The outdoor kitchen: For easy meals, plant ‘menu gardens’ of favourite foods
If you’re looking for fresh meal ideas, consider planting “menu gardens.” Grow a few of your favourite foods together in pots or raised beds, following a theme — salad-bar fixings, for example, or pizza toppings, or juicing ingredients.
Meal preparation will be simpler, cheaper and healthier.
“Even if you have land to grow a large garden, one advantage of growing a few edible plants in a small space or container close to the kitchen is that it makes it easier to pull together a fresh recipe,” says Patrice Powers-Barker, an extension educator with Ohio State University.
Some specialty gardens that can spice up family meal planning: Salad bar garden: Combine leaf lettuce, sprouts, kale, arugula, romaine, baby carrots, cucumbers, spinach and parsley in a single garden plot. Or go Asian and plant bok choy, red mustard, coriander, radish and Thai basil.
Pesto garden: “Even though basil is probably the most popular leaf to add to pesto, it can be made with all different kinds of plants: parsley, mustard greens, tomatoes,” Powers-Barker says. Don’t forget the garlic.
Pizza garden: Group cherry tomatoes with onions, oregano, basil, bell peppers, fennel and parsley. The possibilities are endless.
Taco garden: Plant some tomatoes in a large pot with cilantro, jalapeno and lettuce.
Juicing garden: Carrots, cabbage, watercress, Swiss chard, cucumbers, sweet potato, celery, zucchini and mint. Use the mint for garnish.
Pickling garden: Cucumbers, mustard, cabbage, beets and dill.
Stir fry garden: Snow peas, Chinese mustard, green onions, bok choy, baby carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli.
Culinary herb garden: Dill, thyme, fennel, tarragon, oregano, mint, parsley, sage, basil and rosemary.
Tea garden: Mint, passionflower, rose hips, chamomile, Echinacea, lavender and basil among a great many others.
Halloween garden: Pumpkins, squash and corn.
The Associated Press