Garden, by Norma Cooney; Friedman/Fairfax Books, New York – 2000
The Fruit Expert, by Dr. D. G. Hessayon; Expert Books, London – 1997
Edible Shasta-Butte
Edible Sacramento
Slow Food Shasta Cascade
In a North State Garden is a radio- and web-based outreach program of the Gateway Science Museum – Exploring the Natural History of the North State, based in Chico, Calif. In a North State Garden celebrates the art, craft and science of home gardening in California’s North State region, and is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell – all rights reserved jewellgarden.com. In A North State Garden airs on Northstate Public Radio KCHO/KFPR radio Saturday mornings at 7:34 PST and Sunday morning at 8:34 PST. Podcasts are available here.
