The joy of growing your own food.
Few things in the gardening world bring more enjoyment than growing and harvesting fresh, flavourful food from your own garden.
Whether you have a traditional garden space, use raised beds, or grow in containers, you can enjoy the satisfaction of producing your own food. The abnormally non-stop, cold, wet weather we’ve experienced this year has certainly delayed the planting of our early cool-loving crops, but there’s still plenty of time.
The location of your garden and the quality of your soil are two important considerations before you begin your spring planting. Always choose a location that will get at least four to six hours of sunshine, especially between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., for optimum growing conditions.
Your soil should be as open and porous as possible with lots of organic, moisture-retaining materials, like compost and wellrotted manures. My personal soil test is to take a handful of wet soil and squeeze it hard into a mud ball. Then try crumbling the ball of soil with your thumb. If you cannot, work in fine fir or hemlock sawdust or bark mulch to loosen the soil and improve its porosity. Because it rains so much here in the spring, it’s essential that excess water can drain away quickly. By berming your soil up 8 to 10 inches, or by using raised beds, your soil will be drier and 8 to 10 degrees warmer.
The acidic/alkaline balance of your soil is significant as well. Most garden vegetables will do fine with a pH level measuring between five and eight. Adding some Dolopril lime now, especially after this wet winter, will help keep the soil within this ideal range. The calcium in the lime is also very important for most of your veggies. If you’re not sure what your soil’s pH level is, testing kits are available.
Once your soil is ready, and we finally get reasonably consistent daytime temperatures of 10 C, cool-loving crops can be planted. Spanish onions are usually the first to go in. Today, you can start them from easy-to-use “sets”, which are little bulbs, or from transplants. Many folks use both. To get large sized sweet onions, use ‘Walla Walla’ transplants or the super-sized ‘Ailsa Craig ’ or ‘Kelsae’.
The whole allium family, like shallots, green onions, multipliers, leeks and scallions, can go in now. White and red onions are becoming very popular too, both for flavour and colour in cooking and in salads.
Nothing quite matches the flavour of early nugget potatoes, and both ‘Warba’ and ‘Norland’ varieties planted now will produce in about 75 days.
All the early varieties of the brassica family can also be planted now. Although broccoli is always a favourite garden vegetable, the smaller spikes of ‘Aspabroc’ ( broccolini) are now the new “hottie”. Cauliflowers should be the self-wrapping types to keep them pure white. Cabbages are becoming more diverse, with a range of reds and smallerheaded varieties that are just the right size for two people. Savoy types make wonderful salads.
Kale is the new superfood, and a wide selection is available today. The white and green ‘Kosmic’ kale is a continuous harvest variety. ‘Black Tuscan’ has a unique texture, and ‘Redbor’ is the colourful red variety. Most folks, however, still love the extra curly types, and ‘Winterbor’ is among the best.
Greens, too, love cool growing conditions. Lettuce still rules, but changes are happening here. Head lettuce has given way to the many colourful perpetual harvest blends, like Simply Salad ‘City Garden,’ and other tasty combinations.
Butterheads and looseleaf types are replacing solid head varieties. The most in-demand today are the romaines that are so popular for Caesar salads. Gourmet mesclun blends are popular too, as are the Asian greens like bok choy, the white stemmed pac choi, and toy choy. They need cool temperatures to prevent bolting and going to seed instead of producing their wonderfully flavoured leaves.
Spinach is a cool-loving green. Try the new slow-bolting types, like ‘Avon F1’. Although not a true spinach, ‘New Zealand’ spinach is a tasty, nutritious perpetual harvest leafy green vegetable.
Swiss chard has really grown in popularity because of its rich flavours and the colourful foliage of the newer varieties like ‘Bright Lights’ and ‘Celebration’. Swiss chard just seems to keep growing in the cool, in the heat, through the fall rains, and into winter.
Peas are traditional cool weather favourites. Many people still grow the old heirloom shelling varieties, like ‘Little Marvel’ (1218 inches tall), ‘Green Arrow’ (28 inches tall) and ‘Tall Telephone’ (2½-8 foot tall and requires netting). Today’s favourites, however, are the snap peas. They produce smaller but still sweet tasting peas, and their pods are edible. Snap peas will tolerate the heat of summer and keep on producing.
Radishes are one of the first crops to plant. They tolerate both cold and heat, and they are ready for harvest in three to four weeks, making them one of the fastest producing crops. They add colour, heat and a rich spicy flavour to salads. Harvest them when they’re the size of a marble. ‘French Breakfast’, with its long roots, is one of the best, but most folks love the multi-coloured ‘Easter Egg ’ blend. If you have a flair for Asian foods, try the ‘Daikon’ radish for a unique flavour.
Tall growing broad beans, an old European favourite, have large edible seeds that, when cooked, are delicious. Broad beans need to be planted now, and once they are three to four feet tall, pinch out the tips to keep pesky aphids away. Broad beans are well worth a spot in your garden and with a dab of butter and a dash of salt and pepper, a spot on your plate.
These are the main cool crops to plant now and to enjoy eating in late May through June. In a few weeks, I will write an article on heat-loving vegetables like cucumbers, peppers, squash and tomatoes. We need to wait until we get consistent nighttime temperatures of 10 C, which usually happens in late May, before planting heat-loving crops.
Grow what you love to eat.